Q: We have been running a PPC program for over a year now (we have an in-house PPC manager) and feel like we hit a ceiling in what we can do to optimize sales levels. We are looking for new ideas to improve our overall sales.
A: Despite what search engines are pitching, Pay-per-click marketing is a complex endeavour. And regardless how small or large is your PPC program, there’s always room for expansion and improvement. Here are a few ideas to revive your PPC campaign:
- If you are currently using Google AdWords only, expand your campaign with other search engines: try Yahoo and Microsoft – many marketers focus just on Google, especially in Canada, and for good reason - Google has the largest market share. However, recent research from Chitika shows that CTR from Bing is higher than Google - “The CTR of users who come to the Chitika network via Bing is over 75% higher than those who come from Google”. By expanding your PPC program to include more search engines, you can capture new market share and generate additional sales
- Perform a systematic review of your entire keyword catalog and find new search terms opportunities. While you are looking into keywords, take the time to analyze the conversion rate at keyword level – if you have the analytics means. Remove the keywords deemed ineffective and think of ways of improving the ones responsible for generating sales
- Test new landing pages. Landing pages are probably the biggest factor in the success of your PPC campaign. Landing pages persuade searchers to convert (however you define conversion)
- Optimize your conversion funnel, especially if you are running an eCommerce website where the path to conversion consists of multiple steps. Invest in a good web analytics software that enables you to answer the question – where are we losing sales?
- Define a strategic approach for your non-brand search terms. Branded keywords will always perform well for obvious reasons, but few marketers target non-branded search terms separately and differently. Start by measuring brand versus non-brand traffic in your web analytics package and gain a good understanding of each traffic segment’s impact on your sales
Mike Lascut is Principal of Single Entry Point® Marketing, focusing on the search, email and analytics practice and leading the development of the 
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Good tips. I never thought of managing the non-brand search terms differentely from the brand keywords but it certainly makes sense.
Thanks for sharing. We've also seen better CTR with Bing across all our clients. The issue here is - as you pointed out - the market share. Not enough people using search engines other than Google.