When you set up Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns for your credit union, it’s easy to get discouraged when you see that you are competing against larger financial institutions with huge ad budgets and national reach. However, PPC can be one of the most effective ways to reach new members and get new business, especially for smaller, community-based institutions like credit unions. If you haven’t yet tried PPC advertising through Google, Bing or search engines and social networks that your members use, it’s time to give it a whirl. Here are three ways to get more out of your credit union PPC campaigns.
1. Geotargeting
Although it may sound like a good idea to get your message out to the whole universe of Googlers or Facebook users, it simply doesn’t make sense when you’re working with a limited budget. Most PPC ad suppliers provide very specific geographic targeting options for your ads. Use this to your advantage. Only pay for ads to run in the communities in which you serve. In doing so, your competition and spend will go down. Furthermore, your ad content can really shine against those huge national brands when it’s highly targeted. After all, you know your community best. Your ads can really speak to the folks you serve the way big brands just can’t.
2. Remarketing
Ever wonder why those kitchen cabinets you looked at suddenly are on sale and have ads on all of your favorite websites? The answer is remarketing. Remarketing is a very powerful tool to reach interested parties and get them to take the next step to convert. In a nutshell, it allows you to target your Google or Bing PPC ads to individuals who have visited a particular page or pages or performed a specific action on your website. That means you know exactly how much they know and how interested they are in that auto loan or mortgage rates. And when you know that, you have a much better idea of what they need next. It’s classic lead nurturing. The benefit is, that the highly targeted ads will start showing up for all the websites that those folks are already visiting. The more they see it, the more likely they are to keep your offers top-of-mind when they’re ready to take the next step. Or better yet, maybe your ad will push them to actually do it!
3. Avoid the “Set It and Forget It” Strategy
One of the worst things you can do with PPC is set a campaign and not go back to see how it did until it’s over. One of the great advantages of PPC, and most digital marketing for that matter, is that you get real-time results. You should see very quickly what keywords, messaging and targeting strategies are working best and which need to be revisited. Be sure you are consistently checking in on your campaigns and adjusting for optimal performance. PPC providers like Google AdWords have some great optimization tools to get you started.
