Customer personas can transform PPC, here’s how…
When it comes to Google Ads, it’s all about the customer. So what better way to transform PPC than by creating customer personas? To create a successful ad, you need to get into your customer’s head- what will make them click and consider that all important purchase?
Customer personas help target any vital shifts in user behaviour, then you can update your strategy accordingly. By picturing who you want as your target customer, you refine your ad campaign to improve visibility by reaching the right people.
Does this seem daunting to you? Well don’t panic, as below you’ll find everything you need to know about how customer persons can transform PPC.
Why customer personas can transform PPC
Firstly, what exactly is a customer persona? To its core, a customer persona is a fictional customer that represents your target audience. Your campaign should be geared towards this person, using research to gather what they really want and what their needs are. Not only do they create a more personalised campaign, they can also help bring your vision to life by creating hypothetical scenarios that use an empathetic approach. From this, a user’s search intent can be taken into consideration to create effective ads.
As mentioned previously, PPC is reliant on a user and is all about how a customer interacts. So these vital customer personas can tell us all about a user’s needs, goals and intentions. With this information, you can create a stellar Google Ads campaign that’s sure to target the right audience. They’re certainly not something to overlook.
Additionally, you’re reducing the amount of wasted clicks by targeting people who are likely to turn clicks into conversions. Since customer personas are a fictional representation of your ideal buyer, they help create more accurate targeting for PPC- after all, personalisation is central to PPC.
Making personas central to your campaign is key. That way, everything is geared towards your target customer and is therefore likely to increase conversions in the long run and limit wasted spend. The beauty of creating personas is that you can also create targeted messaging. Therefore, customer personas can transform PPC by leveraging important user data to create Google Ads that reach and resonate.
Creating personas for PPC: Best practices
A question PPC campaign managers need to ask themselves is whether they’re making their ads personal. Targeting everyone can result in targeting no one, which is the exact opposite of what you want. Are you addressing what customers actually want? Or are you using generalised guesswork?
A level of empathy goes a long way. Reaching the emotions that underscore the customer journey is likely to create more successful ads, and addresses certain hypotheticals that would have otherwise been overlooked. Using empathy as a guide also helps to pinpoint search intent and then specific customer needs can be addressed from this.
Some best practices and tips for creating a customer persona include:
- Lots of research: customer data builds the persona and forms exactly who they are by establishing their demographic. You can research via Google Analytics, social media or conduct market research.
- Ask questions about who your customers are.
- Mark up the customer journey.
- Are there any patterns? If so, identify them and use to your advantage
- Utilise empathy as a guide: what are the needs and search intent of your customers? An empathetic approach is a great way to diffuse the overwhelming focus on demographic information- demographic does not always define people and their intent.
Once you’ve formed your ideal persona, hypothetical situations are a great way of putting them to the test. What are their needs and behaviour in this scenario and how would your ad help them?
So you’ve created your persona, what now?
Another benefit of personas is that they can be utilised across platforms. Once created, you can continue to target a similar audience if you know you want to consistently reach them on a variety of platforms. Reinforcing your brand helps establish who you are and, as mentioned, can cement consistent and targeted messaging.
Additionally, it’s still important to continue testing personas. You can see what kind of people you’re reaching on different devices and platforms, and from this you can create targeted ads if there’s different intent between them. Personas can additionally be utilised in A/B testing. For example, you can see which persona has the more positive response and therefore is the one that you should centre your campaign around.
Final thoughts
And there we have it! Hopefully you can now see how customer personas can transform PPC. Personalisation goes a long way in PPC, so having a persona to guide your campaign helps you create effective ads that target exactly who you want. Customer personas also help you get into the head of your audience, using a more empathetic approach to gather their intentions.
Still not entirely sure? Speak to a member of our team to find out more! Whether it be about PPC or anything related to digital marketing, we’re happy to help with your questions.
FAQs
Answered by Chelsea Powell
Will PPC customer personas be the same as my SEO target audience?
Customer personas and target audiences for PPC and SEO are different but can be used together to improve marketing strategies.
Can an audience persona cover a range of people?
Yes, but narrowing your audience persona can be more effective.
Will customer personas be specific to each individual ad?
Yes, you can tailor your audiences for each individual campaign.
What data can be used to improve the accuracy of current customer personas?
You can understand your user’s behaviour, and demographics which can help optimise your campaign further.
