If you know anything about digital marketing, you know that pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) are two of the most crucial marketing strategies used to get websites ranked on search engines. Although both PPC and SEO are highly effective marketing strategies, they each have their own pros and cons. 

For instance, with PPC, you can start your campaign in the morning and be able to generate laser-focused leads by midday. However, you will have to invest a big chunk of your marketing budget as the cost per click of competitive keywords can be really high.

‍SEO, on the other hand, is a much more frugal marketing approach; however, you do have to wait quite a long time to be able to drive results. You will have to wait for Google first to index your pages and then rank them. And, if you don’t have high domain authority, you probably won’t be able to rank on the first page of Google.
Since PPC can drive results quickly, it is especially suitable for event-specific marketing.

For example, if there’s a trend that relates to your business, you can trend-jack it and use event-driven PPC campaigns to your advantage.  But what are event-driven PPC campaigns?

‍That is what we’re going to talk about in this guide.

What is an Event-Driven PPC Campaign?

An event-driven PPC campaign is pretty self-explanatory. It is a pay-per-click advertising campaign that businesses launch to take advantage of a time-sensitive event.
But why should marketers take advantage of a time-sensitive event?

‍Well, certain trends or events tend to increase the demand for some products and services. For example, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the demand for contact-free food deliveries increased drastically. Because of this event, a lot of restaurants that previously offered only dine-in options started offering food delivery services for their customers’ convenience. 

To leverage events and the increased demand for certain products and services, marketers can launch short-term PPC campaigns to generate an overwhelming amount of leads from businesses.
More leads = equals more business.

8 Best Tips for Your Next Event Campaign

Wanna make sure you come up with the most optimized PPC campaign when some new trend emerges so you can generate the most sales for your business?

Well, there are some things that you need to pay close attention to promote and make your event a success.

Here’s how to get started…

1. Keep an eye out for events and trends that you can leverage

In order to begin taking advantage of an event for your business, you need to first lookout for opportunities to leverage.
There are more than one ways to keep yourself updated with emerging events and trends. 
Google Alerts is a great tool to keep track of anything new that’s emerging in your industry.

You can simply mention what topics are relevant to your business and what types of content you’d like to stay updated with. Google will then timely notify you about anything new that shows up via email. This way, you don’t miss any opportunities.

Aside from Google Alerts, you can utilize F5Bot, which is a social listening tool that can notify you whenever any keyword relevant to your business gets mentioned on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters.

For example, if you offer home renovation services, you can enter various search terms relevant to your business in F5Bot. Then, whenever any uses those search terms on Reddit, Lobsters, or Hacker News, you will get an email notification.

Staying updated with events and trends will allow you to proactively create your event-driven PPC campaign.

2. Optimize your website

Once you have a source to stay updated, it’s time to tweak your website. More specifically, we’re talking about optimizing your landing page, where your audience will get redirected when they click your ad.

The content on your landing page must be compelling, should address the pain points of your visitors, and offer a viable solution to their problems. In addition to that, your landing page must be optimized for the best performance.

It should load instantly, should be easy to navigate, and must not have any technical issues.
An ideal landing page should consist of the following:

  • A clear and enticing call to action (CTA)
  • A simple design with adequate white spacing
  • An eye-catching headlines
  • An ad copy with a clear message
  • Video or images to retain the attention of your visitors

3. Pick a bidding strategy

When bidding for keywords that have a lot of competition, you need first critically to select an appropriate bidding strategy. You’ll need to decide between automated bidding and manual bidding. 
If you’re new to PPC, we suggest with going the manual bidding option. This way, you’ll have complete control over your ad spend. Manually bidding allows you to cap your cost per click. This strategy is ideal if your marketing budget is low.

On the other hand, if your budget is high and you don’t want to manage your campaigns manually, you can go with automated bidding. You can go with either one of the bidding strategies based on your budget and preference.

4. Decide your budget

The impact that a PPC for events campaign can create depends significantly on your budget. That being said, you can still drive great results even with a small budget, granted that your ads are properly optimized. If you’re new to PPC, you can get started for as low as $25 dollars. This way, you can get a feel for paid advertising.

‍To come up with an ad budget that would be ideal for your business, you’ll need to do some basic calculations. You’ll need to basically figure out how much money you make per conversion and how much money you’re willing to take out of your profits and invest in PPC. To figure out your conversion rate, dig into the past sales data of your business. 

After that, multiply your maximum CPC number by the number of clicks you want – whatever number you get, multiply that by the number of days you want to run your campaign for. This will help you decide your ad budget.

5. Research the right keywords

Keyword research is the most important aspect of a PPC campaign. Choosing the right keywords for your campaign can guarantee that you get the most views, most clicks, the most traffic, and the most conversions.
Here are a few important tips for selecting the right keywords:

  • Analyze your competition
  • Figure out what keywords your visitors use to search for products and services that you offer
  • Use keyword research tools such as Google’s keyword research or Ahrefs
  • Avoid targeting generic keywords

When researching keywords, don’t forget also to research negative keywords to add to your campaign. Negative keywords are basically those search terms on which you don’t your ads to be displayed. 

6. Create a compelling ad copy

In order to get more impressions and more clicks on your ads, you must create a killer ad copy. Your ad copy should be to the point, specific, and eye-catching to grab the attention of your audience. To really grab the attention of your audience, you must incorporate some unique value proposition in your ad – something your competitors aren’t offering. You’ll also need to make it clear why your product or service is better than your competitors. 

7. Add a call to action (CTA)

In order to redirect your audience to your landing page, you’ll need to add a clear and concise CTA to your ad. CTA’s should be compelling such as “Buy Now”.

8. Track the performance of your ads

Although your campaign may be live, your work is not over yet. 
Now, you’ll need to track the performance of your ads constantly. If your ads aren’t performing well, you’ll need to tweak them again and again. You can tweak your ad copy and CTA to find what works best for your business. 

‍In order to figure out which ads are converting, you can run A/B testing. This will involve creating two identical ads with slight variations. Once you find the most converting version of your ad, stick to that and avoid wasting your ad budget.

Examples of Event Driven PPC Campaigns

If you’re still unclear about event-driven PPC campaigns, let us share with you some examples of PPC campaigns for events. Numerous events can increase the demand for certain products or services, including physical and virtual events.

For example, promoting virtual events such as webinars, online conferences, or virtual product launches can be a great opportunity to reach a wider audience and generate interest in your offerings.

Some of the most notable events that can spike the need for certain products include:

1. Natural disasters

Natural disasters, as we all know, can cause significant property damage. So, whenever natural disasters like storms occur, home renovation businesses run short-term PPC campaigns to target people who may want to get their property fixed.

2. Heatwaves

During heatwaves, the demand for water and air conditioning increases significantly. During extreme weather events, businesses launch PPC campaigns to attract more leads. 

3. Holidays

Holidays are the time of the year when the demand for products spikes significantly. For example, during the Christmas season, businesses run PPC campaigns and offer special discounts to get more customers to buy their products.

Best Channels for Event-Driven PPC Campaigns

When selecting a PPC network to run your marketing campaigns, you’ll come across so many choices. There are Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, and so many other choices. 
But which channel is the best for your business – that depends totally on you. 
Let’s check out some of the best channels for event-driven marketing campaigns.

1. Google Ads

Google Ads is the number one PPC network you can utilize for your event-driven PPC campaigns. For seeking maximum exposure in any niche, there is no better-paid marketing platform than google ads, especially for events.

‍We say this because Google is the biggest search engine currently in the industry. It processes 3.5 billion searches every day. Another reason why Google Ads is the best is that it can not only display your ads on the search results, but it can also display your ads on Google Shopping, YouTube, mobile apps, and on third-party sites using Google’s Display Network.

2. Bing Ads

Right after Google, Bing is the second most popular search engine. Its estimated monthly traffic is around 6 billion, which is just insane. Bing is different from Google Ads because it has less bidding competition and offers lower cost-per-click (CPC).

3. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads may not be as versatile as Facebook Ads, but they are highly converting. We say this because nowadays, roughly 3.6 billion people use social media. Facebook allows you to create your ads using the Facebook Ads Manager. You can choose to display your ads on a variety of spots on Facebook. Facebook also lets you play around with different ad formats, such as image Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads, Collection Ads, and more. One cool thing about Facebook ads for events is that it lets you cross-run your ads on Instagram too.

Metrics to Track for Event-Driven PPC Campaigns

By now, you may be comfortable enough to create your own event-driven PPC campaigns.
However, if you’re not tracking the performance of your campaigns, you may end up wasting your ad budget. Knowing what metrics to track and what they represent is crucial to analyzing the performance of your ads. 

You should be aware of several metrics when running and analyzing your PPC campaigns. Let’s take a look at some of those metrics:

  • Impressions: The number of times your ad gets viewed by a visitor.
  • Clicks: The number of times your ad gets clicked by a visitor.
  • Conversion rate: The number of people who clicked on your ad and ended up purchasing your product or service.
  • Quality Score: It is an indicator that tells markets how relevant their landing page, ad, and keywords are. The score ranges from 1 to 10. 
  • Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of visitors who clicked your ad. The percentage is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions.
  • Average CPC: The dollar amount paid for the number of clicks an ad receives.
  • Average position: It is the position where your ad appears on the search results. The higher the position, the better the visibility of your ad. ‍
  • Conversions: The number of desired actions your ads generated. It could be leads, sales, etc.