Email is one of the most effective marketing tactics at your disposal. In terms of ROI, it outpaces almost any other tactic, generating $38 for every $1 spent. It’s no surprise then that the content marketing institute reported that 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content and engage with prospects and customers.
Of course, email isn’t as simple as it sounds. That high ROI doesn’t mean much if you only have 150 people on your email list or if your landing pages don’t convert. Even the best-planned email campaigns sometimes need a jump start. That’s where paid advertising comes in. Google AdWords and other pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms provide a nearly instant source of traffic that can be tested, scaled, and measured in just a few hours.
With the right combination of PPC and email marketing, you can build more targeted lists, test new ideas faster, and reap greater rewards.
Grow your email list with PPC
Purchasing a list of email addresses when launching a new campaign is costly and there’s no guarantee of quality. The risk of damage to your reputation is too great and the response rate is often minimal. The best way to grow your list is organically, with forms on your website.
This can be done in several ways: downloadable eBooks, white papers, and videos; newsletter signup forms in your footer; or pop-up forms on key pages.
The next step is to get people on those pages. That’s where PPC can be immensely valuable. Highly targeted ads designed to provide answers to common questions your audience has are highly effective. Direct people to landing pages with forms and a downloadable resource that addressed those questions. You’ll grow your database, build an initial relationship with new contacts, and provide value.
Looking to grow your email list with PPC? Get out Google AdWords Setup Guide.
Test your newsletter’s calls to action with PPC
More than 35% of email recipients open email based solely on the subject line. We also know that a third of business professionals check email on their phones, and that shorter subject lines perform significantly better than long ones. Suffice it to say, your subject line is the most important part of your email. If it doesn’t capture attention and entice someone to open the message, the rest is meaningless.
You should be A/B testing your subject lines whenever possible, but especially if you have a small database, it’s important to test before you send an email. PPC can help with this.
Instead of testing copywriting on users who have the option to click Unsubscribe, create two PPC ad campaigns with your email subject lines as headlines and see which gets more clicks.
- Create two unique ads within a single ad group in Google AdWords
- Use the same variables for the URL and body copy of the ad, but change the headlines
- Set the ad rotation to even to ensure both variants receive an equal number of impressions
- Run the ads until you have a significant number of impressions to evaluate effectivenes
Depending on your audience size, such a test might take only a few hours, allowing you to make quick, decisive decisions on how to structure your next email subject line.
In addition to the click-through rate of the ads you test, you’ll receive search query data that includes precise search terms that were used. This helps further refine the language in your future emails.
For more information on Google Ads and similar alternatives, read The pros, cons, and alternatives to Google Ads.
Use your email list to create targeted PPC audiences
PPC makes it easy to grow and test new audiences, but if you already have a significant audience, your email list can improve your PPC results as well.
Using the Customer Match feature in AdWords, you can provide a list of emails to Google for PPC ad targeting. This allows direct targeting of identified prospects who have Google accounts, as well as individuals who have not engaged with your brand for a long period of time. Customer Match currently works for Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Gmail advertising.
Customer Match is especially useful if you have an email list segmented into specific groups based on interests or marketing status. For example, if you have a list of email addresses associated with a webinar you hosted, you can display PPC ads alongside YouTube videos and searches. It’s one of the best possible ways to create targeted ad campaigns that align with the goals of your email newsletters.
Pro tip: Use Zapier to automatically send all your new email subscribers to your google and facebook ads audiences.
Decrease your unsubscribers with remarketing strategies
An effective email campaign engages a prospect and keeps your brand top of mind during the buying cycle. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work this way. Especially if a recipient doesn’t open your emails for a long period of time, they might opt to unsubscribe, or if they are like <21% of business users, mark it as spam.
PPC advertising on Google and Facebook can help with this. By targeting people who have already visited your website, by clicking on previous emails you’ve sent, you can show ads to them in relevant locations.
This does two things. First, it keeps your brand top of mind. When they see an email in the future, they’ll remember who you are because they see your ads every couple of days.
Second, it allows you to send fewer emails. If the goal of email is to stay top of mind and drive traffic, your ads serve a similar purpose and are less intrusive. Instead of sending an email every week or two, you can send them monthly with comparable results.
Technology enables us to easily engage prospects across several marketing channels at the same time. Different tactics can support and enhance one another when implemented properly. If your digital marketing team needs help maximizing ROI from your email efforts, or if you would like to set up a new PPC campaign, call Pronto today.
