Cost per acquisition (CPA) refers to the amount of marketing or advertising money spent to convert or acquire leads who click on your site or respond to your call to action (CTA).
Put in simpler terms, ask yourself: how much of your marketing budget has to be spent to get a paying customer? To find out what your CPA is, use the formula: CPA = cost / conversions.
Reducing CPA can increase your return on investment (ROI) within a relatively short period without having to incur additional cost on traffic acquisition. By prioritizing the reduction of acquiring new customers, you’re able to control cost from the onset.
More often than not, marketers focus on sales or gaining traffic before optimizing costs. They begin a project by thinking about how they can make more money, often neglecting cost optimization until many resources have been effectively wasted.
Reducing CPA from the very beginning is akin to low-hanging fruit because it’s less difficult to start controlling costs now than to come up with ways to increase conversions. Overall, it’s better (and relatively easier) to think of ways to reduce marketing and conversion costs before the sales numbers start pouring in.
Because “search marketing” is now considered to be one of the most effective ways to reach a particular demographic, lowering CPA has never been more relevant than it is today.
Effective Strategies to Reduce CPA
Here are a few best practices you can implement to reduce your acquisition costs in your PPC marketing campaigns.
1. Optimize Your Landing Page
We’ve been told since we were kids that first impressions matter, and your website is no different. As the first page that visitors see after clicking on your ad, your landing page has a huge impact as far as overall conversions go
When analyzing the effectiveness of your landing page, consider doing an A/B test that considers the success rate of changing a single characteristic.
Test A landing page could be used to drive all traffic to the same generic page, regardless of the type of ad you’re running. Test B, on the other hand, could be used with a more specific, targeted approach.
Run both landing pages by splitting the amount of traffic 50/50 between the two, and then analyze the results. Doing so will give you a better picture of which landing page can boost conversion rates and lower CPA in the long run.
2. Leverage on Online Video
Video has to be one of the most effective content types to drive engagement and ROI. 50% of B2B decision-makers report that they use YouTube when they’re researching future purchases. 89% of marketers would agree that their video marketing efforts have delivered them good ROI.
Good video marketing can drive more people to your website, increase the time they spend there and help generate legitimate leads. Video marketing also comes off as an intimidating task. Adding video to your content marketing efforts doesn’t have to be scary, but it should be strategic.
This can be done in tandem with your other search campaigns to dominate most searches with less competition. YouTube searches can also be highly targeted based on keywords, age group, gender, target audience, location, and other demographics.
3. Use Retargeting Techniques
Retargeting or remarketing allows you to reach out to people who previously visited your site by showing them relevant ads on other sites they visit within the Google Display Network.
You can connect with potential leads as they browse other sites by displaying ads that will compel them to go back to your site, and hopefully, convert into a paying customer.Since only 2% of leads convert on their first visit to your site, encouraging another visit is a must.
Retargeting works by adding a piece of code called retargeting tag on your website. Anyone who visits your site will then be tagged and added to your retargeting list.
These are essentially hot leads which you can go back to with a compelling offer. Using retargeting techniques can be highly profitable and will definitely help to increase conversion rates and reduce your acquisition cost.
4. Run Retargeting Campaigns for Visitors Who Abandoned Your Shopping Cart
Of the various ways you can use retargeting in your marketing efforts, the one audience you should never miss are those who abandoned your shopping carts.
These visitors are among the most important retargeting segments of them all. These people have a strong inclination to actually buy something from your website. They even went as far as to choose exactly what they want and add it to their cart.
With the right messaging or an enticing enough offer, this segment has a higher chance of making an actual purchase after retargeting.
5. Temporarily Stop Targeting Locations That Generate Little to No Sales
The Pareto principle applies to most situations, and this is not an exception. In this case, 80% of sales originate from 20% of the locations, while the other 20% come from 80% of the locations.
In the same vein, it is better to focus your budget and marketing efforts on locations, mostly cities, which can generate more sales than the others. Once your revenue becomes more liquid or you have a bigger budget to spare, you might consider going back to those no-sale zones again to capture a bigger pie on your sales chart.
6. Improve Your Quality Score
Quality score is defined as “Google’s rating for quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads, and is used to determine your cost per click and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process.” (Source: Wordstream)
Once you have successfully created tighter and more relevant keyword groups, as well as enhanced the user experience, it will likely improve the effectiveness and clickability of your ad.
In turn, this enhanced clickability and relevance will help improve your Quality Score—leading to lower costs per click, lower cost per conversion, and pricing discounts.
7. Regularly Check Negative Keywords in Your Search Terms Report
You should always review for any irrelevant or unqualified searches in your search terms report. Look for keywords that are not in line with your marketing objectives and omit them.
If you’re working with a new brand or just starting to build your online presence, you might need to review your reports much more regularly compared to those who have already established a formidable online presence.
The idea behind negative keyword evaluation is to make sure that your ads aren’t targeting users who you know aren’t relevant to your business’ offerings.
8. Update Your Ad Copy
Take a closer look at your current ad copy. Is your messaging aligned with your ad objectives? How is it doing compared to your best performing campaigns?
You might need to introduce small changes to your CTA or current copy to help you better target your qualified leads. Start by looking at the research behind an optimized CTA like using more action-oriented language in your messaging to leave a stronger impression. Add urgency to your ad copy to compel visitors to act positively in your favor.
9. Lower Your Bids for Keywords
Run a Google Experiment on your keywords to see how ad rank impacts on your click through and conversion rates.
Adjust the keywords you’re using based on the results, and drop keyword bids that are simply not working but rather eating up your marketing expenses.
10. Put a Temporary Stop on Non-Converting Keywords
Make sure that you’ve thoroughly analyzed your target cost per conversion, as well as your site’s conversion rate as your basis for pulling the plug on specific keywords.
You should also evaluate the profitability of keywords, even those that have not led to a direct conversion or acquisition, as these might have the potential to bring in leads somewhere down the line.
While you’re reviewing your keywords, you should seek out the top performers and utilize your search terms report to look for new keywords or other match types related to those that are working well.
11. Optimize with a Clear Objective in Mind
It’s tempting to optimize your website as soon as you can, even without a clear objective planned out. This type of random optimization happens when you do some tweaks here and there every couple of days, or introduce certain changes as a knee-jerk reaction to what you see on your website—all without taking a closer look at your analytics results.
Random optimization is easier. There’s no need to go into an often tedious, long drawn out process of planning, preparing, and aligning your objectives with your optimization efforts. However, this type of “on the fly” optimizing has negative impacts more often than not. These losses can be seen in time wasted, sales opportunities overlooked, or money down the drain.
You’re better off planning your next strategies way in advance. Start by diligently mapping out your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals and objectives. This way, you can effectively manage uncertainty and mitigate risks in an efficient manner.
Doing so gives you a competitive edge over those who rely on random optimization to respond to urgent seasonal changes. It’s better to have a clear plan in place instead of planning and implementing strategies at the eleventh hour.
12. Make an Effort to Increase Your Email List
Email marketing might be old school, but it’s the one marketing approach that delivers the most consistent results. Aside from that, it also has the highest return on investment (3800%), with the lowest cost per acquisition rates compared to other more sophisticated or high-tech marketing channels available today.
So, it would be a mistake for you not to include this cost-effective method along with all the other marketing campaigns you’re currently running.
Make sure that when you collect information from website visitors, you always try to, at least, get their email addresses. The more contacts you have on your email list, the less you need to spend your marketing budget toward renting ad platforms like Google, Facebook, social media platforms, and the like.
When you have successfully gathered a formidable email list, don’t just leave it by the wayside. Make sure that you nurture this list and continue delivering something valuable to your subscribers. This is a tried-and-tested method of forming a relationship with your clients, and promotes loyalty among your email subscribers.
13. Optimize Your Checkout Process
On average, the checkout shopping cart abandonment rate among online shoppers is at 68%. That’s a high rate considering that the top reason that people don’t push through with their purchase is largely attributed to hidden charges.
Building trust in your relationship with your customer is crucial. Shoppers are put off by extra charges that were not declared at the beginning of the online shopping journey. Turning this around is as simple as being straightforward about the total amount of the purchase, including shipping fees.
Other turnoffs are technical in nature – website time-out, website crashes, screen freezing – all of which create a negative buyer experience to the point where people end up abandoning your site altogether. Fixing these issues can have a significant impact on lowering your cost per acquisition.
14. Put a Temporary Stop on Any Unprofitable Paid Campaigns
Are you currently running paid ads that have been bleeding money for the past three months? Pause them.
Paid marketing campaigns such as ad groups, keywords, and other ads that have not generated any sales in recent months should be stopped for now, at least, until you’ve come to a data-backed explanation as to why these campaigns have not been helping with conversions.
Once you’ve identified the culprits and tweaked them until they’ve been optimized for conversion, you might consider revisiting these campaigns to discover new optimization tactics.
15. Optimize Your Ads Running on Mobile Devices
A mobile-optimized ad enhances the user experience when a potential lead views it and interacts with it on their mobile devices. It shouldn’t diminish the user experience for an assortment of reasons. Just because the ad can be rendered on a mobile device doesn’t automatically make it mobile-friendly.
How do you know that your supposedly mobile-friendly ad doesn’t enhance, but in fact, detracts from the user experience? Check your conversion rates.
Did they improve after you introduced your mobile ads? If not, then chances are it isn’t truly mobile-friendly. Increase your chances of success by optimizing the user experience with a mobile ad that doesn’t merely render correctly in a mobile browser, but actually elevates the buying experience on a mobile device.
Things to Keep in Mind
As you very well know, there is no cookie-cutter solution when it comes to reducing acquisition costs. Many of the tips above might work for you while others might not. It all depends on your unique situation, whether they be industry quirks that aren’t true for others, or special cases applicable solely to the organization to which you belong.
But, the important thing is to sit down and take the time to discuss these tactics with your team. Apply these tips when you can, and always keep track of how your project is performing.
The most efficient way to optimize cost is to use these tips and the rigors of A/B testing whenever you can. Monitor and analyze how your project is doing and use the data to update your paid advertising strategy. Find the best combination of tactics that will work for you to optimize costs and reduce your CPA.
By continually testing, monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing, profits can be greatly increased while acquisition costs are greatly reduced. Finding the right combination of tactics that work specifically for your business will generate quality leads more efficiently than ever before.
Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how our content builder services can help reduce your CPA.
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