This question is as old as paid search advertising (PPC) itself.  What does site traffic alone do from an ROI perspective?  Is it possible to be too targeted, limiting exposure to viable leads?

And of huge concern:  how do I make sure I don’t overspend, wasting money on traffic that never converts?

Start With Targeting

When it comes to paid search, the place to start is with your target audience.  This is the individual personas and population segments that you determined are viable marketing targets–meaning your potential paying customers.  The keywords, ads, and landing pages you create must be built exclusively to connect with the needs of this audience.

Quantity outside this target audience will be wasted PPC budget.  One of the keys here is to avoid the use of broad match keyword targeting.   Instead, use exact, phrase, and broad match modified match types so that only the keywords phrases you target trigger your ads.

Choose keywords where the intent of the searcher relates to your solution.  To get ROI, you want to connect a problem with your ability to solve that problem.

Don’t Forget About the Buying Cycle

When you identify your target audience, you also want to consider the phases of the buying cycle.  If you only target people in the latest stages of the buying cycle (where they are ready to buy or engage a service) you will have higher conversions rates.  However, you may miss opportunities with viable leads who are in earlier stages of the buying cycle.

It’s worth laying out a detailed strategy with buying cycle here.  In many cases, the better traffic driver for people in the informational stages of the buying cycle is organic SEO.

But if you have a strong conversion strategy that gets a qualified lead into your sales funnel, the using paid search to capture some of this traffic–which will be higher in volume–can pay-off.

Key tip here: go for less competitive keyword phrases which have a much lower cost-per-click.  Long-tail phrase match or broad match modified can be effective.

So what’s the answer to the question?

Ideally, you’ll get both quality and quantity, but quality comes first.  The guide is your target audience.

With PPC, drive traffic from your target audience at a specific point in the buying cycle.  Keywords, messaging, and calls-to-action must match-up with the need of the searcher.

Follow that rule then use marketing data to refine your traffic targets overtime.

Work the process, and you’ll the right quantity and high quality.  This gives you the best chance to dominate your market share.