PPC can often be seen as a dirty word, especially for sports teams, but it shouldn’t be that way. In other sectors, PPC has become an integral part of marketing strategies and it’s time this industry utilised PPC campaigns for sports teams in order to replicate the benefits felt elsewhere.
Why?
Because PPC advertising is a cost-effective way to increase ticketing and retail revenue, develop audiences, and improve brand loyalty. Not only that, but from a digital viewpoint, it allows for precise tracking of KPIs including return on ad spend [ROAS], conversion rate, click-through rate [CTR] and ultimately revenue. Without this information, how are sports team marketeers to know if their campaigns have been effective?
In this blog, our Communications Manager, Jamie, evaluates some of the key areas sports teams should be looking at for their PPC strategies.
Retail PPC campaigns for sports teams
Historically, many retail purchases from sports teams’ supporters have come in person; visiting the club shop or pop-up stand on a matchday. While this method of transaction will never be completely replaced, Covid caused a rapid shift towards digital transactions – particularly in the lower tiers of professional sports.
The shift to online purchases presents a great opportunity for sports teams looking to increase their retail revenue.
Customers are up to 70% more likely to buy your product when you use retargeting
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Abandoned cart ads allow for teams to retarget supporters that weren’t able to convert the first time around. These ads remind website visitors of the club’s merchandise after they’ve left the site.
They’re simple to set up on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Twitter, and once the ads have been optimised, sports teams can often leave the algorithms to do the rest.
But it’s not just retargeting ads that teams should be looking at. Club shop sales present the perfect time to try and capture impulse purchases from supporters. From casual supporters who don’t often transact to those who are constantly looking for the next item of merch to add to their collection, retail sale ads, when timed right, can make for a hugely effective campaign.
Ticketing PPC campaigns for sports teams
Selling tickets might sound like a simple affair – especially for those teams at the top of the football pyramid, but the reality is that outside the top clubs of Britain’s most-watched sport, many teams are struggling to hit their target ticket sale KPIs.
Rugby, cricket, and many other sports teams are faced with competition from other teams, sporting events, and ticketing opportunities.
This is where PPC ads can help…
PPC ads give the opportunity for your team’s voice to be heard above the rest of the noise on social media.
For example, sports teams could set up a campaign that targets relevant social media users who live close to the venue and follow competing clubs or specific sport-related pages. Combine and support this approach with search ads to ensure your team appears at the top of Google and you’ll likely be onto a winner.
Audience growth
From football to golf, the top ten most popular sports in the world have approximately 4.5 billion fans, who are some of the most engaged and active people on the internet. This audience is ready to engage with your adverts.
Whether it’s acquiring an international audience or expanding reach in the local area, PPC ads can play a pivotal role in audience development.
Take an off-season pitch event as an example. Through a well-strategised ad campaign, the club could reach an audience that might not already be following the organic channels. Putting these ads in front of the correct audience could be the difference between the event selling out or not.
Brand
As many sports teams enter their first full covid-free season, budgets have been adjusted, campaigns are kick-started again, and the bottom of teams’ marketing funnels are becoming a more crowded place.
There’s an opportunity here with brand-targeted PPC campaigns for sports teams.
Ranking high on both paid and organic listings means double the impact on SERPs (search engine result page) and a higher perception of trust amongst users. There’s also the added advantage of boosting CTR % and the number of impressions per user.
Barcelona took this approach when looking to push the “mes que un club” brand under Pep Guardiola’s reign. The aim was to market the unpinning philosophy across the globe. This benefitted the club by attracting more worldwide supporters, more merchandise sales, better sponsorship deals, and more.
Sounds good, right?
With the right strategy and accompanying creative it really is that easy. If you’re a sports team and still have questions about your PPC ads, we’d love to offer you a free consultation. Click here to contact us and a member of the team will get back to you.
