It Won’t Bite, It’s Actually Quite Friendly
Let’s face it, PPC can be a daunting thing to get your head around especially given the fact that it involves familiarising yourself with the minefield that is Adwords. Just when you think you’ve learnt all of the acronyms a human being could possibly retain in their memory, Google decide to go and release another truck load of updates just to keep you on your toes.
Undoubtedly PPC is a fast paced, ever evolving science suited only to those of us who like to live life on the edge. However, despite this, PPC perhaps offers the quickest and simplest method of reaching the main objective of digital marketing – making money! And all we need to do? Go back to basics!
The simple fact is that most of advertisers don’t have time for all of the tricks and flips available in Adwords (you can leave all of that to PPC magicians like us!) What the majority of those using Adwords need is a straightforward approach which focuses on targeting awesome ads at an appropriate audience and guides inquisitive shoppers to the products they are looking for. By this point, unless you’ve got a hopelessly flawed checkout process or a ludicrously high price point these visitors are likely to buy the item they are deliberately searching for. Meaning more money…for you!
On a more serious note, unlike its more appealing, greedy sister (SEO), PPC has the added advantage of being reliable, predictable and well, boring. There are no pandas or penguins wanting to cause drama for PPC advertisers – if your ad text isn’t up to scratch Adwords will say so, straight away! Moreover, PPC will even allow you to get to page 1 overnight – if you are willing to bid highly enough of course – allowing you to appear alongside your biggest competitors right away.
So what are the core, fundamental steps to getting started with a simple, no frills PPC campaign, guaranteed to drive visitors and reap the return? Well, I’ll tell you…
Research, research, research
Careful keyword targeting is the first step to successful PPC activities. Think about what users might search for when looking for your products or services and use the Adwords keyword tool to determine the average cost pet click for these keywords. Typically, the more generic the keyword, the more expensive you will need to bid for page one positions, so try to stick to very specific terms even if they do not necessarily generate a high volume of traffic. Ask yourself, would I be disappointed if I landed on my website from this keyword? If the answer is yes, don’t target it. It will only result in a high bounce rate and money down the drain.
Base your ad spend on your research
Before deciding on a monthly budget for your campaign, do the maths! It is easy to have high expectations when it comes to paid advertising – it is costly after all. However, rather than plucking an ad spend figure out of the air and hoping for the best, calculate the cost of different sets of relevant keywords and base your decision on this. In order to get a ball park idea of ROI, work out the average cost per click of different keyword sets and use the existing conversion rate of your website to calculate how many sales you would need to make to cover your investment. By basing your keyword choices on this analysis you will ensure that your campaign targets the most profitable areas of your site and your budget is spent wisely.
Write compelling adverts
Since PPC offers you the opportunity to appear alongside some of your biggest competitors within search, make sure that you do not overlook the importance of good quality ad text. Whilst there is a strict character limit to PPC ads, don’t be afraid to be creative! There are numerous rules telling you what you should and shouldn’t focus on when it comes to optimising ad text, but ultimately, as long as you include the keyword, and make it engaging/appealing, in my experience, the main objective should be to stand out from the crowd.
Negative keywords
Whilst it can be a painstaking task to add them, negative keywords can be the key to success when it comes to PPC management. By regularly checking the keywords used to generate your ads and specifying which terms are irrelevant (I guarantee you will be surprised), you can exclude your ads from ever appearing for these terms again. This not only limits the number of worthless impressions but also saves you money. Even when your ads show for a completely irrelevant search term, it won’t necessarily be obvious to the searcher – they will simply assume that the ad must somehow relate to their search. Therefore, people might click on the ad and bounce straight off the site when they realise it does not offer the product or service they are looking for. For example, a simple Google search for the term “Vans” generates the following very different paid adverts. As you can see, two of the ads displayed relate to the brand of shoe known as “Vans” whilst the other refers to the automobile variety. This represents a stark contrast in the possible intention of the searcher and although this type of scenario is sometimes inevitable (as in this case), try to recognise where your ads might show irrelevantly and exclude them from doing so in the future.
Rotate your ads
See how much impression share you have lost and invest wisely! Once your ads have been running for a reasonable length of time I.e 1 month, see how much of the impression share was lost due to a limited budget using the “Lost search IS (Budget)” column. If you have lost out on 20%, increase your budget by 20%. This will mean that your ads will show for a greater number of relevant searches and you will capture more clicks. Simple.This combined with constant ad optimising will allow you to gradually target a wider audience with more engaging adverts, which will, in turn, increase your click through rate.
Mick Scanlon
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