PPC ad management has come a long way in the last few years. With the arrival of automated ad management applications and proprietary software, the amount of data proliferating the Web on PPC best practices is staggering. Not to mention, the complexity of that information is also growing in leaps and bounds. With all the tips, tricks and strategies on PPC campaign management out there, it can be difficult to understand just how to successfully optimize a PPC campaign.
§ PPC: The Basics
Fortunately, there are a few basic principles that will improve your PPC campaign performance:
1. Remember that Google has a high stake in optimizing your ads.
Though it goes without saying, I think many SEM managers forget this important truth. Google wants your ads to be seen and clicked. If they aren't, Google doesn't make any money. Moreover, Google wants your ROI and conversion rates to improve, else you won't drop any more money in the ad account next month. Though I haven't seen it written anywhere, I'm almost certain that Google's ad serving algorithms consist of a fair amount of automated tweaking by themselves.
2. Test, Test ... and Test Some More
As with just about everything in the world of Internet marketing, there's a lot of trial and error involved before you "get it right." Test different ad copy. Test dynamic vs. static ad keywords. Test different keyword combinations and operators. Test negative keywords, and keyword misspellings. Test different landing pages. Eliminate what is obviously not delivering results, and do more of what is.
Whatever you do, don't lazily fall into the delusion that there is some "magic wand" tactic out there that will allow you to put your ad campaign on autopilot and get a million clicks overnight. SEM success - like a beautiful garden - requires constant pruning.
3. Eliminate keywords which don't perfom well.
Perhaps the single most effective strategy I've discovered - and believe me, I've waded Through my share of PPC horse manure - is to watch individual keyword performance over time, and eliminate those keywords which produce zero impressions. Separate poorly performing keywords off into their own ad group. Create new ad copy for them, and test them again.
The same principle holds true for ads themselves. Eliminate the ads within an ad group that don't receive many impressions or have a pathetic Clickthru Rate (CTR). This is part of the pruning process.
If no ads or keywords are getting clicks for a few days, then often the problem is poor keyword choice. Google's keyword selector tool isn't the only keyword selector tool around. Nor is it the best. You can try Trellian's Industry Keyword tool (one of my personal favorites) or Keyword Tracker's tool.
If you have submitted your site to Google's Webmaster Tools, and then have verified it, you have access to a wealth of vital info on your website - and for PPC pruning. One of these is the stats section. There you can find out just which keywords and phrases people are typing in which land them on your site, and which do not.
You'd be surprised at what you'll find; some of the keywords that bring people to your website make good candidates for exact match keywords for your PPC ads, and many of these keywords won't be suggested by the AdWords keyword selector tool.
4. Don't Be Afraid of the Content Network
Old school PPC thought used to be: "Make sure to opt-out of the Content Network." The reason, it was argued, is that ads served up on the Content Network do not perform as well as ads served due to direct search because the person was not looking for your products or services when the ad appeared. The ad just happened to "pop up" while the surfer was poking around on a website and visited a page that was only significantly (or not so significantly) related to your ad copy.
There is some truth to this. However, with the advent of Google's Managed Placement tool, now you can display your ads on only the sites you choose throughout the Content Network (See, I told you Google had a stake in helping your ads get clicked!) So, sometimes the best strategy is to turn off the search network and turn on the Content Network.
If you elect to go this route, my suggestion would be to start of with only a few sites. Don't go for the whole farm in one shot. Then, gradually increase the number of sites you opt into, until (hopefully) you get a click.
Next, visit the referring site that delivered the click. Study its qualities, theme and audience. A great resource for getting demographic information on a particular website is Quantcast.
Try to locate other sites among the Content Network that are similar to the site delivering clicks, and then opt-in to those. Eliminate the others, and start over. Again, trial and error is your guide.
The same applies for the Search Partners network Don't be afraid of it. We have occasionally seen ads perform better on the Search Partners network than in the regular Google Search!
Furthermore, the gradual Content Network ramp-up technique also sometimes works well for geo-targeting. We have started PPC campaigns running in only a few cities. Then we incrementally added cities until we got a click. This threshhold approach is both fun and economical. You can easily stretch out $100 spend for a month or more.
The conclusion of the matter, I think, is to take a pragmatic and experimental approach to PPC ad campaign management. And, as my late father (may he rest in peace) used to say: "Son, don't believe the hype." Don't run after every new list of PPC management magic potions that vaunt themselves in the cyber marketplace. Do your own homework; draw your own conclusions.
Using the simple methods outlines above, our SEO team has, on occasion, scored a 100% CTR for a term, and a 50% CTR for an entire ad group. (No kidding!) In fact, our latest ad campaign garnered a new client in just two weeks, using these tips.
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Gnosis Arts | www.gnosisarts.com
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