PPC can be daunting and a decidedly terrifying experience if you are not sure what you are doing. Random location targeting, or bidding on broad keywords will result in your ads triggering anytime, anywhere and costing a massive amount of money. To save you an almost definite migraine, we have put together a list of helpful tips and tricks so you can make the most of your pay per click advertising budget.
- Location Targeting
One of the most overlooked aspects to PPC is location targeting. I cannot reiterate how important it is to show up to prospective customers WHERE and WHEN they are looking for you. If you have a plumbing business in Brisbane, it would be a waste of dollars for your ad to show up when customers look for “plumbers in Sydney”, or the entire state of NSW or even 20 miles from your service area, unless of course you plan to offer your services there too.
An e-commerce client based in Australia only ships within the country. So we made sure all our six campaigns were specifically targeted to show ads when relevant searches were made within Australia.
- Ad Scheduling
Creating custom ad schedules for your ads is vitally important if you offer services where it is imperative customers call and speak to someone before signing up or buying that product. For e.g. if you are a bespoke tailor, or a caterer, more often than not, prospective customers would like to speak to you once they see your ad. It is important that your ads show during your working hours when there is someone who can speak to the callers. If not, you run the risk of customer ringing when there is nobody to speak to.
Ad scheduling for a Canadian Client:
- Keyword Selection
How do you decide which keywords to show up for? What is a buying cycle? Where are your prospective customers on that cycle? Are there search terms you should ignore and some that should be actively discouraged from triggering your ad? All of these questions are answered by creating, maintaining and then optimizing your keywords. Choosing highly relevant, highly specific keywords that are indicative of your business goal increases Quality Score and Ad Rank (more on that in a bit)
- Quality Score and Ad Rank
- The above metrics are two ways that Google uses to rank ads, keyword selection and landing pages. To better your quality score, the keywords you opt to show up for should be relevant to the products or services you are offering on your website. I have seen accounts bidding for any or all keywords that have low bids. In the short term, this might turn out just fine for you, but in the long term, your ad will drop lower and lower in search results, you lose out on any of the ad rank you were eligible for, and in worst case scenarios, Google might ban your account.
If you are an e-commerce site selling handmade tea towels, that is what you, should be bidding for. Bidding for related products such as tea mats may not be a good idea if your site doesn’t sell them.
What do content websites do in such a scenario? What are they to bid on? If you are a content provider of entertainment news related to a specific branch, bid on those keywords. For example, if your blog posts are about country music, your ads should show up for those specific keywords. Showing up for search terms related to rock music, garage, house, funk, pop might increase your traffic for some time, but invariable, it has a negative effect overall.
- Relevancy
I’m sure the number of times I have used this phrase – highly specific, highly relevant – in some form or the other in this post, has not gone unnoticed. To be successful at PPC or in fact, any marketing attempt, creating custom and relevant (there it is again!) Ad content is mandatory for success. When prospective customers look for services or products on the internet, an expectation is set up (Thank you Brad Geddes for introducing me to that idea!). To fulfill that expectation is the duty of a business owner. To trigger highly specific ads for specific searches is what gets the traffic, the clicks and ultimately the conversions.
- Landing Pages
Landing pages are the windows to your business. They are the first impression and last impression a potential client will have of your business. It will either seem worth their while to stay and browse or it will put them off. Paying attention to the messages and content on your landing pages regularly is the best way you can keep your customers interested and increase the likelihood that they will interact in positive ways with your website.
If you are targeting different product groups or are very granular with your ads, it would be best if you create ads mimicking the layout of your website. If you plan on getting your ad to show up for search terms such as “dell laptops within 5000”, make sure your landing page has only dell laptops that are less than $5000.
- Advertising on the Display Network
Google defines the display network as –
The Display Network is a collection of websites — including specific Google websites like Google Finance, Gmail, Blogger, and YouTube — that show AdWords ads.
With that in mind, creating ads to show on particular websites within Google’s display network is a great idea if you are interested in branding or spreading awareness of your services or products.
If you are a retailer of eco seeds, showing your ads on websites and blogs related to environmental friendly living, conscious living, backyard gardening etc will increase visibility of your products while at the same time, making sure that your ads are seen by only those interested in your products or services.
- Experimentation, Experimentation, Experimentation
For me, the holy grail of PPC marketing is experimentation. Working on PPC marketing campaigns has taught me that the single most helpful trick to be successful in pay per click marketing is to experiment with everything. Create separate landing pages and test them. Create different ads and test those as well. While the adage – If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it – holds true even within digital advertising, being prepared for changes will put you ahead of the curve. By constantly experimenting and testing your account, keywords, landing pages, schedules, bids & timings, you will have a backlog of information and strategy you can fall back.
Keep in mind though; your existing ads or landing pages that are doing well should not be touched as this can have an adverse effect on your account. Let’s say you want to test another version of your existing landing page. Instead of editing your existing ad and inserting the new landing page, it would be wiser and easier to create another ad and insert the new landing page within that.
I would love to hear of anymore tips and tricks that small business owners can benefit from while advertising on the search and display network. Comment or share to Facebook and let me know.