Pay Per Click Tips and Strategies
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Properly Setting Up A PPC Campaign - It's All About Relevancy
Once of the most common mistakes made when setting up pay per click campaigns is that a large number of unrelated or very loosely connected keywords are dumped into a few general adgroups. Then a generic ad is created that may be relevant to a few of the terms but not all of them.
What effect does this have on a campaign?
Basically you end up paying more per click and some of your keywords may become inactive for search. What it boils down to is the search engine penalizes you for not properly setting up your campaigns for greater relevancy.
How can you set up your campaigns for greater relevancy?
Simple: Group tightly related keywords in their own adgroups and write ads that are highly relevant to those keywords. It is important to try to include the actual keywords in the ad as this will have a positive impact on your quality score and CTR. This one tip can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars and drastically improve your campaigns' performance.
Need an example?
Let's say you're setting up a campaign for home appliances. You might start by dumping a whole bunch of keywords like fridges, stoves, washing machines, dryers, microwaves, etc. all in one group. Yes these keywords are related, but it is hard to create an ad that contains all of them in one ad.
So if you follow the strategy I mentioned above you would create an adgroup for each type of appliance and have highly relevant and focused ads connected to them. Even better you might create multiple adgroups for each type of appliance with highly relevant ads. For example you might want to create an adgroup for front-loading washing machines and have keywords and ads containing front-loading washing machine terminology.
Already created adgroups with tons of unrelated or semi-related keywords in them?
Not a problem, use a method known as "peel and stick" where you peel related keywords out of one adgroup and stick them into their own highly relevant adgroup, then create new ads that focus on this tight group of keywords.
Implement this simple yet powerful tactic and watch your CTR and conversions increase while your CPC decreases. ¶ 7:19 PM 0 Comments
What effect does this have on a campaign?
Basically you end up paying more per click and some of your keywords may become inactive for search. What it boils down to is the search engine penalizes you for not properly setting up your campaigns for greater relevancy.
How can you set up your campaigns for greater relevancy?
Simple: Group tightly related keywords in their own adgroups and write ads that are highly relevant to those keywords. It is important to try to include the actual keywords in the ad as this will have a positive impact on your quality score and CTR. This one tip can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars and drastically improve your campaigns' performance.
Need an example?
Let's say you're setting up a campaign for home appliances. You might start by dumping a whole bunch of keywords like fridges, stoves, washing machines, dryers, microwaves, etc. all in one group. Yes these keywords are related, but it is hard to create an ad that contains all of them in one ad.
So if you follow the strategy I mentioned above you would create an adgroup for each type of appliance and have highly relevant and focused ads connected to them. Even better you might create multiple adgroups for each type of appliance with highly relevant ads. For example you might want to create an adgroup for front-loading washing machines and have keywords and ads containing front-loading washing machine terminology.
Already created adgroups with tons of unrelated or semi-related keywords in them?
Not a problem, use a method known as "peel and stick" where you peel related keywords out of one adgroup and stick them into their own highly relevant adgroup, then create new ads that focus on this tight group of keywords.
Implement this simple yet powerful tactic and watch your CTR and conversions increase while your CPC decreases. ¶ 7:19 PM 0 Comments
Monday, August 07, 2006
Dynamic Keyword Insertion - A Powerful Time Saving Tool
The dynamic keyword command is a very powerful tool that can save you lots of time and frustration while improving your CTRs at the same time. Here's a quick rundown of how you can put it to work in your campaigns:
The command itself: {keyword}
How to use it:
In Your Ads
{keyword:PPC secrets revealed}
Placing the above command in the title of your ad will trigger any keyword that you bid in that ad group to be displayed making your ad more relevant and helping to boost your CTR. The "PPC secrets revealed" part of the command is what is called alternate text and will be displayed when one of two things happens.
1. The keyword that you bid on and that was used to trigger your ad is longer than the 25 character limit or
2. The keyword that you bid on was a broad matched keyword and does not exactly match the search term that someone typed in.
Capitalization Using the Dynamic Keyword Command
{keyword:alternate text here} will appear as alternate text here
{Keyword:alternate text here} will appear as Alternate text here
{KeyWord:alternate text here} will appear as Alternate Text Here
Note: The capitalization variations of the command will also affect any keywords that a searcher types in and is displayed because of the {keyword} command.
You can also save time by using this command in the destination url section of your ads to track your keyword performance.
Ex: http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword={keyword}
What this does is that everytime your ad is triggered, you will be able to see which keyword generated a click and if your site is properly tagged you can see which keyword led to a conversion in your analytics tool such as Google analytics.
In Your Tracking Strings (URLs)
Here's another place where you can save a lot of time when setting up your AdGroups and adding new keywords.
By using the dynamic keyword insertion command in your URL tracking strings you avoid having to type out each keyword and it's associated matching option manually.
Ex: Type http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword={keyword} instead of http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword=ppc+secrets+revealed
Imagine having hundreds of adgroups to go through contaning several keywords each - how long would it take you to set up your tracking strings to properly track each keyword? Now you can eliminate the hassle with this simple command.
Here's the proper syntax to use the command with the various matching options available on Google Adwords:
Broad matched keywords = {keyword}
Phrase matched keyword = "{keyword}"
Exact matched keyword = [{keyword}]
Be sure to check back for more great pay per click tips and strategies!
¶ 12:15 PM 0 Comments
The command itself: {keyword}
How to use it:
In Your Ads
{keyword:PPC secrets revealed}
Placing the above command in the title of your ad will trigger any keyword that you bid in that ad group to be displayed making your ad more relevant and helping to boost your CTR. The "PPC secrets revealed" part of the command is what is called alternate text and will be displayed when one of two things happens.
1. The keyword that you bid on and that was used to trigger your ad is longer than the 25 character limit or
2. The keyword that you bid on was a broad matched keyword and does not exactly match the search term that someone typed in.
Capitalization Using the Dynamic Keyword Command
{keyword:alternate text here} will appear as alternate text here
{Keyword:alternate text here} will appear as Alternate text here
{KeyWord:alternate text here} will appear as Alternate Text Here
Note: The capitalization variations of the command will also affect any keywords that a searcher types in and is displayed because of the {keyword} command.
You can also save time by using this command in the destination url section of your ads to track your keyword performance.
Ex: http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword={keyword}
What this does is that everytime your ad is triggered, you will be able to see which keyword generated a click and if your site is properly tagged you can see which keyword led to a conversion in your analytics tool such as Google analytics.
In Your Tracking Strings (URLs)
Here's another place where you can save a lot of time when setting up your AdGroups and adding new keywords.
By using the dynamic keyword insertion command in your URL tracking strings you avoid having to type out each keyword and it's associated matching option manually.
Ex: Type http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword={keyword} instead of http://www.yoursite.com/home.asp?src=google&keyword=ppc+secrets+revealed
Imagine having hundreds of adgroups to go through contaning several keywords each - how long would it take you to set up your tracking strings to properly track each keyword? Now you can eliminate the hassle with this simple command.
Here's the proper syntax to use the command with the various matching options available on Google Adwords:
Broad matched keywords = {keyword}
Phrase matched keyword = "{keyword}"
Exact matched keyword = [{keyword}]
Be sure to check back for more great pay per click tips and strategies!
¶ 12:15 PM 0 Comments
Saturday, August 05, 2006
My First Day On The Job As A Search Engine Marketer
When I first started working as a search engine marketer, I knew almost nothing about the subject. I got the job based on my prior e-commerce experience which included extensive selling on Ebay, knowledge of the auction world, and most importantly bidding strategies and copywriting. However I had no direct experience with search engine marketing so you can imagine how I felt on the first day on the job when I was told to learn how the Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing interfaces worked and to become familiar with them.
It was exciting yet intimidating at the same time. Exciting because this was a relatively new industry and I already had an idea of how powerful search engine marketing was based on the research I had done before taking the job. It was intimidating because there were already hundreds of groups of keywords collectively containing thousands of keywords to manage and optimize. Also these keywords and the text ads linked to them, were the only way the company generated leads for the sales agents. There was no other advertising or cold calls done by the sales agents. A very large portion of the company's business and clients were gained from its pay per click initiatives on Google or Yahoo and now I was solely in charge of getting the most out of it.
It has been a very interesting and exciting time since those early days in my career and in the time that I have been managing pay per click campaigns, I have gathered a good amount of knowledge on some of the most effective tips and strategies to get the most out of this powerful marketing tool. I'd like to share and exchange these tips and strategies with you - Welcome to my Search Engine Tips and Strategies blog where PPC Success is at your fingertips! ¶ 8:32 AM 0 Comments
When I first started working as a search engine marketer, I knew almost nothing about the subject. I got the job based on my prior e-commerce experience which included extensive selling on Ebay, knowledge of the auction world, and most importantly bidding strategies and copywriting. However I had no direct experience with search engine marketing so you can imagine how I felt on the first day on the job when I was told to learn how the Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing interfaces worked and to become familiar with them.
It was exciting yet intimidating at the same time. Exciting because this was a relatively new industry and I already had an idea of how powerful search engine marketing was based on the research I had done before taking the job. It was intimidating because there were already hundreds of groups of keywords collectively containing thousands of keywords to manage and optimize. Also these keywords and the text ads linked to them, were the only way the company generated leads for the sales agents. There was no other advertising or cold calls done by the sales agents. A very large portion of the company's business and clients were gained from its pay per click initiatives on Google or Yahoo and now I was solely in charge of getting the most out of it.
It has been a very interesting and exciting time since those early days in my career and in the time that I have been managing pay per click campaigns, I have gathered a good amount of knowledge on some of the most effective tips and strategies to get the most out of this powerful marketing tool. I'd like to share and exchange these tips and strategies with you - Welcome to my Search Engine Tips and Strategies blog where PPC Success is at your fingertips! ¶ 8:32 AM 0 Comments