PPC: The Perils of Set it & Forget It

November 15, 2011 Filed under: PPC — Tags: , , —
ppc-keyword-research-strategies

Image by Search Influence via Flickr

Managing and optimizing PPC campaigns can seem, at first glance, like a simple, straightforward process. Once you’ve done all the hard work –setting up a campaign, selecting keywords, creating ad groups, writing ad copy, establishing bid rates – shouldn’t it just run?  Clients sometimes ask us to do the setup, then expect to just sit back and let the leads flow in.  Why, they ask, do you need to keep tweaking it if you’ve set it up well in the first place?

The short answer can be summed up in 2 words: Google & Competitors. Neither one is standing still.  Google is continually updating its algorithm with new capabilities, and your competitors are constantly adjusting their PPC accounts to improve conversions. This means that your PPC ads and keywords are not being served to a static environment. It’s constantly changing. As a result, neglecting your account is like surrendering one of your most effective marketing tools to your competition.

So, what is likely to happen if you do just let your PPC campaign run, unmanaged?

Keywords Get Missed. Keywords are the foundation for a PPC campaign. When a campaign is neglected, then new search queries  - queries that turn into paying customers – will get missed. This makes your campaign less effective than the actively managed campaigns your competitors are running …and lets weed out the best new leads for themselves.

Ads Grow Stale. People get tired of seeing the same ads. After awhile they ignore them. When they ignore them, they don’t click on them, visit your website, and convert to paying customers. Active management of a PPC campaign allows you to keep fresh, engaging ad copy in front of your best prospects and potential leads.

Negative Keywords Aren’t Added. There are lots of queries that people type into search engines that use your keywords, but are out of context for your business (think ‘cheap’ in front of your product category – do you want this traffic?). Only when you actively add those bad phrases into your negative keyword list will you improve your traffic quality and eliminate the leads you don’t want. But typically it takes practice and tweaking to learn what people are searching for and which phrases are misfires.  If your campaign isn’t actively managed, you won’t find them and you’ll waste money on unwanted traffic.

Bad Placements Aren’t Removed. Not every placement on the Display Network is good. Many will waste all of your budget with nothing to show for it. It’s essential to remove those bad placements so ensure your budget is spent on more worthy websites. Again, active management is needed to do this.

Testing doesn’t happen.  The PPC engines allow you to have multiple ad copies in a single AdGroup. Each ad copy can also go to a different landing page. It’s important to test different ads and landing pages to see which ad copy or landing pages increase your primary search metrics, such as clickthrough rate and cost per conversion.  Metrics such as profit per click show which ad copy and landing page combination leads to the highest most profit for your different keywords and ad copies.  You need to run regular reports to see which ads, landing pages and keywords lead consumers to do business with your company.

So, if you’re thinking PPC is a great opportunity to set up ads and just let them run – you may want to think again.

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Make Your Advertising Accountable

July 5, 2011 Filed under: PPC,Web Analytics — Tags: , —
PPC ROI cartoon

Courtesy of http://www.leadformix.com

Guest Post by Brandon Clay

Pay per click (PPC) advertising has deep roots in the advertising industry. The exact medium may be new but the principles have been unchanged for generations. It’s why PPC works so well.

Here’s the backstory:

In 1923, Claude Hopkins published a breakthrough in the advertising world Scientific Advertising. In it, he explained one of the foundations of Direct Response advertising. Its premise suggested that advertisers could test small ads, mediums, and offers. After finding a statistically-verifiable response in the market, advertisers could roll-out the tested strategy on a larger scale.

PPC ROI and claude hopkinsHopkins showed how testing small greatly improved the chances for a positive ROI. He provided a mechanism (“scientific” testing) to get the desired result (positive ROI). And he paved the way for advertisers demanding a return from their advertising investment.

Fast forward nearly 100 years…

ROI is Essential in Advertising

This science of advertising has progressed significantly since Hopkins’ time. Nearly all advertisers now demand a good return on their investment. We see Hopkins’ principle of scientific (now accountable) advertising at work in the marketplace. Ad dollars have fled low-ROI mediums like the Yellow Pages and newspapers and have flooded into higher-ROI mediums like Email marketing, PPC advertising, Facebook marketing and more.

Why?

Advertisers get more return from buying ads in Google versus sponsoring a billboard. They vote with their ad budgets. If they can measure good performance, then they renew the advertisement. If not, it gets cut. It’s that simple.

ROI is Easy to Measure with PPC

Despite Hopkins’ assurances, it’s not always easy to tie successes to every ad campaign. However, that problem is not as nearly acute with PPC advertising.

First, PPC can easily tie ad dollars to success on a website. For instance, an advertiser selling luggage with PPC may create 2 campaigns: one focused on US-based prospects and the other based on European-based prospects. With proper tracking setup, the advertiser tests and refines each campaign. The results may look something like this:

Campaign 1: Luggage – USA
Cost: $2,552
Revenue: $8,235
ROI (Revenue ÷ Cost – 1.0): 222.7%

Campaign 2: Luggage – Europe
Cost: $2,459
Revenue: $3,402
ROI (Revenue ÷ Cost – 1.0): 38.3%

In this example, we can see how much more effective this luggage manufacturer is selling to US-based customers compared to European-based customers. Based on these numbers alone, it would make sense to increase advertising budget in Campaign 1: Luggage – USA and lower (or remove) budget from Campaign 2: Luggage – Europe. That’s how PPC advertising works overall.

But PPC provides even more granular optimizations. Proper conversion and ecommerce tracking shows exactly what campaign, ad group, ad creative, and keyword resulted in particular actions on a website. This allows adept advertisers not only to pull bad campaigns, but also to pull lower-performing ads, keywords, and other less-than-stellar elements.

In addition, advertisers can bid-up on well-performing keywords and further refine winning ads. More importantly, advertisers can see what their PPC dollars bought them and if it was a worthwhile investment, thereby achieving accountable advertising. Hopkins would be proud.

PPC Works with Many Businesses (you should test it!)

I’ve worked in 70+ verticals and managed hundreds of pay per click campaigns and I’m convinced of one thing. PPC works. Thousands of businesses invest hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars in PPC advertising every month. These businesses are getting return from their advertising investment. They couldn’t afford to shell out all those ad dollars if they didn’t get positive ROI consistently.

PPC ROI and geicoFor instance, SpyFu, an online advertising intelligence tool estimates that Geico.com spends up to $90,710 in PPC advertising every day. That’s over $2.7 million per month. GEICO is a smart company, owned by Berkshire Hathaway (Billionaire Warren Buffett). If they didn’t see return from their advertising dollars, they would stop doing PPC.

Your business can probably benefit from PPC advertising, get a positive ROI, and ultimately get consistent revenues from PPC advertising. But don’t take my word for it.

Test it. In the spirit of accountable advertising, setup a good test with enough keywords, good tracking, an experienced manager and enough budget. Once you conduct a good-faith test in the PPC medium, you’ll know whether or not it can work for you.

If it works, expand your business, improve your revenues, and grow your bottom line with PPC. If not, you can explore other advertising mediums. Whatever the result, you’ll practice one of the best time-tested, principles in business: testable, accountable advertising. And you’ll see whether attractive ROI is possible for your business with PPC.

For more information on the concept of accountable advertising on the internet, checkout Avinash Kaushik’s webinar: Accountable Advertising on the Internet.

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Google Display Network: Getting the Most Reach with Google PPC

March 8, 2011 Filed under: PPC — Tags: , —

Guest post by Brandon Clay

According to eMarketer, online advertising spend will reach $32.0 billion in 2011, up 10.9% from 2010. Online advertising growth has been facilitated by expanding advertising networks that provide ad content to millions of websites. Networks like AOL, ValueClick, and Yahoo! serve billions of impressions to web users. Google owns one of those advertising networks, called the Google Display Network.

Most people know Google as a search engine. But Google is much bigger than search. While they have been perfecting their search algorithm so we can get the best answers to our questions, Google has quietly built a separate advertising network – away from Google.com.

What is the Google Display Network?

The Google Display Network (formerly known as the Content Network), is Google’s portal to independent websites. Here’s Google’s take on their Display Network: “The Google Network is a large group of websites and other products, such as email programs and blogs, which have partnered with Google to display AdWords ads.” (more…)

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Stop Wasting PPC Budget with Bad Keywords

January 21, 2011 Filed under: PPC — Tags: , —

Guest Post by Brandon Clay

“Keywords are the foundation of a successful AdWords campaign.”

-          Brad Geddes, Author of Advanced Google AdWords

PPC advertising can be hard to visualize. It’s often difficult to peruse spreadsheets of words, ads, and numbers and remember exactly what you’re looking at. That’s why it’s good to take a step back – and think. Think about exactly what you’re doing. The best way to think about PPC is to consider the keyword.

The keyword is the string of characters the search engine user types into the search box. Keywords can be one word like “playground”. Keywords can also be multiple words like “cool playgrounds in Seattle, WA”.  Keywords, also called search queries, are questions that searchers ask a search engine. You gain access to keywords in the search engines by ‘bidding’ on specific keywords.

Are Keywords the Most Important Part of PPC?

The keyword is, perhaps, the most important component of your PPC account. The keyword is the front door through which all your prospects pass before seeing your ad, clicking your ad, and visiting your website. If you’re bidding on a keyword, you may get access to prospects typing certain keywords. If not, you won’t. It’s that simple.

But keywords aren’t mindless words appearing in your PPC account. Instead, these strings of characters represent thoughts that your prospects and customers have related to your products or services. They are the visual, measurable representation of the conversation inside your prospect’s head. Your prospects are, in essence, raising their hands and asking questions by typing words into the Google search box. They want to see results that will answer their question, including ads.

That’s a golden opportunity for a hungry business. (more…)

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PPC Advertising: Why Your Online Business Should Advertise

October 6, 2010 Filed under: PPC — Tags: , —

Guest post by Brandon Clay

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”

–Thomas Jefferson

Our commercial culture is awash in advertising. Whether or not city-dwelling consumers are actually exposed to 5,000 ads per day, as claimed by the New York Times Magazine (Feb. 2007), the premise of the research is true. We see lots of ads. From radio spots on our morning commutes to Google-served ads as we search for stuff, we are bombarded at all hours with advertising. Advertisers never stop trying to pry-open our wallets and to get to our credit cards.

Fact is – advertising works. If you have a decent product or service, you have a budget, and you’re good at advertising, you’ll get the lion’s share of the business. It’s that simple. If you’re missing any one of those components – you might get a mouse’s share. Advertising is often the difference between a thriving business and bankruptcy. Online businesses must advertise to make it.

The Key To Online Business Success is PPC Advertising

One of the primary ways to advertise your online business is through pay per click (PPC). PPC advertising is also referred to as search marketing, online advertising, search advertising, and other things. Whatever you call it, PPC is the best way to get top placement on the internet. Sure, you have to pay for the spots – no advertising is free. But it’s one of the most cost-effective methods for introducing your product or service to potential customers.

Most of the world’s largest websites accept advertising. According to the Alexa 500, 18 of the top 25 websites in the United States accept advertising. Other than a few sites like Amazon and Wikipedia, you’re welcome to advertise your online business virtually anywhere your prospects can be found.

Not only that, but you can get top placement where those same prospects are. You don’t have to build up your own Yahoo or Facebook. Instead, you simply open an advertising account on the appropriate website and they start sending you visitors to your website. Sure, it takes time getting used to the interface – but it sure beats having to wait for prospects to stumble upon your website. These days, prospects will almost never accidentally visit your website.

PPC Advertising Formats: Text, Banner, Video and More

PPC advertisers use different ad formats – one size doesn’t fit all. The most common ad format is the text ad. You see these simple text advertisements on most pages on search engine results – usually at the top and right of the organic results. These ads usually include a headline, 1 or more description lines, and a URL pointing to the advertiser’s website. Many other websites besides Bing and Google also display text ads.

There are other types of PPC ads as well – often called rich media. Banner advertising – the once-despised format on the internet – has made a resurgence with better graphics, moving pictures, and less annoying quirks. Online video advertising now often resembles TV commercials – they’re that good. Popup ads continue to challenge our patience, while other ad formats that round out the mix. Online advertising is bursting with PPC opportunity for online businesses.

But you don’t need rich media ads to succeed online. Simple text ads usually work. After all, your goal is not the coolest commercial or a Madison Avenue award. Your goal as a PPC advertiser is for visitors to come to your site and enter your sales funnel – that’s it. Everything else is incidental and will probably waste your PPC budget.

Why PPC Advertising Works: Hyper-targeting

A perennial problem in advertising is speaking to the right people at the right time. The old direct marketing (a.k.a. junk mail) formula says that 40% of a successful mailing relates to the list. If you can talk to the right people at the right time, then a good offer will take care of itself – you’ll get sales.

That’s why PPC advertising is so effective.   It allows the PPC advertiser the ability to target people when they’re thinking about something your company does – like when prospects type a search term into Google or when they’re reading an article related to your business’s services. If your text ad or banner ad appears on the same page as a related action, that increases the opportunity for you to get a targeted visitor to your site. That’s good targeting.

There are also ways to optimize your PPC advertising . You can choose to advertise only on sites that send you quality visitors – and stop advertising on sites that send uninterested visitors. You can also only bid on keyword terms that historically send quality visitors to your website. These methods will improve the types of visitors coming to your site and bring you more leads and sales. That’s hyper-targeting.

If you’re not using PPC advertising, you’re losing your best prospects. When your competitors advertise their products and services, they’re capturing the valuable attention of paying customers. Needy prospects go to the businesses that will meet their needs – the way they often get there online is through PPC advertising. The net result is you lose the sale. To succeed in today’s competitive market, you must advertise – PPC is the way to do it.

About the Author: Brandon Clay is a professional search marketer and blogs at Search Traffic Pro. He specializes in pay per click, search engine optimization, landing pages, and pretty much everything else related to online marketing.

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Search Marketing: How PPC Can Enhance Your SEO

June 29, 2010 Filed under: PPC,SEO — Tags: , , —

PPC keywordsIn the “old days” of traditional marketing (about 2-3 years ago) advertising and PR were the two mainstays of marketers.  In advertising, big budgets and creative talent allowed you to control your message and build your brand.  In public relations, influence and relationships with the media allowed you to add credibility to your brand through stories in the press.  But aside from shared branding themes, there was typically little overlap between the 2 worlds, and almost no shared learning.

Search marketing changes things.  In the Internet Marketing world, search advertising (PPC) is the latest form of paid brand-building, while SEO and Social Media are the newest strategies for boosting your  credibility online.  Traditional advertising and PR still exist, of course, but there are good reasons why companies are increasingly shifting their marketing budgets away from these channels into search-based Internet marketing.  The most obvious reasons are:

  • the growing number of hours that people now spend online
  • the fact that businesses can target audiences more effectively and less intrusively, since PPC ads and organic search listings display only when they’re relevant to what someone is actively searching for
  • the ability to measure results and improve the return on your marketing investment

(more…)

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