How to Optimising your pay-per-click
Each PPC keyphrase ideally needs to be managed individually in order to make sure that the bid (amount per click) remains competitive in order to show up in the top of the results.
Experienced PPC marketers broaden the range of keyphrases to include lower volume phrases. Since each advertiser will typically manage thousands of keywords to generate click-throughs, manual bidding soon becomes impractical. Some search engines include their own bid management tools, but if an organisation is using different pay-per-click schemes, it makes sense to use a single tool to manage them all. It also makes comparison of performance easier too. Bid management software such as Acquisio (www.acquisio.com) and WordStream (www.wordstream.com) can be used across a range of PPC services to manage keyphrases on multiple PPC ad networks and optimise the costs of search engine advertising. The current CPC is regularly reviewed and your bid is reduced or increased to maintain the position you want according to different strategies and ROI limits, with amounts capped such that advertisers do not pay more than the maximum they have deposited.
Although pay-per-click marketing does not initially appear as complex as search engine optimisation, in reality there are many issues to consider
In the next section we explain some of the main techniques and questions for the digital marketer to ask.
1 Targeting
● Search ad network strategy. Which of the search networks mentioned above do you use? Which are used in different countries?
● Content network strategy. How do you treat the content network? Do you disable it? Create separate campaigns? Target specific sites using the Placement tool? Develop different creative? Use placement targeting in Google?
● Campaign structure strategy. Campaign structure is important to ensure that searches using a specific search term trigger the relevant ad creative.
Are AdGroups small enough to deliver a message relevant for the keyphrase entered?
To understand the type of targeting that is possible, look at these two examples. we have a campaign structure for an online clothes retailer. They monitor spend and budget by product type, so structure their campaigns accordingly and target them nationally.
Keywords related to each product will trigger ads defined within each AdGroup
Is an example of a campaign for a restaurant chain. They monitor spend and budget by outlet, so structure their campaigns accordingly and target them to local areas.
● Keyword matching strategy. How is creative targeted using the combination of broad match and negative match, phrase match and exact match?
● Search-term targeting strategy. What are the strategies for targeting different types of keyphrases such as brand, generic, product-specific and different qualifiers (cheap, compare, etc.)?
2 Budget and bid management
● Budgeting strategy. Is budget set as maximum cost-per-click (CPC) at the appropriate level to deliver satisfactory return on investment? Is daily budget sufficient that ads are served at full delivery (always present)?
● Listing position strategy. Which positions are targeted for different keywords?
● Bidding strategies. What is the appropriate maximum cost per click for different target keywords and campaigns to maximise effectiveness?
● Dayparting strategy. Are ads delivered continuously through the day and week or are different certain days and times targeted
● Use of enhanced campaigns. Google AdWords Enhanced campaigns is a tool to simplify the complexity of advertising when different types of mobile devices can be targeted in different locations at different times.
● Bid management tool strategy. Is a tool used to automate bidding? Which?
● Importance of fake clicks. Whenever the principle of PPC marketing is described to marketers, very soon a light bulb switches on and they ask, ‘So we can click on competitors and bankrupt them?’ Well, actually, no. The PPC ad networks detect multiple clicks from the same computer (IP address) and filters them out.
3 Creative testing and campaign optimisation
● Ad creative and copy strategy. How are the 95 characters forming ad headlines, description and creative used to encourage click-through (and reduce click-through from unqualified visitors if necessary)? Is alternative copy tested? How are ads tested?
● Destination or landing page strategy. How are landing pages improved?
● Campaign review and optimisation strategy. What is the workflow for reviewing and improving success? Which reports are used? How often are they reviewed? By whom? Which tests are used? What are the follow-ups?
● Specialist and innovative paid search techniques. These include local, international, pay-per-call, mobile search.
4 Communications integration
● SEO integration strategy. How is SEO integrated with paid search to maximise ROI?
● Affiliate integration strategy. How is affiliate marketing integrated with paid search to maximise ROI?
● Marketing campaign integration strategy. How is budget and creative changed during offline campaigns.
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