Optimizing Your PPC

Daily/Weekly Maintenance

To Do List•Give data a chance to collect (100 clicks rule)•Check the budget/spend•Edits/new ads•Add keywords•Change match types•Add negative keywords•Check the destination URL (landing page)•Bids for the ad group and keyword levels•Time of day or geographic scheduling•Ad position•Quality Score•Account structure

What’s a Winner?For ads:CTR (click through rate) Conversion rate

For keywords:CTRConversion rateAd positionBidQuality Score

What is Quality Score?

In a nutshell: Google’s 1-10 scale for determining relevancy.

Keywords have QS visibly listed in the AdWords interface.Ads, ad groups and accounts also have a quality score.

•The historical CTR of the keyword and the matched ad.•Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account .•The historical CTR of the display URL in the ad group.•The quality of the landing page.•The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group. •The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query. •Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown. •Other relevance factors.

(pulled from Google AdWord’s AdWords Help Center)

Landing Pages

Cardinal Landing Page RulesFor onsite PPC ad groups:

•Don’t drop people off on the home page. Send them to pages that match the keyword list. For example: Broader searches to category pages, more targeted searches to product pages.•Keywords from your keyword list on the landing page.•A clear path to conversion (add to cart, download, buy now)•The fewer the clicks to conversion, the better.

Cardinal Landing Page RulesFor PPC Dedicated Landing Pages

•Keywords from the keyword list on the landing page•Message from the ads match the tone/style•Clear call to action•Clarity•Spelling, grammar and punctuation count!

To Be Above the Fold?

•Ideally, above the fold is best for placement of info, call to action, image.•But sometimes a long lander is the way to go.•Simple products go with a simple lander.•Complex products need a longer lander.

Landing Page Examples:The GoodThe Bad

and The Ugly

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2008/10/14-instant-landing-page-upgrades.htm

Google Website Optimizer

http://www.ppchero.com/10-easy-ways-to-optimize-your-ppc-landing-pages-increase-conversions/

Resources