Getting The Most From Your PPC Campaigns

By Judith Lewis, Search Director, i-level, published 1295879534

As the credit crunch forces more and more marketing budgets to be trimmed, keeping your paid search accounts in tip top shape has become increasingly important.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is not something you can set and forget. If you treat your search accounts with the attention they deserve, you will reap the rewards of more targeted ads which cost less and result in higher conversion rates.

It is important to get the basics right – well optimised landing pages, on-page content that is both targeted and friendly, and a page that converts are essential. I would recommend the use of analytics and testing to find the right combination for you. Avinash Kaushik has a great book called "Web Analytics in an Hour a Day" which is recommended reading for anyone working with websites. Testing through Google, is particularly well covered in Brian Eisenberg’s book "Always Be Teasing". Once you’re confident the fundamentals are in place, you can take a fresh look at your paid search campaigns.

The next step is keywords; have you chosen the right ones? It’s important to refine your list and not simply add everything you can think of. If you are a diet site, don’t bid on “maple syrup diet plan” (unless you sell this food), but do bid on specifics such as “diet drinks”, if that applies to your business. Avoid keyword insertion in ad groups where trademark terms such as “diet coke” are used.

Next, take your refined keyword list and break it into themes. Each campaign should only contain ad groups which focus on a theme. For example, a site about chocolate should include keywords that focus around the themes within the site, such as, French, Belgian, Swiss, truffle etc. and each group must only contain keywords related to that theme. If you get too broad you cannot target your message correctly. There is no such thing as too tight a focus. It is possible to create a group for each chocolate you produce, but you should be conscious not to create too much work for yourself and stick within the limits set by the system.

Targeting your message is the reason for the keyword research and ad group. By creating a focus around something specific, the message related to that group, which is displayed when they keyword(s) are searched for, will be more appealing to the searcher, more likely to be clicked on and more likely to convert. The message needs to be short and quite concise with a clear call to action. You need to give searchers a reason to want to click on your ad. Be aware that while keyword insertion is tempting, it can deliver a less than optimal message

Check your stats regularly. If you are using Google and have analytics running as well, link your ad words and analytics accounts. Check your accounts regularly for CTR and cost. If you have something running, check how it is performing. Use those stats to inform your new structure. Keep an eye on everything to see when it goes up and down and consider removing poorly performing keywords.

Much like an engine, PPC performs best when kept in tune, but it will still run at a much higher cost if you choose to ignore it.