PPC Advertising Success in One Week
Pay Per Click Campaigns (PPC Advertising) can be tricky at first and leave marketers very frustrated. I consider myself a professional and I still get frustrated at campaign performance from time to time. Every time Maudience brings on a new client, work in a new vertical, or open in a new market we always run into challenges. I have found some common starter points that I use on every campaign no matter the budget or scope of the program. I’ll shed light on how to give your PPC campaign a great start!
Set up Google Analytics
This is a no-brainer and may be insulting to some but make sure you have analytics installed on your site. Also make sure to link it to Adwords. I spend 80% of my time in Google Analytics when analyzing and researching campaigns. You can see performance from Google, Bing, and Yahoo campaigns all in one place and also see other mediums and how those are performing. Look at Bounce Rate, and Average Time on Page, and when your campaign garners enough traffic “Visitors Flow” provides incredible information.
Find That Sweet Max Cost Per Click
I don’t like running a PPC advertising campaign wild for a week or so and then coming back and making determinations on what to do next. If I’m working on a campaign that has $15 a day budget, I want to set a Max Cost Per Click at a dollar and work my way up until I find the right mix of keywords, ads, bids, and landing pages that are getting me the most conversions possible. Its slow early on but I feel it is worth it. Every single bid auction on Google, Yahoo, and Bing has that sweet spot where you can get the most value for your dollar. My next PPC blog will be about finding that right mix (even though a blog post doesn’t do that subject justice.)
Spend Time on Ads
I like to create at least four ads, and am very quick to switch out ads that aren’t performing well. Then I will replace them with variations of the high-performing ads. Eventually, when you start getting a lot of impressions, your ad is going to drive the right traffic on your website.
Spend 30 minutes thinking of Negative Keywords
Set your clock and think of words or phrases where you don’t want your ad showing up. I used to do like three or four words and my campaigns always struggled with bounce rate. About a year ago I decided to have at least 10 and sometimes even 50! Since then I just don’t seem to be worrying about bounce rate in my PPC advertising campaigns
Phrase Match
I’ve talked in blogs in the past about “Phrase Match” and the importance of it for PPC advertising campaigns. Early on it is crucial you use phrase match. Broad Match is too vague and brings in a lot of unneeded traffic. If your campaign is conversion focuses only use phrase match until you are extremely comfortable with Adwords and PPC advertising. Now there are many more practices you can do to make sure your PPC campaign runs smoothly, and you see results quickly. But these five are immensely important and can almost guarantee you that you will bring in quality traffic for the right price as well.
Mark Vande Haar Account Executive and Co-Founder of Maudience
Maudience is a digital marketing agency that specializes in PPC advertising, website design, SEO, and behavioral marketing. Maudience serves businesses in North Liberty, Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, and many other parts of the nation.
