After reading my last blog post about the value of Paid Search and PPC advertising I hope you are as eager as I am to launch your own campaign, and this post will offer you the tools to do it yourself. I will be discussing the use of Google Adwords as the medium, but remember their are other great Paid search advertising platforms such as Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo. Their are a few differences between them, but Google offers a great array of advertising options in terms of their reach. Follow these 5 steps and you are on your way:
- Set objectives & identify (reasonable) expectations for your Paid Search Campaign. I’ve heard time and again that clients often have unreasonable expectations when it comes to PPC, and when results aren’t instantaneous or tangible their can be dissonance. Understanding how integrated your Inbound Marketing Strategy is to your overall PPC success is essential. Even if you have great PPC, but crappy SEO and Content, you might not see the desired results. Whether you are running a campaign for yourself, a few clients or working in agency you don’t want to over-promise and then underperform. Here are a few tips from Search Engine Journal about managing expectations of clients.
- Set Up your Google Adwords account (it’s FREE), and decided WHERE you want to be seen (Google Display Network and/or Google Search Network).You can set up separate campaigns for each of your clients or projects, and then divide each ad group in those campaigns based on specific ads or offerings. See the diagram below for how you should set up your account for optimum usage.
- Assign a Paid Search budget, and decide on a bidding strategy that aligns with your overall budget, and enable you to meet conversion goals. You will need to discuss with a client what their needs, wants, and expectations are as part of step 1 and often this translates into to a budget ballpark. I encourage showing clients the numbers and past success stories to get them to buy into the Adwords ‘way’ and maybe earn yourself a higher budget. Here is another Hubspot resource on avoiding money wasting which can be a positive selling point for clients, (and for yourself).
- 3 types of Bidding Strategies:
- CPM: (Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions) implement this strategy when trying to increase brand awareness and build brand equity, and are less conversion focused.
- CPC: (Cost-Per-Click) Client wanting to increase conversions via clicks? This bidding strategy might be for them because it is likely to drive the most traffic to their site or landing pages.
- CPA: (Cost-Per-Action) With this strategy you can measure direct actions that lead to conversions.
- 3 types of Bidding Strategies:
- Select a Content Strategy, ad type, format, extensions, and additional features that will enable you to reach your buyer personas.
- What is your Keyword Strategy? Broad, Phrase, or Exact Match? One of my favorite piece of advice from Google’s Study Guide is to optimize common misspellings and plural forms (called Keyword Variations) of your brand name or product to increase ‘clicks’. Visit this page for a refresher on keyword strategy options.
- What types of ads are you going to display? Text, Image, Video, or Mobile App ads?
Different Ad formats offer different conversion advantages, and therefore should be selected based on what your specific goals are for the campaign. This might range from from increasing brand awareness to driving qualified leads. Have you considered extensions? Think about site-link, app, call and review extensions (see infographic for an example, but their are many more types.) Also, click here for 5 great examples of effective ad extensions. Remember, Ad Quality is one of the determinants of the Ad Ranking, and therefore should be high quality. If they aren’t up to par you should inform the client, and offer potential remedies. - Where do you want your ad to be seen, and by whom? You can set your campaigns to only reach specific geographic areas, demographic profiles, language preferences, and select devices to push your ads to ensure the intended audience gets exposure through targeting efforts.
- Will you engage in remarking? Remarking is a type of sub-campaign option that allows you to target visitors who have previously searched for your offerings but didn’t complete the macro conversion. Remarking aims to recapture the consumers attention, and convert them through exposing them to ads on the Display Network sites.
- Launch & monitor Performance in Real-Time to make necessary changes for maximum effectiveness.
- Where are your ‘clicks’ coming from? (Referral Source) Where are the ‘clicks’ going once they arrive on your site? (Destination URL). Awareness of these two connections will help you determine which Landing Pages to improve and understand visitor behavior while on site.
- What device are the ‘clicks’ using? (Allows for Ad optimization for specific device platforms)
- Look for Time of Day/Hour for ‘click’ patterns. This may help you to optimize your bidding budget for times when you are most likely to have the greatest reach leading to increased conversions. Check out this PPCHero Article about understanding these effects.Adwords is fairly intuitive to reaching the right audience, at the right time, but you will need to specify that Adwords can do this.
- Monitor your Search Terms Report for frequently used keywords that you should optimize or to discontinue using certain keywords if they are proving ineffective in converting traffic. This report might also offer insight into which negative keywords to add to your campaign to funnel out unqualified leads.
There you go…Follow these 5 steps to kickstart your Adwords Campaign!
a1Remember whether your managing your own content advertising, working in an agency, or working per diem for clients you can apply all the steps above. Optimizing any marketing tool takes time to learn, but once you lap the learning curve you are on your way to increasing conversions, and having a well-rounded Inbound Marketing Strategy that satisfies clients.
Elle McGlocklin 