SEM-PPC

What is PPC?
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an advertising model in which advertisers pay for
click-throughs to their website. Ads are served based on keywords or
themes. An effective PPC campaign can help you reduce the cost per
click and increase profit. There are four key components of a winning
PPC advertising program: Explore, Evaluate, Expand and Enhance.
What is PPC?
Explore
The exploration phase requires information gathering and assessment,
which includes historical PPC account data, internal Web analytics data
and peripheral research on customers and competitors. Determining
the amount of additional keyword and competitive market research
depends on the quality and quantity of information collected in the
initial research phase. The desired goal is to formulate a PPC
advertising program test campaign that runs anywhere from two to
four weeks in duration.
What is PPC?
Evaluate
The evaluation phase consists of implementing the PPC program test
strategy (keywords, text ads and associated landing pages) and
monitoring performance. In this phase, the goal is to determine which
keyword phrases, ad copy, landing pages and bid strategies have the
greatest potential, and will serve as the foundation for the ongoing PPC
advertising program.
What is PPC?
Expand
The expansion phase focuses on leveraging insights from the evaluation
phase to increase the number of keyword phrases in the overall PPC
advertising program to generate the desired quantity of leads or sales
without sacrificing conversion performance. For example, a test
campaign may incorporate 50 keyword phrases, while the expanded
campaign may include 500.
What is PPC?
Enhance
The enhancement phase involves constant tuning and tweaking of
keyword phrases, text ad copy, landing page elements and bid
strategies. Typically, this phase incorporates A/B or multivariate testing
to ensure optimal PPC program performance. Developing a highly
successful PPC advertising program is an iterative process that is never
fully-optimized due to changes in the technology, industry and
competitive landscape. As such, it is often necessary to cycle back to
the exploration phase and test peripheral keywords, ad copy and
landing page creative.
Campaign Elements
Once you’ve mastered the “4E process” concept for PPC advertising,
the next step is to apply it to the core PPC advertising campaign
elements: keywords, structure, copy, landing page, bid strategies and
testing. Each of the following campaign elements are incorporated into
each phase of the 4E process.
Campaign Elements
Define your objective:
It is important to decide on an objective beforehand before embarking
on a PPC campaign. The objective of a PPC campaign should be
quantitatively defined; as it is easier to measure the results. The
campaign’s objective might be to generate leads, subscription, sign ups,
revenue or orders. Each dollar spent on a click should give you
appropriate returns, otherwise, your whole campaign’s effort nullifies.
Campaign Elements
Determine your target:
After you have identified your PPC’s objective, you need to determine
your target customer. Not every one who clicks on your ad is your
prospective customer. You should determine your target customer
depending upon the product or service your website is offering. It not
only helps in finding out the right keywords and search terms for the
campaign but also helps in developing ad’s copy that generates high
quality clicks.
Campaign Elements
Set your budget:
Do not over indulge or be constraining in your PPC spending, set your
budget depending upon your company’s resources and PPC’s objective.
It is a different medium of advertising, so you need to use slightly
different yardstick while deciding on your budget. At the time of
deciding on a budget, you should keep in mind that cost per click varies
depending on the bid amount on key phrases and the number of clicks
you are receiving.
Campaign Elements
Building your keyword pool:
Build your keywords’ pool by doing comprehensive research for the
optimal keywords/search terms. The research can start from your own
website and move on to competitors’ website and customers, and
other sources. After a proper analysis of your products or services, your
target customers search habits, competitors’ keywords; you will have a
list of important keywords that hold the key to your PPC campaign’s
success.
Campaign Elements
Note:
It is imperative that the keyword/search term should be relevant to your website’s content
and offers. You also need to consider that it is unlikely to apply to any other product or
services. In a highly competitive market, you may often find that the top bid for a search
term is far higher than your budget allows.
Often you can attain far better value by choosing keywords that are more specific. You can
consider using search terms that are more likely to be used by people searching for your
kind of products or services.
On a regular basis, you need to monitor the performance of each keyword by tracking the
number of click through rates and conversions. It might happen that some
keywords/search terms will generate more visitors but will be low on conversion and
certain keywords will give you high percentage of conversions.
The variation may happen because certain prospective customers may be only researching
a potential purchase, while those who are ready to buy will use slightly different
keyword/search terms.
Campaign Elements
Developing your title and description:
Title is generally the five-word sentence shown as the main link in your
ad’s display. It works like the headline of your advertisement. Be
precise and to the point while creating your PPC ad’s title. Do not be
vague or use unrelated words; otherwise, you may end up paying a lot
for unnecessary click throughs without any returns. You should use the
advantage of creating ad’s titles sensibly and keeping in mind the
product or service offers of your website.
Campaign Elements
Developing your title and description:
Description is a little longer sentence than the title, however still with
character limit imposed. The description should be one or two punch
line sentences that should highlight on how clicking will solve a
prospects search query. Be precise like the title and stress on the
website’s USP.
URL: It is important to have your URL link working and problem free.
The URL should take your visitors to the page that is the most relevant
to search term/ keyword used by them.
Campaign Elements
Bidding Process:
It is imperative determine your expected ROI and PPC’s objective,
before deciding the absolute maximum bid per click for each keyword
without diminishing profit per sale. You should keep a close watch on
your competitors’ bids and yours to manage bids skillfully. If you sleep
on your bids, you are most likely to lose your premium positions, so it is
better to make necessary changes to bid amounts on regular basis to
maintain your position. However, never be drawn into overbidding that
would diminish your profit margins and you spend more than your
budget.
Campaign Elements
Dealing with competition:
If you are in the business, you will always be having competitors for
company. Sooner or later, you have to consider your competitors’ websites
and their bids on keywords to chalk out your PPC campaign strategy. You
may find that certain keywords are highly competitive and costing a fortune
for top position. This is where your keyword research and bid management
skills come into play. You need to research keywords that not only drive
quality traffic to your website but also give your ads good position on PPC
search engines’ listings.
It is important that you regularly review your bids, your competitors’ bids,
and your ads position. As competitors will never tell you when they are going
to outbid you, so, it is important that you review your campaigns regularly
and make required changes to maintain positions.
Campaign Elements
Tracking:
By tracking each click on your PPC ads, you can tweak the PPC
campaign to get the most out of it. Monitor your campaign every day
and at regular intervals. Tracking will help you in finding keywords that
are generating results and that are of no value.
Regular monitoring of campaigns also let you know when the
competitor ceases to compete for a certain keyword; this may enable
you to drop the amount of your own bids considerably without loss of
position. Remember you only need to be 1 cent higher than the next
highest bid. Anything more means that you are throwing away profit.
Campaign Elements
Evaluation:
Evaluate how the campaign is doing in comparison to expected ROI and
PPC’s objectives propose by you. Assess keyword/search terms that
satisfies your PPC objective and giving the preferred return on
investment. You did not spend your hard-earned dollars on a PPC
campaign just to attract visitors but your ultimate goal is to gain profit
from every click. After evaluation, drop those keywords/search terms
that did not serve your purpose, add new keywords which may serve
you better or only concentrate on those that are sure shots.