The 10 Best PPC Practices for a Successful Campaign

 

            Day after day Americans have the same the routine: wake up, grab coffee and check the stocks and news reports, but do they ever think of logging into their Overture and Google accounts?  Checking your PPC or (pay-per-click) accounts is a vital part of maintaining a successful campaign on the Internet. Pay-Per-Click accounts are the cheapest and easiest way to advertising on the Internet, and if not maintained properly, can cause you to lose money rapidly. PPC accounts require the research of keywords, particularly ones that have yet to be found. A successful account has to be on the cutting edge by keeping up with your client’s products and services as well as having a personal business relationship helps. It also helps from time to time researching your competitors; Find out which keywords they are using by typing in keywords in Google and Yahoo.  PPC campaigns are not about the highest bids, or the highest place, but rather that you maximize your campaign over a broad range of keywords.  Remember less is more.  While your competitor is racking up the heavy bill with the higher bids, your smaller bids would yield theoretically a lower conversion cost.

So what are the ten best PPC practices you ask? Working as an Account Specialist at SpidersSplat Consulting, I realized that the best practices for any PPC account are your own, and how does one come up with their own practices? The help of someone else such as an Account Specialist or an SEO Consultant can help you form your own ideas as to the practices you would like to take on. Remember these are practices, so follow as many as you wish.

The first practice would be that one needs to successfully research their own or their client’s products or services.  Sec ond, one needs to have a successful business relationship whether with a client or with an SEO Consulting firm, in order to have a successful campaign.  Remember, people cannot read minds, so it is important to share ideas with someone you are comfortable and confident in working with your account if you choose to use a Search Engine Optimization Consulting firm. After you establish a relationship, it is important to research your competitors in Yahoo and Google and find what kind of keywords they are using.  It is also important to find keywords of your own using a keyword selector tool such as those found in Overture and Ad words. The most valuable keywords are those not used; they are the most cost efficient as well as possibly the most rewarding.  Be a Pioneer; do not be afraid to start something new. Placement is not everything, do not worry about being in last place, what matters is the amount of keywords you have, you have to try to cover everything.  Bid low, the lower the cost, the more money you have to spend in your campaign.  Update keywords constantly, keeping up with the products or services your client offers.  Check your accounts daily for conversions and costs.  Clean up the keywords or groups that are costing money and are not generating any revenue.  Make sure the keywords still match the product and are still being searched by users, it is important not to lose money on a keyword that is no longer needed, remember every little bit ads up. Make sure your landing pages work with your ad, you do not want your customers going to the wrong page, and then no sales will occur. Always make your ads short and sweet, remember less is more, you want to grab a user’s attention not bore them. Finally, treat your client’s money as if it was your own (i.e. do not go on a shopping spree, save when you can but also do not be afraid to spend it where it is needed).

Now that the practices are listed you are ready to understand why they are the best, which will help you have a more successful PPC campaign.

Research your client’s product or service

 

First and foremost, with anything you do, you should always research the client before you start anything, much like you would research a company you are interviewing for before the meeting.  It is better to go in to a business arrangement knowing what your client has to offer, so you can be ready as a consultant to really optimize their accounts. Also, I work best if I really look at what the client has to offer and think about the different ways I can approach the account. Once you start researching your client, finding keywords becomes easier because you are already familiar with what your client has to offer.

Get to know your Client

Establish a meeting with your client whether it is over the phone or in person. It is good to build a business relationship with your client.  Once a relationship is established, it makes meetings a lot more comfortable and easier for both you and your client to establish your various needs and wants.  Once you understand what your client is looking for, you will be able to have a more successful campaign and execute what your client wants. You should also make yourself available and reachable by your client, so they feel that they can advise you at any time.  It is important because sometimes other people’s ideas are helpful, and if both yourself and the client are happy, then that makes a good campaign.

Research Competitors

Before you begin keyword searching, it is important to see where your competitors are and how they have laid out their campaigns. This gives you an overview of what other ads look like, so you have somewhat of a format to go by.  It also gives you a chance to find some other keywords that you may not have thought of, which is where you want to be.  You want your ads to be at every keyword possible.  For example, if your competitor is Target and they have an ad at the word, “oak chair”, and you currently do not, you need to have “oak chair” as your keyword. This gives the search engine user and possible customer a choice between you and your competitors rather than an automatic click for your competitor.  Plus it is a way to ensure that your ads are up and can be seen. 

Research Keywords

It is wise to use tools such as Keyword Selector tools, which you will find in both Overture and Google.  The tools show additional related keywords to the one keyword you typed in.  The related keywords are in order of volume of the search in a given month.  This remains useful for the fact of about how many people will see your ad (impressions), if you choose the keyword.  It is also useful in coming up with new keywords that no one has ever used before.

 

Be a Pioneer

After you comprehend the Keyword Selector Tool, you will tend to notice after typing in certain words that they yield little or no results.  These are good keywords, because they have yet to be found, therefore they can be used at the lowest bid, which allows you more money to use in your campaign.  Also, it allows you to be the sole advertiser at that particular keyword which would yield you more customers if people were to enter that keyword.  Conversion at a lower bid is a key sign to a good campaign.

 

Bid Low

The key to a successful campaign is to bid low.  If a top spot is going for $1.50 and the second spot is going for $0.20, go for $0.22.  Use your judgment wisely.  It is better to bid at a lower cost; therefore your money goes farther in a campaign.  You do not want to throw your entire budget away on a few top dollar spots, but rather spread your ad campaign out over several keywords. Be aware, you do not want to have your competitor be the sole ad at another keyword, just because you tried to surpass them at another top position over another keyword. Remember spending less money yields more in the PPC world.

Update Constantly

It is important to keep your keywords updated.  If your client adds a new product or service to their site, it is important that you advertise that, especially if the product or service is on sale or at discounted prices.  It is also good to make sure that old keywords are still in use and are not disabled (in Google) or are costing a lot of money when they are not relevant.  By updating, you determine whether or not certain keywords are worth the money you are bidding.  It is best to use your own judgment.  I have a client who emails me spreadsheets with new products, sometimes I beat him to the punch, but it is helpful knowing what is new on the site, because I could have overlooked it and that would give our competitor a chance to gain a few customers (going back to client relationship).

Check Accounts Daily

The most important thing is to check your PPC accounts daily.  So much can happen in a day.  It is also important to check because sometimes in older campaigns, older keywords are being clicked and costing money, when they are no longer bringing in revenue.  It is important to make sure, everything in your account is what you want.  There is no sense in losing money, when you can use that money for other campaigns. It is also good to get in the habit of checking on how many conversions, clicks and impressions your ads have generated, not only to give you a sense of satisfaction, but to also make sure your account is healthy and again not overspending.  Placement is not everything, but you can switch out money from ads that are not worth the money to those that are.  A top spot in one location is better than a spot that is really expensive and not generating anything. You also want to be sure the keywords in all campaigns are still relevant to your client’s current products and services, if they are no longer providing an item or service, get rid of the campaign.  Getting in the habit of logging into your accounts each day will help you have a successful campaign. If your client is happy then you are happy and your client will be happy if their money is being spent in the right way instead of the wrong way.

Be Sure URLs match

It is extremely important that when you set your landing page (the URL) that the correct page is added and that it works when you click it.  You do not want your potential customer clicking on an ad (which costs your client money) and the website either not show up or go to another page.  Therefore, it is important to test out the URL before you place it in with the ad.  Also it is important to choose a landing page that is appropriate for your product or service.  If you want to highlight chocolate chip cookies, give a landing page on one of the tins of chocolate chip cookies. It is also possible you are advertising a group of cookies, just plain cookies in general, and then you should choose a landing page that lists all of the cookies.  Again you have to use your best judgment, but you are trying to sell this product to the customer and you want the first thing they see to match what they were searching for or to give them a variety of things to choose from.

Spend your Client’s Money Wisely

For any campaign to be successful, you have to spend the client’s money with caution.  Spend it as if it were your own money and if it was your campaign.  You would not go on a spending spree and use all the money in one day or in one shot even.  Therefore it is important not to make any rash decisions and to always bid at a lower bid, and if the bids are high, bid with caution, do not go insanely high.  Most clients would want the lowest cost of advertising with the highest revenue or conversions, so you want to try that as best as you can.  If you use your client’s money like it is water, your client will not be happy and then neither will you.  It is a cycle, so make sure it turns out positive.

 

Therefore it is important to follow as much of these practices as you desire. Think of these practices as guidelines to a successful PPC campaign.  Remember, most of all use your own judgment. Be on top of everything in your campaign and you will be successful.