PPC Management – Foundations for Success

Google AdWords is one of the quickest and most effective ways business owners can drive traffic to their websites and get a customer to take action. This action could be in the form of a phone call or email requesting further information or a quote, signing up to receive updates from the company or even completing a sale on an ecommerce site. The better your AdWords PPC campaign is setup and managed, the more likely your new visitors will turn into a conversion. In order to generate more conversions, your Google AdWords account needs to be built and optimized for success. Optimization is the process of improving your performance and reaching your goals without increasing your spend. At the most basic level, PPC management all starts with a well setup account and this post aims to explain a few key principles of doing just that.

Good PPC Management Starts With Structure

A well-structured account will make managing your campaigns and measuring what is and isn’t converting much easier. It will enable your campaign to be more targeted and achieve your goals faster by being able to quickly tell which keywords and ads are giving you the best ROI. An easy way to think about the best way to structure your account is to have it mirror the structure of your website as this will ensure your ads are covering all of your products and services. The more specific you can make each ad group the more targeted the ad will become. It is also important to ensure that you link similar keywords to the ad text, and then have the ad point to the specific page on your website which talks about that product or service, and not just to the homepage. If you click on an ad for a queen size bed, and the ad links to the homepage of your furniture store which sells hundreds of products the user might be unable to find the relevant info, lose patience, and go elsewhere meaning a missed opportunity for conversion.

Here is an example of an account we do PPC Management for:

Using the right keywords for your business

When it comes to great PPC management, one fantastic thing about AdWords is that you can constantly refine both your keywords and your ads to ensure your account is converting as best it can. You may find that people are not searching for the keywords you have selected because the term is too general, or even too specific. We often find business owners who have been in the business a long time might use terms that the general public does not. Or sometimes people choose terms which are too basic and lead to visitors who are at the very beginning of the buying cycle and not ready to buy.

To help you through the process, Google has a keyword planner tool that is free to use to help you determine which keywords are being search for that might work best. It gives you statistics, historical data, advertiser competition, search volumes and can be used to generate new ideas and spot missed opportunities. The tool also helps you identify search phrases which could make your ad show up when you do not want it to. For example you might see many searches each month for “cheap tents”. If you sell high quality tents that are not cheap you likely do not want to show your ads and risk paying for clicks from people looking for the lowest cost. By building a list of these negative terms, you eliminate the ability for those searching for cheap tents to click on your ads because your ad simply won’t show for those negative terms. This gives your ads the best chance of being shown to the right people, lowering your costs and making your ads more targeted.

Writing effective ad copy

The headline of your ad is the first thing searchers see and it needs to be compelling, relevant and specific. It is always good to use the specific keyword they searched for in the ad headline, as this is what the user has searched for and will draw their attention. The ad should also differentiate you from your competition. Do you have a special price or free delivery? If so, include this in the ad. It should also include a call to action, eg, sign up for our newsletter or call us now. A well managed ppc campaign will split test different ad copy and measure which is most effective. You can then split test different landing pages in order to see which converts the highest.

This is a very high level overview of a few of the foundations of a well setup PPC campaign. If you are interested in learning more about our Austin PPC management service please give us a call or fill out our contact for and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can!