I have gotten a lot of requests and questions about PPC these past few days and I though I would put this post together to help answer all of them at once. Remember these are MY top 6 tips and you should use them with caution … they could cause you a lot more work, higher PPC Spend, Higher CTR, Higher Conversions … “you see where I am going with this” … so enough talk, lets get to it!
Oh by the way, i’m on a plane right now heading to ERA Vegas (if your going to be there lets meet up and discuss your PPC needs) with 1 hour to burn so you can thank Delta and GoGo for this POST!
#6 – Organize your Account!
You really have no idea how much this can actually help you! Organization is key to running a CLEAN and profitable PPC Acccount. If you create Campaigns and AdGroups for certain reasons this can help reduce your PPC costs dramatically. One Major Secret to getting lower PPC costs is “Do the work Google wants to do for you”, if you organize and do more in your pay per click account and Google has to do less your costs will become lower. Less brain power Google has to put out, less money you have to put out!
#5 – USE Negative Keywords
The search engines gave you this feature for a reason, USE IT! This can help you stop bleeding money in places that generate clicks which you are paying for but not getting any conversions … here’s a prime example: You own a Baby eCommerce site, and you sell Baby Cribs, there is a famous TV show called MTV Cribs, would you believe me if I told you that people will click on your AD if you have the word [cribs] in your account and you are selling baby cribs however you have nothing to do with the TV show MTV Cribs but your ad still shows …
Not only will this cost you money, it will give your account AD Impressions that are not relevant to your business and HURT your Quality Score … yes I said HURT your QUALITY SCORE !!!
#4 – Your Company name or Brand Names
Do you buy your Company Name or and Brand Names you want to be associated with? Why NOT? If your not, I bet your competitor is buying your names! Protect your BRAND, buy your own KEYWORD and protect YOUR CUSTOMERS … oh and by the way, put it in it’s own Campaign or AdGroup and WRITE the BEST AD YOU CAN about YOUR COMPANY … Your quality score will be high and your click cost will be low.
Mini Tip – Buy Your competitor’s name
#3 – Spelling Bee Champion
I’m not tha besst speeller, I will admitt to that and I’ma sure more than 1/2 of America cant speell eather. If you have tough to spell keywords in your account, grab the misspellings of them and create a new Campaign or AdGroup targeting BAD SPELLERS !!! If they see an ad for something they were looking for your going to get that click at a much lower cost than the correct spelling where all your competition is!
Yes that 1st sentence is spelled wrong, I know … JEEZ !
#2 – Match Types – Not the Dating Site!
Do you know about Match Types? If not, this alone in it self is an entire Blog Post !
Broad Match – This is the default matching option. With broad match, your ad may show if a search term contains your keyword terms in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads can also show for close variations of your keywords.
Sticking with the broad match default is a great choice if you don’t want to spend a lot of time building your keyword lists and want to capture the highest possible volume of ad traffic. You can use it with negative keywords to avoid highly irrelevant traffic.
Broad Match Modifer – You can add a modifier, the plus sign on your keyboard (+), to any of the terms that are part of your broad match keyword phrase. By adding a modifier, your ads can only show when someone’s search contains those modified terms, or close variations of the modified terms, in any order. The modifier won’t work with phrase match or exact match keywords.
Unlike broad match keywords, modified broad match keywords won’t show your ad for synonyms or related searches. For this reason, it adds an additional level of control. Using broad match modifier is a good choice if you want to increase relevancy even if it means you might get less ad traffic than broad match.
Phrase Match – With phrase match, your ad can show when someone searches for your exact keyword, or your exact keyword with additional words before or after it. We’ll also show your ad when someone searches for close variations of that exact keyword, or with additional words before or after it.
Using phrase match can help you reach more customers, while still giving you more precise targeting. In other words, your keywords are less likely to show ads to customers searching for terms that aren’t related to your product or service.
To use a phrase match keyword, simply surround the entire keyword with quotation marks. For example, “women’s hats”.
Exact Match – With exact match, your ads can appear only when someone searches for your exact keyword, without any other terms in the search. We’ll also show your ad when someone searches for close variations of that specific keyword.
Unlike phrase match, if someone searches for additional words before or after your exact keyword, your ad won’t show. Using exact match means that your keywords are targeted more precisely than broad match or phrase match.
To use an exact match keyword, simply surround the entire keyword with brackets. For example, [women’s hats].
PHEW — that was a lot … need more info on that … Read what Google Has to say on the Subject!
#1 – I always save the best for last!
ORGANIZE YOUR ACCOUNT !!! I swear, I have gone into companies where I have actually turned off their Pay Per Click Accounts to organize them, they were hurting for a few days, as I had to stop the bleeding, however when I turned them back on after organizing & optimizing, they couldn’t believe how much money they were throwing away, all because of an unorganized account. This simple tip could account for 1% – 20% cost savings in your account alone.
Well there you have it, MY Top6 5 Tips for PPC Success.
If you have any other questions for me, leave some comments below and we’ll answer as we go, or I’ll write another post!
About to land, just in time