SECTION FOUR: PAY-PER-CLICK ADVERTISING
May 1st, 2009 |
EXERCISE: CREATE A PAY-PER-CLICK CAMPAIGN
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Points to Remember
- Making money with Adwords or other PPC networks isn’t as easy as some would have you believe. It’s worth the time and cost investment, but you MUST do it properly.
- The single factor that will make or break your campaign is whether you track results, monitor your campaign’s activity and results daily, and optimize the campaign according to the data.
- You’ll typically spend more when you first launch your campaign. Within the first week, it’s integral that you work with it daily to delete any high impression keywords that aren’t getting clicked. This will improve your click through ratio (CTR) which Google uses to decide how much to charge you per click and where you show up in the listings.
- Do NOT work with a Google Adwords representative and have them handle your campaign. Their interest is in you spending more money, not less. They will not optimize it, no matter what they say, and you will lose money. A consultant or firm certified by Adwords, but who doesn’t work for Google may be an option.
To create your Adwords campaign, go to www.google.com/adwords and create a free account. Follow their instructions to create your campaign. For more information on creating profitable ads and working with PPC vendors, review the PPC section of our Presentation Slides, which are included in the Post Training Materials.
CHECKLIST: CONDUCT YOUR PPC CAMPAIGN
- USE GOOGLE’S KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOL TO IDENTIFY KEYWORDS YOU WANT TO ADD TO YOUR CAMPAIGN. ADD AS MANY AS YOU LIKE. IF THEY’RE TOO
- COMPETITIVE, YOU WON’T EVEN SHOW UP FOR THEM, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TOO MANY IMPRESSIONS
- CREATE SEVERAL AD GROUPS AND ADD RELEVANT KEYWORDS TO THEM
- CREATE AT LEAST TWO OR THREE ADS FOR EACH AD GROUP AND SET THEM TO ROTATE EVENLY SO YOU CAN TEST WHICH PERFORMS BEST
- SET YOUR COST PER CLICK FOR THE CAMPAIGN (YOU CAN SELECT ADDITIONAL CPC PER AD GROUP OR PER KEYWORD IF YOU LIKE). SET DAILY BUDGET
- INSTALL GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO TRACK STATISTICS AND VISITOR BEHAVIOR. THIS WILL HELP YOU IDENTIFY WHICH KEYWORDS RESULT IN LEADS AND SALES ACTIVATE YOUR CAMPAIGN
- MONITOR IT DAILY. DELETE OR PAUSE ANY KEYWORDS WITH 100 OR MORE IMPRESSIONS AND VERY FEW CLICKS
- AS YOUR CTR INCREASES IN AN AD GROUP OR FOR A KEYWORD, TRY TO LOWER THAT AD GROUP’S OR KEYWORD’S COST PER CLICK.
- IF YOUR BID IS TOO LOW FOR THE WORD TO LIST, THEN CHANGE IT BACK. BUT THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO LOWER YOUR COST. GOOGLE WON’T DO IT FOR YOU.
- IDENTIFY WHICH KEYWORDS PRODUCE THE MOST LEADS AND SALES AND PLACE THE BULK OF YOUR BUDGET ON THOSE. TAKE YOUR BUDGET AWAY FROM
- KEYWORDS THAT GENERATE TONS OF CLICKS BUT FEW LEADS AND SALES (THEY’RE WASTING YOUR MONEY)
