Lesson 1) PPC Strategy Development By: Gareth Redmond Advanced Digital Marketing Educator www.shawacademy.com Advanced.digitalmarketing@shawacademy.com
What s to come? Every Tuesday Theoretical lesson Every Thursday Practical Lesson
Assignment Certificate of Completion We monitor attendance and your final assignment Diploma Assignment You will only be allowed ONE attempt Grades Fail: <50% Pass: 50% to 64% Merit: 65% to 84% Distinction: 85% to 100% Pass grades can apply for certification
Agenda PPC Strategy Outcomes The Hallmarks of a Good Campaign Overview of PPC The Important role of Keywords Google AdWords Data Examples Intro to your Keywords & Data Measuring Success Online Interpreting PPC Data The Paradox of PPC PPC Psychology
Advanced PPC Strategy Outcomes Design form coherent and realistic goals for PPC campaigns Research Understand who are the major players in your industry and which platforms are right for you Strategize Develop a plan as your business moves into a highly competitive environment Implement Ensure your strategy is being followed correctly and monitoring.
What s important? Search term Keyword research plays a key role in developing targets UX is very important, as are landing pages Quality Score Text ads Ad Copy Click through rate
The Hallmarks of a Good Campaign A well defined set of goals with a predefined set of keywords upon which to focus A target that is neither too large or too small and is closely aligned with goals A tightly managed and controlled set of metrics that are regularly monitored ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A budget which you must stick to A contingency plan and knowing when to cut your losses on a given keyword, or group of keywords Stay in good standing and comply with Google s standards
Keyword Development Not the same as organic keyword selection Definition: The process by which an initial list of PPC keywords is slowly whittled down to the most effective in a given area through the use of data garnered form their relative performance.
What are we going to want visitors to do? Lets think about potential strategies Lets pick an industry to work with?
READING THE KEYWORD SERP TEA LEAVES Are there ads on the SERP in question? How many are there? Who is advertising? How are the ads constructed?
KEYWORD TOOL
HOW TO ALIGN KEYWORDS WITH BUSINESS GOALS Research, research, research Think holistically about how customers may want to reach you Align your keywords and management with overall business goals Remove low volume terms unless they show high conversion Finding the sweet spot to knock it out of the park
MANAGE MATCH TYPES FOR GROWTH AND CONTROL Use broad match queries to search for long tail keywords Use exact match queries for your base of volume and primary traffic drivers You want to maximize your visibility while managing the cost Don t micromanage by creating loads of different exact match keywords or phrases as its unmanageable and Google compensates for those issues
REFINE YOUR TRAFFIC BY INTEGRATING NEGATIVE KEYWORDS Integrate these into regular account maintenance and check ups as you can check for them and find them using the same tools as you would to do normal keyword research The goal here is to save money by reducing the number of clicks from people who don t intend to buy Look for impactful not plentiful queries
Aligning Your Keywords with Your Goals Seems obvious, but is often where companies fall down when doing this sort of work It doesn t make sense to buy a keyword for products that are no longer relevant 1.) You end up disappointing potential leads 2.) It s a waste of resources that can bleed your PPC budget dry Advertising for irrelevant terms is bad idea for two reasons:
What exactly is your click through rate?
Text Ads How many characters do you have What is the end goal you are trying to achieve; leads, conversion, etc. How can you best use your knowledge of the language surrounding the vertical to maximize the effectiveness What sort of ad score are you looking at Does it align with the landing page for the advert perfectly
Display Ads A new twist on one of the oldest forms of advertising Getting your creative together early enough to be able to test it Making changes as required to ensure maximum ROI Align creative resources with primary offerings of product as this can be very time intensive and the strategy needs to be realistic Carefully vet any ad network before signing on. Google is always ok but many others are not very choosy in terms of where they display and it can lead to branding issue. (No one wants to have their ads on an inappropriate site) Be careful with tone and image construction
EXPAND THE REACH OF EXISTING KEYWORDS Maximizing presence through altering of bids and ad quality Only use high quality ads, its not worth the money otherwise as you are leaving demand on the table Aggressive bidding can help too, if you can afford it Remember, take what you can; give nothing back
TARGET NEW OPPORTUNITIES Dynamic search ads and streamlining account management This can be expensive but does offer a wider array of users to target with having to micromanage
EXAMPLE
So.. In other words: You look at how each ad performed on a given term and decided which ones are doing well and are worth keeping, and which ones should be cut. Did it perform well according to your metrics? Why did it succeed or fail? What conclusions does the data support versus your own opinion? Are those conclusions realistic and sensible? How can we adapt for our next campaign?
ADWORDS DATA EXAMPLES
DATA EXAMPLES (LOCATION)
MORE DATA EXAMPLES
BID ADJUSTMENT
BID ADJUSTMENT
Ad Position Where do we click? It s crucial that we try to get to the top position People make their decisions in an instant
PPC Data Interpretation and Best Practices First look at conversions, the most obvious and interesting statistic Cross reference this with bounce rate and overall traffic per ad source through Google analytics Then qualitatively analyse the ads that are performing poorly in an attempt to understand why they aren t up to snuff and how you might fix them
PPC Data Interpretation and Best Practices Examine what your competitors are doing with their ad text and display ads and use it as a guide to follow Essentially, you re competitors have probably given you the keyword list and pricing guidelines you need to be successful
DON T GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF Build a coherent plan What it looks like? Who is responsible for what? Why are we doing it?
WHAT DOES THIS STRATEGY INCLUDE? What are its goals other than traffic? What part of your site is it going to involve? Are the landing built with something in mind? Do you have the correct funnels for traffic? How are you evaluating it? When are you going to end it? What is your stop/loss?
The Paradox Of PPC Marketing: Known Knowns and Unknown Unknowns Paradox: A seemingly absurd or selfcontradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true. Offline: More competition equals less opportunity Online: The more competitive a keyword for advertisers, the more the traffic for it will tend to convert. Web traffic is seasonal. Web buying is not.
UNDERSTANDING THE PARADOX The most searched terms are the most competitive as they offer the greatest chance of a user seeing your ads This is because these terms are so competitive as other advertisers have already learned they convert the best These terms are also the most expensive This is the central paradox of PPC advertising You want to use these terms, but only when they have a high level of competition
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE PARADOX Use the actions of your competitors to your advantage by taking the hard won gains of their data for yourself Look at each keyword before you buy it Try to understand overall traffic patterns Account for Trends with Google Trends
TIPS Be cost conscious Be aware of what competitors are doing Be proactive, not reactive whenever possible Set clear goals and metrics Competition doesn t mean a lack of opportunity Keep your keyword list fresh Don t be sucked in to advertising you can t afford
Recap PPC Strategy Outcomes The Hallmarks of a Good Campaign Overview of PPC The Important role of Keywords Google AdWords Data Examples Intro to your Keywords & Data Measuring Success Online Interpreting PPC Data The Paradox of PPC PPC Psychology
Coursework Week2: Challenge Week 5: Mid term Week 7: Challenge Week 8: Pre-exam Practice MCQ Week 10: Final Exam @shawacademygar
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