TABLE OF CONTENTS. Introduction

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2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Intro to PPC Features Integration of PPC, SEO, and Social Media Networks Search Display Network Quality Score Conversion Tracking My Client Center (MCC) & AdWords Account Navigation What is a My Client Center & Benefits? Review Navigation Tabs (Campaigns Opportunities, Tools & Analysis, Billing, and My Account) Common PPC Metrics Campaign Settings Account Structure Organization of Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Keywords Campaigns Budgets set at Campaign Level Determining # Campaigns based on Website Campaign Examples Ad Groups Determining # of Ad Groups based on Website Organizing Ad Groups Match Type-Specific Ad Groups Keywords Keyword Appending Keyword Research Match Types Negative Keywords Ad Copy Components & Limitations Policies & Restrictions Ad Extensions Best Practices Landing Pages Optimization Techniques Filtering Keyword Optimization Ad Copy Optimization Segmenting Budgeting Dimensions AdWords Editor Conclusion

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5 OF PPC ADVERTISING 3 Four main features of PPC advertising are targeting, control, measurability and accountability. 1. Targeting There are numerous ways to target in PPC: keyword targeting location targeting device targeting network targeting language targeting day-parting/ad scheduling targeting behavior targeting (remarketing campaigns) demographic targeting (display campaigns only) interest/category targeting (display campaigns only) 2. Control Unlike search-engine optimization (SEO) and other marketing channels, you have a lot of control over the various components: Who, what, when, where due to the ability to target in so many different ways (above), you can combine targeting methods to reach the precise audience you re looking for. Budgeting set daily budgets for your campaigns. Keywords determine when your ads show and when they do not (using negative keywords). Ad copy Have a particular special only running for a limited time? Promote it with your ad copy. Landing Pages Choose the exact page you want a particular ad or keyword to go, and change it within minutes! 3. Measurability 4. Accountability Using Google conversion tracking and/or Google Analytics (both of which are free), advertisers can easily see how many actions (conversions) were taken specific to the keyword, ad, and landing page. Google conversion tracking is very easy to set up and install (only on confirmation or thank you pages). In addition, you can set up call-tracking to see how many calls were generated from ads. Unlike traditional forms of marketing, such as TV and radio, PPC is easy to hold accountable for returns due to its detailed tracking capacity.

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8 The Google Display Network allows you to target users in a variety of ways, including: 1. Contextual (keyword-based) targeting Google will try to match content of websites within its network with your keywords. 2. Site remarketing (retargeting) Google will place cookies on each user that allow you to create specific audiences for users that have visited your website. You can show ads to them across Google s Display Network. 3. Placement (website-based) The advertiser chooses specific websites for an ad to appear on that are deemed relevant to the target audience. 4. Interest targeting (behavioral-based) Users are classified into specific interest categories based on their browsing history. 5. Topic targeting (website category-based) Similar to placement targeting, but contains sites grouped into different categories. 6

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10 8 CONVERSION TRACKING Major search-engine advertising platforms, such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and even Facebook Ads offer conversion tracking. It is essential to any PPC account, as it tells you how many desired actions have occurred and their associated costs from campaign all the way down to keyword. Conversion tracking is very similar to Google Analytics goal tracking, and Google evens allows you to import goals from Google Analytics and have those be counted as conversions in AdWords. Unlike goal tracking in Google Analytics, conversion tracking requires you add a specific tracking code (JavaScript) to the confirmation pages or thankyou pages of what is being tracked. You can have multiple conversion types, but we d recommend different conversion codes for each to easily track this. In order to find conversion tracking in your AdWords account (or create a new conversion type), simply go to [below left]: There are two different ways to measure conversions: One-per-click conversion: 1. What it is: Will count at most one conversion per ad click in a 30-day period. 2. When to use: Typically used for generating leads, addresses, etc. Many-per-click conversion: 1. What it is: Will count multiple conversions per click within a 30-day period. 2. When to use: Typically used for e-commerce advertisers

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12 10 COMMON PPC METRICS In PPC advertising, you should be constantly analyzing various metrics to evaluate performance and finding ways to improve it. There are two main types of key performance indicators (KPIs): ACQUIRE KPIs CONVERT KPIs Clicks Impressions Click- thru rate Average CPC Maximum CPC Average position Cost Quality score Conversions Total Conversion Value Cost/Conversion View-through conversions Conversion Rate Most all metrics are available at the campaign, ad group, ad, and keyword level:

13 10 Campaign settings are crucial to the success of your PPC campaigns. 1. Campaign type You typically select all features unless you want to create product listing ads or dynamic search ads (e-commerce accounts only). 2. Networks Google search, search partners, and display. Always create separate campaigns for search and display. 3. Daily Budget Budget is set at the campaign level. Ensure your top-performing campaigns have enough money before investing in poorer-performing campaigns. 4. Devices You can only choose to exclude mobile using bid adjustments as -100%. You cannot separate computers and tablets since July 22, 2013 with the rollout of enhanced campaigns. 5. Location Make sure you re targeting only locations you serve or will ship to. Can target as granular as zip codes. 6. Languages Default is set to English. Can target different languages depending on your target audience. If you target a different language, make sure your keywords, ads, and landing pages are also in that same language. 7. Delivery Method Standard is the default method. However, for top performing campaigns with additional budget, it s best to choose accelerated in order to maximize visibility until budget runs out. 8. Ad Scheduling Here you choose to bid differently (or even turn off your ads) for certain days of the week or hours of the day. 9. Ad Rotation Default is set to optimize for clicks. We recommend rotate indefinitely, as this will allow you to test various messages in ads, and you can choose the winner manually. Optimize for clicks doesn t show the ad with the better click-thru rate (this doesn t make Google more money ), and not necessarily what converts the best for the advertiser. 10. Keyword Matching Options If you include plurals, misspellings and other close variants, you re giving more control as to when your ads will appear. If budget is constrained, you should turn this feature off. 11. Experiment Formally known as AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), this allows users to test different bids, keywords, ads and ad groups before running them 100%. 12. IP Exclusions If you want to avoid co-workers or competitors from clicking your own ads, you can exclude IP addresses here.

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15 12 It s pretty simple: If you aren t bidding on keywords or search queries that are relevant to your business, your PPC campaigns are not going to be profitable! Therefore, it s very important to spend time on selecting the right keywords, monitoring their performance, adding new keywords, and getting rid of the keywords that are not working. AD & KEYWORD APPENDING If you do not have auto-tagging enabled in AdWords for Google Analytics, and you want to properly attribute PPC data, you ll need to append keywords at the destination-url level. Also, if you use a different analytics tracking platform, such as Omniture, you ll also need to manually tag keywords. Finally, if you are advertising outside of Google (e.g., on Bing Ads or Facebook Ads), appending either your keywords or ads to ensure that the data is being attributed to the correct source in Google Analytics is imperative. To create a keyword append for Google Analytics, use Google Analytics URL Builder. EXAMPLE You do not need to have campaign term, but it s recommended to see keyword-level data in your analytics platform.

16 13 Determining which keywords to bid on can be timeconsuming, and there are several sources that can be used. The top sources for keyword research are: 1. The advertiser s website (great place to start) 2. Google Analytics data (e.g., organic keywords) 3. Google keyword planner tool 4. Competitive keyword tools (Spyfu.com, KeywordSpy.com). Some of these offer minimal data for free or a free trial. KEYWORD RESEARCH *An important note: When looking for keywords to add to your PPC campaigns, looking for negative keywords is necessary, plus other keywords that you would not want your ad appearing for. KEYWORD MATCH TYPE Google and Bing offer advertisers the option to select specific match types for their keywords. Match types can help advertisers expand reach with broad match and broad match modifier or control targeting through phrase and exact match types. Broad Match The default match type. It allows for the largest reach but also has the most potential for irrelevant traffic and wasted spend (i.e., the advertiser has the least amount of control). With broad match, Google will match plurals, synonyms, and other keywords it deems relevant. Broad Match Modifier Allows for more control than broad match but less reach. You put + signs in front of each word you want to match the user s query. The benefit of broad match modifier over phrase match is word order does not matter.

17 14 Phrase Match This is where word order comes into play. Your ad will only show when the user s search query matches the word order of the keyword you are bidding on. Your ad can be matched if the user s query has additional keyword in the beginning or end. Phrase match keywords have quotes around the entire keyword. For example: baseball shoes is your keyword. Your ad will be eligible to show up when a user searches nike baseball shoes. However, your ad would not show up if the user searches baseball nike shoes. For example: Broad Match Modifier [cont.] +Baseball Shoes could be a match for baseball shoes, baseball glove, or any search that has baseball. If you want to ensure both baseball and shoe were in the user s query, you would have a + in front of both words. Exact Match This is exactly how it sounds. Your ad will only appear if the search query precisely matches your keyword(s). Although this has the least reach (will generate the lowest amount of volume in terms of impressions), exact match tends to bring the most relevant traffic. Exact match is signified by brackets around the keyword set, for example [baseball shoes].

18 15 Negative keywords are keywords added to either the account level (using negative lists), campaign level or ad group level to block your ad from showing up for particular search queries that are not relevant to your business. The Main Reasons for Using Negative Keywords: 1. Improve return-on-investment (ROI): By preventing your ad from showing up for keywords that are highly unlikely to create conversions, you can save money and therefore improve the ROI of your PPC campaigns. 2. Improve click-thru rates: Also, by keeping your ad from appearing for keywords that are not relevant, you can improve your click-thru by not showing up for search queries that are highly unlikely to result in a click. 3. Improve quality score: There is generally a correlation between having a good click-thru rate and also having a good quality score. Therefore, being diligent with negative keywords may improve your quality score and even your cost per click! 4. Controlling when your ads show: Negative keywords are sometimes used to make sure keywords do not overlap in various ad groups of a campaign. This tactic is also called ad poaching. How do you find negative keywords? Use common sense. During the keyword research process, if any of Google s suggested keywords are not relevant, add them as negatives. Ask your sales and marketing team for related phrases that don t match what you do. Run search query reports (now keyword details ) to see which queries are actually being matched with your keywords. This is especially important with broad match and broad match modifier keywords. Common Negative Keywords: Cost-savings: free, cheap, discount, inexpensive, discounted Employment: job, jobs, career, careers, employment, work, salary, salaries, pay, hiring, hire Fun: image, images, photos, photo, photographs, photograph, video, videos, movie, movies Locations: Locations that you do NOT serve Negative Keyword Match Types: Similar to the match types above for keywords you want to bid on, you can also have match types for negative keywords. As a rule, I generally add all negative keywords as phrase match, with the quotations around the keyword(s). For example, careers and jobs. There might also be instances where you can add them as exact matches with brackets or broad matches.

19 16 Ad copy (also known as ads) simply refers to the sponsored listings that appear above and to the right of organic listings. They might represent a potential customer s first interaction with your brand, but your ad must first grab attention! Components & Limitations of Ad Copy HEADLINE This is the blue hyperlink that users click to go to the advertiser s site. Max of 25 characters, including spaces DESCRIPTION LINE 1 & DESCRIPTION LINE 2 This is where you describe what you are selling and have a call to action. Max of 35 characters for each line including spaces DISPLAY URL This is the URL the user sees: The domain where your web page is located Max of 35 characters DESTINATION URL [LANDING PAGE] This is the actual page you are sending the user to upon clicking the ad. The destination URL must match the display URL domain.

20 17 See a full list of Google policies and restrictions. AD COPY POLICIES/RESTRICTIONS Here are some of the main ones to remember: Restricted products/services: weapons, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and adult entertainment Trademark: Can bid on trademarked keywords, but cannot put them in an ad. Punctuation: Cannot use multiple exclamation points or question marks. Cannot capitalize keywords to grab attention, only abbreviations that are typically capitalized. User experience: Cannot send ads to pages that use pop-ups. Ad extensions are additional components to ad copy. For some of them to appear, your ad has to show above the organic listings (on top) and have a good quality score. The clicks cost often the same as clicking the headline of your ad; having extensions is one of the best ways to improve click-thru rates. Although not many people tend to click the sitelinks, they help shift the user s attention away from competing ads and therefore indirectly generate more clicks. Some ad extensions have demonstrated increased overall click-thru rates from 6% up to 30%, according to Google. Most sitelinks are set at the campaign level; however, now some are available at the ad-group level (call extensions and sitelink extensions), which take precedence over campaign-level extensions.

21 18 SITELINKS EXTENSIONS CALL EXTENSIONS SOCIAL EXTENSIONS [GOOGLE PLUS INTEGRATION] LOCATIONS EXTENSIONS SELLER RATINGS EXTENSIONS

22 BEST PRACTICES BRANDING & TRUST Try using brand name in ad if well known. Try using trademark/copyright symbols or official site to boost trust and credibility. 19 RELEVANCE & KEYWORD DENSITY The users search query should be relevant and similar or identical to the keyword in the ad. Keywords that match user queries display in bold. Choose display URL with keywords for each ad group (e.g., cleats ) VALUE PROPOSITIONS & UNIQUE SELLING POINTS You must give reasons for why users should click your ad, such as unique selling points, limited-time offers and discounts, deadlines, free shipping, etc. CALLS-TO-ACTION To increase the chances a user will take the action you want (and convert), you should use a call-to-action. Calls-to-action can be as simple as: contact us, learn more, buy now, shop now, download a free white paper, free quotes, etc. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AD EXTENSIONS Sitelinks and other extensions can help improve click-thru rate. AD TESTING & AD ROTATION Have at least two ads running in an ad group Try to test one thing at a time (call-toaction, keyword, display URL) to isolate what is working best. Pause off poorerperforming ads and then test something else. Rotate ads indefinitely under campaign settings in order to test ad copy

23 20 Most simply put, landing pages are the exact pages that users land on after clicking a PPC ad. A landing page is synonymous with the destination URL you choose at the ad or keyword level. There are typically two types of landing pages: 1. E-commerce 2. Lead-Generation Some advertisers choose to send traffic to pages within their website that are most relevant to the ad group and keywords. This is most common with e-commerce clients where advertisers will send product-related searches to product category pages or the exact product searched depending on the user s search query. Generally, when an advertiser s goal is lead generation, we recommend creating custom landing pages that are not accessible via the website directly (i.e., not found in the standard navigation). Using these pages exclusively for online advertising helps track performance and easily test different aspects of individual pages without impacting traffic. E-commerce Landing Page Best Practices Call-to-action button stands out (perhaps different color) Clear value propositions and differentiators identified Reviews are VERY important. Safe and secure logos, awards and accreditations build credibility High-resolution product images Professional design is imperative. Have a phone number in a prominent location. Test! Similar to ad copy, try testing one element at a time. Lead-Gen Landing Page Best Practices Custom form smaller number of fields, the better; show only required fields. Call-to-action button Free Trial, Contact Us, Learn More (do not use Submit ) No excess navigation reduce links that may cause users to get lost and distracted from completing an action. Identify clear value propositions and differentiators. Not text-heavy Bullets work better than long paragraphs. Testimonials are a plus. Awards and accreditations build credibility. Have a phone number in a prominent location. Test! Similar to ad copy, try testing one element at a time.

24 TECHNIQUES 21 PPC optimization is not something that you can set and forget. Changes need to be made daily! Indeed, changes made today can impact performance today. The PPC management process is broken down below. You can see the optimization process is really what will either help or hurt your campaigns. In order to make the right decisions, you must first allow data to accrue and then analyze it correctly. When optimizing the data in your account, there are so many variables and factors to consider. I ve organized this section by: Filtering Segmenting Keywords Ad Copy Dimensions

25 Filtering is usually the first part of the optimization process. It requires a goal. Filtering allows you to easily sort through a ton of campaigns, ads and keywords in order to focus on what you want to optimize. Filtering can be done at the campaign, ad group, keyword and ad level for virtually anything that is a metric. You can also add multiple filters to make sure you hone in on exactly what you re looking for. Finally, you can save filters to conserve time and energy. 22 COMMONLY USED FILTERS Non-Converting: After running this filter, sort by cost in descending order by clicking the top column to see your high-cost/nonconverting keywords. High Cost per Conversion: After running this filter, sort by cost per conversion in descending order to see your highest cost-per-converting keywords Low Click-Thru Rate: After running this filter, sort by click-thru rate in ascending order to see your keywords with the lowest click-thru rates.

26 23 Segmenting is also used early on in the optimization process when trying to consider how to possibly make improvements to the account. Seeing how campaigns, ads, and keywords perform differently based on a particular segment is very powerful. COMMONLY USED SEGMENTS NETWORK [WITH SEARCH PARTNERS]: As a rule of thumb, never target search and display in the same campaign. As a default, your campaigns are targeting Google search partners. See if the search partners are performing similarly to Google search. If not, you might want to exclude search partners to improve ROI (especially if budget is already limited). Google does not allow you to see specific search partner performance (by site) nor does it currently allow you to have an exclusive search partner campaign. DEVICE: With Enhanced Campaigns, you can no longer exclude tablets. However, you can exclude mobile devices by bidding down -100%. Monitor the performance of mobile and make bid adjustments as needed to help improve overall campaign performance. MATCH TYPE [KEYWORD ONLY]: Segmenting keywords by match type can definitely determine if the user s search query is close to your keywords (especially in broad match) and also help decide if you should consider a different match type based on performance.

27 24 Keyword optimization is analyzing data at the keyword level and making adjustments to achieve your goals and improve performance. The first way to determine which keywords to optimize is by running filters that align with your goals. Once you ve isolated the keywords you want, you can try the following techniques: SEARCH QUERY REPORTS BID ADJUSTMENTS: CHANGE MATCH TYPES: PAUSE KEYWORDS: [SEARCH TERM DETAILS ]: These show the actual search terms that were matched with your keywords. Search queries are especially important with broad match keywords. The main benefits of search query reports are: Finding negative keywords that will help reduce wasted spend Finding new keywords that will help expand the campaign and generate more conversions These should be done regularly in order to ensure you are maximizing conversions or minimizing wasted spend. Generally, if a keyword is performing better than your target and the average position can be improved, you should increase your max CPC to show up higher and generate more clicks and hopefully more conversions. If a keyword is performing worse than your target and the average position is in the top 3-5 spots, you might want to try lowering your maximum CPC before changing the keyword match type or pausing the keyword. Changing match types will either limit reach or increase reach depending on the current match type. If you go from a broad match and change to exact match, the keyword s impressions will go down and so will your spend. If you notice a keyword does really well in exact or phrase match, consider trying it in broad match or broad match modifier to expand reach and hopefully increase conversions. Sometimes keywords just do not work. If you are spending a lot of money and not receiving conversions or even assisted conversions, you should consider pausing off non-performing keywords. The technique you decide to choose will depend on what your issues are, for example: 1. Cost per conversion too high: If you have a set of keywords that are slightly higher than the goal, running search query reports to identify negative keywords or slightly lowering the maximum CPC might be the difference in making an unprofitable keyword profitable. 2. High cost and non-converting: If you have a set of keywords that haven t converted at all and have spent a significant amount of money, you might want to segment by match type and change it or completely pause the keyword off. 3. Low click-thru rate: If you have a set of keywords with a low click-thru rate, you might want to consider increasing your bid, changing your match type, running search query reports to identify negative keywords or consider trying new ad copy.

28 25 Daily budgets are set at each campaign, and making changes to the daily budgets of each campaign based on performance is essential (especially if your campaigns are limited by budget). One of the main issues is simply poor budget allocation. Campaigns that convert the worst have the same amount or more budget than campaigns that perform much better! Generally, Fathom clients have set budgets every month. They give us the responsibility of maximizing performance (i.e., conversions) based on maximizing budget for what converts best. In order to see if your campaign is limited by budget (and could generate more clicks and conversions), take 2 steps: 1. Check status for a limited by budget message 2. Check impression share for a Lost IS (Budget) message: Google doesn t always show the Limited By Budget status above. Also, check the Lost Impression Share due to Budget as well. You ll have to add this column under the competitive metrics: *The above example is stating a loss of about 14% of impressions due to the budget being too low.

29 The dimensions tab is basically a location for several different types of reporting. 1. DAY-OF-WEEK 2. HOUR-OF-DAY 3. REPORTING REPORTING LOCATION REPORTING As mentioned in the budget section, your job as a PPC manager is to maximize a given budget. If campaigns are limited by budget, you can use dimensions reporting to find potentially wasted spend and make changes. Also, you can find certain aspects of the campaign that perform above normal and bid more aggressively using bid adjustments with enhanced campaigns. When making any of these type of changes, it s important to select a date range long enough to gather a significant amount of data before making a change.

30 AdWords Editor is a bulk editor tool that allows you to make several changes to your campaigns offline in a quick and efficient manner. Afterwards, you just need an Internet connection to post your changes live to AdWords. Editor is a must-have tool for any PPC advertiser. Main Reasons to Use AdWords Editor: 1. Making bulk changes: Keyword appending Bulk keyword changes (max CPCs, pausing, resuming, match types, etc.) Updating ad copy Updating destination URL Add several keywords to campaigns Using find/replace Changing campaign settings to multiple campaigns 2. Copying campaigns or campaign shells to make slight modifications 3. Import/export campaigns, keywords, ads through.csv or.xls files

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