PPC - Pay Per Click What it is and how to build a successful campaign A Publication of Digital Marketing Experts theeword
Introduction This guide provides a brief introduction to PPC, helping businesses understand what it is and cutting through the jargon to reveal the basics behind a successful campaign. We will explore how to create ads that will bring in targeted traffic to your site, increasing the chances of a conversion, as well as looking at all the individual elements that go into a successful paid search ad. We ll also look at how other forms of paid online advertising such as display, remarketing and social media can be used to achieve your objectives. Contributors: Eugene Henry & Archie Barnett Editors: Rachel Hand & James Riches 2
Contents What is PPC?...4 Understanding AdWords...4 Choosing your keywords...5-6 PPC and SEO...7 The structure of an AdWords campaign...7-8 Ad extensions...9 Types of ad extension...9-10 Optimisation...11-12 KPIs...12 Google Display Network...13 Remarketing...14 Paid Social...14 Facebook ads...15-18 Twitter ads...19-21 PPC glossary...22-23 3
What is PPC? A strong, effective pay per click strategy allows you to appear at the top of Google results pages for the key terms that will benefit your campaign. PPC is focused on the paid ads that appear above organic search results each time you type a query into a search engine. Success is achieved by bidding on the terms you wish to target, and creating an engaging ad campaign that will encourage searchers to click through to a high quality, conversion-driven landing page. Each time your ad is clicked, you will pay Google a small fee. A successful PPC campaign will ensure that the keywords you choose to target provide a sufficient number of conversions in order to see a return on this investment. Naturally, this is more likely to happen if your ad appears first on the list of paid ads for a given search term, and to achieve this you will need to understand how Google AdWords works. Understanding AdWords One of the great things about PPC is that you are in control of your own destiny. You get to choose which keywords to go for, and the content of your ad is entirely down to you. Any rewards you reap from this campaign will be down to the choices you have made, and in Google AdWords you have a system that allows you to achieve your goals within your budget. Ultimately, AdWords will determine the position of ads based on two factors: CPC Bid this is the highest amount you are willing to spend on targeting a particular term Quality Score this is a value assigned to your ad based on its relevance to the search term, click through rate and the quality of your landing page Your ad rank is calculated using these two figures, so a high Quality Score is vital in order to gain the edge over your rivals. Not only will it reward you with a higher ad rank, it can also result in your ad being positioned above competitors who have made a higher maximum bid, as your superior Quality Score will push you out in front. The higher your ad rank, the lower your actual CPC will be. 4
Choosing your keywords Targeting the right keywords is crucial to the success of your PPC campaign, so while it can be a time-consuming endeavour you can rest assured it will be time well spent. The key questions here are what makes a good keyword, and how do you find them? Using the Keyword Planner When it comes to keyword selection, Google Keyword Planner is an essential tool. At its most basic level, it allows you to enter a keyword you wish to target and receive information about other similar keywords that could also be of benefit to your campaign. It is then down to you to assess these options and decide whether or not they are suitable for your campaign. Keyword Planner provides plenty of data to help you make this decision, including outlining the search volume for a particular keyword that you can break down throughout the year. This helps you identify seasonality peaks that could influence you to push certain keywords during a particular week or month, bidding more aggressively in order to make sure your ads rank highly when they are needed most. There are many factors you should consider when analysing the data offered up by the Keyword Planner, and we have explored these further below. Staying relevant It is fairly self-evident that you would only want to target keywords that are linked to your business, or the goals you want to achieve. We have already seen how important relevance is to your ad s Quality Score, so this is a crucial element of your keywords for many reasons. Remember, you are paying for every click you receive, so make them count. Conversions are your goal, so make sure each of your chosen keywords is within your niche and elicits a direct response from users. This will bring in relevant traffic with an increased likelihood of converting. For example, if you were a shoe retailer building an ad campaign around Blue Converse, you would only target terms that are closely related to this area. This would mean ruling out terms such as Red Adidas, which despite undeniably being a shoe is neither the right colour nor brand you are intending to promote. 5
Choosing your keywords cont. Covering all bases While the keywords you eventually choose will be carefully targeted, you should not limit your options by making your search too narrow. By casting the net wide and researching a range of possibilities, you will ensure that you do not miss out on any opportunities that are out there. Look at long-tail terms that could bring in even more relevant traffic and supplement the higher volume keywords in your campaign. If your search is not expansive enough, not only will you miss out on potential new customers, you could also be leaving the door open for your competitors. Maximising return There is no point in targeting an expensive keyword if it is not going to yield enough conversions to make it financially worth your while. Keyword Planner offers a suggested maximum bid for each keyword, so you can quickly see which terms will work within your budget. This is not to say you should never consider keywords with a high CPC, but you should only do so if you know the enquiries generated will offset this increased investment. Match types When choosing keywords you will need to define match type, of which there are two main choices: broad and exact. A keyword on broad match will trigger ads for search terms containing any of the words within it; it will therefore appear for a wider range of searches, but that could include irrelevant searches. Exact match keywords will only trigger ads if the searcher has entered precisely that keyword; the audience will therefore be smaller, but more relevant. Refining the formula Once you have prepared your initial keyword list, it is important to regularly revisit it in order to ensure you are keeping up with trends and not missing out on any new opportunities. Your keyword list should never stand still, it should be frequently updated and added to so that you continue to maximise those conversion opportunities. 6
PPC and SEO A PPC campaign provides the ideal complement to your SEO efforts. While SEO involves a long-term plan that aims to bring in more organic traffic over time, PPC allows for quick wins across the key areas of your business. Of course, both strategies are working towards the common goal of bringing more traffic to your site and encouraging those visitors to convert. As such, there should be some overlap between the two, particularly with regard to the content you are creating and how this is tailored to your intended audience. The success of keywords within your PPC campaign could also inform your SEO strategy, revealing areas of interest and generating new ideas. The structure of an AdWords campaign Every business has a range of different products and services they wish to target, so a good PPC campaign should be broken down into different ad groups that are focused on chosen keyword themes. This will ensure your ads are as precise as possible, and will only show for the specified keywords, which will of course ensure your traffic is relevant and you do not end up paying for irrelevant clicks. If we consider once again our Converse ad, it may be that our shoe retailer business wishes to have a separate ad going out for Adidas footwear, giving us two distinct campaigns. 7
The structure of an AdWords campaign cont. Of course, in our example ad we are only targeting customers who want blue Converse. As you would expect, the campaign is likely to focus on other colours as well, so we can create separate ad groups for each that can then be applied to the campaigns as needed. At this stage, all that is left to do is decide which specific keywords you would like your ad to appear for. In the case of this blue Converse ad, we naturally want to target search terms where the user has an obvious intention to buy something, as is the case with the query below: Structuring an ad: a practical example Going back to our earlier example of a shoe retailer looking to sell Blue Converse, below you can see how a standard PPC ad should look, with its key elements highlighted: Headline This has a 25-character limit, and should include the keyword you are targeting along with a call to action. In this case, it is very clear what the reader is expected to do next. Description Line 1 and 2 Each of these has a 35-character limit, allowing them to be split across two lines if needed. They provide a little more detail about the product, as well as reinforcing the CTA. Display URL Operating within a 35-character limit, this can be written by you and does not have to be an actual URL. The user will not click on this directly, however it is important that the domain name is the same as the destination URL. 8
Ad extensions For your ad to work, it needs to be as visible as possible and provide readers with plenty of reasons to click through. While our example ad does its job reasonably well, it could be improved still further with the use of ad extensions. These give the reader even more information about your product or service, and including them on your ad does not cost you any more than the standard ad. They are likely to improve your click through rate, and the clicks they earn will be charged the same as any other. We have provided some examples of commonly used ad extensions below. Keep in mind that Google may not always show these, while at other times it may only show some of the extensions you choose. There are a number of reasons for this, with Google making decisions based on your maximum CPC bid, the positioning of your ad and your ad rank once again showing the importance of achieving a high Quality Score. Types of ad extension Sitelink extension You may feel that certain supplementary information could be crucial in helping a user get closer to a conversion. In the case of our shoe retail business, we could add links under the main ad directing users to our store locations and opening times, or provide a link to our full range of Converse footwear. This helps people get the information they want as quickly as possible, without placing extra steps in their way. Location extension Many people now have location data enabled on their device, and this provides you with a great chance to encourage more visitors to your business. Let s say that our shoe retailer has three stores in Manchester; when the potential customers sees our ad, the location extension will immediately calculate which of our stores they are nearest to, and display that information. The user can then click through to a map that will bring them directly to our door. If they need those shoes quickly, we have immediately become their best option. Call extension By now, every business should be well aware of how important it is to target mobile users. Call extensions provide an easy way for people to get in contact with you directly, simply by adding a clickable button to your mobile ad. 9
Types of ad extension cont. App extension If your business has an app, you might as well encourage mobile customers to use it. When your ad appears in search results, you are faced with the challenge of standing out against your competitors. If you can convince customers to visit your app directly rather than searching for their shoes using Google, you have immediately moved them closer to a potential conversion. An app extension invites users to download your app with just one click, and should include a CTA within its anchor text to encourage a high volume of clicks. Review extension Highlighting your successes is a great way to attract potential customers. If they can see your service is good, they are more likely to click. If you ve been getting positive feedback in the form of third party reviews, you can incorporate this into your ad with a review extension. This allows you to add a short snippet of a published review beneath your ad copy, highlighting the quality of your service to anyone struggling to decide where to buy their new pair of shoes. Callout extension Your business has a lot to offer, and naturally you will want to highlight this as much as possible. Callout extensions are useful for providing this supplementary information, providing an extra line where you can tell people about aspects of your service you think could sway them into converting. For example, you may allow customers to customise their footwear, or you might offer free delivery within a certain number of days. Anything that is going to prove an attractive proposition for customers is worth considering for inclusion here. Here we have an example of some of these ad extensions in action: 10
Optimisation Once a campaign is set up and is beginning to bring in traffic, the next step is to optimise it on an ongoing basis, to ensure you re getting the best possible results for your budget. Here are some examples of the strategies and techniques we use to optimise campaigns. Keyword Reports You can create Keyword Reports under the Campaigns tab in your account, which show how all your keywords are performing by clicks, impressions, CTR and conversions. For more in-depth analysis, you can view data for a specific time period, segment by match type, or see metrics such as Quality Score and bid estimates for each keyword. You might decide to put more budget into keywords that are showing a strong conversion rate, and remove or adjust under-performing keywords. Keyword Research Adding new keywords into your campaign could help you target a new or larger audience. Use the Keyword Planner tool to research new ideas on a regular basis, particularly bearing in mind any new products or seasonal trends you want to capitalise on. Bid changes We closely monitor spend versus budget, ensuring the account is spending correctly in the right areas, and is set to be on budget by the end of each month. This might necessitate decreasing bids during the month to reduce spend, or increasing them to improve visibility on more profitable keywords. Search query reports The search query report is different to the keyword report, as it indicates precisely which search terms people have entered when triggering your ad. If you are using broad match type, ads will be triggered by keywords you aren t directly targeting this is a great way of finding new keyword ideas. However, broad match might also reveal that ads are showing for completely unrelated searches, due to some of the words within the search term matching your keyword. The report above indicates our ad was showing for terms related to selling. We can therefore highlight terms such as sell and selling as negative keywords, to ensure we don t appear for searches containing these terms, thus avoiding potential wasted clicks. 11
Optimisation cont. Meanwhile, we can also see some of the search terms that triggered our ads because the match type is broad. We could therefore add these search terms into our campaign as keywords, which would increase our relevance, boost our quality score and therefore reduce CPC. KPIs Although every AdWords campaign will have different objectives, getting more conversions for less expense is a common aim. Below are some of the key performance indicators you should monitor for a typical PPC campaign, as well as the factors that can influence them. CTR (click through rate) The rate at which users click the ad and visit the website. A higher click through rate will influence the quality score, and therefore reduces cost per click. Of course, it also increases the volume of traffic. Although there is often a correlation between ad position and CTR, it is largely influenced by how relevant and engaging your ad copy and extensions are. Quality score This is an essential metric, as it is basically what Google thinks of your ad. It is influenced by a number of factors, such as the relevance of the ad, landing page experience and click through rate. The higher the quality score then the higher the ad will rank, and the lower the cost per click will be. CPC (cost per click) There are many factors that can change the cost per click. It is therefore essential to ensure this is continuously monitored, to keep an eye on the health of the account and ensuring it doesn t overspend. Competition, changes in CTR, quality score, ad relevance and seasonality can all be contributing factors to the cost of a click. Conversion rate The rate at which users convert once they land on the site; i.e. the number of conversions divided by the number of clicks. It is essential to monitor the conversion rate; it can indicate whether it would be beneficial to review your landing pages and make changes so they encourage conversions. CPA (cost per acquisition) The cost per conversion. This metric is influenced by both the conversion rate and the cost per click. If there is a decrease in conversion rate, then it is likely that the cost per acquisition will increase, as there are fewer conversions. Likewise, an increase in CPC will result in a higher overall spend, and if there isn t a corresponding increase in the conversion rate then CPA will increase. 12
Google Display Network In addition to the search network, Google has a vast network of sites where text, banner and video ads can be placed known as the Google Display Network. We often advise running display campaigns in addition to search ads; reaching 92% of internet users across over a million sites, there is a huge potential audience. Furthermore, display ads can be very visually appealing, and can be targeted so they reach the most relevant audience. Reaching the right people The display network uses Contextual Targeting to ascertain which sites, blogs and news stories across the network would be relevant to your keywords, based on the terms within the content. For example, if someone was reading a blog for advice on buying new shoes, an ad for theewordshoes may then appear within the banner advertising. Alternatively, you can hand-pick specific sites within the network that you think are relevant to your customers known as Managed Placements (as opposed to automatic placements which occur via targeting). However, higher bids will be needed to gain impressions on very popular sites, as you will be competing with many other advertisers. Display ads can also be targeted by age, gender and location, if these segments are relevant to your products or services, or by relevant interest categories (such as fashion, cars, sports and so on). The benefit of the Google Display Network is therefore that it only places your ads on sites which are relevant to your business, and to users that are most likely to be interested in your services - meaning that traffic from these ads will be of high quality. 13
Remarketing Remarketing means targeting people who have already visited your website, and showing them a specific ad. Combining a remarketing campaign with PPC and the Google Display Network gives you an unrivalled opportunity to maximise your online marketing efforts. Users visiting your website will often have begun their journey with a search for a keyword relating to your company s services. Even if these users do not make a purchase or enquiry immediately, their interest in your brand could still be at the forefront of their mind; remarketing therefore acts as a second chance to turn them into a customer, driving qualified traffic to your site. How it works 1. Remarketing code is added to all the pages on your site. 2. On the landing page used to enter the website, a cookie is served to the user, and the user is added to your remarketing list. 3. After leaving the site, the user is shown remarketing ads across the Display Network. Remarketing banners should therefore incorporate clear calls to action, encouraging the user to revisit the site and complete their purchase or enquiry form. Remarketing lists can also be separated by criteria such as which pages or product categories the user visited on your site, customers who have previously made a purchase, or what date range they visited the site. This ensures these different audiences can be shown a more relevant ad, for more effective results. Paid social Social media is an area of the digital landscape that is continuously growing with thousands of people joining a social network each day. New social platforms are launched regularly; however, the two that dominate the market are of course Twitter and Facebook. Due to the immense popularity of social media and the role it now plays in our daily life, it is the perfect medium to enhance your digital campaigns further. 14
Facebook ads Objective Selection First, choose your advertising goal: what kind of results would you like to achieve from your ads? There are many to choose from, whether you want to generate clicks to your website, app installations or gain page likes. Facebook formulates each of these different objectives to match the specific goals that advertisers want to attain from the process, so it s essential to choose the right option. Once you ve carefully assessed and selected your advertising objective, you can start the ad building process. Depending on your chosen objective, the first step is to choose what exactly you are going to promote. If your objective is to increase clicks to your website, then choose a relevant landing page for users to be directed to this is likely to improve the user experience, and consequently is more likely to result in the user converting or coming back to the website. Advert Visuals Images are vital when advertising on social media it s statistically proven that users are more likely to engage with a post if it has an image. It s also important to choose images that represent your product or service in a visually appealing manner. 15
Facebook ads cont. You can upload six different images, which will show on a rotational basis, helping you find out which images appeal most to your audience. Once you have chosen your image, it s time to start writing your ad. Facebook ads can consist of a headline (25 characters), main text (90 characters), call to action and news feed link description (200 characters). Placement There are four different places where your ads can appear: Desktop News Feed your ad will show in the news feed of the target audience as they use Facebook on a desktop computer. Mobile News Feed the ad will again show in the news feed of the target audience, but when they use Facebook on a mobile device. 16
Facebook ads cont. Right Column the ad shows on the right hand side of Facebook when the user is on a desktop computer. Partner Mobile Apps the ad shows in apps that Facebook has partnered with. 17
Facebook ads cont. Targeting Facebook targeting gives you numerous options by which you can reach your target audience, enabling you to really drill down and pro-actively reach those that matter to you as a company. In order to really achieve successful advertising, you need to both know and understand your audience what they do on Facebook, what they are interested in, how old they are all these factors can influence your targeting strategy. Once you truly understand your potential customers, you can then start to go into the specifics of your targeting. Facebook s exact and extensive targeting enables you to reach your customers by: Location Target specific countries or areas. This is particularly useful if your services only operate within particular locations. Age Target your users by age. This will help eliminate users that really aren t going to be interested in or eligible to use your product. Gender Some products/services might be dedicated to just one gender. Alternatively, you might know from previous research that particular genders interact more with your marketing, and therefore want to just target males or females. Languages Facebook allows you to target users based on languages, which is particularly useful if your advert is only available in one language. Behaviours You can also target users based on their digital activities, what device they use, residential profiles, and their travel behaviour (for example; frequent travellers, commuters, currently travelling and returned from travelling). Other demographics Target users based on relationship status, education, work and more. Bidding There are two main bidding methods for Facebook advertising clicks and impressions. You can choose to pay per click, or pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives. You can then manually set your maximum cost per click, for which Facebook will give you a suggested amount. The higher your bid, the more likely you are to reach all of your target audience. You can also set the maximum cost per click to automatic, meaning that Facebook will automatically optimise your bid in order to get more clicks; however, you may find this doesn t have a cost effective result, as you can end up paying more for clicks than you would if you had set it manually. 18
Twitter ads Objective Selection As with Facebook, it s important to choose the right campaign objective before commencing with your advertising. Some of the options allow for the user to carry out just one action when they see the ad, while other options may allow the user to engage with the ad more than once. For example, if you choose the Followers option, the user will only be able to follow the account there will not be an option to reply or retweet. However, a Website clicks or conversions campaign will allow the user to re-tweet the tweet, but the advertiser will only be charged if the user visits the website. Advert Visuals On Twitter, there is a 140 character limit. As with any advertising, this means you have to get straight to the point and ensure that the product you re advertising is the focal point of your tweet. Although it isn t mandatory to use images in Twitter advertising, it is highly recommended as users are more likely to open and engage with a tweet that has an image attached. An image however will take up quite a few characters of your tweet; which, combined with a URL, doesn t leave much space for you to actually write about your product. This is where Twitter cards come in handy. 19
Twitter ads cont. Twitter cards are a particularly useful and powerful tool on Twitter. They help you make your advert appear more attractive, while also allowing you to include a lot more text. The Twitter card takes up 24 characters in the tweet, but can consist of a URL, an image, a call to action and a small description of your link (cards may vary in what they include). This leaves you with 116 characters to use when writing the main text of your advert. There are four different Twitter card types, which have been designed by Twitter for different purposes; a particular card may have advantages over another depending on what your objective is. Lead Generation Card Great for generating inbound interest from users on Twitter, as they allow the user to easily share their information with you from within a tweet. The cards automatically capture the user s name, username and email address with one click. Website Card Gives a quick summary of your link, and makes it easy for the user to visit your website. Basic App Card Drives installations for apps that are available on ios and Android mobile devices. Image App Card Similar to the basic app card, but also allows you to upload an image to make the ad more attractive to the user. 20
Twitter ads cont. Targeting Once you ve created your tweets, you re ready to start looking at the targeting. As with Facebook, it s essential to understand your target audience and how they are likely to behave and engage with content on social media. There are four methods of targeting for Twitter ads: Keywords Target searches for the selected keywords, or target users that tweet with the words you enter. Interests and Followers Allows you to target users by interests that have been collected by Twitter. It also allows you to choose various Twitter accounts that your audience may follow, in order to target their followers, or target users similar to their followers. Television You can target users based on what television shows they talk about on Twitter. Tailored Audiences Upload your own list of customer email addresses, or place a snippet of code on your website; this enables you to remarket to users who have previously visited your website or have expressed an interest. Once you have set your primary method of targeting, you can start to narrow down your audience by demographic if you feel it is appropriate. Twitter enables you to limit your targeting by location, device or platform, gender and language. Bidding Once you have defined your targeting, you can then move onto setting your daily budgets, maximum bid and a total budget. Depending on what campaign type you have chosen to go for, you will be charged on either a cost per engagement model (CPE) or a cost per click (CPC) model. An engagement can count as a re-tweet, reply, favourite or other click on the advert. A higher bid will result in your advert displaying more frequently; however, this is likely to increase your CPE or CPC. You will quite often pay less than the bid you set, and will never pay more. 21
PPC Glossary Ad Group A set of ads managed together, targeting a specific theme, service or product. Ad Rank A rating that determines how highly your ad will rank; based on a combination of Quality Score, use of extensions/formats, and maximum bid. Average Position The average position your ad is appearing in, determined by your Ad Rank. Bid The maximum payment per click you have set for each keyword. Broad match Ads will show for search terms related to or containing your keyword on this setting. Budget The daily spend cap you set in AdWords; once you reach your limit, ads will stop showing. Conversion When someone clicks your ad, then makes a purchase, completes an enquiry form, etc. Conversion Rate The percentage of ad clicks that result in a conversion. CPA (Cost per Acquisition) The average cost per conversion. CPC (Cost per Click) The cost of one click on your ad. CPM (Cost per Mille) The cost of one thousand impressions of your ad on the Display Network. CTR (Click through rate) The percentage of impressions that result in a click on your ad. Demographic targeting Specify genders, ages or parental status of your target audience. Destination and Display URL The display URL is the web address that is shown on a PPC ad. The destination URL is the actual URL of the page someone will be directed to if they click on the ad. Device bid adjustment Set bids for an ad group to be higher for searches on a mobile device. Exact Match Ads will only show for search terms that exactly match your keyword on this setting. 22
PPC Glossary cont. Extensions Extra information that can be added to your ads; they typically improve CTR. Impressions How many times your ad has been triggered. Keyword A word or phrase relevant to your products or services, which you can add to your campaign so that search terms matching it will trigger your ads. Landing page The designated page on your website that people will reach if they click on an ad. Location targeting Specify the countries, regions or cities where you want your ad to be triggered. Negative keywords Ads will NOT show for search terms containing your negative keywords. Quality Score A rating out of 10 based on the relevance of your keywords, ads and landing pages. ROI (Return on investment) The profit you have made from your campaign compared to what you have spent. 23
Contact Us If you would like to find out more about PPC, please get in touch and we will be happy to advise you. Telephone: 0161 848 4300 Web: www.theeword.co.uk The Annexe, Second Avenue, Manchester, M17 1DZ. A Publication of Digital marketing experts TheEword Designed and produced by a member of pro-manchester Pickles Creative & Media Limited +44 (0)1706 224389 www.picklescreativeandmedia.co.uk