How to pay less for your pay per click leads or sales by Ann Stanley MD Anicca Digital Solutions
Opportunities to save money on your pay per click leads or sales More relevant clicks for your budget Choice of agency and fee structure More conversions from your clicks
Google - Search Results Search using Keyphrase Natural/ Organic Search Merchant Centre results Sponsored links or Pay per click Pay Per Click Advertising Merchant Centre results linked with Pay per click (USA PPC accounts)
How Quality score influences what you pay! Google rewards advertisers who have the most relevant ads by giving them a better position and by paying less we use this to drive down costs! Advertiser Maximum bid (cost per click) Quality score (out of 10) Ad rank* (CPC x QS) Position achieved A 2.00 2 4 4 B 1.50 3 4.5 3 C 1.00 6 6 1 D 0.50 6 3 5 E 0.60 8 4.8 2 Quality score is used to measure relevancy so if you have a quality score of 8/10 you will pay half as much as your competitor who has 4/10 for the same position *Your position in the search engine results is dependent on your AdRank, this is the max price per click you are prepared to pay (Max CPC or bid) multiplied by your quality score
Influenced by: Google Quality Score Keyword and ad text relevance (do they match?) Landing page relevance and loading speed Keyword's click through rate (CTR) Historical click through rate (CTR) of whole account CTR Relevancy Landing Page This means that you must keep on improving the average CTR to improve the Quality Score of your account
PPC strategies how you can reduce your cost per acquisition 1) Correct set-up of your account 2) Optimising to get maximum number of relevant clicks from your budget 3) Optimising for conversions 4) Choice of agency and pay per click management costs
1) PPC Account set-up One AdWords account per website, so you can link your AdWords to Google Analytics PPC conversion tracking code added to thankyou page for each conversion type Determine conversion rate of website using Analytics Goals and/or ecommerce tracking Set target cost per acquisition (based on conversion rate of website and profitability of your product/services)
Campaign set-up Create separate campaigns for: Each product or service Geo-targeting (towns, regions or countries) Search and content (display) networks Click-to-call SmartPhone campaigns
Using estimate ad group and keyword grouper to create multiple ad groups Add negatives First campaign Create an Estimate ad group with 1000 s of exact keywords Clone for other match types Keyword Grouper tool in Editor Google Keyword Tool Multiple ad groups with specific keyphrases and ad copy
2) Optimising to get the maximum clicks for your budget Maximising your click through rate Maximising your quality score Managing your positions Focusing budget on what works
Improving your CTR and Quality Score Quality Score is <5/10 or the CTR is <1%: Do not bid on very generic phrases these will results in a low CTR and poor quality score Add in negatives if you are using phrases or broad match Check your positions are not too low as this will effect your CTR Restructure ad groups - smaller number of similar keyphrases with matching ad copy Amend title & description test several to review which ad performs the best Pause keyphrases and ads with a CTR of <1% - too generic and will affect quality score of other keyphrases in the whole account Check %CTR of search network as this can be lower than Google results
Click through rate and ad position Target these positions & CTR 09 Oct 09: http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/adwords-clickthrough.php
Trying to reduce your cost per acquisition by reducing your bids What is your maximum cost per acquisition (CPA)? Maximum you can afford to spend to gain a sale or lead? Maximum cost per click (CPC)? Most sites convert around 1% of clicks into leads/sales Divide your target CPA by 100 to get an estimate of the maximum CPC you can afford Will PPC work for average order values of < 30? B2B bids tend to be higher because they can afford a higher CPA Bidding for positions 4-6 ( goldilocks zone ) Still get good click through rate (CTR) and less expensive If you cannot achieve position 4-7 with this bid, then look for less competitive phrases at a lower cost, or improve your conversion rate! Do not bid too low this will result in very poor positions and low click through
RF Training savings from dropping positions The cost per click was reduced by ~ 1.40 within 24 hours equivalent to a monthly saving of over 20,000! The average positions only dropped by 1
3) Improving Your PPC Conversion Rate Deep Link (product vs category vs homepage) Most relevant page test which one(s) convert(s) the best Calls for action Add to landing pages eg registration forms/ability to buy High Number of Clicks but no Conversions Pause Ad Groups or phrases with low conversion rates (or if they exceed your target CPA) Pause the search and display networks if they perform poorly Use new Conversion Funnels tool in AdWords to check for assisted clicks Use your Analytics data Pause phrases with a high Bounce Rate Test new landing pages (A:B testing, ie test ads with the same ad copy but different urls) Use AdWords data in Analytics to understand ROI
AdWords reporting in Analytics costs vs revenue and ROI Account restructured
Case study Lovestruck.com Optimising or pruning for conversions can take a number of months
4) Choosing the right agency Experience Is the agency accredited? What is the level of experience of the person managing your account? What other pay per click platforms do they offer (other paid search, paid social)? What other services do they offer SEO, Analytics? Contracts and charging What is the minimum contract period? Do you own the account at the end of the contract? What is their charging model? Will the agency work to get your costs down if they are paid a percentage? Level of transparency can you see Google reports or only the agencies reports? Technologies used Do they have bid management and/or use their own technology? Are there extra charges for bid management tools and API charges?
PPC Agency charging models Costs PPC Ad Spend paid by you or the agency (then invoiced) Set-up fee (or spread over monthly payments) Monthly management charge Monthly fee Fixed rate (based on spending bands or days worked) Percentage of spend (typically 10-15%) Cost per acquisition models Revenue share model Most have a minimum monthly fee to cover costs Some inflate ad spend by a percentage and keep the difference
Free audit(s) Pay per click audit including review of Analytics results Optional SEO audit with Webmaster Tools and website review contact ann@anicca-solutions.com