25 PPC Tips For Giving Your PPC Campaigns

To make sure you maximize your ROI but minimize your risk, consider the following.

The Basics

Here are a few things to bear in mind from the outset - and to make sure your campaign is built on a firm base.

1. Know Your Sector

If this is a client, make sure you understand their business as much as possible. Maybe even suggest going through a company training or induction program to quickly get you up to speed.

Check what your competitors, partners, suppliers and customers are doing, and adjust your bids accordingly. Keep a watchful eye on competitors bidding on your brand name and avoid losing potential customers.

2. Start Small, Scale Up

Identify a number of target keyword areas and bid across these. But don’t spread you budget too thin, start off slowly with a restricted campaign and then scale it up.

This helps to test the water across a variety of brand names, descriptive terms and competitive keywords to see which perform best.

3. Measure, Measure, Measure

It’s amazing how many campaigns I’ve seen which have failed to setup basic conversion tracking.

Make sure you put effort into getting this correct from the start. That way you can have a long-term approach, where you can learn average conversion rates and revenues, allowing you to estimate the performance of future keyword bids.

4. Include Plurals

Your PPC platform of choice may automatically account for differing singular and plural forms of keywords, but double-check this.

If not, test which performs better - singulars or plurals - and adjust your bids and ad copy accordingly.

5. Be Logical

The more logical you are in your approach to your campaign, the easier it will be to see what's working.

Give your bids time to come good, as early poor performance may average out over time - but don't send good money after bad. Make sure you use a logical campaign naming structure and organization too, that way it makes it easier if someone else has to help out with managing the campaign.

Managing Your Bids

Keep your campaign in close check and you can make sure it is up to date and giving you the ROI you need.

6. Know Your Target CPA

Depending on your PPC platform, budgets may be set as maximums, averages or some other target figure.

Know how to set yours at a level that suits your overall budget, and make sure you are achieving your target ROI. If you know your average customer value and target CPA’s you can then find the optimum budget to maximize revenue and profit from your campaign.

7. Be Pragmatic

It is easy to expect a massive ROI when you appear up top on a competitive search term, but be realistic.

Not everyone will click your ad, and not everyone who does will make a purchase. As long as your ROI remains positive, that's the main thing. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes and keep things improving.

8. Use Google’s Tools

Google’s tools have improved greatly over the last couple of years. And bidding tools such as Conversion Optimiser can be a great way of ensuring you maximize the performance of a campaign by focusing on bidding for high-quality, converting clicks – as opposed to traffic volume.

9. Use the Search Query Report

Most PPC platforms will offer in-built data reporting, but be sure you can segment paid search traffic in your website's analytics to show the exact keywords which are sending you traffic.

You can then measure keyword performance and by using the AdWords search query report you can find converting long-tail keyword variations to add to your campaign – and likewise, non-converting keywords to add as negative matches.

10. Learn to Adapt and Keep Testing

There are countless other PPC marketers out there with their own campaigns.

If somebody starts fiercely bidding on your preferred keywords to the point that it’s not profitable, refocus your attention and avoid a bidding war. And with all campaigns, keep testing. Small increases to CTR, quality scores and conversion rates can have a huge impact to a campaigns overall performance.

Optimize Your Ad Copy

Keep your message clear and compelling, and your ad revenues should rise accordingly. PPC ads are brief, so avoid confusion as much as possible.

11. Tweak Your Titles

Just like on-page headlines, the titles of your ads are the most eye-catching elements.

Marketers will tell you to "make them pop", so be concise but highlight your unique selling point or special offer.

12. Your Body is a Temple

Ensure your body text is concise, relevant to the terms you are bidding on, and highlights your USP or special offer.

Avoid clichéd advertising phrases and focus on clear descriptions - words are at a premium, so make them count.

13. Be the Strongest Link

Links matter. The URL of your ad is likely to appear in the results, so avoid meaningless numerical page addresses and get those keywords highlighted in bold.

A keyword-optimized URL helps to demonstrate relevancy and could secure more traffic as a result.

14. Identify Your MVPs

The five or ten best performing keywords or ads in your campaign are your most valuable players.

Keep them at the center of your plan of attack, and arrange your broader paid search activities around them. The 80/20 rule is often very true in search campaigns, so find out where your converting traffic comes and ensure you get everything you can out of those keywords and ad variations.

15. Discover the Niches

In the most crowded of PPC markets, there are effective key terms that have been overlooked.

Be original in your bids and you may manage to stumble upon one of these neglected goldmines.

Target Your Ads

Targeting ads is different from optimizing the ad copy itself. Optimization is about driving click-through rates whatever your audience; targeting is about knowing who your customers are, and writing with them in mind.

16. Write for an Age Group

Age and gender are classics of demographic targeting, and are as relevant as ever.

Write for your chosen target demographic and you raise the perceived relevance of your product for those individuals.

17. Judge Your Prestige Level

In advertising copywriting, there's a world of difference between 'value for money' and 'cheap'.

Know which description suits the prestige level of your product, and stick to it for on-message ad copy.

18. Mind Your Surroundings

Knowing your local customer base is important even on the World Wide Web.

Tweak your ad copy for geographical markets, and target those regions in your campaign settings.

19. Vary Your Calls to Action

Just as you target different key phrases, be sure to vary your ad copy accordingly.

A selection of different ad texts gives you the opportunity to see what works for a given bid term.

20. Research the PPC Markets

Targeting does not have to take place within a single campaign.

Different PPC platforms may reach different or specialized audiences; place ads on the most appropriate ad network.

The Next Level

Once you've mastered the basics, it's time to get serious. Here are five of the things that professional paid search campaign managers deal with on a daily basis.

21. Improve Your Landing Page Tests

Learn how to conduct detailed A/B and MANOVA tests, allowing you to tweak two or more variables in your landing pages ad copy.

Quantifiable results will help you to make more informed decisions about campaign changes, so use Website Optimiser and measure every small change to improve performance. Make sure you produce relevant landing pages to support your ads. This way, you can define funnels that guide individuals from being searchers, to prospects, to converting customers.

22. Find Negative Keywords Via Social Media Monitoring

Set up a social media monitoring service, Google Alerts is fine, and track which keywords are listed alongside your top keywords and brand terms.

This way, you can make sure that anything irrelevant, which you may not have thought of previously, can be blocked using negative matches.

23. Go Global

Target the same keywords in your PPC campaigns as in your on-page optimization and inbound link-building efforts.

This builds on the tip above to help demonstrate to your prospects that the page is tailored to their needs.

24. Schedule Your Campaigns

Schedule new ads for specific dates to make the most of seasonal opportunities and consider budget changes to reflect an increase in search demand and buying intent.

This can also help to keep your campaigns moving when you are out of the office yourself.

25. Keep Things Moving

However well your campaign is performing, there are new audiences to reach and better keywords to bid on.

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On Page SEO tips for SEO Beginners

Title -
Use your keywords in your title.

URL -
Use your keywords in your URL slug - shorter is better, hyphens not underscores.

Headline -
(h1) Use your capsule headers (h2) instead.

Natural repetition in body of content -
Repeat your keywords, but don't "stuff" them unnaturally.

ALT attribute -
ALT tag controlled via the caption segment of the image capsule.

File Name -
Changes file name upon upload.

Keyword Location -
Use your keyword within the first 100 words of your content also use in your custom summary.

Internal Links -
The amount of links to your content from within the site itself are valuable, using tag pages in order to get internal links will give you a boost on top of the powerful built in interlinking that HP already employs. This is essentially what a HP tag is, an inbound link from within the site that you can control. Also be sure to interlink your own content with anchored text link.

Italics/Bold -
They have a tiny SEO benefit - italics more than bold - and do not need to be used more than once!

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PPC Tips-PPC at Lower Pay for Business Grow

PPC Tips are very useful for any business development. There are many tips are available for best campaigns for PPC. It is for large scale business. But here there are some PPC tips for small business.

The following PPC advertising tips provide the outline for developing a successful and cst effective pay per click campaign for small business.

Time/Day Parting - Google allows advertisers to determine the day of week or even the time of day they want their ads to display. This can be a very useful tool for small business advertisers who know when their customers are most likely to look for their product or service.

Match Types - Gone are the days of simply adding keywords that are all set to broad match and hoping for a return. Sure, casting a larger net brings in more traffic, but it also punishes your budget. The quality of that traffic might also suffer depending on the chosen keywords. Try using the available match types, especially exact match, to control costs and which searches are actually displaying your ads.

Negative Keywords - Selecting negative keywords to offset unwanted traffic is an absolute must for any campaign, large or small. For example, f a florist that sells only fresh flowers and plants might want to include the negative "artificial" to prevent traffic from artificial flower type keywords. Using negatives also allows you to pursue higher volume keywords without the exposure to unrelated searches.

Geo Targeting - According to a 2009 TMP/comScore report, 80% of consumers expect businesses in their search results to be within 15 miles of their location. This definitely doesn't apply to all industries and regions, but it should provide a starting point with your targeting. It's important to mention that with Google's targeting granularity, you could potentially target your business out of traffic if it's set so small that only a few people will see the ads.

Other Search Engines- Google has the lion share of the search market, but they also carry the highest bid prices. Bing and the like might not offer the volume that Google does; however, smaller search engines often have lower bid prices, which ultimately produce lower conversion costs. Test out a small budget on these other engines to start looking at your PPC efforts as a portfolio.

Keyword Development-The Google traffic estimator tool might show you that the keyword "new shoes" generates 1,500,000 searches each month, but that doesn't mean it's a quality keyword for your ad group. To maximize your budget, think locally and specifically. For example, if you're in the printing business, expand past the generic and more expensive "printing" keywords; pair them up with location identifiers to better define your product and audience.

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Online PPC Advertising Courses Tips

If you are relatively new to PPC Advertising, it's a good idea to consider taking an online course. There are quite a few of these courses being offered, and unlike your typical blog entry or news article, they provide a comprehensive overview of paid search advertising. Another benefit is that many of the courses offer a certification exam.

Here are 13 online PPC advertising courses tips worth checking out:

1. Google AdWords Certification Program

If you use AdWords for your PPC marketing efforts, consider becoming AdWords certified by participating in this program. It includes an extensive study guide covering all areas of AdWords advertising. To get your AdWords certification you must pass two tests: a fundamentals exam and one of three advanced exams. Each exam costs $50.

2. Microsoft adExcellence program

If Microsoft adCenter is your pay-per-click advertising platform of choice, it's probably a good idea to get your adCenter accreditation by participating in the Microsoft adExcellence program. This program offers training videos on a variety of topics like keyword match options, ad copy best practices and bidding. The accreditation exam costs $50.

3. Yahoo Learn Online

Yahoo offers a variety of tutorials and archived webinars that are free and comprehensive. Tutorial topics include how to navigate your account, how geo-targeting works, and how ad testing works. Archived webinar topics include enhanced targeting capabilities, ad ranking, and back-to-school ads.

4. Market Motive courses

Market Motive offers two types of online PPC programs: one where you take one course a month for up to three months and another where you commit to three months of courses. The second option, which is significantly more expensive, involves faculty guidance, real-world projects and a dissertation. Classes include video lessons, quizzes, and web conferences.

5. SEMPO Institute's search advertising classes

The SEMPO Institute offers an SEO/PPC class for beginners as well as an advanced PPC class. The former has 14 lessons and costs nearly $400 for non-members, and the latter has 13 lessons and costs nearly $1,400 for non-members. Upon successful completion of the advanced class, which includes strategies and tactics from experienced PPC professionals, you receive a certificate of completion whose logo can be displayed on your website.

6. Search Engine College Pay-Per-Click Starter Course

There are two versions of this course: one that provides guidance from industry expert Kalena Jordan and a "self-study" version that does not involve her guidance. Only students taking the first version qualify for certification. The class discusses paid advertising with Google and Yahoo, as well as a variety of other topics on PPC management. It includes 10 downloadable PDF lessons totaling 97 pages.

7. ROI Revolution's Google AdWords Beginner Online Training

This $97 class is devoted to Google AdWords. It includes three video training sessions that last about 90 minutes apiece, and a fourth video devoted to strategies that can help you sidestep common beginner mistakes. The instructors are Timothy Seward and Mike O'Rourke, founder/CEO and PPC account manager, respectively, at ROI Revolution.

8. International Webmasters Association-HTML Writers Guild Web Site Promotion class

This six-week course covers PPC advertising in addition to other topics like SEO, link
campaigns and affiliate strategies. It costs $100 and is taught by search marketer Cindy
McMahon. McMahon posts lectures, readings, and other assignments once a week in the "online
classroom." The class requires one textbook: 101 Ways to Promote Your Website by Susan
Sweeney.

9. Stikky Media's Pay-Per-Click Online Certification Course

This tutor-supervised course is fairly pricy, but it includes over 300 pages of downloadable PDF lessons, 30 interactive online review quizzes, and 12 months of access to the online classroom area, among other benefits. Students who receive at least a 70% overall on their quizzes and final exam, and successfully complete all the necessary assignments, become PPC certified.

10. GutsGo's PPC Course

If you would like to learn about paid search advertising using a variety of search engines, this may be the class for you. This class, which is a partnership with the Internet and Mobile Association of India, discusses Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask. The website doesn't mention the class's cost, though more information can be obtained by contacting GutsGo.

11. Direct Marketing Association's Search Engine Marketing Certification

Two levels of this class are offered, basic and advanced. Both levels discuss PPC as well as SEO. Specific topics addressed include powerful landing pages, misleading metrics, and good bidding strategies. A certification exam can be taken at the end of the course, though certification must be renewed every three years.

12. Marketing Experiments Landing Page Optimization Certification

This $595 course teaches you how to increase your landing page relevance, how to design your page to hold your readers' attention, and how to motivate your visitors toward the desired action, among other landing page-related topics. It includes various case studies on how particular companies increased their number of sales conversions.

13. PPCblog PPC Training Program

Members of PPCblog have access to a handy set of PPC marketing tools and over 50 modules covering PPC marketing basics plus detailed tutorials on advertising via Google AdWords, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and MySpace. Have a question that isn't covered? You also have access to an active community forum. Membership is $179 per month.

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The Best PPC Tools Generated The Best Results

Below are 10 of what I consider the most useful free tools available. While there are many more free resources out there, these 10 (in no particular order) have generated the best results in terms of campaign performance and time efficiency. It’s important to mention that many of these tools have options to upgrade at a cost.

10. Spyfu:

Spyfu provides competitive intelligence for keywords and ad copy. This is a great tool to identify any keyword gaps you might have with your competitors. There is a pro version, but the free version gives you the big picture overview.

9. Geo Keyword List Generator:

This is a great tool for building out geo modified keyword list. Just add a zip code and radius and this tool will pull in all cities, zip codes and abbreviations of relevant geo in that area.

8. Typo Generator:

Similar to the geo generator, but this tool quickly produces common misspellings and typos of the desired search term.

7. Niche Keyword Finder:

This is a great resource to ensure your bases are covered with your keyword portfolio. This often picks up themes that would normally go unnoticed.

6. Keyword Mixer:

A quick way to build out a long-tail keyword list.

5. MSN Ad Lab:

A full range of tools ranging from audience intelligence to keyword research. I also recommend adding the free Excel plug in.

4. Compete:

Very similar to Spyfu, but sometimes the results differ, so it’s best to reference both sources.

3. Ad Words Wrapper:

This is a great tool for creating match types.

2. Keyword Map:

Another keyword generation tool, but this will display the results visually and showcase areas of possible expansion.

1. Google:

There are really 11 resources included in this one. Rather than going through each one individually, I’ve provided a little blurb about some of the ones used more frequently. I recommend using and researching all of these on your own though.

?Google Ad Words Editor – This is a great time saver for building and setting up huge campaigns.

?Google Website Optimizer – This tool allows you to test and optimize site content and design.

?Google Analytics – Provides much of what an expensive analytics package can for free.

?Google Insights for Search – A great keyword tool for determining seasonality and trends.

?Google Mobile Ad Preview Tool – Offers a quick way to see your ads on mobile devices.

?Other Google tools include: Google traffic estimator, Google Alerts, Google Trends, Google Ad Planner, Google URL Builder and most recently the competitive tools through the Ad Words dashboard.

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