Top 7 Ways to Improve Your Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns

Nowadays we are seeing a Marketing Dollars Transition from traditional off-line publications to on-line pay per click initiatives. The most widely used Pay Per Click Platform would be Google AdWords, which is very easy to set up and can drive significant traffic to your website. With Google owning close to 60% of the market share they have a lot more to offer in terms of volume in comparison to MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing but they can get rather expensive. Below are 7 tips to better the efficiency of your Pay Per Click Marketing Campaigns on Google.

1. Separate your campaigns into those that are focused on the Google Search Network and those that are focused on the Content Network. Google allows you to set up different campaigns focused on specific areas or networks. Their search network is for ad placement on Google Search and their search partners, ie. AOL,etc. The content network places your ads on different websites that you AdSense and will advertise your text link ads. Ads cost a lot more on the search network as compared to the content network. Separate them out and adjust your bids on the content network to be a lot lower.
   
   
2. Use the keyword auto fill option on your creative ad text. We all know that the most important part of your creative ad is the top title description. By using {KeyWord: Top7Business Articles} in the top description whatever the consumer types into the Google Search Query will auto populate into the top line of your creative. If it's a long-tailed query - the phrase "Top7Business Articles" or whatever you choose to be the default will appear.
   
   
3. Less is more, don't use too many keywords in an adgroup. The biggest part of the Google Pay Per Click Algorithm than can equate to a reduced overall cost is your click thru rate. Your specific creative will be more focused and have a better click thru rate if it's more specifically tied to the keywords in that Ad Group. Don't use to many keywords in 1 Ad Group. Less is more in this situation. I like to use 10 focused keywords per Ad Group.
   
   
4. Delete keywords from your Ad Groups that have a minimum click required of 40 cents or more. You can only see this number if and when you are bidding high enough (so Google will alert you) or if you use Adwords Editor. See next tip.
   
   
5. Google Adwords Editor and download. This makes adjusting and monitoring your account so much easier. You can download everything into excel or notepad, make adjustments and then re-upload. It also allows you to pivot reports and look at the data at higher level.
   
   

6. Put your keywords into the display URL after the .com/. For instance, if you are selling widgets on your site and buying the keywords "blue widgets", the Ad Group that contains "blue widgets" should have the following display URL: http://www.yoursite.com/blue_widgets. People look to the url within the SERPs to see if your site is relevant. You can put anything you want in the display URL as long as you aren't violating any trademark infringements.

   
   
   
7. Don't try and maintain the top spot all the time. There are 2 facets to Search Engine Marketing - Pay Per Click Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. An SEO Strategy is a lot different than a Pay Per Click Strategy. Don't confuse the 2. When it comes to Pay Per Click you are looking to get the most clicks for your money and that most likely will not come from the #1 position. It's okay to be ranked #4 as long as you are consuming your dedicated budget. It's all about profit margin - not ranking.

Brad Dixon is a Notre Dame MBA and Search Engine Marketing Consultant that specializes in helping Austin Realtors with their PPC Efforts. He also created and maintains a lead generation website dedicated to helping the consumer with their Austin Real Estate Search.