PPC
11
10 Things You Should Know About PPC
1
Anyone can run PPC ads but not everyone can do it well. It can be easy to
set up a campaign on Google, Yahoo, or Bing but most businesses do not have the
time or knowledge to run an effective campaign. It takes a lot of experience to really
understand the ins and outs of PPC! From a PPC management perspective, strategic
campaign organization, bidding strategy, and ad copy testing are essential if your
campaign is going to succeed.
2
PPC results are immediate but results will likely improve over time. Once a PPC
campaign is set-up, it will begin running within a few hours (after the ads are approved).
Therefore, PPC is said to be immediate because traffic will begin coming to your site almost
right away. A common misconception is that these “immediate results” can be used to determine
the effectiveness of the campaign. Many small business owners will try PPC in-house or with a
PPC management company and if they are not meeting their goals within the first month they’ll
cancel it and begin pursuing other marketing channels. This is not a sound business decision
though because PPC results tend to improve over time as the data being accumulated is used to
make changes to the campaign.
3
The “Set It and Forget It” approach to marketing will not work for PPC. With
PPC you can’t just set up a campaign and leave it, hoping it will bring in traffic and sales.
Campaigns require constant monitoring of bids, keywords, and competition. Updates, new tools,
and improved features can be rolled out by the search engines, and if you aren’t constantly
monitoring your campaigns you may waste your marketing budget and miss out on the targeted
traffic you are seeking.
4
The aim of PPC is to deliver targeted traffic that is likely to convert. If it’s done
correctly, running PPC can bring high-quality, targeted traffic to your site. This traffic is much
more likely to convert than general untargeted traffic. However, you still need to pay attention
to best practices for your site (i.e. providing functional navigation, search options, proper product
information, accurate pricing, appealing design elements, etc.) so that your campaign stands the
best chance of succeeding.
5
Your ads may not show every time someone searches and may not always
appear in the same position. Fluctuations in paid search results are the nature
of PPC. Sometimes your ad may appear at the top, sometimes it may appear along the
right-hand side and sometimes your ad may not appear at all for a specific keyword.
This is particularly true if you are using very general keywords or have a small budget.
The search engines use complex algorithms that look at how much you are willing
to pay for each click, how much you are willing to spend per day, and how much all
of your competitors are willing to pay to fit your ads into the paid search results
based on your preference settings. The fluctuations that result are sometimes viewed
negatively by people who always want to have their ads appear in the first position,
but are actually a good thing because they can result in you paying less per click and
having your ads shown more frequently.
6
PPC works best when integrated with SEO as a part of an overall marketing
strategy. PPC and SEO go hand-in-hand- allowing your business to appear for
customers searching through both paid results and organic results for the products/
services that your business sells. PPC starts getting traffic to your site right away and
allows you the flexibility to make changes to your marketing strategy quickly (i.e. for
sales/promotions, seasonal holiday shopping, etc.). SEO, on the other hand, takes an
investment of time to achieve results and implement changes and is more focused on
the overall direction of your business.
One main difference between PPC and SEO is the strategy that surrounds keywords.
With PPC, you can focus on an unlimited number of keywords, allowing you to canvas a
wide variety of products/services that you offer. With SEO, you will want to focus on a
small number of keywords that represent the core of your business. These differences,
however, ultimately end up working together because PPC can provide data about
where your traffic is going and what demand is like for your different products and
categories that then can help you make decisions about the future of your SEO
efforts.
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7
Proper keywords are vital to the success of a PPC campaign. Keywords are
the building blocks of a campaign. When doing keyword research, it’s important to
look at which keywords have high search volume and then expand those keywords out
into long tail keywords so that you make sure you are not bidding on keywords that
are too general (ex. “Chihuahua Halloween Costumes” versus “Dog Apparel”). Negative
keywords are equally important so that you can qualify the traffic coming to your site
even further.
8
Writing Good Ad Copy is a Continuous Process. Having professional-sounding,
persuasive ad copy is essential. Your ads are the first impression an online shopper
will have of your business. If your ads are too bland, they’ll be overlooked, but if
they are too over the top they’ll probably be consciously avoided. On top of needing
an appropriate tone to the ad, it must convey vital information and utilize keywords
where possible. None of this is easy to accomplish within Google’s strict requirements
and regulations! Ad text is one of the aspects of a PPC campaign that sets amateurs
apart from professionals. If you want to get the most out of your ads, you’ll need to
seek professional opinion (via trusted industry resources, webinars, and articles) or
assistance (via a third-party PPC management company).
9
Your competitors are using PPC. PPC is one of the most widely used marketing
efforts by online businesses because the initial investment to get started in PPC is
very low compared to a lot of other marketing channels. Chances are, most of your
competitors are using PPC and their ads can steal sales away from your business.
When a potential customer goes online and sees your competitor appear in the organic
search results and also the paid search results, it now provides them with two ways
to get to that competitor’s website. If you are not using PPC, your only chance to get
noticed when someone searches is by appearing in the organic results.
Succeed online with Volusion
Give us a call. (800) 646-3517 opt. 2
Send us a note: sales@volusion.com
www.volusion.com
10
Don’t just assume that the default search platform settings are the right
choice for your business. When you set up a PPC campaign, the default settings
(everything from bidding options and ad delivery preferences to device selection and
network choices) may not give you the best results. It can be very difficult knowing
which settings are right for your business, and unless you have a very large budget
and a lot of time to experiment with all of the different settings, it’s best to do your
homework or hire a professional that can guide you in the right direction!
11
PPC must be approached with reasonable expectations. Go into PPC with
reasonable expectations. There’s no such thing as “marketing magic;” everyone knows
that, and yet it’s easy to set your expectations too high before you even get started.
The results that you can expect are highly dependent on the competitiveness of your
industry, and your willingness to invest in PPC advertising. Using generalized statistics
and averages about PPC as a whole as your measuring stick is not a good idea because
some industries are much more competitive than others.
Succeed online with Volusion
Give us a call. (800) 646-3517 opt. 2
Send us a note: sales@volusion.com
www.volusion.com