How To Control The Cost of Pay Per Click Campaigns
August 23rd, 2010 by Jason
To meet your business online objectives you must have a good mix of marketing techniques, including a targeted Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. I agree, this is easier said than done. How do you know if your cost and Return On Investment (ROI) match up? How can you prevent spending hard earned funds on weak keywords? You do not want to wait until it is too late, right?
On one hand, there are many ways in which a PPC campaign can lose you money and time if not implemented correctly; on the other, there are twice as many techniques to achieve a decent ROI. You can avoid a lot of headaches and cost by:
- Setting a daily budget that will stretch throughout the entire day – it should not run out in a couple of hours.
- Preventing all your clicks coming from content networks that deliver few or no conversions – diversify!
- Immediately detecting suspected ‘click fraud’ (when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web).
- Changing your approach and strategy as soon as your tests show that your conversion rate is slipping.
- Educating yourself so you know how to bid the right amount of money for the different “match types.”
- Not attempting to bid on high-end ad spaces – the more bidders, the higher the price.
- Selecting PPC ads specifically for your industry – unqualified ads bring in the wrong, non-buying traffic.
- Carefully writing and updating ad copy to ensure the highest click through and conversion.
- Following through after building a keyword list. In fact, it does not matter if you plan web development improvements, or a keyword optimisation session, always complete your mission. It is the only way to improve ROI and online presence.
- If you can afford it, move up the keywords with a high conversion rate on your bidding list. Yes, it may cost a bit more, but you will also be selling more goods and services.
Any PPC campaign can be optimised even if you think it is hopeless. That means that you too can achieve a good Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). All you need are the right tools, as well as a number of set skills that can help with your PPC campaign optimisation and spending. This sounds simple enough, yet in practice it is not. To be successful in both fields you will need quite a broad range of talents and you must be willing to spend time on the correct implementation.
#1 – PPC Campaign Optimisation
In recent years, managing PPC campaigns has become so intense and complicated that it is no longer a task marketers can do after hours. Today, practitioners need to set ample time aside for keyword research, budgeting, account administration, bidding, deciding on ad types, geo-targeting, reporting, testing, and much more – basically a lot of AdWords, Bing or Yahoo administrative tasks. The workload has increased so much, it is virtually impossible to handle a PPC campaign, all while managing your website, performing SEO, adding new merchandise/services to your site, expanding your social media network, etc.
Because there is so much work involved, and the field is so specific, many marketers will outsource their PPC campaigns to specialised agencies or consultants. That is fine as long as you know that the company you hired is reputable, delivers adequate results, charges competitive fees, and communicates with you in language you understand.
Reliable PPC firms can provide quick results and help you save by vastly improving your ROI. If they are dedicated, your team of experts will find the ideal list of keywords for your business, constantly test the work they have done, study the outcome, and perfect their strategy until your PPC campaign is an ultimate success. In other words; when the traffic you pay for converts!
# 2 – Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
It won’t help you much if your campaign optimiser specialist attracts lots of qualified traffic, and your website’s conversion rate is low. A lack of Return on Ad Spend is bad and should be corrected ASAP because, as we know, the better you convert, the more expensive the bids on keywords, and the higher your chances for qualified traffic, which can be converted. More people buying your products will increase your profits, and the amount of money to spend on your PPC strategies. It is a spiral that can go either upwards or down, and only you can determine its direction.
Qualified conversion rate optimisation experts should fully understand ‘paid search segment’ and the user intent of keyword queries, as well as how to properly segment and analyse PPC traffic and conversion rates. In addition, these professionals should:
- Have the ability to suggest effective landing page tests;
- Recommend higher quality ad copy;
- Find new ways to boost a conversion rate through PPC traffic;
- Be familiar with Unique Value Propositions (UVP) – Why should a consumer buy from you and not from your competitor?
- How UVP can span from PPC ads, to landing pages and conversion;
- Have access to persuasive copywriting sources. This type of unique written content can be quite beneficial to both your website and PPC campaign.
Do PPC Campaign Optimisation and Conversion Rate Optimisation Overlap?
It does not matter what you do in life, your talents will come in handy in a number of different situations. When dealing with your PPC promotions and conversion rate optimisation strategies, you will soon realise that some of your skill sets will be valuable in both categories. They may overlap in fields like analytics, keyword research and ad copy production.
The fact that you have overlapping areas should make you aware that you will need to create a bond between the two teams working on your marketing optimisation project. Both your PPC experts and those working on improving your conversion rate should consult each other regularly about their set goals, their actions, the progress they made, and their testing results. Only through cooperation and a close working relationship will they be able to significantly advance your PPC campaign, increase your conversions and, over time, lower your advertising cost.
About the author: Michael Jenkins is the director of Shout Web Strategy which is a firm in Melbourne specializing in Search, conversion rate optimization and web usability.
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