Marketing on the WebThe following are some of things that you should consider when creating a Pay Per Click campaign:
Getting Started / Open an Account
To get started, you will need to set up an account with each of the search engines. It’s painless and there is no initial cash outlay. Many of the hosting companies will give you ad credits for Google or Microsoft as an enticement to sign-up and the major search engines give these away at tradeshows and marketing events. These credits come in the form of a code and – like a coupon – there is a place to enter this code when you sign up.
Find Keywords and Phrases that Relate to Your Business
The first task is to determine an initial list of search words and phrases. Each of the search engine sites has tools to help you refine your list. You type in a word or phrase and the keyword tool will show you popular related words and phrases. Google has a keyword tool you can use without an account. There are also independent tools to do this, such as SEMRush and SpyFu, which will show you how you and your competitors rank for phrases.
In the case of Google and Microsoft, there are three variations on how words and phrases can trigger ads: these are known as “Broad”, “Phrase”, and “Exact” match. “Broad” means that any combination of the words can trigger the ad; “Phrase” means the ad can be triggered anytime all the words appear (in order)’ and “Exact” means the ad will display only the exact phrase is entered without any other words.
Bid Separately for Content
When you set up your campaigns, look for the “bid separately for content” option. Content ads appear on websites by matching the ad to the content of the page. This can be good if your ads are appearing on a page with expert commentary. However, the temptation to generate fraudulent clicks can be very high for these sites. To be safe, you will want to bid separately on content ads and track the results or limit your ads to the search network only.
Create Multiple Ad Groups
Group related phrases or keywords into ad groups. You might group “sale” phrases into one group, and “repair” phrases in another.
Create and Test Multiple Ads
We recommend that you generate multiple ads within each group. The ads should be worded to correspond to the search phrases in each ad group.
For example, if you are using repair phrases “bicycle repair”, “wheel repair”. etc, you will want an ad that says something like:
Huntsville Bike Repair
Locally owned and operated
We service all makes and models
www.huntsville-bikes.com/repairs
By comparison, if you are using “sale” phrases then you will want to have an ad that says something like:
Huntsville Bike Sale
We match internet prices
and offer local service.
www.huntsville-bikes.com/sale
Dynamic Keyword Insertion
There is also something called Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI). DKI lets you dynamically insert the search phrase. For example, if someone enters “cannondale bike” and you have the phrase “Cannondale Bike”, then you can use DKI to generate an ad like this:
Sale on [Cannondale Bike]s
Lowest Prices of the season on
[Cannondale bike] parts and accessories.
www.huntsville-bikes.com/cannondale
DKI can be especially useful when you are trying to deliver custom ads for a large number of items. Using DKI, each ad that is presented has a custom appearance that can be delivered dynamically from your list of phrases and keywords.
Landing Pages
Part of creating any campaign is deciding where the ad should take the searcher. This page is referred to as a “landing page”. While many ads dump the searcher at the front page of the website, it is usually a better idea to create custom pages that match the theme of the ad, orient the searcher to the site, and contain a clear call to action.
Create Conversion Events
A conversion event can be an actual purchase or something as simple as visiting a key page. Microsoft and Bing provide conversions scripts that when a page is visited with in 30days of the initial ad visit will register a conversion that ties back to the phrase and ad that brought the visitor to the site. If you have an eCommerce site, you can even monitor the dollars generated from a sale to determine exactly how much was earned from the amount spent on any given phrase.
Tune for Performance
While most people set up identical campaigns across the engines, the audiences for these search engines is slightly different and should be tuned separately.
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