This document provides an overview of best practices for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. It begins with background on PPC and discusses some common mistakes made by inexperienced advertisers, such as not properly targeting ads, using broad match keywords without negative keywords, high bids without adequate budget, and lack of conversion tracking. It then outlines seven steps for effective PPC campaigns: start with business objectives and desired actions; define success metrics; understand the business and target audience; perform keyword and audience research; optimize ad copy and messaging; implement tracking of clicks and conversions; and continuously measure and optimize campaigns. Finally, it lists additional PPC tools and resources.

2.  Started working in PPC in 2006
 Joined SEER Interactive in 2007
 Started in 2002 as SEO Agency
 SEO, PPC & Analytics focused
 Adwords & adCenter Qualified Company
 Spearhead 12 person PPCTeam
 All Adwords & adCenter Qualified
 Follow me @Crystala
 Email me Crystala@seerinteractive.com

3.  Internet advertising model on search engines
and content networks where advertisers only
pay when a user CLICKS on an ad.
 PPC = Pay per Click
 CPC = Cost per Click

13.  Settings

14.  Settings

15.  Settings
 Targeting Options – Campaign Level only
 Country, State, City, Zip Code, Custom

16.  Account Structure: Using 1 Campaign & 1 Ad
Group

17.  Keywords: Only using Broad Match
 [Free trial] – query much match exactly
 “Free trial” – query must contain phrase
 +FreeTrial – query must contain free
 +Free +Trial – query must contain both free & trial; any
order
 FreeTrial – query can be relevant, or similar

19.  Keywords: Not using Negatives
 Keyword Negatives for Search Campaigns
 Negative MatchTypes
▪ Broad, Phrase, Exact
▪ Free trial – excludes terms with both terms
▪ “free trial” – excludes terms with phrase “free trial”
▪ [free trial] – excludes terms that match [free trial] exactly

20.  Site Exclusions
for Content
Campaigns

21.  No bid strategy
 Bids set at Campaign level
 Bids set too high for budget
▪ $10 bids with $10 daily budget = no clicks

22.  Tracking:
 Not using ConversionTracking

23.  Tracking:
 Not testing tracking

24.  Tracking: Not using Auto-Tagging for Google
Analytics

25.  Ad Copy
 No Benefits/UVPs
 No Feature Description
 No Call to Action
 No Relevancy

26.  Ad Copy
 Running only 1 ad
 Default “optimize” setting

27.  Poor Landing Pages
 Broken pages
 All traffic to homepage
 Irrelevant pages
 No clear Call to Action

29.  Don’t Set & Forget!
 Setup Automated Alerts

35. 1. Start with the end in mind
 What is your business objective?
 What ACTION do you want people to take?
 The end goal is NOT to drive traffic

36. 2. Know what success looks like
 What is the maximum you are willing to pay per
lead?
 Does quality or quantity matter most?

37. 3. Know your Business
 Target Audience
▪ Are they only in the US? Only in Maryland? Only in
Baltimore?
▪ Are they women? Men?
 Seasonality
▪ Do sales peak in Summer? During the Holiday?
 Focus
▪ Is there a particular product or service
you want to focus on?

38. 4. Do the Research
 Don’t just guess!
▪ Adwords KeywordTool
▪ ContextualTargetingTool
▪ AdwordsTraffic Estimator
▪ Analytics

39. 5. Communicate the right message
 Drive users to take the action you want
 Emphasize benefits, UVPs, offers, credibility, etc.
 Call to Action

40. 6. Track,Track,Track
 FREE tracking – Adwords ConversionTracking,
Google Analytics
 PhoneTracking

41. 7. Measure, Measure, Measure
 Are you hitting your goals?

42. 8. Don’t Set & Forget
 Continuously optimize to reach goals

44.  ContextualTargetingTool

45.  Call Metrics

46.  Conversion Optimizer

47.  Adwords Campaign Experiments - ACE

48.  Search Funnels

49.  Sitelinks

50.  Remarketing

51.  Remarketing

52.  Adwords Blog: http://adwords.blogspot.com/
 Google Ads - Ad Innovations:
http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/index.html
 AdCenter Blog:
http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/advertiser
/default.aspx?
 Best PPC Blogs: http://www.boostctr.com/blog/paid-
search/best-ppc-blogs
 PPC Mind Meld: http://ppcmindmeld.com/
 Twitter:
 #ppc, #adwords, #adCenter, #ppcchat (Tuesdays 12pm
EST)