"Pay Per Click Management - How To Make Google Adwords Work For Your Website"

Pay Per Click management is a complex process and  most struggle to increase traffic to their site quickly and effectively. Here are some issues people face with their Google accounts:

• Top keywords being too expensive

• Cost per click too high to make a profit

• Click through rates (CTR) on ads are low

• Quality score is poor

• Minimum bids too high

• Website landing pages don’t convert

• Ads keep getting disabled

• Takes up too much of your time

Before we discuss pay per click management and the pay per click (PPC) process in more detail, we’ll first briefly go over the basics of pay per click advertising

Pay Per Click Management - What is PPC Advertising?

Google’s pay per click advertising is exactly what it sounds like.  It allows you create an ad that will show up on search engines like Google where you will pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

PPC search engine ads usually appear at the top or right hand side of the search engine results page (SERP) and are listed under Sponsored Links you might see when you do a search on Google.

That sounds pretty simple, but since PPC campaign ads are based on an open bidding system , you can lose a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. The bid amount you have to pay when someone clicks on your advertising is also known as cost per click (CPC).

With Google’s Adwords program your keyword’s cost per click bid in combination with your Quality Score determines your Ad Rank.

There are also different bidding options you can choose depending on your advertising goals.

Pay Per Click Management - 4 Critical Steps in Google Adwords Management

There are several steps to really making paid search work for you which we will discuss briefly below

Pay Per Click Management - Step 1: Keyword Research

Keyword Research is an integral part of Adwords management and the keywords you choose will determine if your pay per click campaign is a success or not.

A keyword is nothing more than a phrase people enter into the Google search box when they are looking for information, products and services etc. For example if someone types home loans Gauteng into Google then the 3 word phrase (home loans Gauteng) is the keyword.

The challenge is to discover relevant keywords that you want to target to drive targeted traffic to your website. The goal is that when people type in one of your keywords in Google that your ad would show up in the Sponsored Link area.

The idea is to pick keywords that:

• Drive the most traffic to your site

• Drive the right traffic to your site

• Drive the most profitable traffic to your site

A PPC advertising campaign can also help you to find which keywords convert and which keywords you should optimize for, for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. In other words the results you get from your PPC campaign can serve as a pathway for SEO.

If you’re not using the services of a pay per click management firm it is vital that you identify the right keywords to increase your profits. All the traffic in the world is meaningless if you cannot convert that traffic into sales.

It’s your conversions that will make or break your Adwords campaign and here are some important factors to consider:

• What are your advertising goals for your site?

• What cities or towns does your business serve?

• What about your target audience, do you know who they are?

• What makes your business different from your competitors?

• Have you checked how well your website converts?

Once your business and advertising goals are established, choosing the right keywords will set the foundation for your PPC search engine marketing campaign.

How to Build a Keyword List

The starting point of any online marketing campaign whether it is pay per click or search engine optimization (SEO) is thorough and in depth keyword research. Keyword research is serious business and you have to be prepared to spend at least 1-2 days to find a comprehensive set of search terms.

Identify Your Top Level Keyword

First you have to identify your seed keyword which normally is a single general keyword like “hotels” for example.

Vertical Keyword Research

Vertical keywords are contains variations of your seed keyword. For example:

• 5 Star Hotels

• Luxury Hotels

• Cheap Hotels

• Cape Town Hotels

• Port Elizabeth Hotels

Lateral Keyword Research

Lateral keyword research is the process of finding phrases that are similar to your seed keyword, but do not necessarily contain that word or words exactly. For example:

• Lodge

• Bed and Breakfast

• B&B

• Guest House

There are many keyword tools on the market that you can use to do in depth keyword research and the granddaddy of all keyword tools is WordTracker. Now WordTracker is not a free product and you can use for it for $59 per month. They also have a risk-free 7 day risk free trial which you can cancel at any time.

WordTracker saves you a lot of time and within a matter of minutes you can generate thousands of keywords. It allows you to perform a lateral search and to identify closely relate terms.

By using a keyword tool like WordTracker you can do your keyword research faster and get results sooner.

Use a Thesaurus

You can go to Thesaurus.com can help you to find synonyms for keywords that are not so obvious. To use the thesaurus just type in the word into the search box and click the search button.

Keywords from Analytics and Site Logs

A great way to find unique keywords is to check your website logs and analytics to see what search terms people are using to find your website.

Log files are automatically created and maintained by your web server. Each time someone visits your website a file is created containing useful information about that visitor. Website logs are also a great place to find negative keywords.

You should also log in to your Google analytics account and click on the “traffic sources” to find keywords that are being used to find your website.

Use Google’s Keyword Tool

What’s great about Google’s Keyword Tool is that it’s free to use and are based on actual Google search queries. This tool will allow you to see how many searches locally and globally are being done and how much PPC advertisers are paying for the top positions on Google. You can access this tool in your Google account under the Opportunities tab.

Keep in mind while you’re doing your keyword research that the competition for generic phrases like “accommodation” is normally high and therefore the cost per click (CPC) would also be high even if you have a great Quality Score.

So you might be better off by going for more targeted keywords like “Sandton Guesthouse” if  you own a guesthouse in that area.

Pick The Right Keywords

Don’t make the mistake of picking a keyword just because it has number of searches and you’re hoping to drive more traffic to your page. You have to analyze the commercial intent of each keyword carefully.

For example, if I’m selling laptops which one of these two search terms do you think would convert better: “Laptops” or “Dell Inspiron 15?”

Although a generic term like laptop may occasionally convert, someone searching  using the phrase “laptops” on Google are not necessarily ready to buy.  They’re probably in research mode trying to figure out what they might want to buy.

On the other hand, someone searching for the exact model name knows exactly what they want. They have done the research and are ready to buy.

It’s not that a generic term won’t convert, but paying extra money to rank for such a term may not be a cost that is justified unless your profits on every sale is huge.The point is that you need to be aware of the difference in the commercial intent of the searcher.

Each keyword will have a different level of commercial intent and your goal is to identify keywords that will convert into sales.

Pay Per Click Management - Step 2: Adwords Campaign Set Up

Your advertising goals will determine how you set up and manage your Adwords campaigns. A properly structured Adwords management campaign should increase the volume of converting traffic and reduce costs of the campaign.

In other words your goal should be that the profit margin of each sale is more than the online advertising cost of acquiring a new customer.

For those that don’t know, an Adwords campaign is set out in the following way:

Pay Per Click Management: Campaign > Ad Group > Keyword(s) > Your Ad

Your ad must seem relevant an appeal directly to the person who is reading your ad in order to increase your conversions.

Ideally you should set up your PPC campaign in such a way that each keyword should have its own unique ad.

By including the keyword you are bidding on in the headline of your ad text it will create a high level of relevancy between the searcher’s query and your ad. This will also help to increase your click through rate (CTR) and improve your keywords quality score all the same time.

Emphasize benefits in your ads instead of only listing the features of your product. The point is that you must create your ads in such a way that it grab your visitor’s attention.

Keep in mind keywords will only incur impressions (the amount of times your ad appears on Google), but it is your ad copy that will turn those impressions into clicks. 

Keywords  Headline = Ad = Landing Page

You have to make sure that when people click on your Google ad, that they are directed to a landing page that is relevant to your ad. To achieve this you must match your keywords you use in your ad headline with the keywords in the landing page your direct searchers to.

While you can link some general keywords to the homepage of your site in most cases it is a better option to direct searchers to a dedicated page that has more information about the product or service they’re looking for.

If your landing page does not convince a visitor that they are at the right place to buy whatever they’re looking you will  have to develop new landing pages to improve your conversion rates. 

After all, what’s the point in getting a ton of traffic to your website if it doesn’t covert into any sales?

It is also very important to track how well your keywords and landing pages perform. If you’re not tracking your results it will be virtually impossible to determine if your PPC advertising campaign is successful or not. The real test of every search engine marketing campaign is whether customers end up buying something or not.

Pay Per Click Management - Step 3: Launch

Before you launch your Google PPC campaign make sure that your Adwords account is properly structured, your keyword list is targeted, and your ad copy and landing pages are  focused and relevant.

If you feel comfortable that everything is in order the next step is to launch your campaign and compare the results with your advertising goals.

Google’s pay per click system is a real time auction and they treat every search as a new auction. Bid prices changes constantly depending on the amount of other buyers.

Each keyword is treated separately and your position on the search engine results page (SERP) after the auction is referred to as Adrank. Google takes into account your bid on a specific keyword and the Quality Score associated with that keyword to come up with your Adrank. In other words:

Your bid price x Quality Score = Adrank

You can improve your Adrank by improving your Quality Score (QS) and increasing your bid prices. By optimizing your account your Quality Score will improve which will reduce your click costs significantly and due to a better Adrank you will get more clicks.

However, if the QS of your keywords are low you will be penalized with higher bid prices and it might be difficult to improve on that.  That is why it’s important to make sure that you will not get a poor QS before launching your campaign.

Once you submit your ad, Google will let you know via email if your ad was approved or rejected.

Pay Per Click Management - Step 4: Optimize and Manage Bids

Pay Per Click management is all about analyzing performance and then optimizing your Google account for efficiency.  On a regular basis you need to assess the profitability of your keywords since you may reach a point where making a profit may not be possible because of low conversions and high click costs.

So, you need to manage your bid prices to try and optimize profitability. The process of managing bids in order to achieve your marketing goals is referred to as bid optimization.

While managing your bids and optimizing CTR you should check for inactive keywords on a regular basis and raise your bids accordingly.

You should also filter your account for keywords that are in positions 8 and higher on the search results page and increase bid prices with at least 20% - 30% depending on their position on the search results page.

One of the misconceptions that many people fall prey to when advertising online is that they believe by being number one in the paid results will make them the most profit. If you hire a reputable pay per click management company they will make sure you're not fooled.

While it’s considered by many to the optimum position, generally it will be too expensive to make a profit. Unless, you’re a big brand company that are determined to be seen at almost any cost then being number one is not the best position to shoot for.

You should aim to get your ads show up in positions 2-8, but ideally in positions 3-6.

Further, if your keywords are incurring high impressions and low CTR’s then your ad is not connecting with searchers and you will need to fix it. On the other hand if your keywords have a high CTR, but a low conversion rate you then you will have to modify your landing page or create a new one.

If you find keywords in your account that has accrued a lot of clicks with no conversions at all then you should consider deleting that specific keyword.

There’s no point in clinging to unprofitable keywords and your objective should be to get rid of non-performing search terms as quickly as possible.

You want to find as many possible keywords that convert.

Split testing of ads is also crucial where you compare your control ad with new ads in an attempt to improve response rates.

You can test different variable of the advertisement like capitalizing the first letter of each word in the ad, use of symbols, numbers, test different display URL’s, experience with keywords in sub domain etc.

However, do not change too many variables at the same time otherwise you won’t know which variable is responsible for the change. So test only one at a time.

Your pay per click management company should be doing all this for you.

Optimizing is crucial and always remember that your goal is to make sales and not drive just traffic.