Pay Per Click Campaigns are the digital billboards of the information age. The nice thing about the system is that rather than paying for space, you only pay for customers who show interest. However, while the appeal is obvious, the practice is nuanced, and the truth is that you may just be better off seeking professional help before you delve into the world of PPC promotion.
First, Some AdWords PPC Basics
Seeing as how Google AdWords is one of the most globally popular PPC advertising systems, it’s probably the best place to start. AdWords is the system through which sponsored links are generated in Google searches. When someone starts a search query, the AdWords algorithm selects a set of advertisers and places them in the sponsored link section. These selected advertisers are chosen on the basis of their Ad Rank, which is determined by cost-per-click (CPC) bid and quality score. To clarify:
- CPC bid is the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay for someone to click on your sponsored link. The price is a bid, because Google will only charge you the amount required to set you above other bidders paying for link clicks.
- Quality Score is the algorithm’s measure of your links’ usefulness and relevance, determined by page quality, click through rate (CTR) and your history with Ad Words.
If you’re starting off on your own, you’re directly paying for advertising, and in order to generate sales, you want to ensure that your pricing and product are competitive. Beyond that, you want to understand search trends in order to determine the right keywords and phrases to use in your PPC campaign. Finally, once you’ve launched you campaign, you want to keep track of your bounce and CTR rates, which is where Web analytics tools will become your best friends.
Rookie Errors and Where Pros Can Help
The problem is that there are a lot of beginner mistakes that can plague your PPC campaign. Some of them include:
- Irrelevant ads: Ad relevancy directly factors into your quality score and thus effects both your chances of appearing as a sponsored link and the money you will be paying per click. When a PPC campaign groups keywords or overreaches for their target market, relevancy drops, CTR decreases and bounce rates shoot up. Ineffective ads can become costly mistakes and fast, often negating any savings earned from skimping on professional help. If you’re not comfortable with ad testing, it may behoove you to have an agency help with at least the first few campaigns before taking it over yourself.
- Unclear or absent CTA: The importance of a clear and concise call-to-action (CTA) can’t be stressed enough. You want to generate sales and there’s no easier way to sabotage that effort than by making it difficult for users to figure out how to buy your product. Agencies live, breath, and sleep marketing. They have years of data that shows what CTA work on what kinds of target audiences and for which industries. Guessing is one thing, and a data-backed decision is another. Your campaign may be effective and you won’t even know it if your CTA isn’t pulling its weight.
- Lack of testing: It’s difficult to determine what you’re doing right or wrong without testing different keywords and advertisements. You’re also going to wind up with outdated messaging and offers if you’re not regularly testing and refining your PPC campaign. Variable testing is an integral part of any professional agency’s services, so if you’re not sure what factors to consider, it may be best to first see how a pro sets up a campaign.
- Noncompliance with Best Practices: Failing to follow best practices will lower your quality score, CTR and conversion rates. Egregiously violating the rules will also get you penalized. You want to make sure that you’re following guidelines to the best of your abilities, and that’s often easier said than done. With experience comes a natural learning of the rules, and seasoned professionals know what can and can’t be done to ensure 100-percent compliance.
Beyond simple trouble shooting and tips, in a similar vein to SEO, the rules and algorithms for PPC campaigns are always changing. No one aside from Google employees knows the exact calculations or intricacies of the system and so the whole effort becomes somewhat of an art form. If you don’t have years of experience and you aren’t planning on making a career in PPC advertising, it’s going to be a bumpy road with a steep learning curve. Given the intricacies and complexities of PPC advertising, seeking agency help is probably in your best interest.