How to Set Up a Solid PPC Campaign - Loading Your Campaign into Adwords

You may not realize it yet, but you've already finished the hard work. Think about it....

• You completed the keyword research
• You created your categories / adgroups
• You wrote your ads

See that? Now it's just a matter of putting the puzzle pieces together. Every tab on your spreadsheet is an adgroup. Each with its own keywords and individual ads. So when you're ready to create your new organized campaign, it's as simple as creating a new adgroup for each tab.

Now, there are pros and cons to keyword match types - broad, exact, and phrase (a post for another day). However, if you are looking to use some or all of the keyword match types, here is a great keyword wrapping tool for you to use.

If you've create a lot of ads per adgroup, I would not use all of the ads right away. You want to do some A/B testing (again, a post for a different day). Try 2-3 at a time and then work others into the rotation based on performance.

Also, do not forget to add your negative keywords if using broad or phrase match.

While the hard work is done, the tedious work is not. Wrapping keywords, copying and pasting ads, and setting bids can be time consuming. The wrapping tool should help, but be prepared for some mind-numbing work as well. But once you are done it should be worth it.

However, you're still not done. The last step is adjusting the settings on your Google Adwords campaign. That's where this post helps...big time.

Pros and Cons of9 Adwords settings.

And as for setting your bids, that will come down to your budget, the size of the campaign, competition levels, etc. However, here is some material to help you with that as well.

7 Strategies for Small Business Adwords Campaigns

Once you digest the material in those posts it's time for launch. That's when the fun begins...analytics. Because when it comes to Search Engine Marketing, it's all about the ROI.

How to Set Up a Solid PPC Campaign - Organizing Your PPC Keyword List

In our last post we discussed creating a master PPC keyword list. Now that you have that long list of search terms, it's time to break them down into smaller categories.

There are a few reason you want to break down your keywords into categories...

1) The smaller tighter groupings are easier to manage than a large lump of search terms.

2) This will allow you to write very specific ads for these smaller groupings

3) It also allows you to send traffic to certain pages on your web site.

4) Both 2 & 3 will increase your quality score and reduce costs.

5) It will make life easier when managing and setting bids.

6) In some cases negative keywords may be needed for only certain categories as opposed to an entire campaign

Now that you know why, it's time to get to the how....

Honestly, the choice is yours on the best way to break things down. Using our comic book store as an example, you may want to break down your keywords into character groupings. Spider-Man, Bat-Man, or The Sentry (who?!). Or you can do it by publisher - DC, Marvel, Vertigo (what?!)

The logic is to determine which keywords can have specific ads and specific landing pages. So if I am looking for a Captain America comic and Google that search term, I'd prefer to see an ad that says "Captain America Comics". That would entice me to click on your ad as opposed to an ad that says, "Lots of Comic Books".

On that same note, send me directly to your Captain America page. Don't make me find it. I'll probably leave your web site unless Cap is in my face and if not, you just wasted a $1.32 click charge. Put Wing-Head right in front of me when I click on your Cap ad. You have less than 3 seconds to grab my attention, don't waste that time.

Now you don't have to go crazy. There are well over 500 issues of Captain America. And while you "could" have 500 keywords, you don't need 500 ads or categories. Put all the Cap keywords in one category. "Captain America comics", "Captain America Comic Books", etc. This way when you're ready to write the ads, you only need a handful of ads for Cap. Then a few for the Spidey category and so forth.

And you can apply this logic to a lot of industries. Bakeries - chocolate doughnuts, wedding cakes, apple pies. Sporting Goods - volley balls, tennis rackets, World Champions Phillies Jerseys (that's right!). You get the idea.

Now you can organize this anyway you want, but I find the best way is to do it on an Excel spreadsheet and every tab is a category. So the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing gets a tab, Silver Surfer gets a tab, Green Lantern gets a tab, and so forth. And don't forget a tab for those negative keywords. I can't stress enough how important they are.

The Excel method will also make life easier when you're ready to write ads, but that's a topic for a different post...which is next. See you in the funny papers!

How to Set Up a Solid PPC Campaign - Keyword Research

Whenever I take over the management of a Google Adwords campaign, I see a lot of the same mistakes over and over and over... Just as you build a house on a solid foundation, you need to do the same with your PPC campaigns.

So the next few posts are going to be about the correct way to build a strong Adwords (or Bing) PPC account. Then I'll summarize at the end with a link to each topic. Let's begin the series with...Keyword research.

(For illustrative purposes, we are going to be...an online comic book. Sorry, I'm a comic geek.)

Keyword Research - I know, you've just created your account and you want to jump right in and see yourself on Google. Mistake! Organization is the key and that starts with keyword research.

You can start by using the free keyword tool that comes with your new account. Just click on the "Tools" tab where Google lists some of it's very cool and free tools. You want the "Keyword Suggestion" tool for this exercise.

Start using the tool with a broad term like..."comic books". The tool will produce a list of keyword phrases associated with your main term. "Comic book", "online comic book store", "free comic books", etc.

Wait, did I just say free comic books? Yes, I did. On purpose. Just because there are popular search terms related to your services and products doesn't mean you want to be found for all of them.

Free is a great example of this kind of term. If you blindly bid on the keyword "comic books" and someone types in "free comic books", your ad will show up and therefore potentially get an unwanted click. An unwanted click you pay for.

So this is why keyword research is so important. While you're making a list of all the keywords you do want to be found for, I highly suggest you make a list of keywords you don't want to be found for. Free is a good one to start with.

Moving on, once you compile a list of keywords for "comic books", try other terms like "Superman comics" or "graphic novels" or even "DC comic books". By the time your done (and do take the extra time for this) you should have a pretty sizable list. At least for this industry.

Now be careful here. Some keywords will be great for your list: "online comic books stores". While others may be bad: "comic book artists". However, some may fall in the middle: "Japanese comic books".

Do you sell Japanese comics? If you do, do you have enough selection to make it worth paying for traffic from this term. Should it be a negative keyword? Should you bid really low for just a trickle of traffic? You're going to have to take some terms into consideration as you compile your list.

Then there is the broadest of broad terms: "comic books". If you're a comic book store, you may think it's silly to not include a core term like "comic books" in your campaign, but hear me out. If you have a small budget PPC campaign, what term would you rather have traffic from, "online comic book stores" or "comic books"?

A more specific term has a higher chance to lead to a sale, so you don't want a broad term that generates a lot of clicks eating up your budget before you can be found for the specific terms.

Also, without the proper negative ketywords in place (if using broad or phrase match), a broad term like "comic books" can bring in unwanted clicks. Remember our free example? What if there are a few other terms you missed like "costumes", "writers", or "Dazzler" (who reads Dazzler comics?!). You'd not only be using up your budget fairly quickly on a broad term, but some of those clicks would be from terms you'd prefer not to pay for. So your squandering opportunity for some looking to "buy comic books online."

Not that you can't include a broad term if it's appropriate, but just be careful with those types of keywords. Keep them in separate campaigns or adgroups where you can control the budget and the bid. Determine if the ROI works then adjust accordingly. Remember, it's not about the quantity of traffic, it's about the quality.

Now back to the topic at hand. Once you've completed your list of targeted keywords (and negatives) it's time to break it down, which leads us to...organizing your keyword list.

See you next post, same SEM time, Same SEM channel (Classic Batman, Chum)

7 Strategies for Small Business Google Adwords Campaigns

If you are a mid to large-sized company that has a healthy budget for your Google Adwords account, you have a lot of freedom within your campaign strategy. You can bid aggressively for high-converting keywords and advertise far and wide.

But what happens when you have an Adwords account for a small mom and pop shop that has a very limited budget? Shouldn’t you get just as much for your advertising dollar as the big guys? The answer is yes, but you’ll need to use a different strategy in order to achieve this.

Imagine that you—a small bakery called Grand-Ma-Ma’s Goodies—have only $5 a day to spend, and you take orders from people within a ten mile radius. And you’re closed on Tuesdays.

Here are 7 things to consider for Grand-Ma-Ma’s Adwords campaign:

1. Use Only Longtail Keywords – Yes, I mean only. ‘Bakery’ and ‘pies’ are great keywords, but they’ll eat up the $5 pretty quickly.

However, if Grand-Ma-Ma is famous for her Cream Cheese Pie (It’s a Philly thing), then use the longtail term “cream cheese pies,” which comes at a cheaper cost per click and is more likely to result in a conversion.

Sure, the term “cream cheese pies” will rarely be searched compared to ‘pies,’ but if you’re only spending $5 a day, and you have enough longtail keywords—peach cobbler pies, banana cream pies, etc—you’ll probably fill your budget out pretty well while attracting highly targeted customers in the process.

2. Get Granular – Segment ad groups down to the finest detail. Cost per click is a serious concern with a small budget campaign. How do you keep costs under control and gain quality clicks? The best way to do this by maximizing your quality score.

If Grand-Ma-Ma sells 10 different kinds of cookies, create 10 different adgroups for cookies. Put the scrapple-related cookies in a scrapple cookie adgroup. Write a scrapple cookie ad and send Web visitors to a scrapple cookie landing page. If there is no page dedicated to scrapple cookies, send it to a page that is the best match, or at least has some scrapple cookie text on it. Better still, create a landing page for scrapple cookies.

This will increase the quality score and allow ads to achieve higher ranks with lower bids since ad rank is based on the bid and the quality score.

3. Match Types and Use of Negative Keywords – With a small campaign, broad match shouldn’t even be considered. If utilized correctly, and with the appropriate negatives, broad match can be used for larger clients, but with a client the size of Grand-Ma-Ma’s, rather focus on other matching options—with few exceptions.

Exact match is a no-brainer, and phrase match can be utilized as well. However, when using phrase match, negatives keywords are essential. You don’t want someone clicking on your ad if they’re searching for ‘free chocolate cheese steak cake.’ Grand-Ma-Ma sells chocolate cheese steak cake, but it sure ain’t free.

4. Choose Ad Running Times Carefully – Grand-Ma-Ma receives orders via her Web site, which forwards them directly to her BlueBerry. She immediately calls the customer to confirm—and hopefully upsell. So she doesn’t want orders coming in at 3am from drunks with a craving for scrapple cookies!

Adjusting running times for ads ensures Grand-Ma-Ma’s ads run when she’s available to respond. Potential late-night customers will be lost, but if the conversion rate is higher during operating hours, then that’s the time to maximize her small budget. So run Grand-Ma-Ma’s ads during store hours only and turn them off on Tuesdays. That’s her day to spend at Rocky’s Boxing Gym.

5. Tighten Your Geographic Parameters – Grand-Ma-Ma doesn’t serve anyone farther than ten miles away, so the radius setting should be ten miles.

Small-budget companies that do accept clients from across the country should not be tempted to run a campaign nationwide at first. If you live in Philadelphia and you convert more clients with face-to-face meetings, spend your budget in areas where you can have face-to-face meetings. Only when you have maximized in that high-converting area should you expand your location to include other areas.

6. Test the Positions of Your Ads – Google allows you to select ad positions. While this isn’t an exact science, it’s worth playing with.

If Grand-Ma-Ma’s new Phillies doughnuts catch on when the Phillies win the World Series (oh wait, they did) and every bakery in America starts making them, the price for this keyword will rise like yeast. Grand-Ma-Ma’s budget will no longer easily accommodate the keyword ‘Phillies doughnut’. But by setting a position preference combined with a low bid, her Phillies doughnut ad will still show up on page one—just less frequently. Keep in mind that even if you have a position preference, you may not ever show if the bid is too low.

7. Bid According to Budget and Data – Get out your calculator, crunch some numbers, and adjust your bids according to positions, ROI, and performance.

You may find a $5.01 bid for ‘glazed soft pretzels’ would work since the conversion rate was 50% and Grand-Ma-Ma made an average of $20 profit per order, but you can’t spend your entire budget on one term and ignore the others. Scrapple cookies, chocolate, and Phillies doughnuts need their fair share of impressions, too. They all convert well and generate profits, and Grand-Ma-Ma shouldn’t depend on one product for her business.

As with most Internet marketing efforts, none of this is set in stone—it should be tested. These are suggestions. If you were to utilize all of them from the start, you could limit traffic too much. Alter them until you maximize your budget and your ROI. If you don’t have enough longtails, you may have to experiment with broader terms, like ‘bakery.’ If you don’t get enough traffic from phrase match and exact match, you may have to test broad match (with negatives).

The goal is to get as much quality traffic as you can with a limited budget and prove that the campaign works. Then, getting Grand-Ma-Ma to increase her small business search engine marketing budget will be as easy as winning the World Series. For the Phillies, at least.

Yahoo Keyword Matching

I know a lot of people whose PPC campaigns have a lot of success on Google Adwords, but when they transfer them over to Yahoo, the performance on Yahoo is...less than expected (to be kind).

When you implement a Yahoo PPC campaign, you may receive a lot of clicks, but no leads or sales. There are lot of reasons for this, but too many to list in one blog post, so let's stick to the keyword issues for now. First, let's talk about negative keywords.

Negative Keywords. If you sell Cream Cheese on line (can you tell I'm a Philadelphia Search Engine Marketer?), there's a good chance you are bidding on the term "Cream Cheese". So if someone types in "good cream cheese" you want to show up. That works.

However, what if someone types in "free cream cheese"? Guess what, your Yahoo PPC campaign will show you for that term. Why? Because Yahoo feels that your keywords match that term. Just what you don't want. So, how do you avoid this? Negative keywords. Add the word "free" as a negative keyword so this doesn't happen.

You need to check your analytic logs and reports to see what terms you are paying for and eliminate the "fat" (cream cheese pun!). You shouldn't be doing this for just Yahoo, but all of your PPC campaigns. Google, Bing, etc.

However, while that will help, there is another issue when it comes to Yahoo...

Yahoo Advanced Keyword Matching. When you first create a Yahoo adgroup, the default keyword matching option is "advanced". Advanced means they will match your keywords to any phrases Yahoo thinks matches a phrase a user may use. Since Yahoo's goal is to increase your clicks and your goal is to increase quality clicks, something tells me that you and Yahoo may not agree on all these terms.

That is why you have to change your settings to "Standard" keyword matching. It won't solve all of your problems (you still need to use negative keywords), but it will help. Check your Yahoo adgroup settings and if you are getting a lot of clicks with no result, you may be set on advanced keyword matching. It should be the first thing to check. Then start looking for negative keywords to eliminate further unwanted clicks.

Even despite these efforts, Yahoo campaigns still may struggle for other reasons, but more on that in a different post. However, I do have clients who run tight, efficient campaigns on Yahoo and they do work. But like your Adwords campaigns, you really have to watch and optimize them on a daily basis.

Good luck with your search engine marketing efforts and if your Google Adwords campaign is running well and you want to expand, you can always transfer your Google campaigns to Bing as well.