How to Set Up a Solid PPC Campaign - Writing Targeted Ads

Now that you have all of your keywords well-organized into tight specific categories, it's time to write ads for these terms. Just as you were specific with the categories, you must do the same for your ads.

However, before we start, let's take a sample of terms to use for this exercise. This way things may be a little clearer. So for illustrative purposes, here is a sample list of keywords for the Spider-man category...

spiderman comic
spiderman comics
spiderman comic books
spiderman comic book
spider-man comic
spider-man comics
spider-man comic books
spider-man comic book
spider man comic
spider man comics
spider man comic books
spider man comic book

Now I know what you're thinking. Do I really need the different versions of "Spider-man?" The answer is yes and no. You could get away with one version (check it out at Google Trends), but I am very analytical. I like to see how the different versions perform. One term may be cheaper than the other. One keyword may bring in more leads or clicks. How will you know if you don't try? However, that is a debate for another post as this post is about writing ads. And there was a reason I used the different versions of "spider-man", which I will get to before the post ends.

So using this sample list, let's write an ad. Since Google Adwords is the most popular PPC platform for search engine marketing, we will write Google ads for now. Bing has the same limitations, but keep in mind, Yahoo's ad requirements can vary. However that may be moot soon with the MSN/Yahoo merger.

The limitations of a Google Adwords PPC ad are as follows...

1) The top line (Title) gets 25 characters including spaces.
2) The next two lines (adcopy) gets 35 each
3) The last line (display URL) gets 35 as well.

So we have Spider-man comic book keywords, and since we want to make this a very targeted ad, you want to have the main keyword in the title. This will not only entice clicks from people looking for Spider-man comics, but also help increase your quality score. So let's give this is a shot. We'll start with the title...

Spider-Man Comic Books

22 Characters and it contains the main keywords. So far so good. Now let's try the first line of the adcopy. I tend to favor two separate sentences in the adcopy, so we'll start with that method.

Huge Selection of Spider-Man Comics

Okay still going well. We tell our story in 35 characters. We have a lot of Spider-man comics and we work in the keyword again. Onto the next line...

I like my second line to be a strong call to action. Offer people something they want. Something that will make them come to your web site.

Free Shipping for orders over $25.

You can try other call to actions as well as long as they fit within 35 characters. Things like 10% on Back Issues of Spidey Comics or Free Graphic Novel with $50 Orders. Anything you feel will help increase sales.

One caveat. If you make an offer in your ad, that same offer has to be posted on your web site within two clicks of the landing page. Meaning, if you offer free shipping in your ad, you have to offer free shipping on your website as well. You can't just say "Free Bat Mobile with Every Order" and then not give away a free Bat Mobile.

Now the display URL seems like common sense, but there is a strategy to this as well. For example, which do you think is better.

www.MyComicStore.com

Or

www.MyComicStore.com/Spider-Man

Let people know that you are giving them what they want right away...within a click. A page about spider-man comics. Even though it's a display URL and not the actual real URL, it can help increase quality clicks and your quality score.

Also, with that in mind, send them to the Spidey page on your web site. Match the landing page to the ad, but we'll get to that in a different post.

As for capitalizing each word in the display URL, that is a personal preference. I've tested it both ways and sometimes the small letters do better and sometimes the CAPS do better. It may be something you want to test as well. I personally like it because it stands out a bit more and if you have a URL with multiple words it keeps them from running together. And who knows, maybe people will remember the URL easier, but I have no data on that.

So let's put it all together and see what it looks like...

Spider-Man Comic Books
Huge Selection of Spider-Man Comics
Free Shipping for orders over $25.
www.MyComicStore.com/Spider-Man

Not bad. We have a good targeted title for the ad, which uses the keywords. We tell our story using the keywords. We have a strong call to action. And our URL is even targeted. This should be a decent ad and should help the keyword quality score.

Now, one ad does not a successful campaign make, so you need to experiment. A/B test. You'll want to run ads against each other and see how they perform. Write different variations. Change the call to action. Test the display URL. And getting back to out variations of "spider-man", maybe try something like this...

Spiderman Comic Books
Huge Selection of Spiderman Comics
Free Shipping for orders over $25.
www.MyComicStore.com/Spiderman

Or this...

Spider Man Comic Books
Huge Selection of Spider Man Comics
Free Shipping for orders over $25.
www.MyComicStore.com/Spider_Man

See what I did here? I wrote different ads using the different variations of "spider-man". You may not have to get this granular, but if one of the versions is having a tough time with the quality score, this is an option you can use to boost performance. You may even give the varying keywords their own ad with their own category. It's up to you how granular you want to get.

And as for the two separate sentences in an ad. You may want to combine the lines and write one sentence in 70 characters. I'm not knocking that option, in fact I've had to do it myself on a few occasions (although I prefer the other way). That's why it's important to have different variations of ads. Try it with two sentences, try it with one longer sentence. See which will perform better. There are no set rules, this is just guidance.

So there you have it. Some different ways to write targeted ads for your target keywords. Once you're done writing your ads, web-sling your way back here and we'll discuss landing pages...

By the way if you ever want to look at an advanced method or ad writing, there are, in some cases, an opportunity to have more than 25 characters in the title of a Google Adwords Ad.

Putting Your Google Adwords Campaign on Bing (MSN Adcenter)

Now that Bing is "taking the world by storm", a lot of people want to try it out. Businesses want to know if their Google Adwords account will perform as well on Bing.com. So all they have to do is a lot of cutting and pasting, right? Well, maybe not.

I've read a few articles that say it's as easy as downloading and uploading, but truth be told there are some bumps in that road. Yes, it's not rocket surgery, but it's not as easy as tree science either. Let me walk you through it.

1) If you know how to use the Google Adwords Editor, the first part is easy. Just select "File" on the menu bar and download the campaign you want to a CSV file. That's the easy part. If you don't use Adwords Editor, here's the perfect time to start. It will make life so much easier for you.

2) Before you even attempt to upload the file to Adcenter, I need to make a suggestion. Open the CSV file and copy and paste the negative keywords to separate file or spreadsheet. Save it and put it aside for later. Now delete the negative keywords from your CSV file and re-save. (Don't worry, we will add back in the negatives down the road)

3) Nope, we're not ready for Adcenter just yet. More precautions. Don't use Firefox to do this. I love Firefox, but it won't work in this case. It bugs out. Also, I heard Safari and Chrome are no better for this exercise, but don't take my word for it. I use IE 7, however I don't know if it works with IE 8. You've been warned.

4) If you haven't already, you need to create an MSN Adcenter account before you try this. Just create a temporary campaign that you can delete once you complete the upload.

5) Once all of that is done, only now can you upload the Google campaign to Bing. So how do you do that? click on the "Campaigns" tab in Adcenter. Then Click on the "More" tab on the menu above the list of your campaigns (your temp campaign should be listed here) for a drop down menu. That is where you will see "Import Campaign" tab. That should take you where you need to go.

6) When prompted, enter your time zone and language. Then "browse" for the CSV file and upload. If you haven't hit any snags, this should work.

So now that the campaign is loaded it's ready to run, right? Nope. More work to do. Your adgroups have not been submitted and you should adjust your settings.

1) This is when you add your negative keywords. Open that negative keyword file I had you create and paste your negative keywords in the campaign settings (unless you want them at the adgroup level if they vary for adgroups). Yes, I know you only get 1,000 characters for negative keywords. It drives me crazy, too. So, make sure you prioritize.

2) Alter your other settings as well. Do you want to be on the content match network? Do you want to set specific times or days for your ads to run? Do you have specific geographic regions to target for your ads? This is when you set that up. Here is more about Google Adwords settings.

3) Next you have to go to each adgroup and submit them. Adcenter actually takes you through the same process as when you create a new adgroup, but at least this time your ads and keyword are loaded.

4) Before you approve your ads, make sure your tracking and source codes in the destination URL's are correct. For example if you have source=google, you may want to switch it to source=Bing and so forth. And make sure you re-save the ad and not "create a new ad". This way you don't have two of he same ads with the only difference being the source code.

5) For some reason, all of your bids come in at a nickel so you have to reset your bids during this process. You can do it at the adgroup level or at the keyword level, but either way, you have to do it.

6) Once you go through this process for an adgroup, save it and jump back out to the list of adgroups. Now, go back in to that very same adgroup you just saved and check your bids. Sometimes, the bids you set don't take. I've run into this a few time, so make sure you check your bids for each adgroup or any keywords where you set individual bids.

Now you are done!

Despite these little obstacles, the process is pretty painless and I think it will be worth it for you. If you have large campaigns and lots of adgroups, it can get a little mind-numbing, but you'll get through it, I promise.

I like Bing so far and really hope their market share increases. It could be a good thing for a lot of people.