Your PPC Checklist

There are many key stages in a PPC campaign that need to be recognised. Whether you are a new PPC protagonist or an experienced specialist, the guidelines highlighted below will ensure that things are kept on track. There may be several ways in creating the campaign but the important aspect of this is that the end goal is always the same. The structured and disciplined campaign will show great results and positive ROI.

So, from research and recommendations a list for creating a PPC campaign is below:

The Market: Understanding the market would be first stage. Identifying the competition and what is going to make you stand out? What elements of your business will attract them to interact with your website and eventually buy?

The Keyword: Use the keyword tool and the AdWord facilities to make sure that keywords are accurate. Include the key promotional areas of your website or areas that you want to highlight, perhaps an elite product. Regularly review the keywords and research new phrases to uncover and expand the keywords.

Structure: Take the keywords and arrange them into key themed groups. Make sure that the keyword phrase is as precise and sharp as possible. Make a decision as to whether you need a single campaign or a multiple campaign for the best results.

Ad text: Make sure that the ad group is made up of ad words and matches the current campaign and it is good practice to run at least two ads that are fractionally different to see which one performs better.

Negative Keywords: The positive words are important and negative words should not be overlooked either. Some campaigns do include up to 2,000 negative keywords. During your keyword search, you will need to identify several negative keywords to balance the campaign.

Bid Prices: A budget will have to be discussed when bidding on your adverts; using the model of 2% conversion is a good start. When the bids are set, make sure that the campaign is reviewed and adjusted if necessary. A review of the bids is good practice before re-launching to achieve better positions.

Settings: Be aware of the default settings, and review them in accordance with the campaign. Include a location target and a suitable radius (normally generated from a postcode). Highlight the networks that the ad needs to be visible on (Google and Search Partners). Crucially make sure that the campaign/ad is also viewable on mobile phones.

Budget: Set a daily and perhaps after changes hourly.

Tracking: When creating the campaign ensure that the tracking is online and providing visitor feedback. The tracking will provide records on sales, downloads and contacts – depending on what the product or service is.

Launch: Don’t launch the campaign on a Friday, unless it will be closely monitored over the Saturday and the Sunday. When a campaign is started on a Monday and ended (if needs be) on a Friday you get a fuller picture of the week.

Review and Manage: The campaign needs to be constantly reviewed and monitored. Fine changes can be made that could be very rewarding, and original settings could be very costly. Make sure that both positive and negative words are appropriate and the tracking is viewed to stream line efforts.

Alternatively, you can contact www.stormmarketing.com and let the professionals take care of it for you.

Is effective Mobile Marketing just about having a mobile friendly website?

Mobile Marketing is a relatively new marketing channel but most companies don’t have a mobile advertising spend. The mobile market is expected to grow more over the next few years to the extent that it can’t be ignored and will become part of any digital marketing plan.

With Smartphone’s, including the iPhone and blackberry increasing in popularity, there will be more potential customer that will respond better to mobile marketing activities.

There are a number of ways that Mobile Marketing can be done, so take note. Also, you will need to consider carefully which methods will be your primary and secondary because of the type of business that the mobile marketing campaign is for. It is vital that this is done and that the target audience is understood.

1. 1.       SMS/MMS/VMS (Video)

This is a highly used and most common method of Mobile Marketing that is used by most companies because is it very targeted and immediate in comparison to others, plus it is very cost effective. A classic example is that a restaurant chain would send a SMS/MMS to its registered customers offering a percentage discount when they dine with them and the text would be shown to the manager to confirm.

1. 2.       Mobile Applications

Many companies and websites have developed an App that is hosted for download from the App Store. The purpose of the App is to create a more personal channel so customers can interact with a business or a website, such as the Facebook app and eBay.co.uk app. An app can be designed in such a way that any changes, offers, and even buying stages such as ‘payment processing’ and ‘on delivery’ can be displayed and so informing the user.

1. 3.       Mobile Games

With the apps – there is the opportunity to create a game that users can play that includes the company brand name and various marketing messages to direct the players to the website and convert them to customers.

1. 4.       Mobile Banner Advertising

Simply put, placing banners with a relevant message on mobile friendly websites. The selection and location of the banners is easy to manage to achieve a target audience. Banner advertising is priced in a similar way to PPC and CPM methods.

1. 5.       Mobile Local Search

The key thing with this one is that mobiles are on the move most of the time and when looking for a company that might be nearby, people go to the mobile to get directions with Google Maps. Also if you are looking for a particular item, many people use a search engine to see what shops may have it. A phone number will be posted and address. So, a call is made to make sure that the item is in stock and a postcode that can be dropped into Google to show where the shop is.

Most search engines use GPS that is often within a Smartphone and iPhone to determine your location. The search results can be filtered so that the 1st result is the nearest.

1. 6.       Mobile Paid Search

This is not dissimilar to normal PPC search apart from the number of results that will be shown on the mobile phone is only 4 – so the search campaign needs to be accurate to land on the first page. There is a danger however, that mobile users are less likely to interact with the site if it is not mobile friendly.

One tip: run the website through mobiReady to see if your site will perform on a mobile device.

So somewhere in that list will contain the perfect mobile marketing balance. Make sure that you’re online and mobile campaigns are working on an accurate blend.

PPC Clicks Pay in the Long Run

PPC doesn’t always result in instant success.  Companies using PPC services could find customers returning to their website a few times prior to buying products.

In a recent industry article, it suggested that PPC services are frequently the reason shoppers visit a site for the first time, which leads to purchases later on.

The article went on to say: “Many online marketers see significant latency between a paid click on an online ad and a purchase but that doesn’t mean the ad didn’t drive a sale.”

Valuable consumers are inclined to buy something and then keep returning to make more purchases meaning marketers see an increased value credited to the initial PPC click as time goes by.

Google Make Changes to AdWords Bidding System.

Google has introduced a new way of bidding on the Google Display Network via their Google AdWords platform.

Google changed the system following customer feedback.  Users of PPC services advised Google that the old functionality was confusing because of there being 3 default bids.

From March 15^th 2011, the managed placements bid will be removed to simplify matters.

Whilst the change isn’t yet implemented, any users creating new ad groups now will not have the option to set managed placement bids.  Over the next few weeks Google will automatically update existing managed placement bids for their customers.  If any users of Google’s PPC services wish to make the change themselves, they can do so now.

Google are excellent at listening to customer feedback and are constantly looking at ways to improve their services so watch this space for the next change.

Is Online Marketing effective on a Trial and Error basis?

Marketing is a key aspect when generating brand awareness, and online marketing is a proven way to generate this brand awareness even more.

A key strategy or approach with online marketing is to use a managed PPC campaign. By using search keywords in a monitored way, budgets can be set to achieve sufficient online interest in relation to the keyword efforts.

When the customers and the target audience have been established, the keywords will be incorporated into a campaign to match all criteria.  

But, any PPC campaign to keep the exposure has to be a long term project, to get the full picture. Online marketing will not be affective on a trial and error basis.

Has Facebook got the right platform for advertising?

Let’s look at the facts, Facebook has a very large audience and is the largest social networking site on the planet. The Facebook site achieved 7.1% of all UK internet sites, in laymen’s terms 7 people out of 100 visited Facebook in June 2010, and 55% of all social networking sites visits landed on Facebook.

Also, the average time that people spend in Facebook in one visit is on the decline. In June 2010, the average person spends 27 minutes per visit. So this there enough exposure on Facebook to ramp up their advertising if the time spent on the site is decreasing, even though Facebook is number 1.

Many Online critics and publications have advised companies to consider Facebook for their advertising mainly because of its audience and registered users, while monitoring the response from any Pay Per Click management services.

It is critical for Facebook to maintain its members and more importantly keep producing online games and amusements to increase visitor time on the site. If that can be done, then Facebook will be in a strong position to take on the larger advertising agents.

Facebook have also been testing a Search Engine based application via its existing Questions Application that will allow members to search and retrieve information based on key words.

Is this not a similar principle to Google?

Google or Facebook – Who’s Better at Plying Their Trade?

Who is better at playing their own game, Google (Search Engine) or Facebook (Social Networking)? What would happen if one decided to have a go at doing what the other one did? For example: Google start a social networking site.

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, are moving into Google’s turf and trying the advertising game as well. Google’s business began from the Pay per Click Advertising that in 2009 accumulated $23 billion. Facebook would now like to have a bit of that – and they are big enough to try.

Facebook and Google are alike in some ways and almost opposite in another. So, they operate alike by targeting small and medium enterprises using a self-serve advertising system. We know that Facebook has taken $1.86 billion in worldwide advertising. Most of that revenue was accumulated from the self–serve tools therefore, not getting into agency fees and additional charges.

Also, $1.21 billion of the $1.86 billion was earned in the US, so Facebook had a 4.7% share of the total online advertising spend.  Based on this information, and normal trends that have been seen before, Facebook will be at 8.8% in 2012. That additional percentage has to come from somewhere.

Despite that, MySpace lost serious ground, members and advertising revenue. In 2012, MySpace ad revenue fell from $470 million in 2009 to $156 million. In the background, Facebook was gearing up to compete with Google. As we now know, Facebook and Google are fighting for market share, as each percent could equal thousands and thousands of pounds.

If Facebook is going to keep chipping away at the percentage share within the market, they will have to get some things right. There is a lot of discussion within the marketing environment that Facebook is almost perfect at attracting/targeting a large audience. However, in doing so, it is not as specific.

This fault with Facebook does not really affect the large companies that post the large brand advert. The ad is seen by massive audience, and the brand will be known almost instantly by its users. The smaller and mid-sized enterprises (SME) however will have a disadvantage.

The smaller and mid-sized companies don’t generally have an instant brand identity, so to a large audience, the message is lost and therefore the advert will not be noticed and received. Google’s key word advertising is specific (hence keyword).  This is where the keyword based advertising is more appropriate. The Google keyword search will be more specific and is more efficient with a better ROI for a SME.

If Facebook wants to challenge Google it must get the SME advertising right.

Company Mergers Can Benefit From PPC

Paid search could help benefit companies that become subject of a merger.

An article by Search Engine Land suggests that the merging of two businesses raises a vast amount of varying tasks, a key one being convincing consumers that the move is going to be a better thing for them.

The article states: “This is exactly where paid search can help. When combining brands during a merger, you should leverage it to test different messages.”

The article suggests that PPC services would be an ideal way to convey good messages about the merger to prospective customers.

Putting in the effort to convey the right message at the outset will reap rewards in the long term.

As per our previous articles, customers should handle any negative feedback with a prompt reply that is clear and thought through.

Is Microsoft Bing Focusing on the wrong areas?

Microsoft is continually looking to improve its offerings and gain ground on Google.  One suggestion could be investing some time in sitelinks.

Sitelinks offer website owners a handy way to channel shoppers into the section of the site that they are interested in after a one-word search. 

Could Bing be accused of copying Google? Quite possibly yes.  However, Bing could implement their own version with different options and could offer more in terms of reporting.

What else could Microsoft’s Bing improve?  Well, they could implement things that Google are already doing but provide users with a better service than Google.  Things such as local details in PPC adverts and integrating feeds to improve PPC ads (better regulation of which goods are shown for different searches).

We’ve no doubt that the Techies at Microsoft are already hard at work brainstorming the next innovation.

Bing need to ensure they don’t purely concentrate on increasing traffic and attracting new advertisers and spend time focusing on innovative improvements.

Failure to move fast will see Bing leaving it too late and as usual Google will benefit.  This will not be good for any of us as Google will go on to further dominate the search industry.

Increase ROI with New Marketing Methods

Businesses need to identify the significance of new marketing strategies to ensure they get the greatest return on investment (ROI).

In a recent piece by Search Engine Land, it was suggested that established metrics such as customer attitudes, sales and brand awareness are no longer sufficient on their own.

Companies need to consider using PPC services and other new methods to stay ahead of the game.

The article advises that customer lifetime value is now considered one of the better ways to measure long term ROI.  It went on to advise what the worth of a customer is for the lifetime of their association with the marketer in monetary terms.

Daily newspaper, Columbia Tribune recently considered the benefits of digital marketing and highlighted the importance for businesses to develop a stable reputation over time.

It takes time to build up a good relationship with consumers but it is worth it in the long term.