Pay Per Click - PPC: The Basics

Pay Per Click - So what is it?

Pay Per Click (PPC) is an advertising system offered by search engines in which the advertiser pays every time someone clicks on their advert - hence the term. PPC adverts appear along side natural listings within search engine results, most commonly at the top, bottom and right hand side of the page.

Where will my ad appear?

Advertiser bid on keywords or phrases. In general the higher the bid, the higher the position. Some search engines, including Google Adwords, use additional factors:

• The Click Through Rate (CTR) which is a measure of how popular your ad is
• The relevance of your ad to the keywords you are bidding on.
• The relevance of your landing page to the keywords you are bidding on - the landing page is the page I get on your website when I click on your ad.

These factors help determine the amount you pay - the cost per click (CPC). The less relevant your ad and content, the higher you will have to pay to obtain the higher positions. Better, more relevant ads and content, will cost less for the same position.

How do I make my Pay Per Click campaign successful?

Success has to be measured. Before you start any PPC campaign you need complete 2 tasks:

A) Clearly define what the objective of your campaign is

Are you trying to increase awareness; launch a new product; increase turnover or increase profit. Your overall objective will drive the rest of your campaign.

B) Clearly define what success looks like to you

Clear measures of success before you start will help you review your progress. Examples include increase traffic by 100%; increase enquiries by 20 per week; grow newsletter subscribers by 5 per day.

PPC - Setting up the Campaign

Regardless of the objective all campaigns follow the same generic process:

• Campaign Structure - structuring your campaign around products or brands will reviewing performance and future bidding easier. Subdivide into geographical regions if necessary.
• Keyword Selection - keywords/phrases should be selected according to budget and relevance. Choose keywords that people are actually using rather than what you believe they should be.
• Ad Copy - use enticing copy that gets your message across. The more revevant the copy the less your cost per click (CPC) will be.
• Landing Pages - create landing pages specifically for the search term. Not only does this ensure your pages are relevant, it reassures your potential customers they have come to the right page. Give them all the information they need here and overcome the common objectives in your copy.
• Tracking - tracking performance is essential to determine if the campaign is on target. Tracking also highlights areas where improvement is possible.

PPC - Running and Evaluating Campaign Performance

There are 3 main elements which will affect the performance of your campaign. Small changes can produce dramatic results.

• Keywords - identify the keywords which lead to the highest conversion and focus on these. Don’t forget to review the poor performers each time you change the ad copy or landing page.
• Ad Copy - continually test new copy. Adopt an attitude of continuous improvement using a champion/challenger approach. Run new copy against the existing ones. If the new copy outperforms the old, then out with the old.
• Landing Page - again continually test new copy. Ensure common objections are handled and that the customer is given clear instructions on what to do next. Optimise your landing pages to improve their relevance.

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