PPC Campaign Management: Save Your Money
Paid-per-click - or PPC - programs are extremely important for your overall online marketing efforts. PPC campaigns can drive quality traffic to your website within hours after the setup. To Google, AdWords generates over $9B revenue each year. This is more than double of the GDP of Sierra Leone.
Google AdWords
The first step towards becoming an ace in Google AdWords is to read what Google has to say. Then you can also read my PPC tips. But above all, you need to remember one thing: Google wants you to spend as much money as possible whereas you want to do the opposite.
Minimizing Your AdWords Spending
Getting High Keyword Relevance
Perhaps the first most important thing you need to do to minimize your AdWords spending is to ensure high "relevance" of your keywords across all elements of your AdWords campaign:
- repetition of exactly the same keywords in all 4 lines and the URL of your ad
- repetition of the same keywords in your landing page's Page Title, H1, METAs, and copy
- inclusion of these keywords in your campaign's keyword list
For example, if I were to run an AdWords campaign for "web design Ottawa", I would need to have the following to ensure high relevance:
Web Design Ottawa
Professional web design in Ottawa,
flexible web design packages for all
http://www.annatulchinsky.com/web-design-ottawa.html
Then, on the landing page for your ad, you would also need to repeat "Web design Ottawa" like a parrot everywhere. This is how robots (i.e. search engines) interpret "relevance".
Paying Google
There is no way out, the more you spend, the better it is for your ad (and for Google). Ensuring high "keyword relevance" will help you get the most for your buck.
Don't Be Your Own Enemy
Google AdWords are setup per advertiser, not per campaign. So, your keywords would "compete" with one another if you include the same keywords in different ad groups and different campaigns. Ensure that each campaign and each ad group has their own unique keywords.
Run Your Ads where and When Your Customers Can See Them
In Campaign settings, define the time of day for your ads to run. Don't forget, people usually sleep at night. And also remember, people in Toronto don't need to see your ad for Ottawa. So define your language preferences, time of day preferences, and geographical preferences.
question google's intentions
If you want to save money, take my advice and disable "Content Network" and "Search Partners". Leave "Google search" only. This is especially important if you are new to AdWords. With time, depending on the scale and type of your business, you might decide to add those two options, but at first you don't need them, they will swallow your budget without any noticeable returns.
Impressions Can Bankrupt You
Google really wants us all to pay not just per click, but per impressions. Right! Your ad would quickly show somewhere at the bottom of the second page without anyone even noticing it but you will still pay for it, because it was "displayed". This is what an impression is. Unless you run some huge high-budget awareness campaign, do not pay per impressions. Stick with pay-per-click options.
Invest in SEO
If you want to stop spending money on AdWords, you need to invest in search engine optimization. The initial investment maybe higher, but it will pay off with dividents in the months, if not years, to come. Contrary to what many SEOs would want you to believe, once your positioning has been achieved, it does not take much work to maintain it.
