25 things you ought to know about PPC

20 October 2014 | | Pay Per Click

PPC can be a strange and potentially expensive world for newcomers if things go wrong. Read on for a brief guide of what you need to know if you are thinking about using PPC. Alternatively, why not concentrate on being a dentist and let us run the campaign for you. In which case you don’t bother reading this blog!

This is by no means a definitive list, but it features some of the nuts and bolts of PPC to help turn your online advertising using Adwords into a success.

1) Successful online advertising is all about relevance. To ensure advertisers produce relevant content for users, Google doesn’t only rank ads based on the amount of money someone is willing to pay. They also use a ‘Quality Score’, which takes into account the relevance of your ad to the searchers keyword. Your quality score should be at the heart of your adwords campaigns and a good one will help reduce your advertising costs.

2) Google wants to deliver relevant content to its searchers. In a nutshell, relevance creates clicks and clicks create profit. And, form Google’s perspective, clicks to relevant useful sites create loyal; search engine users who come back (and keep clicking).

3) Google’s system calculates quality score for each of your keywords. Over time, Google has refined how quality score is measured. Some of these changes are publicised on the Google AdWords blog

4) Historical CTR (CTR = number of clicks on an ad / number of times the ad is shown x 100) for the keyword and the related ad influences quality score

5) Historical CTR of the display URL and overall account history also influences quality score.

6) The quality of your landing page and the relevance of the keyword to the advert it is associated with will affect your quality score.

7) Negative keywords need to be managed and updated regularly. You dont want to pay for irrelevant clicks.

8) Google offers a variety of match types, looking at the example of ‘cosmetic dentist’

  • Exact Match – If you choose to advertise for searches for ‘cosmetic dentist‘ your ad would only show for searches on this exact keyword. Nothing more, nothing less.
  • Phrase Match – This matches phrases with the keyword in that order. So your advert would appear for ‘local cosmetic dentist’.
  • Modified broad match eg, dentist + cosmetic. This also matches dentist clinic, cosmetic clinic
  • Broad match – matches cosmetic surgery,  restorative periodontist  and corrective practitioner.

9) Keep an eye on your ad clicks and bounce rate. This gives you a heads up on the relevance of your ads.

10) Consider pricing. Are people clicking away because you are more expensive than the next guy? if you are you need to offer some added value, if not, then make sure they know you’re most cost effective and not just cheap.

11) Put keywords in your title. convey your USP and relevant features in your ad copy.

12) Remember consumers skim read, so make it nice and easy to read you ad quickly

13) Put the primary keyword in the display URL if space allows

14) Structure the account in an easy to manage way. account structure should reflect a well organised website

15) Max CPC = the maximum you specify you are prepared to pay per click

16) Average CPC = the average amount you are actually paying

17) Ad Rank = this is a score based on your quality score and your bid, that determines your average position

18) Quality Score is measured out of 10

19) Ad extensions are free to set up and you are charged per click as usual. They include:

  • Social Extensions such as showing the Google+1 button
  • Call extensions for ‘click to call’ on mobile ads
  • Site links, which add additional links to the ads in the top positions. A great way of helping patients find the most relevant bit of information they need in easy clicks
  • Location extensions add a map and address in the dropdown
  • Product extensions and rating show rating stars from reviews gathered across the web

20) Google display network is a great online branding tool as well as adverting. It shows PPC ads on third party websites including YouTube.

21) Re-targeting and re-marketing works very well. Its possible to target those who have seen your website and shown an interest in a page i.e dental implants

22) Work out what you are prepared to spend to acquire a patient for each campaign.

23) Try to learn as much as possible about your competitors. Look at there ad copy, their landing pages and keywords

24) Think about what can be automated in your PPC campaign. Don’t be afraid to automate, you can’t focus on everything all the time.

25) Check everything and never stop!

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