Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising Checklist
By Anna Johnson on April 8th, 2009Running a paid search campaign in Google, Yahoo, Live or elsewhere? Here’s a quick checklist to ensure your text ads are as effective as they can be.
1. Match the keywords to the audience
It should go without saying, but it probably bears repeating: make sure the keywords you’re targeting are likely to generate qualified leads for your product or service. If not, you’re just wasting your cash.
To this end, carefully consider your strategy when it comes to where you place your ads e.g. search network versus content network (ideally have one campaign for each), whether you use broad, phrase or exact match, and whether you use negative keywords or other qualifiers to more narrowly define your audience.
2. Match the ad to the keywords
When someone performs a search on ‘crystal vase’ you want ‘crystal vase’ to appear in your ad. Ideally in the headline of the ad.
Matching ad to keyword generally results in much higher click-throughs. You can probably understand why: you are effectively telling the search engine user that you have what they want.
What if you have dozens of keywords in a given ad group and can’t possibly repeat each keyword in the ad?
Well, the simple answer is to divide those keywords into their own ad groups.
This is a must for any frequently-searched-on keyword, as well as for keywords that don’t generate many searches but are highly targeted to buyers i.e. where only someone about to buy is likely to search on the given term.
For long-tail keywords that don’t have many searches and are not really targeted to buyers, I would rethink whether you should include them in your campaign in the first place. But if you really must include them, your best bet is to use pay-per-click ads that are most likely to resonate with such prospects, regardless of whether or not they include specific keywords.
3. Match the landing page to the ad
Just as there should be a clear link between your ad and the keywords you’re targeting, so too, there should be a clear link between the ad and your landing page.
When it comes to paid search, there’s probably no bigger waste of money than directing a highly qualified lead to a targeted pay-per-click ad, only to send them to a generic landing page e.g. your home page.
Ideally, you should have a dedicated landing page that clearly communicates to your visitor that you have exactly what they’re looking for. In many cases this may mean repeating the keywords that the search engine user typed in – and which you repeated in your ad – in your headline.
4. Test, test, test
Test your keywords, test your ads, and test your landing pages. In particular, run split-tests, where you test alternate versions of your ads and landing pages at the same time.
Pay-per-click advertising is an ongoing process of optimization. And, as previously discussed in Kikabink News, given the ever-changing context in which pay-per-click ads appear (whether due to consumer, competitive or other forces) you can rarely rest on your laurels. Just when you think you’ve hit on the optimum strategy, things change, and more testing is required.
