If you are currently using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising then it is worth taking a bit of time out to reflect on your campaign. Here are ten my top tips to get the best out of your PPC campaign.

Research your keywords

Keywords are the phrases that people search for whilst using Google or other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo! Your business will have a few keywords that attract visitors such as ‘web design south Wales or PPC campaign management south Wales but there will be hundreds of variations of your keywords that competitors are not using. Use the Google’s free keyword research tool to find out those variations and to see the amount of traffic that these keywords could potentially bring.

Pay attention to the headline of your Ad

Run a few adverts with keywords in the title of your ad and also some ads with the following code in the title if your using Google AdWords:

{Keyword:your chosen keyword}

This will place the search term that the user typed into Google into the title of the advert. If the term is to long then your chosen keyword will be used instead. This is a very effective method if increasing your click through rate (CTR).

Don’t get in a battle for the top position

Although being at the top of the organic listings can be worth its weight in gold when it comes to a PPC campaign especially when using Google AdWords being in postition 2,3 or 4 often does no harm at all. In fact many organisations actually aim for 3rd, 4th or 5th place. Often Google will place Ads at the top of the page, being 3rd or 4th will place your Ad at the top, or near the top of the right hand column and this can be just as effective as coming in at position 1.

Never send visitors to your homepage

This is a big no no. When undertaking a PPC campaign always build a specific landing page optimised so that the user is more likely to follow the path to your ultimate goal, i.e. a sale or a sign up. For more details on the perfect landing page please see our perfect landing page article.

The last thing you want to do is make a user search for content after they have clicked on an advert, take them direct to where they want to go.

Permission marketing

You don’t always have to sell something to a user who has clicked on your advert. You may want to begin a relationship with them, maybe offer them free valuable information in return for their name and e-mail address. This is often called permission marketing if they have opted into receiving emails then you can engage and make the sale at a more leisurely pace.

Focus on increasing your Click Through Rate (CTR)

Your Click Through Rate (CTR) is the number of impressions your Ad gets divided by the number of clicks the Ad receives. Google likes you to have a high CTR, of course Google gets paid per click and as such Google does reward you for having a higher CTR. You may well find that increasing your CTR will mean that you will not need to bid quite so high to get your ads showing in a higher position bringing your Cost Per Click down (CPC). The best way to increase your CTR is by…

Test your Ads Against Each Other

Google allows you to ‘split test’ your ads that is run two adverts against each to see which one is effective. Google alternates the ads which are served up so you can keep on tweaking the advert to push up your CTR. Keep on doing this to constantly push your CTR that bit higher.

Use Negative Keywords

Make use of negative keywords, for example if your business installs windows in houses you may use the keyword windows installation by using microsoft as a negative keyword you omit people searching for Microsoft Windows.

Understand Quality Score (QS)

Google gives all of your keywords a score out of ten and it determines how much you pay to get your Ads into strong positions. There are many factors that go into calculating the Quality Score but by far the biggest factor is making sure that your landing page contains keywords used in your advert text and if possible the keyword was used in the initial search term.