PPC Advertising Tips to Ensure Long-Term Success

by Admin


22 Nov
 None    Site Promotion


by Mediative


by Mediative
http://www.mediative.com

When it comes to paid search campaigns, being prepared is essential. But it’s also important to understand that paid search is not a “set-it and forget-it” advertising strategy.  The majority of companies have an annual cycle that can be considered a “steady’ state of environment. There are busy times, and quiet times, which are perhaps influenced by seasonal changes or major events/holidays such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, summer, etc. As a marketer, you have plenty of time to plan your paid search campaigns well in advance of those big events, and can use historical data to ensure success.

Take the scenario of a small toy distributor that has a physical store, as well as a website. Every year, sales follow a similar pattern – steady sales throughout the year, and a huge spike from mid-November until the end of December. Paid search campaigns are run throughout the year, promoting popular toys and sales, as well as geo-specific campaigns with ad messaging to drive traffic into the physical stores. This year, the “must-have” item for Christmas is a toy that is carried by the distributor. It’s selling out everywhere, and people are in a scramble to find this toy for their child. There was no way of knowing a) if there was going to be a hot toy this year, and b) what it was going to be, and c) if this toy distributor would carry it.

But how do you plan for the unexpected? Have you created your campaigns with such rigid structure, adhering to your company’s annual cycle that you wouldn’t know where to start if you had to change them? Being flexible in campaign management is key to taking advantage of changes in the environment.

Consider the Possibilities

While you cannot plan for every eventuality, there are 6 external factors to review to determine the likelihood of your campaign being affected:

  • Political
  • Environmental
  • Social/society
  • Technology
  • Economic
  • Legal

Major changes in any of the above factors can affect your PPC strategy by a) adding new keywords to the search terms people are using; and/or b) increasing the volume of searches using existing keywords. As external factors change, searcher intent changes. This will determine your keyword strategy – which new keywords should you now be bidding on? Can you adjust your budget for the existing keywords?

Try to map out what is likely to happen, how likely it is to happen, and the effect that this occurrence could have on your PPC campaigns. HINT: Look at Google search trends and search queries for reports to identify new activity.

React Quickly, and Capitalize on Unexpected Events

There are several things that can be done to capitalize on the rush of search queries that are going to happen, and the small window of opportunity that is available.

1. Adjust existing ad copy. If you are bidding on “christmas toys”, change your existing ad copy, for example, from “Best selection of kids toys for Christmas” to “Be parent of the year, with the MUST HAVE Toy X this Christmas”. HINT: Make sure the landing pages that people click through to are relevant, and adjust accordingly to align with the new messaging.

2. Review and expand your keyword list. This will ensure your paid search ads are visible. Search queries are going to be much more specific. You should be looking at bidding on keywords and phrases that reflect the intent of the searcher – e.g. instead of searching for “Christmas gifts for kids”, searchers will now be much more specific, searching instead for ”Toy X”. Be prepared to adjust your budget, however – the popular keywords may be more expensive. To reduce the cost, consider:

  • Bidding on long-tail keywords e.g. “websites selling Toy X”, or “where can I buy Toy X”, rather than “Toy X” alone.
  • Including geo-modifiers e.g. “Toy X Toronto”
  • Pulling budget from low volume/performing ad groups.

3. Use geo-modifiers. Tailor your ad specifically to the traffic groups you are targeting. The key for a highly competitive campaign is to find your competitive advantage. For example, a city included in the search query indicates a searcher’s desire to find the item in a specific location, therefore highlight the store’s physical location in ad copy, and use ad-extensions to re-iterate the address.

google-650x281.png

HINT:
 The key is to create ad copy that is going to solve the searcher’s problem.

4. Day-parting. Adjust the campaign schedule to times when the majority of people are going to be searching for the product – when targeting parents who are likely to be working, the best times would be over lunch-hours, later in the evenings, and on weekends.

5.Consider the match type. In regular PPC campaigns, it might be more applicable to use exact match over other match types such as broad match, broad match modifier, and phrase match to ensure you are not wasting ad dollars on people who are not interested in buying the product (“what is a Furby” vs. “buy a Furby”). However, in the scenario given, you could take more of a risk, and assume that more people are searching with purchase intent. And given the short window of opportunity, utilizing match types other than exact match (depending on the number of keywords) could increase the ROI in the limited time available.

6. Leverage a product feed for Product Listing Ads. Product feeds can be updated regularly and can change according to inventory requirements and pricing changes, ensuring that your product feed is as accurate as possible and you are not advertising out of stock items.

7. Ensure ad groups and products are structured to be found quickly and easily so that out of stock items can be paused until inventories are replenished. You don’t want to advertise for products you do not have.

8. Leverage negative keywords. For example, “what is” or “movies” can be added as negative keyword so that you are not getting impressions from people wanting to know what a furby is, or people looking for Furby movies. You can also proactively add negatives for keywords for potential negative matches. For example, a tourism website advertising destinations may want to proactively negatively match any potential queries for natural disasters or socio-economic crisis that may arise. (e.g. riot, hurricane, earthquake, war, etc.)

These quick tips would apply to many paid search campaigns that would require quick adjustment following a major change in external factors. For example:

  • The American Red Cross has to be prepared for any disaster world-wide and quickly adjust its paid search campaigns to reflect the location and nature of the event. In this case, because the organization knows that something is going to happen, at some time, but it’s just not sure where, and when , it would likely have many campaigns researched, planned, and ready to launch with a few simple changes to keywords, headlines, and ad copy, dependent on what happened and where.
  • In the case of a sudden product recall, a manufacturer/distributor would have to bid on more negative keywords surrounding the product, and quickly adjust ad copy to try and protect its reputation.

Being truly successful with paid search is a long-term game, requiring planning, testing, and modifying – however, no campaigns should be so rigid that they cannot be quickly changed to reflect the environment, and as a PPC marketer, you should be ready for as many eventualities as possible, no matter how unlikely they may seem, so that you can react, and take advantage immediately. Be prepared for the unexpected, because your competitors may not be.


About the author
Mediative is one of North America’s largest integrated advertising and digital marketing companies, specializing in maximizing the online presence of some of the world’s most respected brands. Mediative has been awarded the #1 Best Enterprise SEO Company in Canada by TopSEOs. Mediative’s best-in-class digital media strategists and experts serve national agencies and advertisers through its two divisions: YPG Ad Network and Mediative Performance. Mediative covers all print, search, display and social networks to drive performance marketing for clients across the entire buying cycle, from brand awareness to lead generation and sales. The company also integrates data, media networks and technology to help advertisers, publishers and retailers connect with audiences. Mediative has over 150 employees across four Canadian offices: Montreal, Toronto, Kelowna and Vancouver. Mediative is a division of Yellow Pages Group (TSX: YLO). For more information, www.mediative.ca





News Categories

Ads

Ads

Subscribe

RSS Atom