Whether you advertise your site through SEO, content marketing or other channels, it’s important that you consider setting up a PPC campaign too. Our in house PPC specialist, Luke, has compiled a list of tips to help get you started.
1. Account set up
Before you begin, it’s worth creating an MCC (manager account) to manage your accounts all in one place. It’s important for each site to have its own account within the MCC as it will make it easier for you to manage and you’ll be able to see separate account performance.
You should take your time when setting up your campaigns for each site; the recommended campaign type is ‘search network’ only. This type of campaign will allow you to advertise on the search network with all features enabled, giving you more control over your campaigns.
Depending on what you want to achieve through your advertising, we recommend starting with a small number of closely themed ad groups so you can gather data and monitor performance. For example, if you have a mature site, you should keep these relevant keywords together.
2. Keywords
There are two types of keywords – keywords and negative keywords. Keywords allow you to target search terms to show your ads and negative keywords restrict your ads from being shown.
There are then four types of keywords within that, which can help you create more refined, targeted and relevant campaigns:
Broad Match – Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned
Broad Match Modifier – Gives more control than broad match and more freedom than phrase match
Phrase Match – Ads may show on phrases and close variations of that phrase, rather than just on words specifically
Exact Match – Exactly matches the search terms
The more relevant and targeted the keywords you’re using, the less likely you are to need negative keywords to help refine the traffic flow. You can find out more about the four types of keywords here.
3. Creating and tracking your ads
Tracking – You must ensure that you have tracking up and running so you can optimise your campaigns successfully. The more detailed your tracking becomes over time, the more thoroughly you can optimise your campaigns. You can learn more about about the different ways you can track and optimise your campaigns here.
Ad copy – The key to generating clicks and getting traffic to your landing page is to create quality ad copy that grabs people’s attention. Google have an extensive set of rules and best practices that you should review in detail to make sure your ads are approved first time.
4. Landing page
Design – Google love useful, original and relevant content. The more relevant your landing page is to your ad copy and keywords, the more likely it is to perform well. Links and pathways on your landing page may be useful in helping people sign up to your site, but in some instances can distract visitors from registering so make sure any other links don’t detract from the main CTA – the sign up button. From our research, we know that typically visitors don’t scroll very far down a page so position your CTA on your initial viewpoint and the area directly below.
Branding – If a user is presented with a good, relevant and accurate representation of your brand the whole way through their journey to your site, when they finally land on your page they are more likely to convert than if the user journey is mismatched at any point. Make sure that your branding is consistent across your ads and your landing page as it will add credibility to your brand.
Get in touch with the Partner team if you need any help setting up your PPC campaigns and we’ll be happy to help.