Methodology
The tangible nature of a Pay per Click (PPC) campaign provides the opportunity to generate acquisitions (sales, leads, enquiries etc...), in volume, at a fixed Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
Having a fixed CPA ensures that the campaign can be self-financing and subsequently much more scalable.
However, to achieve a fixed CPA, with a high volume of acquisitions, a deep understanding of the campaign metrics, how they relate to each other and how they can be positively affected is imperative.
Not to mention a clearly defined campaign management process and platform to facilitate the day to day running of the campaign.
Campaign Set Up
The foundations of an effective PPC campaign can be put into 6 main categories:
- Campaign Structure
- Keyword Generation
- Ad Copy writing
- Campaign Site Development
- Destination URL Allocation
- Launch Bid Strategy
With firmly established foundations, a PPC campaign can grow into what we refer to as the Campaign Metrics Tree ©.
Campaign Structure
Using a bespoke tool within the Jellyfish Unified Marketing Platform (JUMP), we will start the set up process by building a campaign and ad group structure using a very specific naming convention.
A structured account and naming convention allows us the flexibility to:
- Easily analyse and manage keywords on different match types
- Easily analyse and manage campaigns on different distribution channels e.g. search vs. content
- Separate specific terms from generic or brand terms
- Report easily on groups of keywords (due to the structured ad groups and campaigns)
- Easily identify opportunities due to the structure
- Easily handover a campaign to another account manager, if needed, as campaigns are all structured in the same way.
The structure will also ensure that all keywords are:
- Loaded on Google, Yahoo and MSN
- Loaded on all match types
- Loaded on all distribution channels e.g. search, search partners, content and placement targeting
Example name structure:
Campaign Name - CAMET-SPART
Ad Group Name - CFUND-KEYGN+BROAD-SPCFC+keyword generation
Keyword Generation
We put keywords into 4 main categories:
- Brand Terms
- Generic / Genre Terms
- Product / Content Specific Terms
- Competitor Terms
Brand Terms
We start by compiling a comprehensive list of brand keywords and associated negative terms. The list consists of all the variations of the brand used by searchers across all the major search engines.
These are identified using industry tools such as Word Tracker, Keyword Discovery, Keyword Spy and Google’s and Yahoo’s suggestion tools. These tools will also help us identify misspellings and popular typos.
(please note; all examples are for illustrative purposes and do not represent the full list of keywords for the Jellyfish campaign):
Example Brand Seed Word --- Jellyfish
Example Brand Keywords --- jellyfish, jellyfish reigate, jellyfish paid search, jellyfish search, jellyfish search agency, jelly fish ppc, jellyfish ppc agency, jellyfish ppc, jellyfish sem, jellyfish online marketing, uk jellyfish, hellyfish, jeelyfish, jrllyfish, helly fish, jeely fish, jelly fish
Example Brand Negative Terms --- species, sting, beach, sea, box, moon, spine, pictures, videos
Generic Terms
Next we compile a list of generic / genre keywords. These are best established through a brainstorming session. We essentially look at the offering in its entirety and come up with several key terms which represent or describe the offering (product, service, industry etc, ) Again, using industry standard tools, these terms can then be used as ‘seed’ keywords to generate further keywords.
Example Generic Seed Word --- Pay Per Click
Example Generic Keywords --- Pay Per Click, Pay Per Click Agency, Pay Per Click Bid Management, Pay Per Click Campaign, Pay Per Click Management, Pay Per Click advertising, Pay Per Click companies, Pay Per Click company, Pay Per Click consultant
Pay Per Click consultants, Pay Per Click marketing, Pay Per Click services
Pay Per Click solutions
Example Generic Negative Terms --- jobs, vacancies, what is
Product / Content Specific Terms
Product / content specific keywords are established using the available editorial content or product information. ‘Seed’ keywords are extracted from the content or product database and once again industry standard tools can be used to generate further keywords.
Example Specific Seed Word --- keyword
Example Specific Keywords --- Keyword, keywords, Keyword generation, keyword tools, keyword software, keyword research, keyword taxonomy, keyword evaluation, keyword search engine, keyword mining, keyword relevance, keyword optimisation, keyword analysis, keyword density
Example Specific Negative Terms --- lists, seo, ebay, meta tags
Competitor Terms
Lastly, we compile a list of competitor keywords. This list simply comprises of the names of competitors offering the same service or product. As a rule these competitors are identified from existing client intelligence, using the generic keywords generated to observe the search landscape and by using tools such as Keyword Spy and Ad Gooroo.
This aspect has become even more important due to Google’s decision to remove trademark restrictions on keywords.
Ad Copy writing
There are 3 main things to do, or consider, when writing out ad copies
- We ensure that the ‘seed’ keyword for the ad group is contained in the ad copy at least once
- We ensure that there is a call-to-action in the ad copy wherever possible
- We establish whether the ad copy needs to qualify the traffic before hitting the campaign website
The ‘seed’ keyword for the ad group is contained in the ad copy at least once
An important component of each keyword’s quality score is how relevant it is to the ad copy; therefore, in order to maximise the CPC savings gained through enhanced quality score, we ensure that the main ‘seed’ keyword for each ad group is contained in the ad copy.
There is a call-to-action in the ad copy wherever possible
One tends to find that if you call an action, in other words, ask someone to do something, they are much more likely to take action – in this case, click through to the campaign site.
Establish whether the ad copy needs to qualify the traffic before hitting the campaign website
Whether we would like to qualify or de-qualify the search traffic before it hits the campaign site is an important consideration. The more specific and qualifying the ad copy, the lower the Click Through Rate (CTR) is likely to be, however, subsequently, the higher the conversion rate is likely to be.
The primary way of qualifying an ad copy is to make it as specific and informative as possible. This allows the searcher to make the decision whether they are interested in a website, or offering, without having to click to find out more.
Whether you use a qualified or non-qualified ad copy generally depends on the following factors:
- How well the website / designated landing URL converts
- Competitive nature of the keyword and resulting average Cost per Click (CPC)
- How specific and relevant the keywords are
As a rule, we launch campaigns with relatively non-qualified ad copies. This allows you to flood enough traffic in to garner sufficient learning during the initial stages. We then go in and make the relevant ad copy changes as part of the campaign management process.
Having taken into account the 3 main points above, you then experiment with the ad copy within the character constraints enforced by the search networks, taking into consideration other factors such as:
- What is the hook which is likely to attract the right people (e.g. free trial offer, Unique Selling Points (USP’s) etc.)?
- What is the target demographic?
- Should one be exploiting existing brand equity (e.g. riding off the back of existing marketing campaigns)?
- Are there any seasonal events which if mentioned will generate more interest in your ad copy?
Campaign Site Development
The website receiving the search traffic is an extremely important component of the PPC campaign and can have a dramatic effect on the results achieved.
We often find the main goal of a PPC campaign cannot be fully facilitated by our clients’ main websites. Most company websites today have numerous agendas which all need to be catered for, and subsequently delivers a confused message, which is not conducive with converting visitors to sales, leads, enquiries etc...
As a result, one often creates sales focused campaign sites specifically designed to receive and convert PPC traffic. Our campaign sites do not have any of the distractions or leakage points found in the main websites e.g. advertising banners, links to job sites, links to competitions, blogs etc.
Experience suggets there is no negative effect of running both a main website which concentrates on organic listings, with its own commercial goals; and a campaign site which concentrates on PPC traffic and has a very specific focus. In fact, many of our clients who have introduced a campaign site have found that it actually enhanced the performance of their main site.
In summary, the benefits of using a campaign site are:
- They are more adaptable; allowing you to react and improve conversion according to opportunities identified by our sophisticated behavioural tracking systems.
- They allow us to perform split testing and compare Call to Actions (CTA’s), copy, offers etc…
- There is no distracting content which is not relevant to inducing a sale, lead, enquiry etc...
- All call-to-actions or links ultimately lead to the sign-up funnel.
- They ensure that your campaigns can be facilitated and measured in isolation to other campaigns or online strategies.
- They are provided as part of the subscription solution for free!
Launch Bid Strategy
Our launch bid cap strategy for each keyword is determined by which category they fall into within the campaign structure.
Brand keywords as a rule will be the highest converters as they are generally capturing people who are at the latter stages of the buying cycle;
Generic keywords will not convert quite as well as the brand keywords, and are notoriously expensive due to its broad appeal, high traffic volumes and subsequent competitiveness. With the likelihood of lower conversion and higher landscape costs.
Content or product specific keywords vary in performance with regards to conversion; this can depend on many factors, for example:
- How readily available is the product, service or information provided
- Is the product, service or information free or cheaper than competitors
- Is the brand a trusted source
- How relevant is product, service or information to the keyword
As a rule, our strategy is to bid conservatively on these keywords, garner some learning, and then promote the keywords which are converting. With the content / product specific keywords we would aim to achieve positions anywhere from 1-5 on the bid landscape.
Destination URL Allocation
Whether using a main portal or a specific campaign site; you spend a great deal of time and effort ensuring that we deliver PPC traffic to the most relevant content within the site.
Other than brand and top level generic keywords, one should avoid delivering traffic to the front door of a site. This forces visitors to navigate through the site to find the information or product they are looking for, which in our experience impatient users are reluctant or even unlikely to do.