PAID SEARCH: STRATEGIES & CONSIDERATIONSIdeal for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses

Starting with the best foundation possible.

CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE

Assess Your (Business) Goals

Build Awareness

Sell Product

Sell Service

Gain Donations

1. Before you begin paid search, assess your business goals

Disregard traffic, positions, rankings, etc2. Ask yourself, can paid search help me

accomplish my business goals?3. Create one Campaign for each of your business

goals.

Begin Your Keyword Research Ask yourself, what would someone search for if

they were ready to help you accomplish your business goal – buy a product, buy a service, donate money, learn more about your business? General Keywords (hair salon) Problem-Based Keywords (need a haircut) Geo-modified Keywords (pittsburgh hair salon)

Available KW Research Tools Google’s Keyword Tool WordTracker SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

Weeding out the “Bad” Keywords Pull Traffic/Cost Estimates from Google

Google Traffic Estimator

Keywords Estimated Avg. CPC Estimated Clicks / Day Estimated Cost / Day

  lower lower lower

best hair salons $0.80  9 $8.00 

best hair salons in pittsburgh no data no data no data

cheap hair salons $0.42  4 $2.00 

hair salon in pittsburgh no data no data no data

hair salons $0.73  1,044 $770.00 

hair salons in oakland pittsburgh no data no data no data

hair salons in pittsburgh $0.54  0 $1.00 

top hair salons in pittsburgh no data no data no data

Keyword Considerations

Google Traffic Estimator is best for directional information Clicks will likely be over-estimated Keywords below position 3 can still receive

clicks – you may want to bid lower than Google’s lowest estimate

“No Data” doesn’t necessarily mean No Traffic, it could mean No Competition

A simple search on a “high traffic” keyword can show you context Example: Express (37 million) vs. Rue (8 million)

Create Your Ad GroupsSell Service

Best Hair Salons

best hair salons

Hair Salons

hair salons

Pittsburgh Hair Salons

hair salons in pittsburgh

hair salon in pittsburgh

hair salons in oakland

pittsburgh

Cheap Hair Salons

cheap hair salons

Best Pittsburgh Hair Salons

best hair salons in pittsburgh

top hair salons in pittsburgh

•Consider messaging & “root” keywords

Campaign

Ad Groups

Keywords

Landing Pages & Match Types Landing Pages

Relevant for Keywords & Ad Copy Consider Cross-selling – Can increase order value Simple w/ few distractions Keep it as targeted as possible Don’t forget your business goals – the desired

action should be able to be completed with as few clicks as possible

Match Types: Exact, Phrase, Broad Exact & Phrase will likely be cheaper Start with Broad

Considerations

Goals Campaigns Ad Group Structure Keyword Selection Landing Pages Match Types Ad Copy Bids Campaign Settings

Keeping your cost low and your ROI high.

BUDGET CONTROL

Ad Copy

Ad Copy isn’t just about messaging or getting people to click

CTR affects Quality Score and thus affects CPCs Qualifying Ad Copy is one of the first steps to

controlling cost Cost Location Clear messaging No KW Insertion, ex: {KeyWord:Pittsburgh Hair

Salon}

Initial Bids

How low can you go and still succeed? If Google’s Traffic Estimator has “No

Data,” you should start out with a $0.15 or less bid.

Google’s Estimates aren’t requirements & bids aren’t permanent, bid whatever amount you’re comfortable with to start

Check 1st Page bid estimates Directional – they may change once quality

score increases

Campaign Settings

Budget Caps Ad Distribution

Google/Search Network/Content Network Geo-targeting

Great for local companies Great for national companies

Lower CPCs/More targeted audience Ad Scheduling/Day Parting

Requires some knowledge of your most profitable times/days Position Preference Delivery Method: Standard vs. Accelerated Ad Rotation: Standard vs. Optimize

Considerations

Goals Campaigns Ad Group Structure Keyword Selection Landing Pages Match Types Ad Copy Bids Campaign Settings Bid Management Performance Analysis Testing

Ensuring you’re always getting the most out of your marketing dollars.

ANALYSIS & EVALUATION

Performance Analysis

Every engine has basic performance reporting

Web analytics should also be present to measure profitability

Performance should be checked at least twice weekly

Performance Monitoring Best Practices

Available Google Reports

Bid Management Considerations Keywords need to be in Positions 1-3 before

you’re shown in Google’s search network Position 11 is on Page 2 and will receive

severely reduced impressions How much can you pay for a keyword and

make it profitable Back track: How valuable is a conversion?

What profit margin would you like to maintain? The difference is how much you can spend on a keyword if you receive only one conversion.

Budget Optimizer

Additional Reporting

Measures your campaign visibility against available impressions

Tells you how searchers are really searching for your business

Impression Share Search Query

Search Query Match Type Impressions Clicks CTR Avg CPC Cost Avg Pos Conversions Conv. Rate CPA

bay area teen volunteer Broad 1 1 100% $1.00 $1.00 3 1 100% $1.00

bay area teen volunteer opportunities Broad 2 1 50% $0.96 $0.96 3 1 100% $0.96

Campaign Impression Share (IS) Lost IS (Rank) Lost IS (Budget) Cost Avg Position

Teen Volunteers 59% 40% 1% $261.06 3.7

Test, Test, Test

Ad Copy Testing Landing Page Testing Match Type Testing Bid Boosting Dayparting Geographic Demographic

Considerations

Goals Campaigns Ad Group Structure Keyword Selection Landing Pages Match Types Ad Copy Bids Campaign Settings Bid Management Performance Analysis Testing Paid & Organic Resources

Understanding the big picture.

PAID & ORGANIC

Paid & Organic Considerations Paid Search for Brand Awareness Paid Search for Link Building Branded Paid Search Campaigns vs.

Organic Traffic & Cannibalization Analyzing Organic traffic & generated

sales to determine bids Paid Search & SQ Reports can provide

SEO insights

Resources

Campaign Structure: Google Grants Account Creation Guide

Testing Ideas & Strategies: PPC Hero Campaign Creation/Management Tool:

AdWords Editor Google Search Help Yahoo Search Help MSN Search Help

Questions?

Goals Campaigns Ad Group Structure Keyword Selection Landing Pages Match Types Ad Copy Bids Campaign Settings Bid Management Performance Analysis Testing Paid & Organic