In this week’s edition we will strip down the process of Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and really focus on the basics or what some like to refer to as “The Building Blocks & Pillars” of Pay Per Click Advertising. Many people fail to generate results in PPC because they place too much emphasis on technical and advanced processes and tend to overlook the basics. As a result, their PPC Marketing campaigns lack structure, a solid foundation and framework. So, today we will discuss what these pillars and building blocks are, significant features and how to incorporate them.

Pillar 1: Goal Setting

Before starting a PPC campaign it is important to set goals and clearly identify what it is you are trying to achieve (i.e. – Sales, Branding & Awareness, Leads, Mailing List etc) Setting goals is possibly the most important of all the pillars because without clear goals, your campaign will lack structure and will be instantly lined up for failure.  So make sure you take considerable time to draw up your goals and to plan and prioritise.

Pillar 2: Keywords

Keywords are an important element of any PPC Marketing campaign and can be the difference between achieving results and not. It is important to have the right keywords and keywords which are relevant to your campaign and likely to return results. Yet so many advertisers fail to accomplish this goal and fail to incorporate keywords efficiently.

Building Block 1: Match Types

When it comes to keywords, it is important to understand and master keyword match type. Many advertisers have difficulty when it comes to selecting and understanding keyword match type and how they affect ad serving. A regular theme seen throughout many advertisers’ campaigns is that their campaigns either end up being too restrictive (exact match) or too extensive (broad match). It is important to identify which keywords are suited best to your campaign, which type suits those keywords best and remember sometimes it is important to have a good mix of match types throughout your campaign.

Building Block 2: Negative Keywords

Also considered a match type in its own right, negative keywords are a significant part of PPC and keyword research/generation. Negative keywords are often overlooked and misunderstood by advertisers. Therefore, it is important to learn about negative keywords and learn how to incorporate them accordingly. Research which keywords you do not want showing under specific searches and add them to a list accordingly.

Pillar 3: Ad Copy

Ad copy is an essential part of any PPC campaign and can significantly increase the Click Through Rate, traffic and lead to potentially more conversions. It is important that the ad copy is updated regularly and that the ads are split tested to see which ad copy is performing better.

Building Block 1: Call to Action

An essential part of most ad copy which many advertisers fail to incorporate or overlook is providing a call to action.

Building Block 2: Unique Selling Proposition

Another important element in ad copy is providing a Unique Selling Point. This will allow you to distinguish yourself from competitors and to generate greater performance.

Building Block 3: Relevant Headline, Text & URL

An important element of creating good ad copy is ensuring that you insert the right keywords into the headline, text and URL and to ensure the copy is relevant to the user search type/keyword.

Pillar 4: Landing Page

Regardless of whether your a company, individual or PPC Agency looking to enhance your PPC camapigns, landing pages are a very important part of PPC and campaigns. Even if your campaign is performing in terms of CTR and the traffic is coming to your website, if your landing page is not efficient or relevant you will fail to convert traffic into sales and lose money. Therefore it is important to ensure your landing page is relevant to the keywords and search type, is user friendly, easy to navigate, has a quick  loading time and relevant to the user.

Building Block 1: Tracking

Tracking is an essential part of any Pay Per Click Advertsing (PPC) campaign. If you are not utilising tracking then why bother because you will not know what is working and what is not. You are wasting your time and taking stabs in the dark. Make sure to incorporate conversion tracking within Adwords and connect Adwords to Google Analytics to ensure greater tracking and measurement.

Building Block 2: Call to Action

It is crucial to have a Call to Action dotted around the landing page, reinforcing the notion of what you want them to do. Many advertisers fail to complete sales because they have failed to reinforce the call to action in the users mind.

Building Block 3: Relevance

Ensure the landing page is relevant to the users search. So for example if someone is searching for jackets, send them to the jackets page and not the shirts page.

So there you have it. I hope this article on “The Pillars & Building Blocks Of Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)” was helpful and remember if you are looking to launch a PPC campaign remember to use this structure to help you achieve greater results.

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