DO: Spend Time Developing Your Keyword List

This is step one of the entire process, so think about it carefully. You want to initially cover all your bases by developing a robust list of what keywords you want your ad to display for. You can always edit down later based on the average cost-per-click and what fits within your budget. Get started on your list by:

• Pulling keywords from your existing website copy
  
  
• Looking at the keywords your competitors are using on their site, or PPC campaigns
  
  
• Blow out the keyword list using a myriad of tools (Google’s Ad Words, Keyword analyzer), or ask your colleagues for their suggestions

DO: Segment Your Campaigns

Take a look at your keyword list. There are probably logical groupings of keywords jumping out at you. Don’t just throw a myriad of keywords into one campaign and expect great results. This is a mistake people make all the time. For example, if I am bidding on terms related to “discount office supplies”, but I also want to bid on terms related to “discount school supplies”, I would create two separate campaigns: one for all keywords related to “office supplies” and another for all keywords related to “school supplies”. Do not overlook this step. Segmentation really goes a long way and will help you develop targeted ad copy & landing pages, which will help boost your Quality Score. Increasing this score is important as a high Quality Score can determine the overall success of the campaign.

DO: Use Keywords in Your Ad Copy

So, you just went through all the trouble to segment your campaigns. Follow through with it by using the exact keywords you are bidding on in your ad copy. Let’s use a search for “HP PhotoSmart Printers” as an example. If someone types that into a search engine, they are expecting to see ads that contain the exact search term they searched for. This is why campaign segmentation is so critical. You do not want to serve up generic, non-specific keywords in your ad copy, especially if you are selling products or services that are in specific categories, tied to certain brands , etc. In all honesty it applies for anything you are advertising online. Show the prospect exactly what they want. Spice up the ad copy by using teaser words like “sale”, “discount”, “10% off”, or “free trial”. The user will be much more apt to click.

DO NOT: Dump People on Your Homepage

Unless you, absolutely have to! This is a mistake that almost everyone makes right off the bat. Think about it, if you do a search for “HP PhotoSmart Printers”, and then you see an ad for “HP PhotoSmart Printers” which you click on, would you not expect to be taken to a page just for “HP PhotoSmart Printers”? Yes, you would. If you dump a prospect on your homepage where they have to search all over again for the item they JUST searched for, they are hitting that back button quicker than you can blink your eye. Instead, create targeted landing pages for each of your segmented campaigns (again, another reason why segmentation is so important).

DO: Track Properly

A marketer’s biggest nightmare is to launch a campaign that has no viable means of tracking. How are you to know if it is working and your advertising dollars are being spent wisely? Tracking PPC campaigns is easy. All the major engines offer a conversion tracking code for leads, sales or any other call to action on your site. It simply goes on your order confirmation page or the thank you page that displays when someone fills out a form on your website. Conversions show up right in your PPC management console. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!

DO NOT: Set It & Forget It

Sure, once you build your PPC campaigns and set the status to active they will run on their own. However, that does not necessarily mean you should let them. Make it a best practice to check your campaigns every day, or at least a few times per week. The minimum bid requirements on engines are always changing. So one day you may have a very important keyword running in your campaign, but the next the minimum bid may have increased for that keyword. If you are not meeting the minimum bid requirements, your keyword will not run. Pretty simple logic right? In all honesty, you DO want to be tweaking your campaign continually by adding new keywords and removing underperforming ones. Also, try adjusting your cost-per-click (CPC) for each keyword until you find a comfortable level that fits within your daily budget.

Taking the time to properly setup your campaigns at the very beginning is so important. Invest the time – it will be well worth it!

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