Pay-Per-Click Marketing Checklist

Pay-Per-Click Marketing Checklist This checklist does NOT cover landing page creation or conversion tracking. Preliminary Identify niche. Identify offers. Check offer pages. Create Pay-Per-Click (PPC) account. Configure PPC account. o Enter your credit card information and set your daily budget for each campaign. Be aware of the cost and make sure your information is accurate. Keyword Research Research primary keywords. o Use Overture or similar service to identify the primary keywords for your niche or industry. Don’t bid on these keywords alone – they will be very expensive. Drill down on keywords. o Software such as Keyword Companion will assist with identifying niche keywords that most competitors are not bidding on. These further qualify your visitors, meaning that you have your ads displayed to people searching for a very specific set of keywords and are thus more likely to convert if your product or service meets those keywords. They keywords are also likely to be cheaper to bid on due to less competition. Group keywords into a group of least 10. o This is done in Excel or using specialist software if available. While time-consuming, it increases your chances of having high relevancy scores and a better chance of conversion, as your ads will be more specifically targeted. Research sub-keywords within each group. o This ensures you can capture the highest number of possible combinations of search terms for each group of keywords, meaning you can reach more people than having just 10 basic keywords and thus have a higher chance of driving traffic to your site. Put the keyword groups into your PPC Campaign Manager. Write two sets of ads for each group. o This allows you to split-test the ads and find out which ones are converting best. This means you can spend more time improving and http://www.dtalpha.com/talkback/ – PPC Marketing Checklist – p. 1 of 3 Copyright © Stephen Pierce International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. o running the well-converting ads and save money by pausing the ones which do not convert as well. Your ads can point to your home page or your landing page. However, if you have keywords that are quite different to each other you may choose to implement multiple landing pages which are keywordspecific. Keyword Bidding, Campaign Activation and Monitoring Set your maximum bid for each keyword group. o Don’t set too high a bid or you will pay too much for keywords and will not make a good Return on Investment. Activate your campaign. Monitor your campaign. o Keep an eye on your Click Through Rate, which indicates how well your ads are performing. o Monitor your conversion rate, as this affects your overall Cost Per Click (CPC). Ideally you want the highest possible conversion rate for the lowest possible CPC. o If this is not happening, or if your ads are pulling visitors but not converting, try the Optimization process. Appraisal If you are receiving traffic and leads from your PPC Campaign and you are happy with the level of traffic you are receiving, congratulations! You have successfully created a traffic-driving, lead-generating PPC campaign. If not, go to the Optimization section. Optimization Examine your keywords Consider pausing keywords groups that have a low CTR or conversion rate. For keyword groups with high conversion and CTR, consider performing more keyword research to broaden the array of keywords within the group. Perform more keyword research on the niche generally and consider creating more keyword groups, and ads for those groups, to broaden your exposure across that niche. For the keyword groups that aren’t performing well, consider using negative keywords to filter out searchers that are searching for unrelated terms or keywords which don’t suite your products or services. http://www.dtalpha.com/talkback/ – PPC Marketing Checklist – p. 2 of 3 Copyright © Stephen Pierce International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Check your ad groups Identify the ads which are not performing as well as others. Consider pausing or rewording those ads which do not do so well. Ads can be written using the {KeyWord:Default Text} Algorithm to ensure that if an exact keyword or keywords is typed in, your ad will display that keyword in bold. If your keyword is not searched for, then the default text is displayed instead. o This means your keywords are displayed in bold, which attracts attention, and is more likely to result in additional clicks. Try rewording the ads using percentages, specific numbers and benefitsbased text to attract users and gain a higher CTR. Write ‘negative’ ads that strike fear into the user and make them visit your site ‘before it’s too late’. http://www.dtalpha.com/talkback/ – PPC Marketing Checklist – p. 3 of 3 Copyright © Stephen Pierce International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.