Optimising your PPC Campaign is the key to better performing adverts. With these seven essential tips, discover how you could increase your click-through-rate and reduce your Cost Per Click simultaneously.
1) Optimising Existing Keywords
Optimising existing keywords is a continuous process throughout your AdWords campaign and it is essential to analyse the effectiveness of your current keywords and their ability to drive relevant traffic to your website.
AdWords allows you to view the exact terms users searched when they clicked on your advert. To view these, choose a campaign, an ad group and then select all your keywords. Next click ‘Details’ and then ‘All’ searched terms.
This will enable you to view the exact search terms users entered into Google when your advert received clicks. With this additional information, you can discover new popular keywords and easily add them to your campaign, by selecting the search term and clicking ‘Add as keyword’. Equally, you are able to discover undesirable search terms that have prompted your advert. You can make your ads more relevant and bid more efficiently by excluding these search terms from your campaign, by selecting the search term and clicking ‘Add as negative keyword’.
2) Ad Extensions
Attaching ad extensions to your advert will improve your advert’s visibility and can help improve your return on investment (ROI), by increasing your click-through-rate (CTR). Relevance recommends using a combination of extensions to maximise the appeal of your ad and therefore increase its CTR.
To add an extension, choose a campaign, an ad group and the click on ‘Ad extensions’. Choose the type of extension you would like, by clicking ‘View’ and then click on ‘+ Extension’.
By adding additional data to your AdWords advert, customers are far more likely to click on your advert. There are seven different types of extensions, so be sure to choose the most appropriate to your advert.
‘Location extensions’ allow you to insert your business address, phone number, and a map marker as part of your advert. This will of course give you the opportunity to specifically target customers within a local region, but will also illustrate a level of authority and trust.
‘Call extensions’ enable you to include a clickable contact telephone number as part of your advert. This will drive calls to your business. Moreover, you have the opportunity to make your ads appear exclusively during your business opening hours. According to Google, ‘Call extensions can typically increase click-through rates by 6-8%’.
‘Callout extensions’ allow you to add additional descriptive text to encourage customers to learn more about your company and entice them to click on your ad.
3) Location and language targeting
Directing your ads at specific geographic locations and different languages is imperative to a successful campaign and to managing your budget efficiently. To view the location of users when they clicked on your advert, choose a campaign, click ‘Settings’, ‘Locations’, ‘View location reports’ and then ‘Where your users were’.
By selecting a location, you can then opt to view by region, county or postcode etc. This will enable you to see which locations are the most successful and give you the option to include or exclude locations. By becoming more informed on your customers and their locations, you can optimise your ads to specifically target them. To include or exclude locations, choose a campaign, click ‘Settings’, ‘Locations’, and then ‘+Locations’. Next enter a location and click ‘Add’ or ‘Exclude’.
Set up different campaigns to target different locations and languages. Start by dividing your target audience into different continents/countries. This will allow you to optimise your ads for different audiences, therefore making them highly relevant and location specific.
Firstly, this is essential because different areas use different terminology, even if they share the same language. For example, if you are looking to rent a villa during the summer holidays, residents of the UK would likely search ‘holiday villa rentals’, whereas residents of the USA would likely search ‘vacation villa rentals’.
Secondly, different locations often require different keywords, so you should create various campaigns/ad groups to differentiate your customers depending on their location. Many people also include places of interest in their searches, so you should try to target these as well, for example, ‘Heathrow car hire’ (specifically targeting car hire from Heathrow airport’.
4) Bid adjustment for location targeting
Now with the understanding of which locations are the most and least successful, you can adjust your bids for those areas respectively. For example, if you know that a certain region has a greater conversion rate, invest further by increasing your bid by X% to improve your ranking, and therefore improve your ROI.
To do this, choose a campaign, click ‘Settings’, ‘Locations’, ‘Set bid adjustment’ and then choose a percentage.
5) Mobile Bid optimisation
More than 80% of Internet users own a smartphone. Therefore, it is vital that you optimise your ads for mobile devices (providing your website is mobile-friendly). It is important to keep in mind that only two ads appear at the top of a search results page on a mobile device. Therefore, you should aim for an average position between one and two to ensure your advert is present on the first page.
To improve your ranking on mobile devices, the process is very similar to the optimisation of the location. Choose a campaign, click ‘Settings’, ‘Devices’ and then click the cell in the “Bid adj.” column. Increase your bid for ‘Mobile Devices with full Browsers’ by X% to improve your ranking on mobile devices and promote traffic to your website.
Equally, if your website is not optimised for mobile devices, you do not want to waste money on mobile advertising. Therefore, you have the option to adjust your bid by minus 100% to remove it from mobile search results pages.
6) Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is an essential part of managing and analysing the effectiveness of your AdWords campaign. By importing your Google Analytics goals, you can ensure that you match your Analytics and AdWords goals and they are measured as conversions. Moreover, by customising the columns on the Campaigns tab, your conversion data will automatically appear on the Conversions page. For example, you can view the money you are earning from each click or conversion. This will therefore improve your analysis of the number of clicks and conversions your website is gaining and make your campaign more successful.
To set up conversion tracking, login to your Google AdWords account, click ‘Tools’, ‘Conversions’ and then ‘Google Analytics’. Next, check the boxes of the goals or transactions you would like to import and click ‘continue’. On the following page, modify the settings that would like to apply to the goals and then click ‘Import goals’. Please note that it can take up to two days before the data is available in your AdWords account.
7) Remarketing
Remarketing (also know as retargeting) enables you to show adverts to people who have previously visited your website. This technique will not drive lots of traffic to your website in the same way as other PPC ads. Instead it aims to increase your conversion rate and reinforce your brand by reaching out to customers who have already visited your site. Remarketing will result in a strong click rate and lead to many more conversions because your adverts are specifically addressing the relevant target market.
However, there are a few key points to keep in mind when launching a remarketing campaign. Firstly, it is important to create separate lists that differentiate your customers, for example, one that targets users that viewed a product but didn’t convert and another that targets secondary purchases. Secondly, think carefully about your list durations and make them relevant to your marketing campaign and goals. Likewise, target your campaign at the customers which are most likely to convert, for instance, exclude people who directly bounced off your website.
Finally, consider capping the frequency of your adverts to limit the number of times an advert appears to an individual. This is probably the most important point because you want to reintroduce your clients to your brand; you do not want to harass them. You should use remarketing to personalise advertising to an individual and drive customers back to your website whilst they are still engaged in your products.
Relevance also recommends using enhanced CPC bidding which increases your bids for clicks that Google believes will lead to conversions based on many different factors including internet history. This is likely to result in a greater return on investment (ROI).
To add a remarketing campaign, click ‘Shared Library’, ‘Audiences’, ‘Set up Remarketing’. Once this is done, you can click ‘+ Remarketing List’.
