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Posted in Pay Per Click (PPC) by Promote
Advertisements have been on the internet for many years. It is only natural that Ads should navigate to where more eyes can see them. Search engines. The type of advertising that is placed on search engines is known as Pay Per Click (PPC). Unlike other forms of online marketing (for example SEO) that can take a while for results to form, PPC advertising can see your site's traffic increase as soon as the campaign is launched. Now with the rise in popularityof PPC campaigns increases the amount of people who don't understand them. Many people who don't understand how PPC works hire a dedicated PPC Agency to run their PPC campaign.
PPC is a great form of advertising. Essentially it's an instant Ad model designed specifically for two purposes. To attract traffic to your website and to give users relevant advertisements.
As previously written above, it provides nearly instant results but that's not all it does, PPC is capable of so much more. You can bid on search queries. This means that your advertising goes exactly where you want it to go. Also because you only pay for the click you only get charged when a user is interested in the advert and clicks. This makes PPC so much more cost effective than other forms of advertising where you pay for the advertising space.
One of the most popular forms of PPC Ads are Google Adwords. On Google AdWords, when somebody makes a search, an AdWords Auction starts. During this time Google uses data collected from the website and the amount of money bid for the slot and creates an Ad rank, the person with the highest Ad rank will rank highest in the advertisement space.
First and foremost, Google wants Ads that are relevant for their users. As users don't want to be bothered with Ads they are uninterested in and advertisers want to their content shown to as many potential customers.
Google uses something called an Ad Auction. First there's the bidding phase, where companies show how much money they're willing to pay in order to have their Ads displayed. In a traditional auction, the highest paying bidder wins, but this is not a traditional auction, this is a Google AdWords auction.
In an AdWords auction, the cost is what's known as a 'second price auction' where the bidder only has to pay the minimum amount of money to put them ahead of the bidder under them. In Google AdWords the advertiser only has to pay when a user clicks on the Ad.
Other factors are also considered. Firstly there's the click through rate (CTR), this is Google's prediction on how likely your Ad is going to be clicked on when shown. By using data from every click on a Google search feed, they have millions of people to help them decide which Ads should rank higher. Secondly there's your landing page. If your landing page is bad and poorly optimised, you'll receive a poor score. If your landing page provides users with a great experience, it's going to score higher.
Another factor is Ad relevance. What's actually written in your Ad? Is it relevant to the search query? This helps protect users from advertisers who pay large amounts of money to 'pay their way' onto unrelated search queries.
The final factor is Ad formats. These are bits of additional information like additional links or phone numbers. Advertisements that use high quality Ad formats provide users with more information, which gives them a higher Ad score.
All these factors combine to provide you with an Ad rank. Advertisements are then ranked in the search by their Ad ranks. If you have a higher Ad rank, but paid less than somebody with a lower rank, you will still rank higher than them because the Ad rank takes into account all the factors, not simply the cost paid per click. Google wants to feature high quality Ads, not simply the highest paying Ad.
The reason Google uses a system like this is simple. If users are shown high quality Ads with relevant content, they are more likely to click on them. If advertisers receive a lot of clicks from Google Advertising, they are likely to return. If Google had both happy users and happy advertisers, it's a win-win.
A very popular form of Google Ads is Google shopping Ads. These are a form of Product Listing Adverts (PLAs). You're paying for Google shopping Ads so it's only natural that you want to get the best value from your PPC campaign. As a professional PPC Agency we're here to help; here are 10 tips to squeeze every penny from Google shopping Ads.
1. Research - This is often the first step in almost any advice we give. Here at Promote, we strongly value information. If you don't know something, do your research and find out. With PPC campaigns, the more you know the more effective your campaign will be.
There are some great informative videos on Google shopping, like this refresher course. So if you're not up to date on your knowledge, there is a large amount of useful information available online to help.
2. Cut Down On Irrelevant Clicks - When trying to boost their value from advertising, some people think 'how can I get more clicks'. Perhaps the key to getting more value isn't in the amount of clicks you're getting, but the quality of them. After all with PPC campaigns you pay for clicks, so if your clicks aren't resulting in sales, you're paying for empty clicks.
3. Optimise Your Data Feed - Your data feed is essential to your success in Google shopping Ads. It tells Google everything it needs to know to show your items to the correct people. If your data feed isn't correctly optimised your ads might not be displayed.
4. Tweak Your Bids- The amount you bid has an impact on where you rank in searches. Whilst Google has systems in place to rank Ads based on how good their content is, your bid also counts towards your Ad rank. Increasing your bid does not mean you will pay that amount. You only pay the minimum amount needed to maintain your rank, so if you bid £4 but only need £3 to maintain your rank, you'll only pay £3.
5. Check Your Competition- Obviously there is more to Ads than how they appear to the user, but you can gain valuable information when you compare them to your competition.
Put yourself in the position of a potential customer, look at your Ad and then the Ads from your competition. Often you might notice simple mistakes or simple changes you can make that can give you an edge on your competition and hopefully boost your Ad Rank.
6. Work With Partners- Whilst your company cannot appear more than once in the same product listing advertisement (PLA), your products most certainly can. If a partner is also advertising your product, then it's possible that your product can appear twice within the Ad listings.
If you work closely with your partners (such as an affiliate or a retailer) you can tweak your bids on the same keywords to increase the chances that you both appear under the same search.
7. Tell Google What You Don't Want- This works well with tip #2. With negative keywords, you can target specific queries. This can help boost ROI and ultimately allow you to squeeze every last penny out of your PPC campaign.
Essentially the negative keyword works in the opposite way to a keyword. This can be very helpful if you're getting a lot of clicks but not a lot of sales. If a lot people are clicking on your Ad after searching for something, but not buying anything, then you can set that query as a negative keyword and reduce the amount of empty clicks.
8. Make Use Of Labels- This can be great for seasonal items. If for example you're a clothing retailer and have a fantastic selection of summer clothing, you can use labels to push your products within those searches. By using labels you can tailor your campaign around people's searching/buying habits.
9. Improve Your User Experience (UX)- You could have the cheapest prices available, but if your UX is poor, then users will not want to buy from you. Also the quality of your landing page counts towards your Ad score so perhaps the reason you're not receiving good return on your cost is because you're ranking badly because of your landing page.
If your landing page is great and your users have an enjoyable UX, then you should see a noticeable increase in sales and click rates.
10. Use A PPC Agency- If you're stuck and need help, there's no shame in asking for it. Here at Promote, we are a professional PPC agency. We offer many digital marketing services, one being pay per click management. One of the biggest pitfalls of online retailing is failing to attract customers, we understand how frustrating this could be but more importantly, we have the tools and the expertise to help.
Recently Google changed the colour of their Ad label from an orange/yellow colour to green. Many people have been discussing the impact of these changes; we too have taken part in this discussion. Is the change based upon making the website look more uniform or to increase the likelihood of an Ad being clicked on?
Whatever the reason, AdWords is still a fantastic form of PPC advertising and will continue to be incredibly popular for the foreseeable future.
Here at promote we are offer a professional PPC management service. Our PPC process is consisted of three main parts.
In order to benefit from Google AdWords you need high quality content. If your content is significantly better than others in the auction you could end up paying a significantly lower price than you initially bid.
Our methods are tried and tested, proving successful over many years and many satisfied customers. If you'd like great return on investment and an instant boost in traffic, give us a call on 0118 380 1002.
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