6 Critical Elements of your Pay Per Click Campaign Structure
- Campaigns: Your main advertising campaign theme and where you allocate your budget
- Ad Groups: We divide your main campaign theme into more targeted audiences based on your own goals
- Keywords: Each ad group will include a list of 15-20 highly targeted keywords that are reviewed on a regular basis
- Negative Keywords: Just as important as your “good” keywords, we remove irrelevant keywords to optimize your budget
- Ad Text: Each ad group includes 2-3 ads with variations of copy, extensions, CTAs, etc. linking to your Landing Page
- Landing Pages: This is your visitors’ final destination, and it is CRITICAL that it is optimized to work with your Ad
Quality Score: What Is Quality Score & How Does It Affect PPC?
What is Quality Score? Quality Score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads. It is used
to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process. Your Quality Score depends on multiple factors, including:
- Your click-through rate (CTR).
- The relevance of each keyword to its ad group.
- Landing page quality and relevance.
- The relevance of your ad text.
- Your historical AdWords account
No one outside of Google knows exactly how much each factor “weighs” in the Quality Score algorithm, but we do know that click- through rate is the most important component. When more people who see your ad click it, that’s a strong indication to Google that your ads are relevant and helpful to users. Accordingly, Google rewards you with:
- Higher ad rankings
- Lower costs
Generally speaking, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your cost per conversion. Remember, a high Quality Score is Google’s way of saying that your PPC ad meets your potential customers’ needs. The better you are at meeting the prospect’s needs, the less Google will charge you for the ad click.
How Do You Increase Your Quality Score?
Since Quality Score determines where and how often your ads appear, it’s important to boost your ratings by working consistently on your account. This can be achieved by focusing your efforts on several key areas:
Keyword Research – Discover new, highly relevant keywords to add to your campaigns, including long-tail opportunities that can contribute to the bulk of your overall traffic.
Keyword Organization – Split your keywords into tight, organized groups that can be more effectively tied to individual ad campaigns.
Refining Ad Text – Test out PPC ad copy that is more targeted to your individual ad groups. More effective ads get higher CTR, one of the best ways to improve Quality Score.
Optimizing Landing Pages – Follow landing page best practices to create pages that connect directly with your ad groups and provide a cohesive experience for visitors, from keyword to conversion.
Adding Negative Keywords – Continuously research, identify, and exclude irrelevant search terms that are wasting your budget.
As you can see, Quality Score is primarily a measure of relevance, and improving keyword Quality Score is a matter of structuring your PPC campaigns into small, well-organized, tightly knit groups of keywords. Better keyword research and organization will also naturally improve the quality and specificity of your ads and website content, allowing you to target the exact audience most likely to be searching for your offerings.
Low AdWords Quality Scores are primarily the result of disconnect between keywords, ad groups, ad text, and landing page content. A high Quality Score comes naturally when an AdWords account contains organized keywords in appropriate keyword groups, ad text that corresponds with certain ad groups, and landing pages that connect with the ad text’s offer. While there is no easy, foolproof answer to improving your Quality Score formula, paying careful attention to relevance will greatly improve your scores.
How Do You Get the Most Out of Your Budget?
Even if budget wasn’t an issue, no SEM company can guarantee that your ads will always be ranked first or even appear on the first page of Google for certain search queries. Too many factors come to place beyond the scope of this document -including Google’s ever-changing algorithms- for any person or agency to be able to guarantee that.
With that said, a larger budget will always get better results for your campaign, especially if you’re targeting highly competitive keywords. After all, the old saying “you have to spend money to make money” is especially relevant when it comes to PPC Marketing.
One of the most critical factors when managing a campaign with a limited budget is to focus on “long tail keywords” that are more specific to your particular business. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to a point-of-purchase. They’re a little bit counter-intuitive, at first, but they can be hugely valuable if you know how to use them.
For example, if you are a hotel operator, chances are your hotel will never rank under the search term “hotel deals” simply because that keyword is highly competitive and you will be outbid by any Online Travel Agency that is pouring thousands of dollars for those same keywords. However, if your hotel is a “historic boutique hotel in downtown austin” and you target this long tail keyword, chances are you will very likely come up near the top if not at the top.
Obviously, your campaign is going to draw less traffic with a long-tail keyword than you would with a more common one, but the traffic you do draw will be better: more focused, more committed, and more willing to buy your services. For the same reason, your CPC will be lower (less competition) and your CTR and conversion rates will be higher (more focused campaign).
LESS COMPETITION = LOWER COSTS
MORE FOCUSED KEYWORDS = HIGHER CONVERSION RATE AND ROI
By targeting longer, more specific long-tail keywords in your AdWords campaigns, you can get higher ad rankings on relevant searches without having to pay a premium for every click. The trick is to find the proper long-tail keywords that are right for you and for your niche, and that’s what our MGR SEO Team will do for you.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of optimizing your sponsored search ads, landing pages, and overall website design to raise your conversion rate. In other words, the goal is for the highest possible percentage of visitors to your site to convert, or complete your desired action. CRO is quickly gaining in popularity because it’s seen as a way to increase profits from sales without raising your advertising spend.
Landing Pages and Conversion Rate Optimization
The quality of your individual landing pages can also have a dramatic effect on conversion rates. Think about it – a prospective client stumbles across your page as the result of a specific search query. If the content and offering of that page aren’t relevant to what they were looking for or expecting to find, they will return to their search and you will lose that lead. And the negative effects don’t stop there! Poorly constructed landing pages can also cause your Quality Score to drop, which will in turn raise your cost per click, cost per action, and reduce your ad rank so that it’s harder to win spots in Google’s ad auction process.
So, what makes a good landing page? Common best practices for page design include few key elements:
- Compelling headline – Create a striking headline that is relevant to your PPC keyword and compels prospective clients to remain on the page to fulfill your desired action.
- Concise, targeted copy – The content of your page should clearly communicate your offering, and speak directly to the keywords associated with that ad group. Use bulleted lists to prevent copy from becoming too lengthy or overwhelming.
- Eye-catching, clickable call-to-action (CTA) – Make sure your CTA button stands out visually, appears clickable and uses short, gain-focused text.
- User-friendly lead capture form – A good form includes all the fields needed to fulfill your offer, but not so many that prospective clients are visually Think carefully about what information is truly necessary to capture as you build your form.
- Attractive overall design – Landing pages should be clean and uncluttered, which conveys both trustworthiness and professionalism to prospective Design should also be consistent with your brand in order to prevent a disjointed browsing experience for visitors.
Adhering to these best practices will keep your landing pages relevant and high-quality, which will lead to a valuable boost in both CRO and Quality Score.
If you have any questions about your existing campaign or if you would like to start a new PPC campaign, feel free to contact your MGR Project Manager anytime.
*Source: WordStream.com. Special thanks to our friends at WordStream.com for their tools and support ensuring that our SEO Team generates optimum results for our clients.