To start off Week 2 of the TriMark Blogging Event, I figured I would provide a wide overview of the top steps needed to implement and manage a successful Pay Per Click Campaign.

An increasing number of businesses are turning to Pay Per Click (PPC) methods of advertising because of their high levels of potential ROI (Return On Investment).   But in order to keep your ads running at peak performance, you need to pay close attention to which methods are proving consistently successful.  TriMark Solutions also recommends updating your ads, to keep them fresh and new.  We can guarantee most of your competitors are not taking the time to maintain their ads in such a way.  So what can you do to keep your ads fresh?

1. Always include limited time offers & deals – Whenever you (or your client) are offering special prices or deals, be sure to include those in your ads.  Users love to see low prices or offers of fantastic savings, so this will inspire more clicks on your sponsored advertisement.  Free demo or installation services are always nice to include, as are free shipping or buy one get one free offers.  However, it is extremely important to also remove these ads once the promotions are over, because false advertisements can get your ads banned or unapproved from Google and other similar search engines.
2. Include locations in your ad if possible – If you’re targeting a local area, add the city or location name to the advertisement.  This often gives the reader a feeling of trust in the ad.  It also lets the user know that you are serving their area specifically.
3. Include different types of ads – You may be using the same structure of text ads constantly, and trying a different method may help produce different results.  Try asking questions within ad copy, such as, “Looking for New Widgets?”  Questions help to draw searchers in, especially if your question is their question.
4. Add seasonality to your ads – If your product or services pertain to the season or monthly changes, include those in your ads.  Chocolate companies should definitely create Valentine’s Day ads in February, and remove them in March.  Also, Window Replacement companies may want to focus ads on the cold weather during the winter months.  Regardless of your industry, if you constantly update your ads to match seasonal and holiday changes, it will speak more clearly to your exact audiences.
5. Include Awards your company has earned in ads – Is your company BBB accredited? Or perhaps have garnered the Good Housekeeping Seal?  Maybe you’ve won a “best of the city” award?  If you have earned any of these types of positive recognitions, include it in your ad text.  This is not boasting, merely informing potential readers of your high quality product or service.  These types of awards and memberships are almost always going to bring you more interest to your ad.
6. Set up a call tracking process – TriMark Solutions listens and tracks almost 100 phone calls per day for all of its client’s PPC ads. Many of our calls come from customers who see our Google AdWords ads, but opt to call instead of click.  So be sure to have call tracking properly set up before adding phone numbers into your ads.  If you fail to do so, you will find yourself with missing information regarding your true ROI for PPC advertising.
7. Set up ads on the Google Content Network – Only running PPC ads on the search network means you may be missing opportunities for clicks on other websites such as youtube.com and other Google Content Network affiliate sites.  These sites are unique because they allow you to run image or video ads as well, allowing you a more diversified advertising strategy.  You may also choose to run ads on mobile devices such as iphones and androids.
8. Persuade readers to click on your ads – This may seem simple, but the bottom line is, you don’t want your ads to look exactly like the other 9 on the page.  Do you offer a service or product that is unique from the competition?  Include it in your ad.  Window World, the largest window replacement company in the nation, is one of TriMark Solutions’ clients, and we often include that they sell over 1 Million windows annually.  Statements like these bring a sense of trust to the user.
9. Run A/B ad testing – Never run only a single ad for a specific ad group.  You always want to be able to see which performs best between a few.  You may be absolutely sure that one ad will provide better clickthrough and conversion rates, and then be surprised to see the second ad outperform.   At TriMark, we usually suggest running 3-4 ads per group, to allow the users to decide which ad is better.  Ultimately, they are the only opinions who matter.

 

I can promise you that if you take these steps in you PPC campaign, then your ads will be a cut above the competition, and your conversion tracking statistics will show that.  On Wednesday, we will discuss the differences between Yahoo! and Google Pay Per Click advertising.  It going to be a very informative and interesting topic, so please check back in with us.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 9:15 am and is filed under April Blog Event, Pay Per Click Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Great Article from a PPC Marketer providing 9 tips on how to maximise your Search Marketing and increase you Campaign ROI.

Do you know How many of calls your search marketing is driving?

Jet Interactive is helping Australian based Search Marketers measure the offline response to their search campaigns through the use of Jet Call Tracker. Jet provides all the technology, billing and reporting to allow any online marketer to get into Pay Per Call.