PubCon Las Vegas – Hardcore PPC Tactics

Moderator: Daniel Boberg
Speakers: Craig Danuloff, Click Equations, Brad Geddes, bgTheory, Christine Churchill, Key Relevance.

In this session of PubCon Las Vegas, we learned some amazing PPC management tactics as well as the factors and importance of maintaining a high Quality Score.

Craig Danuloff from Click Equations, the first speaker, shared with the audience 5 amazing PPC tactics:

• Query Mining: Craig described keywords as magnets in that they are used to attract search queries; search queries are what actually reveal the true intent and are the ultimate keyword research tool that should be paid close attention. By filtering through search query reports and refining our campaigns by adding negative keywords and new keywords, the result will be more impressions for more qualified search queries, less waste, bigger CTR, better quality score, higher positions, and lower CPCs.
• Match Type Keyword Trap: Exact and phrase match keywords should make up the majority of all PPC campaigns. Broad match should be used as a keyword collection mechanism to find new phrase and exact match keywords, or as a way to promote new ideas that have not yet proved themselves valuable. Craig illustrated the importance of creating a “match type keyword trap”:
  • The most valuable keywords should be added as exact match, medium-value keywords as phrase match, and new, low volume keywords as broad match.
• Isolate Brand Terms: Brand keyword phrases should never be in the same ad group as non-branded keyword phrases, they should always be separated in their own unique ad group. Brand keywords naturally perform differently; they have a higher CTR, higher ROI, and usually lower CPC.
• Manage Impression Share: Impression share is the percentage of impressions where your ads were shown out of the total available impressions in the market. This is a great way to find the keywords which are not “making the cut”, the quality score is not high enough, the bid is not high enough, or maybe a competitor has the same keyword at exact match.
• Respect the Economics of Quality Score: Understanding the metrics which go into Quality Score is crucial in obtaining a higher rank in the SERPs while keeping costs down.

Brad Geddes from bgTheory followed up on the economics of quality score by explaining the facts that go into quality score and some tools and tricks to help increase quality score. He began by explaining the basics of what determines an ad’s rank in the search engine results page: Ad Rank = Quality Score x Bid.

Listed below are the three main factors that go into Quality Score:

• Click through rate of all aspects of campaign;
• Relevancy: Ad copy, keywords, and landing page must all be closely related;
• Landing Page: Landing page must accurately display the offer that was promoted in the ad copy and must be relevant to the search query the user used to arrive at the landing page.

Conclusion: Maintaining a strong focus on Quality Score throughout the PPC campaign management and optimization process is crucial. Quality Score has a direct effect on an ad’s position, CTR and CPC. Marketers must remember that the only way to increase ad position is not simply to increase bids. Smart marketers will instead focus on improving Quality Score.

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Contributed by: Kate Rasmussen, Milestone Internet Marketing