The new feature I am going to discuss is Ad Sitelinks.  Similar to the sitelinks you see in an organic listing, the paid Sitelinks allow four additional links to show within your ad.  Take the example below:

Instead of only being able to click on one link, users now have the ability to click on one of five links that best suits their search.

Before Sitelinks was implemented, a search for “shop adidas shoes” would result in an ad like this:

For the most part, this is a very good ad because it includes my targeted keywords in all four lines of text and it has a good call to action.  The only problem is that the ad does not know what type of Adidas shoes I am searching for, as I could specifically be looking for men’s shoes, women’s shoes, kids’ shoes, etc.  To be safe, the destination URL takes me to the Adidas homepage.  One of the principles of PPC is that your ad should always take users to the most relevant page.  For instance, if I’m looking for men’s shoes, the homepage is not the most relevant page.  Unfortunately for this particular query, the AdWords system cannot decipher the true intention of my search.  You can A/B test landing pages and change the ad’s messaging to include all genders, but more often than not you will still run into the same problem.

Sitelinks gives your ad the ability to have five potential landing pages.  When I look at the ad using Sitelinks, I immediately click on men’s shoes and bypass the homepage altogether.  You always want to make the conversion process as easy for users as possible and eliminating that extra click certainly goes a long way.  In theory, Sitelinks will improve your click-thru-rate (CTR) because you now have five chances to get users’ clicks.  Normally there are roughly eleven ads per page, and thus eleven links for users to potentially click.  Your ad contains one of those links so you have a 1/11 chance of getting the click.  However, with Sitelinks the ratio now increases to five out of fifteen.  It’s true that paid search is not a lottery, but the more exposure your ads get can only help your campaign.

Though only select advertisers are able to use Sitelinks for the time being, it is a feature that’s sure to catch on.  Stay tuned!

First and foremost, when you write ads “one size fits all” does not apply. Why not? Let’s take a look at this example. When I search for “Panasonic televisions” I see these ads.

Notice that when my search query is mentioned in the ad, the term is bolded and immediately attracts my attention. I notice the third and forth ads and read these first. At this point, I’ve ignored ads one and two. They do not address my query. In fact, the first ad is not even advertising the brand for which I searched! Ads three and four both advertise Panasonic televisions, but ad four has flip-flopped my query. Ad three seems most relevant to my search and has a good message (low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout). Even though Walmart and AllAmericanDirect earned the first and second spots in the auction, it’s ad three that I am going to click. The ad that the user sees must not only contain the search query, but the term must make sense in the context of the message.

Aside from the search query showing up at least once in the ad (multiple occurrences are even better) here are some other techniques to make sure your ads stand out.

Strong Call to Action

What do you want the user to do once the ad is clicked? You need to provide the next step through the call to action. Whether it’s to purchase a specific product, view a selection, or download a whitepaper, the call to action needs to be prevalent. Take a look at these two ads:

The first call to action is to “Start your day with Bosch” while the second ad’s call to action is “Order Now!” The first ad gives me a tag line while the second ad tells me exactly what I should do.

Product Deals

Any messaging to make your ad stand out from the competition is beneficial. In BuyDig’s television ad, low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout are offered. The other ads contain some form of value-added service, but BuyDig clearly offers the user greater incentives to click. A product deal and call to action can also be combined with messaging like “Free shipping when you purchase online.”

Keywords in the Display URL

The display URL must contain the domain of the landing page that the user will go to, but it can also contain your targeted keywords. Using the BuyDig example:

You can see that “PanasonicHDTVs” is in the display URL and the terms “Panasonic” and “TV” are bolded. That’s good keyword practice, but when you actually type this URL in it leads to an error page as the URL does not exist. Be sure to set up a 301 redirect so users who enter a nonexistent URL will be taken to the right page.

Conclusion

The most important factor to consider when writing text ads is to make sure the user search query is within the ads’ messaging. I cannot emphasize this enough. Every single ad that a user sees should contain at least one bolded term. The other tactics are necessary for effective ad copy, but should play off of the search query being present. When all of these tactics are in sync, you should see your CTR increase.

Several factors go into creating a good landing page, none of which should be ignored.  These techniques will determine how many of your clicks turn into conversions.  Conversion rate, as I have previously written about, is a tier one success indicator of how well your campaign is doing.  Give your users an effective landing page, and you should see your conversion rates increase.

I am going to discuss the technique that has had the greatest impact on conversion rates in my campaigns.

Clear Messaging

Your landing pages need to clearly state what you want the user to do.  Never assume that the user knows what to do.  Make the conversion process as easy and forthright as possible.

Let’s take an example.  If I do a search for “Rawlings baseball gloves,” I see these ads:

Both ads advertise Rawlings baseball gloves, but which company has the better landing page?  The first ad leads to a page that immediately shows Rawlings baseball gloves:

The second ad leads to the company’s homepage, where customers are forced to search for the product they’re ready to buy.  The second ad will most likely lead to a bounce, because it doesn’t take the user to a relevant page.  By contrast the first ad takes the user right to the product, capturing the user right away and increasing the chance of a purchase.

Another example of a landing page honed for lead generation is one that contains a specific download and a form:

This page combines the registration form and the download function.  Instead of working through two different screens, the user can fill out the form and read the content on the same page.

Here are some other techniques that I have found to improve conversion rates.

Length of Form

If you ask a user to complete a form, be careful not to ask for too much information.  Too often companies ask for everything within this first interaction.  Users see the length of the form and are scared away.  Even if many of the fields are optional, a user’s first instinct is to leave because the form is too long. By asking for less, you improve your chances of converting that user.  Further user information can be gathered by a follow up email or phone call.

Appropriate Tabbing Structure

When filling out the form the user should be able to hit the tab key to go to the next field.  It can be frustrating (and a bit annoying) to use the mouse to get to the next field.

Privacy Policy

Let’s face it, the internet is not the safest place in the world.  Users are weary of giving out their contact information.  For this reason you should include some sort of privacy statement on your landing page.  Whether it be a link to the site privacy policy or a message that assures your users their information will be kept confidential, this item is a must have.

Browser Compatibility and Screen Resolution

Ideally your landing pages should be compatible with all browsers, even the obscure ones.  At a minimum, though, make sure the pages are compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.  These pages should also be compatible with the different versions of these browsers.

Screen resolution is another important factor.  Your key messages and calls to action should appear “above the fold” even in lower resolutions.  Above the fold means the items in your landing page that users do not need to scroll down to see.  Users have several other options and are not going to wait around for you to make your point.

Conclusion

The most important advice is to make sure what you say in an ad is what the user sees on the landing page.  Ultimately you are throwing money away if you are not giving your customers the right user experience.

Your budget plays a huge role in how much you are willing to bid, but other factors come into play as well. Among these are the importance of each targeted keyword to your campaign, the way the ad copy is written, and the landing page of each ad. Here’s a look at each of these factors in greater detail:

Stretch Your Keywords and Your Budget: How much money you have for the campaign ultimately determines how much you can bid per keyword. If it takes a bid of $15 for your ad to show up within the top three positions and your monthly budget is only $200, you have a problem. Unfortunately, the advertisers with the most money are going to pay top dollar to get the first listings for their most popular keywords. However, the more terms you have in your keyword, the less expensive it is generally going to be. For example, the term “baseball bats” might cost $10 to be within the top three positions, but the term “wooden baseball bats” might only cost $6 because it is less competitive. Shorter terms might bring more clicks, but longer, more tailored terms will bring better qualified traffic.

Use Strategic Keywords: Campaigns can have thousands of keywords, but not all hold equal weight. To determine which keywords you should bid on, you must assess your business objectives. For example: you own a sports shop and your top-selling product, baseball gloves, account for 75% of your revenue. The other 25% of your revenue comes from baseballs and baseball bats. Knowing these metrics allows you to put more of your budget toward your most lucrative products, in this case being the baseball gloves. So for “baseball glove” related terms, you bid to be within the top three positions, but for other terms, you make competitive bids but are not as concerned if they show up lower in the rankings.

Write Effective Ad Copy: Being within the top three positions of the sponsored links is good, but ultimately meaningless if your ad does not have the targeted user search query and a strong call to action. Every ad should mention the targeted keyword at least twice within the message: once within the headline and once within the description. Every ad should also include a call to action. What do you want the user to do once he/she gets to your destination page? This action should be clearly spelled out. Using the example “wooden baseball bats” as the search query, here is an ad that just uses the generic “baseball bats” keyword and does not have a call to action:

This ad, however, specifically targets “wooden baseball bats” and has a defined call to action:

The second ad is much more likely to be clicked because the user sees his/her search query and there is a clear call to action.

Tailor Your Landing Page: Not to be forgotten is the landing page that you are sending the user to once the ad is clicked. An ideal landing page should contain the targeted keyword and be a continuation of the ad. Using “wooden baseball bats” again, the call to action for this ad is to “browse the selection”. The landing page should allow the user to browse the selection of wooden baseball bats that the company offers. If the landing page does not immediately allow the user to take this course of action, it will most likely lead to a bounce, meaning the user will leave the site. Clearly getting that user to just click on your ad is not enough if your goal is to generate leads.

In the end, you must diagnose these four factors before determining your keyword bids. It is beneficial to show up near the top of the sponsored listings, but if you do not have clear conversion funnels and goals established for your ad, you are ultimately wasting your money.

The Search Query Performance report shows you actual terms that users have typed in to see your ads.  You are also able to see metrics, such as conversions, clicks, costs, and impressions, for each of these terms.  For example, if you are bidding on the phrase match of the term “office furniture,” you will be able to see what terms trigger your ads.  You will find that some users type in this exact term, while others are also typing in such phrases as “large office furniture” or “wooden office furniture.”  Remember, you are bidding on the phrase match of “office furniture,” so these other queries will also trigger your ads.

Being able to see the exact user query is a huge benefit.  You may find that you are not bidding on the term “wooden office furniture,” but it is receiving many impressions.  In that case, it might be wise to not only bid on the term, but also craft specific ads around it and send users to an appropriate landing page.

But what if you do not sell wooden office furniture?  How do you stop your ads from showing for this term?  Another great feature of the Search Query Performance report is that it allows you to find negative keywords.  By identifying negative keywords and including them in your campaign, you ensure that your ads do not show for certain queries.  So if you see “wooden office furniture” as a search query, you would add “wooden” as a negative keyword.  Another example would be if your Search Query Performance report shows the term “discount office furniture.”  If your company sells high end office furniture, you do not want your ads showing for this search.  Therefore, you would add “discount” as a negative keyword.

Aside from adding new and negative keywords throughout the campaign, the Search Query Performance report ultimately helps you to better spend your money.  By listening to your users through their keyword searches you can focus your campaign funds on the most effective keywords for your company.  For instance, if you can only spend $50 a day and consistently hit that budget every afternoon, you can improve the effectiveness of your campaign by filtering out the irrelevant searches, getting you better targeted traffic.  Ultimately you are trying to get the users to convert, not just get them to your site.

It is a good idea to run the Search Query Performance report at least once a week, especially when you are testing new keywords and text ads.  This report gives strong insight into how users are finding you.  If users are finding you for the wrong searches, than improvements need to be made.

A three tier structure organizes PPC campaign metrics by level of importance.  Tier One metrics represent the most critical data, while Tier Two and Tier Three metrics do not demand as much attention.  It’s not that certain metrics are irrelevant.  All of these metrics should be analyzed and acted upon in order to improve your PPC campaign success. However, a three tier structure places PPC metrics in order of how well they reflect the success of your PPC campaign.

Here is a look at each tier as a KPI with an example that demonstrates the relevance and importance of the information.

Tier One: Success Indicators

Return on Investment (ROI): The amount of money you are receiving for every dollar that you put into the campaign.  ROI is defined as revenue minus costs divided by costs and can be calculated as a dollar amount, percentage, or ratio.

This metric is extremely important because it shows the value you are getting from your campaign.  In other words, for every dollar you are putting into the campaign how much are you getting back?  It may cost you $20 per conversion, but if your ROI is not reaching your goal then does Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) really matter?  ROI is the ultimate metric to determine how well the campaign is doing.

Conversions: The number of predefined goals that you have setup for the campaign that are completed.  For example, you may consider a conversion to be whenever a user fills out a Contact Us form.  Conversions can also be known as leads.

You run a PPC campaign to qualify visitors as potential opportunities.  So this metric should be with ROI at the top of your concerns.  You can tell your boss that the Click-Through Rate (CTR) of the campaign was 3%, but who cares if clicks do not turn into conversions.  For most businesses, lead generation should be the goal of running a PPC campaign.

Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is defined as the number of conversions divided by the number of clicks and is calculated as a percentage.  In other words, the amount of clicks that turn into conversions.

Conversion rate, more than CPA, determines how well you are generating leads.  Ideally you want every click to turn into a conversion.  Conversion rate specifically tells you the percentage of clicks that turn into leads.  Let’s say your ads are clicked 500 times for a cost of $500.  Two of these clicks turn into conversions for a CPA of $250.  This may or may not be a good CPA to a company, but you do know that the conversion rate is less than stellar at 0.40%. This metric tells you how well you are doing at converting your visitors into leads.

Tier Two: Tactical Measurement

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Defined as cost divided by the number of conversions and is calculated in currency.  CPA can also be known as cost-per-lead and is how much the conversion (lead) costs.

CPA is a significant metric, but it can sometimes be misleading.  If your company’s average sale is $10,000 and you spend $5,000 a year on PPC, your ROI is still positive if you make only two sales.  On the other hand, your CPA would seem to be very bad at $2,500 ($5,000/2 conversions).  But CPA is in the eyes of the beholder.  Paying $2,500 per lead might not matter to a company because the revenue received from the sale far outweighs the cost.  Lower CPAs will always look better, but a high CPA is not always bad.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR is defined as the number of times your ads are clicked divided by the number of times your ads are seen (known as impressions) and is calculated as a percentage.

Though CTR can be calculated at the keyword and text ad level, it really is a measure of how well your keywords relate to your text ads.  In other words, does your ad entice a user to click it? If your CTR is 0.01% (clicked once out of every 100 impressions) then you probably need to assess the structure of your campaign.  Are your ad groups segmented enough?  Are your keywords present in your text ads?  Do your text ads have a clear call to action? CTR is a major factor when finding the answers to these questions.

Tier Three: Useful Information

Cost Per Click (CPC): CPC is defined as the cost divided by the number of clicks and is calculated in currency.  This metric tells you how much you are paying each time a user clicks your ad.

Say you spend $100 and your ads are clicked 20 times.  Your CPC is $5 ($100 / 20 clicks).  What does this metric really tell you?  So what if the average cost of one click is $5.  Did you get any leads? CPC does not tell you this metric nor does it tell you how relevant your ads are.  A lower CPC looks better than a higher one, but as long as you get the lead what is the difference?  With more and more businesses creating PPC campaigns every day the competition for page one listings is going to be that much greater, causing your CPC to most likely increase. (It’s worth remembering that your ad ranking is not solely determined by how high you bid.  See an explanation of Quality Score.)

Conclusion

The success of a PPC campaign is determined by its results.  CEOs do not care how much a keyword costs.  They want to know if leads are being generated and if these leads are turning into revenue.  Too often, too much emphasis is placed on the simpler Tier Two and Tier Three KPIs rather than on the more complex Tier One indicators.  This three-tier structure articulates where priorities should lie.

• Vary the letter cases
• Try different calls to action (CTA)
• Add more keywords throughout the campaign
• Test different variations of landing pages

One of the first things I always test is different letter cases within the ad copy. Check out these ads with two different cases:

vs.

I have seen the same ad with varying cases have drastically different results whether that be through higher click-thru-rates (CTR) or conversion rates. Additionally, testing dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) better helps to match search queries to the ads. Trying different calls to action is good to test as well:

There are literally hundreds of permutations of ads you can write to contain different cases and punctuation, varying ad copy, and any other ideas you may think of.

There is always the opportunity to add more keywords to your campaign. You can expand the reach of your ads by testing terms in different match types. For example, if you are only bidding on the exact match of “designer coffee tables” you could also try it in phrase and broad match. You can take advantage of many free keyword expansion tools and can comb your site for new keywords. There are even tools that will make permutations of your keywords.

Testing different variations of your landing page(s) is always a good idea. Whether you do an A/B test or a multivariate test, play around with items on the page. You can tweak the content and shorten the registration form among other things. Google AdWords Website Optimizer is a great tool for testing variations of landing pages.

Keep in mind to always be careful whenever you test new ideas. Some ideas might have great results, but adversely some might not. It is important to keep a close eye on your tests as to not waste precious budget.

I have only touched on a couple of items as there is so much within PPC to test that you should never become complacent with your campaign. Remember, your campaign might be performing well, but it can always do better.

For example, if you type in the term “coffee tables” you would expect to see ads that contain “coffee tables” within the text. In fact, terms that users search for are bolded when they show up in ads to ensure users’ eyes are immediately drawn to these ads. Most likely the ads will be more relevant to the query, making DKI a very powerful tool to increase click-thru-rate (CTR).

Let’s look at an example from Google AdWords to further clarify the concept. Every ad using DKI in the headline or the body needs a default keyword so when a user types in a query that is over the character limit, a term will still show up in the ad. In this case, let’s use {KeyWord:Coffee Tables} as the default keyword. The ad group is made up of these terms:

antique coffee tables

coffee tables

glass coffee tables

round coffee tables

wood coffee tables

All of these terms are 25 characters or less. So when a user types in “antique coffee tables,” the headline of the ad should read:

Notice that the query is in lowercase while the headline and the term in description line one are in uppercase. The case given to the {KeyWord} in DKI will determine the case of the displayed headline. There are six possible keyword cases which can be good for testing and for terms that do not always follow normal case rules.

DKI is a great tool, but does come with shortcomings. All ad groups must be themed as tightly as possible. If you are using DKI you have to make sure all of your keywords portray the same theme and are under the character limit. The default keyword will not always be the best match to the query.

Let’s say you are also bidding on the term “contemporary coffee tables.” This query is 26 characters long so the default keyword “coffee tables” would be the headline. Also, if the ad uses DKI within either description line, the associated content plus the term cannot be more than 35 characters (in AdWords). This ad fails to match the exact user query:

What’s the big deal you say? The user will still see an ad that talks about coffee tables and the root term will still be bolded; however the ad will not speak directly to contemporary coffee tables. Granted, no ad will have this term as the headline because of the character length, but your competitors may use the term within the body of the ad:

For this reason alone your ad groups should be as tightly themed as possible. You want DKI to be effective 100% of the time.

The use of broad terms is another example of where DKI fails to be effective:

This ad is using DKI in the headline and both description lines. The destination URL of this ad is a page that has absolutely nothing to do with gross shoes. The company running this ad is going to find that it has a very low cost-per-acquisition (CPA) because the query does not relate to the destination page. Even if one person clicks this ad, DKI has not worked correctly.

DKI can be an amazing facet of any PPC program, but it has to be used wisely. If used correctly, you gain an edge over your competition by persuading users to click your ad. If used incorrectly, you will receive many irrelevant clicks that waste precious funds.

In any Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign, it is important to decide whether or not you will be purchasing your company’s branded keywords. For example, a branded keyword would be “Dell,” whereas a non-branded keyword would be “desktop computer.” This issue often gets overlooked and, in the long run, can create a problem. There are both pros and cons to purchasing your branded keywords. In the end, the decision comes down to what the goals of the campaign are. Is the campaign meant to build brand awareness or to generate leads? Or is it meant for both? Whatever the decision, the purchasing of your company’s branded keywords needs to be addressed from the beginning.

Pros:

Branded keywords are inexpensive. In my experience managing PPC campaigns, very rarely have I seen branded terms that cost more than $0.25 to purchase. In fact, most programs have some form of budget optimizer that will bump the price down. You may receive 100 clicks on branded terms and only pay $10.00, an average of $0.10 a click.

Good for brand awareness. If the sole purpose of your campaign is to drive traffic to your site, paying for your branded keywords is a good idea. This concept holds especially true if your terms are not ranking well in the organic rankings. Instead of a user looking through the rankings, your ad is right at the top under the sponsored links. A brand awareness campaign will get your name out to the world at a cost-effective price.

Cons:

Irrelevant clicks. If the goal of your PPC campaign is to get leads, paying for branded keywords can be detrimental. Most users will click on the first listing they see for your company, whether that be organic or paid. Many of these users will not be interested in completing a conversion goal, but rather just want to get to your site. The best-case scenario is that the user is interested in what you offer, but would have gotten to your site anyway by clicking the organic ranking. So you end up paying for this traffic when you could have had it for free.

A drain on the budget. As discussed, most branded keywords are inexpensive, but nonetheless they do cost something. Paying for branded terms takes away budget from non-branded terms. The users searching for your non-branded terms are more likely to complete your conversion goal because they are directly searching for what you have to offer.

There is no clear answer as to whether or not you should bid for your branded keywords. All of the above factors must go into your decision. Sometimes there are even more factors at play. E-commerce sites tend to bid on their branded terms because of the fierce competition they often face with their resellers. The best way to make your decision is to test your PPC campaign with and without branded keywords. If you purchase branded keywords for a month and see many clicks, but few conversions, it might not be a good idea to continue. If over the next month your traffic stays relatively consistent with the branded terms off then you know your organic rankings are good and you do not need to buy these terms. Above all, you must always understand what the goal(s) of your campaign are.