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Established 2009

The Anatomy of a Successful Pay-Per-Click Campaign

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What separates effective from ineffective pay-per-click advertising campaigns? It boils down to three things: proper setup, consistent optimization and customer targeting.

Proper Setup

When setting up a new campaign via Google Ads, Bing Ads, or other popular networks, there are several setup-related items that you need to get right. Setup refers to how you group keywords and ads into a structure that is optimal for campaign management.

It also involves getting the various settings right, including those pertaining to geographical targeting, ad rotation, campaign start dates and end dates, ad display day of week, ad display time of day, how bids are managed, and several more. It also refers to the “match type” that you use to target particular keywords, such as phrase or exact match.

Consistent Optimization

This refers to striking the right balance between the mix of ads, keyword choices, and keyword bid amounts. An online ad campaign resembles a huge, ongoing, never-ending auction.

All of the keywords that you find most important for your business are up for grabs by anybody and everybody. You need to make sure that you are paying just enough for “clicks” to garner the traffic you want, while taking care not to overpay.

In order to squeeze as much value as you can out of your campaign, you need to optimize your account continually.

Customer Targeting

Not all Internet traffic is created equal. Some visitors to your website are far more likely to “convert” to becoming your customer (or taking some other conversion action) than others. That is why it is so important to properly set up your Adwords campaign by choosing the right keywords.

The process we use at MindEcology, for example, is so finely tuned that we can even target those zip codes most likely to be rich with your best prospects, by leveraging our customer segmentation methodology, MatchPoint™.

By entrusting your PPC campaign to MindEcology, you can rest assured that we are working each day to maximize the value you derive from the campaign. We work with you to define conversion actions (e.g., fill out a web form, make a purchase, call you, etc.) that you want prospects to engage in when they visit your site.

We then generate a target keyword list, often consisting of hundreds or more keywords. We also create several text ad or banner ad variations designed to test for effectiveness. Over time, the best ads and the best keywords get prioritized while the under-performing ones get paused or “turned down” in terms of bid amounts.

The Bottom Line

PPC advertising can be a colossal waste of time and money – or it can represent a very ROI-rich marketing tactic that helps you grow your business. The key is experienced management. If you’re new to all things digital advertising, or if you’d like to take your PPC game to the next level, teaming with a highly experienced digital advertising agency can prove to be a wise investment of your resources.

Learn more about options for super-charging your pay-per-click advertising campaign results.