What is PPC?

Pay-per-click, also known as search engine marketing or pay-per-click, is an online advertising method that allows marketers to bid on keywords to have their ads shown to a particular audience, platform, or keyword search. Advertisers do not pay for clicks on their ads. This is why we love PPC so much for our ecommerce clients.

PPC Basics

PPC can increase sales, lead generation, and brand awareness. How? How?

An advertiser might indicate that they want their ads to appear for specific searches, such as “black dress” if you’re looking for the perfect black dress.

When done correctly, this form of advertising can be highly effective and help your brand stand out to your primary marketing audience.

Top PPC platforms

Google

Google Ads is the most popular PPC platform. It includes Google Search and Search Partner Sites as well as Display Network sites and Google Shopping. Google Ads can be accessed from small and large sites.

Bing

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, is an alternative to Google Search. Bing is the default search engine that all Microsoft products use and also uses Search Partners. Microsoft Advertising reports that Bing currently has 137,000,000 unique desktop searchers within its network.

How to set up your Google Ads account

Go to the Google Ads page. Click the “Start Now” button in the upper-right corner. To proceed, you will need to have a Gmail account. To register an account, enter the email address. You can invite others to your account after you have created it.

Layout for your Google Ads account

Company data: Your account can include company data in many different areas. These resources can be managed by going to the Company Data section. You might use company data to determine the behavior of your ads within a specific context, or for product inventories.

Security: Google Ads lets you share access levels with other employees. Shared access controls will help ensure that passwords remain safe and secure. Navigate to your account access settings and add a user. Then select the access you need. Access can be added or removed at any time.

Link to Google Analytics. You can link your account with your Google Analytics account. This link will allow you to view ad performance data within your Google Ads report. You can also import analytics goals or ecommerce transactions.

Linking Google Ads and Google Analytics

1. Sign into your Google Analytics account.
2. Select admin, click Tools & Settings, and locate the property that you wish to link to your ads account.
3. Select Google Ads Linking in the Property column.
4. After you have logged into Google Ads Linking click + New Link Group to select the Google Ads account that you wish to link.
5. You can turn on linking for every view you want Google Ads data to receive.
6. Skip to the next step if auto-tagging has been enabled in your Google Ads account. You can mutually tag Google Ads links by going to Advanced settings > Leave my auto-tagging settings the way they are.
7. Click on Link Accounts.
8. Congrats, it’s complete!

* You can refer to Google’s official instructions webpage for more details.

Transactions You can update your account and make payments in this section.

Google Merchant Center – This account allows you to upload products and link your Google Ads account with your Merchant account.

Linking Google Merchant Center and Google Ads Account

All of your product data will flow from the Merchant Center into Google Ads when you approve a Google Ads link between the Merchant Center and Google Ads. This connection allows you to create dynamic remarketing campaigns, Shopping campaigns, and many other things.

Only Merchant Center account users can request to link Google Ads to their accounts. You can create new account links by going to the “Linked Accounts” section in the Settings drop-down menu.

After the request is approved by the Google Ads account owner, information can be shared between accounts. The Merchant Center’s product information can be used to create campaigns.

Conversion Settings

Effective campaigns require conversion tracking. Let’s look at how to set conversion tracking.

You will receive a tracking code in your Google Ads account that you need to add to the website. To insert the code/tag in the correct location, you’ll need to have access to your website’s backend.

Step 1: Create Conversion Action

• Click the Tools icon in the upper right corner. Under “Measurement”, click Conversions.

• Click on the plus (+).

• Click here to go to your website.

• You can then choose the type of action that you want to track, from sales leads and leads.

• Next, give your conversion tracking an alias. This will allow you to identify conversion actions in the conversion reports you can create.

• Choose how you will track the value of each conversion. This will allow you to determine the value of each action. 

• Next, choose how Google Ads will count these conversions. This can be done once or every time.

• You can choose how long you want to keep track of conversions after an ad interaction in the Click-through conversion windows.

• Click Include in Conversions to determine if your data is included in the reports column.

• Click on Create to be taken directly to the page with your conversion tag.

Step 2: Configure Your Conversion Tracking Tag

You will need to add the following tags to your website if you’re setting up conversion tracking tags for the first time: the global site tag, and the event snippet.

Global Tag: This tag adds visitors to the “All Visitors” remarketing list. This tag can set new cookies on your website, which will show the ad clicked that brought the user to your site. This tag must be installed on all pages. However, you only need one tag per Ad account.

Event Snippet tag: An events snippet tag is used to track conversions. This snippet must be installed on every page where you wish to track conversion activity. Each conversion will have its event snippet tag, while the global site tags will apply to all conversion actions.

How to structure your account

Campaigns and Ad Groups

You will start by creating campaigns that focus on keyword themes when you are first starting to organize your accounts. You might create a campaign that focuses on “Indoor House Rugs” for example. You may also have subcategories within this campaign that could fall under Ad Groups. These Ad Groups could include vintage house rugs or jute rugs.

Ad groups should be organized according to keyword variations. Why? This allows you to narrow down your target audience to the products you sell. One ad group should be created for each type of rug. There should be one ad group for vintage rugs, another for vintage Persian rugs, etc. You should limit the number of keywords in each ad group to one keyword per theme so that the ads can be directly related to those keywords.

Keywords

Each keyword can be assigned a match kind when you choose the keywords that you want to rank for. Match type determines which ads will appear.

Exact – To display the keyword, you must type it word-for-word.

Exact (Close Variant). The keyword must be entered word-for-word, but it can be misspelled.

Broad – Keywords can be entered in many different ways and your ad may be displayed.

Broad (Session Based) – This algorithm considers other keywords that were searched during the search session.

Phrase – Although the keyword can be entered in many variations, it must include all keywords in your actual query.

Phrase (Close Variant). The keyword must be entered in the correct order. However, misspellings may occur.

Negative Keywords

To remove unqualified traffic clicking on your ads, you can use negative keywords. This allows you to pay for clicks that are more related to your business. If a user searches “types house rugs”, they may not be ready to purchase a particular rug. They are still in the research stage of shopping. Your ad won’t be activated if you add “types” to your keyword.

Audience

You can create audiences by focusing on certain actions that users take when they visit your site. These segments can be created based on specific page views, time spent, pages per visit, and other factors. You can also bid on audiences based on their relevance. There are many audiences available that will suit your needs and drive conversions and traffic to your site.

Understanding Campaign Types

You can create the following campaigns using the Google Ads platform: Search Network, Display Network, Video, Shop, and Universal Apps. The first step in building a long-term, effective ad strategy is choosing the right campaign.

Search Ads

The search engine’s primary results aim to provide the user with solutions to their problems, a link that will take them to a product, or additional information about a topic. Google is one of the most powerful marketing tools businesses have to reach specific audiences.

You can use search ads to find the average monthly search volumes for keywords that you are interested in ranking for. This will give you an idea of the cost per click for ads and other information. Search ads can be run for specific products, product lines, or even geographic locations.

Search ads can be created and displayed on search engine result pages. These ads are marked in a small box with the word “Ad”.

Google Shopping ads can also be used to find you. These ads can show product ratings and photos that will help ecommerce brands stand apart from their competitors.

Google Display Network

Display advertising lets you place your ads in front of people who are surfing the internet, using apps, or watching videos. These results can be found beyond Google’s search engine result pages. Google claims that its Display Network is used by 90% of internet users. It has ads on over 2 million websites and 650,000 apps.

Video advertising

Google Ads allows advertisers to place ads on YouTube. YouTube hosts approximately 1 billion hours of video per day. Advertisers have plenty of time to market their products to future customers. Most people are familiar with video ads that appear before the video the end user selected. However, advertisers have other advertising options.

Google Shopping

You will need to create a Google Merchant Center account for your company if you want to promote your products through Google Shopping ads. Once you have completed the steps to set up your Merchant Center account and can verify that it is receiving your store feed, you will be able to use targeted product ads.

App Campaigns

Advertise your app via Search, Display, and Video Networks. This feature is important if your goal is to increase app sales or to promote an existing or new app.

Remarketing

Google Ads Remarketing lets you show targeted ads to users who have visited your website or interacted with your brand. Ads can be found by previous visitors via search queries, YouTube videos, or news sites. This allows you to stay at the forefront of your mind for customers who already show interest in your brand.

This type of advertising can greatly increase your conversion rates. Visitors who have been to your site before are more familiar with your products and are therefore more likely to return.

What is Remarketing?

You can add a Google remarketing code/pixel on your website to collect visitor information. This information can then be added to your Google remarketing lists via browser cookies.

When you start remarketing to your audience it is a good idea to target all visitors to your website. This can lead to higher upfront costs, but you can still gather additional data to improve your retargeting efforts. You can display ads to customers who have purchased products from your site, or a different set of ads to non-buyers.

Different types of Remarketing

Basic Remarketing: This type focuses on showing ads to past visitors when they search the Internet, use Google Display Network Apps, and browse social media sites.

Dynamic Remarketing: This dynamic remarketing service serves ads tailored to specific visitors. Businesses can increase their chances of having visitors return to their site and purchase from them by using custom messages.

Ecommerce websites have the option to use dynamic remarketing ads to include products abandoned by visitors. This can be extremely helpful as it allows you to stay top-of-mind for customers who are actively searching for relevant products.

Dynamic remarketing ads also allow you to be feature-specific. You can market to users who have abandoned your website’s pricing page by sending a message focusing on trial offers or payment plans.

Search Ads Remarketing Lists

This type of remarketing allows you to tailor your search ads to visitors who have visited your site before. Two strategies are available when it comes to search ads remarketing.

Specific Bids for Existing Keywords. Visitors may use certain keywords to navigate to your website if they have visited it before. These keywords can be bid upon as a strategy for getting customers who have previously visited your site to return to it and take action on your website.

Broad Keyword Bidding – You can bid on keywords you don’t normally bid on. This strategy can be used to target broad keywords, but only people who have visited your site before you. This allows you to reach a wider audience without having to spend on clicks from disengaged people.

Understanding Device Targeting

Device targeting allows you to display your ads on certain devices. You can specify whether ads should be displayed only on mobile devices, desktops or tablets, or any combination thereof. This allows you to create different bidding strategies per device.

Targeting ads to specific operating systems can be even more precise. It is a good idea to target ads to users with specific operating systems if you sell a product.

Understanding Location Targeting

Geotargeting can be used to show ads in the areas where your customers live. This will make sure that you only spend your marketing budget in areas where your company is performing well.

Geotargeting is not only about the locations you want to target but also excludes other locations that could be equally important. It is beneficial for your company to not pay unqualified users to interact with your ads if they cannot ship to Hawaii or Alaska.

Understanding Ad Scheduling

These steps will help you schedule your ads.

1. Navigate to the Dimensions tab of the campaign that you wish to concentrate on.
2. Navigate to the Dimensions tab and click on the View drop-down. Select Time.
3. Analyze the most profitable days and times for your business to advertise to your target audience.
4. Based on this analysis, update the ad schedule.
5. Navigate to the Settings tab, and choose the Ad Schedule.

How to set budgets

Budget is how much you want to spend on each campaign per day over a month. Although your clicks may affect your daily budget, Google will not exceed the overall budget for your monthly campaign.

The following formula can be used to determine a Google Ads budget:

Budget/30.4 = Daily budget

It is recommended to research the industry average cost per click for keywords you are interested in using this formula. These numbers will help you determine how many clicks you need to get the best results.

Understanding Ad Extensions

Location Extensions This extension can help you generate foot traffic to the business and indicate to users where they could find your business.

Call Extensions This extension encourages customers to call you directly. This extension can be used in two ways: a call button or your phone number.

Sitelink ExtensionsSitelinks lets you match landing pages with user intent. Deep links can be displayed on specific pages of your website.

Price ExtensionsConsumers need to know upfront how much a product will cost them. Price extensions allow you to display product costs in your ad.

App Extensions –Google app extensions encourage users to download your app. They are displayed on mobile searches.

How to write high-performing headlines

A compelling headline for your ad can make the difference between a click and a scroll through your website. We’ll show you how to create compelling headlines that your prospects will love.

Add Keywords People are using specific search terms because they know exactly what they’re looking for. These keywords can help your prospects identify your business as a solution to a specific need. Your user should find the information they need as quickly as possible.

Simple questions: Asking the searcher a question within your headline can increase your conversion rate.

Solve End-User Problems: People don’t want to be sold. They want their problem solved. Include information about how your product solves the problem of an end-user.

Highlight Statistics and Numbers Empirical evidence is extremely influential. Data can help build trust and signal to your end-users that you are knowledgeable in the industry.

How to write high-performing ad copy

Keywords are a key component of high-performing ads. Bold keywords in ads should be included whenever possible. This signal is quick to indicate that your ad is relevant to the user’s query.

Ad copy should be specific to your users’ search terms. If your users search for shoes, you should use the term shoes in your ad copy. To remain relevant, you’ll want to match the specificity of “women’s running shoes” if they type it in.

How to write high-performing calls to action (CTA)

In your ad copy, it is crucial to include a call to action. This will let your end-user know what you want them to do. This small addition can help you frame your future visitor experience.

Make sure your CTA is visible in your ad. This information can be found in your headline or description.

A clear benefit to CTA: Indicating what you want your end-users to do will allow them to understand how they should interact with your brand. You might be able to save $10 by buying today, booking now and paying later, or getting your initial month for free.

Create UrgencyUsers are looking for the best deal and will shop around until they find it. Users will be more likely to take action if they feel that the best offer you have is very limited. It is common to use the word “now”, so it will help to pair it with a description explaining why it is important. The end of a deal can be indicated by “Book Now – 24-Hour Sale”, for example.

PPC Tools

History of Changes: You can pull a full history report which allows you to see all changes made to your campaigns. This report can help you to understand which changes have led to a stronger or improved performance.

Keyword Planner – Keyword planner is a tool that will allow you to find new keywords to bid on and also provide information about search volumes, cost per click, and other relevant data.

Display Planner: Display Planner will help you plan your advertising campaigns based on the interests of your customers and landing pages. It will give you suggestions for targeting and estimates for inventory. These plans can be saved directly to your Authorized Buyers Account.

Ad Preview and Diagnosis: This free tool will allow you to determine if your ads are appearing in searches. It also allows you to preview how they might look when they appear elsewhere. 

Shared Library

Audiences Here you can manage and create remarketing lists. You can choose whether to share your audience list with multiple campaigns, ad groups, or both.

Bid StrategiesAdvertisers can share bidding strategies across multiple campaigns. This saves time and allows users to work more efficiently. There are several bidding strategies available: enhance CPC, target CPA, target ROAS, and maximize clicks.

Budgets Shared budgets enable advertisers to manage campaigns using one budget for all campaigns. This allows you to choose which campaigns you wish to allocate the largest budget.

Negative KeywordsNegative Keyword Lists allow advertisers to assign common keywords to multiple campaigns.

Placement Exclusions This tool allows you to exclude placements from which you don’t want to display your ads.

Reporting

Search Queries Reports: The search query report shows which search queries drive traffic to your site, and which ones are not.

Placement reports: The placement report shows you where your ad was placed. This report allows you to determine which mediums drive profitable traffic and which placements only provide exposure, not clicks.

The auction insights report contains a lot of useful information. It will help you to identify areas where you can optimize your campaigns and can show you which competitors are bidding against yours.

Segmentation OptionsSegments allow you to choose which type of criteria to see insights for. The following segments can be used to filter:

• Time
• Conversion
• Network
• Networking (with Search Partners)
• Select Type
• Device
• Experiment
• Type vs.

FiltersFilters let you show campaign data only that you are interested in. Filtering by keywords, click-through rates, device types, and other criteria is possible.

Bidding

Automated bidding strategies: Bid strategy attempts to determine the bids based upon your ads likely to convert or click.

Maximize Conversions. If you have a maximum daily budget, Google will manage the bidding so that you get the best conversions.

Maximize Conversion Value: Maximizing conversion values are similar to TargetROAS. In this case, Google will try to maximize your return on ad spend. The only difference is that you’ll need to identify your target ROI.

Target ROAS This is where Google Ads adjusts your bids to maximize conversion values based on what you expect from your ad spend.

This formula can be used to calculate it:

Target ROAS = Sales / Ad Spend x 100%

Target Cost Per Acquisition: If you want to drive conversions you can create a target CPA. This will allow you to focus on converting users at a specific acquisition cost. Google Ads will automatically adjust your bids to match this cost.

Conclusion

This guide can be used by advertisers to help them get started in the complex world of PPC. This guide covers a range of tools you can use to start. PPC campaigns change constantly so you must test different settings. Every account is different and has its features. Therefore, it is important to test different strategies to find the best strategy for you.

Are you looking for help with your pay-per-click marketing? Book a consultation today to see how we can help your business. If you are not ready, but still curious about what makes a Kobe Digital client a good one, take a look at our ideal customer description.