PPC Search Engine Marketing with Google's AdWords

Tips and tools for optimizing PPC search engine marketing campaigns for better website ROI.

By PPC Manager Jeff Novak

If you use your website to increase sales, get leads or sign-ups or any other conversion-oriented metrics, there are several free tools on the internet to help with the management of your Pay Per Click search engine campaigns and maximize your revenue from your website.  Your PPC search engine marketing should take advantage of Google AdWords which is a free and simple tool to set up with no required minimums to start a campaign.  AdWords, through their analytics and conversion tracking tools, will allow you to track your results and more importantly optimize your search engine marketing campaign to get the most from your PPC advertising dollar.  There are very few easier online advertising methods that allow you to optimize your ad spend and get better website ROI than Google AdWords. 

Here is a rundown of 10 tips to get the most out of your AdWords PPC search engine marketing.

1. Set up conversion tracking for all goals.  If you not only want to drive online sales and revenue but also get people to sign up for your newsletter, sign up to get additional information, or just view a particular page on your website, you can set up separate conversions actions to track the different goals in your PPC search engine marketing campaign.  Click here for full instructions.
2. Run a minimum of 4-5 different ads at once to see how each performs based on the conversion goals you set up in Step 1.  Search engine managers should pause any pay per click ads that are underperformers and periodically create new ads to the test.  Only keeping the best performers is one of the easiest ways to get better website ROI.
3. Under campaign settings in Adwords, in Advanced Options, for Ad Serving set your campaign to the Optimize setting which will show better performing ads more often instead of showing all ads evenly.  In this case, Google is actually doing the work for you and simplifying your PPC search engine marketing!
4. Using Website Optimizer another easy and free tool from Google, you can test multiple landing pages for your AdWords campaign at the same time.  With Website Optimizer a little bit of code is added to your site and you can run an A/B test almost instantly and see results within hours.  The A/B test can be for an entire page – or only an element on a page.  Then, through proper pay per click search engine management and optimization, pause the marketing underperformers and implement the winners.  Website Optimizer does not have to be used only on landing pages; it can be used to test any page or element on your site.
5. Use Google Analytics to see other key metrics on your site, including page views/visit, time on site, and bounce rates.  The Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors that leave your site without taking any other action.  Google reports it is not uncommon to see bounce rates in the 80%+ range in search engine marketing campaigns.  The key to PPC management is to look for pages that have bounce rates significantly higher than other landing pages and do what it takes to minimize the bounce rate.
6. Set up Goals within Google Analytics. Google Analytics is another free tool..  Goals are website pages that visitors reach once they have completed the desired action.  Each conversion/action that you are tracking in Tip #1 should also have a goal in Google Analytics.  This will allow you to analyze the sales funnel and show you where visitors are dropping off or getting lost in the sales process.  It is also possible to use the website optimizer from Step #4 to help you improve the sales funnel and your PPC search engine marketing conversions.
7. Use the Campaign Optimizer Tool under the Tools section of your account.  The tips I have mentioned above have all been somewhat advanced and deal specifically with conversion metrics.  But, the campaign optimizer tool analyzes your budget, keywords and ads and makes recommendations for managing your pay per click.  It will tell you if you should increase your budget because you are missing impressions, any new keywords you should add, which poor performers to pause, change matching options or adjust your bids.  Additionally it may recommend small changes in capitalization or punctuation.  What you do with the advice is up to you, but some great information can be found there which can help you improve your website ROI for better results.
8. Add Negative words to your search engine marketing campaign.  Using the Keywords tool look to see if there are search queries that are irrelevant to your business, then add these keywords to your negative list.  These irrelevant words can lower your Quality Score which can cause you to increase your minimum cost per clicks and therefore lower your PPC campaign’s ROI.
9. Don’t jump to conclusions on any of these tips.  Make sure you have a significant amount of data before you make your marketing decisions.  Run tests long enough to get sufficient results to make intelligent decisions.
10. Download Adwords Editor.  This is another free Google tool, which is a campaign management application that lets you make changes offine. AdWords Editor allows you to move around your account quickly and easily, make bulk changes and make your pay per click search engine management easier and less time consuming.

There are many more pay per click tips to get better website ROI, but these should help you manage and get the most of your PPC search engine marketing campaigns.

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