Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Tips

Adwords Qualified
Individual

Top SEM PPC tips that will blow your competition out of the water!

• Always use all keyword matching options:
  
  • keyword = broad match
  • [keyword] = exact match
  • "keyword" = phrase match
  • -keyword = negative match
  Negative matching ensures your keywords won't be shown for keywords that aren't appropriate to your campaign. This allows you best take advantage of the keywords. Using keyword matching options will:
  • increase your click-through rate (CTR)
  • decrease your cost per conversion (CPC)
  • decrease campaign costs
  Use this Ad wrapper and formatter tool to create all options.
• Don't bid for the #1 position. This slot is usually clicked on when people begin their research. Common wisdom is that positions 2 - 5 are much better for conversions. You can test later to see if lower positions bring in lower-cost conversions.

• In your campaign settings you should initially select only the Google search network for your ads. It is the most objective way to prove-in your ads. Once you have optimized the ads you might try the content networks to see if you can increase sales.

• Use id's in the destination URL (mercuryleads.com/?src=cowboy) of your ads, otherwise you won't know what campaign or ad group is the most profitable.
• In order to have a lesser cost per keyword your keywords should be in the title of the ad, the description part of the ad, the ad URL and prominently used in your landing page. This tells Google that you are clearly focusing on this keyword. Your cost per keyword will drop - and you'll see increased conversions since the searcher is seeing a consistent display of terms.
• ALWAYS split test your ads. Create two versions of each ad, each with slight differences between them. When you have a statistically significant difference between them, drop the under-performing one and replace it with a different version of the winning ad. To determine if you have a statistically significant difference use this free Split Tester tool.
• In order to ensure your split testing of ads is statistically relevant, in the Campaign Settings, Advanced Options set Ad serving to "Rotate: Show ads more evenly."

• Always use a landing page specific to the terms being searched. You can download our Landing Page Best Practices Quick Reference Guide, a succinct checklist to ensure you don't make any mistakes and lose conversions.
• Use Googles Website Optimizer to maximize conversions on your landing pages. It is a process of placing tags in the landing page code then defining multiple options for each of the page components like header, sub-header, body text, offering, images, etc. See this page for tips on how to increase landing page conversion rates.