Newbies: Starting a new PPC Campaign? First goal: getting enough Impressions...
- SEO |
|> I'll add to this over the next few weeks... assuming enough people find it useful...
|> Step One: Ask Google: Keywords based on primary benefit [this post]
|> Step Two: Shatter Your Groups [see my next post, below]
|>
Step One: Ask Google: Keywords based on primary benefit
Unless you already dominate a market, building a Campaign around your product name - or worse, brand name - is financial suicide.
For most businesses and most brands, the campaign should be benefit-based.
That's not news - many marketers will tell you that's always been the case. Unfortunately though, far too many of the Ads I see on Google are product or brand focused.
Now, I know what you're thinking...
"Everyone knows what an iPod is!"
You're right. And certainly, if you know you want one, you are going to type iPod into Google.
"Everyone knows what a 'ride on mower' does"
Again - you're right. And certainly, if you want one, that's what you'll type into Google.
So there will be massive traffic for these types of terms. And you could target such terms in your Ads to get lots of Impressions... but should you?
Here's why you should not target brands, products and product categories (like ride on mower or mobile phone):
Here's what you'll do instead:
Ask Google for keywords based on the primary benefit of your product or service. Find keywords with less competition and dominate them: achieve strong Impressions, high Click-Through-Rates and lower Cost-Per-Click.
Click Tools on the Campaign Management menu, and then choose Keyword Tool. Select the Descriptive words or phrases option, and type the primary benefit (3-5 words ideally) into the text box. Click Get keyword ideas.
Create AdGroups to exploit sets of relevant keywords with search volumes over 1,000.
Keep one eye on competition score - it's not too important at this stage: firstly we don't entirely trust that index - it doesn't seem to be reliable - and secondly we prefer to let the rubber hit the road before we decide whether the competition is too tough. In other words, any narrow niche, tightly "on topic", will be fine.
Now, 1,000 searches per month for one keyword does not sound like a lot - but an AdGroup with 40-60 related keywords can achieve over 1,000 high relevance search network Impressions per day (with Click-Through-Rates over 0.50%) within a few days, with low average Cost-Per-Click. So keep looking.
Struggling? Here are a few tips:
More often than not, you can create landing pages and/or AdVariants targeting the keyword sets you have discovered. This will also increase your Quality Score (which leads to lower bid prices and more Impressions).
Check back after 4 days and weed out any keywords that have low impressions with no clicks.
Don't overlook this, as if you don't get rid of them, Google will... by slapping your Quality Score! You don't want that.
Newbie summary:
Brainstorm a "keyword phrases starter list" of benefits, problems, complaints, side-effects and applications.
Use the Google Keyword Tool to find sets of tightly relevant keywords that Google thinks are associated with the starter list phrases. Create AdGroups with AdVariants and landing pages to target those keyword sets.
Check back 4 days later and weed out keywords with low impressions and no clicks.
|> Step One: Ask Google: Keywords based on primary benefit [this post]
|> Step Two: Shatter Your Groups [see my next post, below]
|>
Step One: Ask Google: Keywords based on primary benefit
Unless you already dominate a market, building a Campaign around your product name - or worse, brand name - is financial suicide.
For most businesses and most brands, the campaign should be benefit-based.
That's not news - many marketers will tell you that's always been the case. Unfortunately though, far too many of the Ads I see on Google are product or brand focused.
Now, I know what you're thinking...
"Everyone knows what an iPod is!"
You're right. And certainly, if you know you want one, you are going to type iPod into Google.
"Everyone knows what a 'ride on mower' does"
Again - you're right. And certainly, if you want one, that's what you'll type into Google.
So there will be massive traffic for these types of terms. And you could target such terms in your Ads to get lots of Impressions... but should you?
Here's why you should not target brands, products and product categories (like ride on mower or mobile phone):
- High competition - these keywords tend to be expensive, so chances are you won't actually achieve high impressions; the Minimum Bid will kick you off the first page
- Poor Click-Through-Rates - Google users will click specific Ads first, and general ones last; and a poor CTR will kill your Quality Score, then up goes the Minimum Bid and once again you're off page one and impressions crash
Here's what you'll do instead:
Ask Google for keywords based on the primary benefit of your product or service. Find keywords with less competition and dominate them: achieve strong Impressions, high Click-Through-Rates and lower Cost-Per-Click.
Click Tools on the Campaign Management menu, and then choose Keyword Tool. Select the Descriptive words or phrases option, and type the primary benefit (3-5 words ideally) into the text box. Click Get keyword ideas.
Create AdGroups to exploit sets of relevant keywords with search volumes over 1,000.
Keep one eye on competition score - it's not too important at this stage: firstly we don't entirely trust that index - it doesn't seem to be reliable - and secondly we prefer to let the rubber hit the road before we decide whether the competition is too tough. In other words, any narrow niche, tightly "on topic", will be fine.
Now, 1,000 searches per month for one keyword does not sound like a lot - but an AdGroup with 40-60 related keywords can achieve over 1,000 high relevance search network Impressions per day (with Click-Through-Rates over 0.50%) within a few days, with low average Cost-Per-Click. So keep looking.
Struggling? Here are a few tips:
- Find keywords related to a benefit users are searching for - e.g. greener lawn, fresh grass smell.
- Find keywords related to a problem or complaint users may want solved - e.g. lawn grass dies in summer, brown lawn, weeds in lawn.
- Find keywords related to a side-effect that users may fear - e.g. new lawn eaten by birds, new lawn dies.
- Find keywords related to alternative applications that users may be thinking about - e.g. road-frontage lawns, sloping lawns, steep or terraced lawns.
More often than not, you can create landing pages and/or AdVariants targeting the keyword sets you have discovered. This will also increase your Quality Score (which leads to lower bid prices and more Impressions).
Check back after 4 days and weed out any keywords that have low impressions with no clicks.
Don't overlook this, as if you don't get rid of them, Google will... by slapping your Quality Score! You don't want that.
Newbie summary:
Brainstorm a "keyword phrases starter list" of benefits, problems, complaints, side-effects and applications.
Use the Google Keyword Tool to find sets of tightly relevant keywords that Google thinks are associated with the starter list phrases. Create AdGroups with AdVariants and landing pages to target those keyword sets.
Check back 4 days later and weed out keywords with low impressions and no clicks.
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