Advertising

Better PPC Management

| Print |

E-mail

Written by Josh Prizer

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

by JoshPrizer

Click Through Rates (CTRs) are one of the key components of the paid search algorithms. Fine tuning those will not only help you rise in the search engines, but they can even lower your costs per click.

Optimizing your Click Through Rates (CTRs) can be done in a variety of ways. We'll touch on just a few of the big ones below. There are generally no quick fixes (unless you outsource to a PPC management company). So, get ready to roll up the sleeves and plan to put in some continual work.

Target More Highly Relevant Keywords

The tighter you can focus your keyword to your ad, the higher you can drive those click through rates. Often, this may mean using the keyword in the ad copy. This can also be difficult to do if you have a few ad groups with a wide range and long list of keywords. But you want to speak to the person doing a search...the more you can do that, the more relevant you become to them.

Unfortunately, if you have one of those accounts with tons of keywords under just a few ad groups, you may need to restructure your entire account. Again, not a pretty process scrapping all the work you have done. And, again, this might be an area where you consider outsourcing to a professional.

Hunting for Negative Keywords

Click Through Rates are determined by the number of ads that get clicked divided by the number of impressions that were served. With that in mind, you want to make sure you are not serving up ads on keywords you don't want to appear on. When you search for keywords that you want to advertise on, also take note of those other variations that you don't want to appear on. Compiling these and using them appropriate can help drive up your CTRs.

Better Ad Copy

Probably the most labor-intensive, but important items that can make an impact on your CTRs is better ad copy. And while things like a call to action or a value statement of some kind are key...split testing is even more critical.

Split testing is the process of running multiple ads at once and comparing the results. It sounds simple enough, but you also need to do it with consistency to make it effective. You also need to make sure that you don't pull the plug from an ad to early. There are some mathematical ways you can determine this, but if you are not committed to conducting split tests frequently and often, don't expect to see your CTRs rise.

While there is a lot more to PPC optimization than improving your CTRs, it is certainly a good place to focus on. If your business is in a competitive marketplace, where keywords are expensive, you ought to consider protecting and refining your investment by hiring a professional PPC management company. If that's not a possibility, then make that commitment to more time and effort. It will make an impact.

About the Author:

Josh Prizer is an Account Executive and PPC Expert who works for Zero Company Performance Marketing, a ppc management firm. Visit their website to learn more on improving your PPC advertising campaigns and performance.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.