PPC – Quality or Quantity?

It is hard to know where to start when it comes to PPC. Google have developed their ad platform so much over the last year or so with enhanced campaigns and remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) becoming increasingly important to businesses large or small. But with these in mind, let’s not forget about the fundamentals – your keywords. The ones that are of most valuable, will convert well and those with the best ROI.

Vikki Peirson, PPC Account Manager at Croud, discusses the most important things to look at when deciding on which keyword to use for your PPC campaign.

If you are not familiar with the term “Keywords”, these are the phrases that are shown for your ad when somebody searches for one of your products or services. As obvious as it sounds, you won’t believe how many businesses overlook the importance of selecting keywords that are important, relevant, representative of your services and will bring you the best ROI.

Regardless of whether you are launching a brand new PPC campaign, or simply adding new ad groups into existing accounts it is essential to base these on data. Google’s Keyword Planner, which recently replaced their Keyword Tool is an essential data aggregator for any PPC expert. Providing comprehensive search stats around your keywords, the tool also allows you to create ad groups, get search volumes for these keywords and shortlist additional keyword ideas.

Although this all seems relatively easy on paper, the process and analytical side of things is often bypassed. It is not simply a case of extracting search volumes, assessing competition and going ahead to bid on these keywords, but to refine, test and constantly feedback into your account which keywords are working for you and the nature of your business. The ability to target keywords based on your audience and business location will also play a part in choosing your most suitable keyword list.

Working with an agency is an easy way to set up an ad campaign, and in the long run will eliminate the risk of the account having to be adjusted later down the line. At Croud Vikki liaises externally with her PPC clients, to understand what exactly they goals are, and determines their business KPIs are met before even thinking about starting a campaign Teamed with experience and multi sector knowledge, selecting strong keyword lists means that a successful account can be created quickly and efficiently.

So what happens when we consider quality over quantity?

It can be argued that you don’t need hundreds and hundreds of keywords in your PPC account, and an agency or search specialist may focus on purely keyword relevancy, where as a business owner may be more open to “covering all bases” in the hope that they do convert. However, Vikki does not always recommend this process as some of the suggested business keywords may not regularly receive impressions and will therefore not be valuable to the account at this stage. Although there is no correct amount of keywords that are suggested for a campaign, the correct mix should formulate your plan, target audience and account structure. You will, as a result be in a much stronger position to convert on a set of keywords that have been properly assigned to various ad groups in your campaign. Mixing keywords between products, brand, generics and negatives will depend on what it is you are trying to sell or service and therefore associated costs will differ too. Brand terms tend to be cheaper, as you will already rank organically for them, plus they are less competitive.

In turn, when you start to see more conversions, you will improve your quality score, enabling the chance to reduce cost per click on some keywords and increase positions in the SERPs.

If you want to get in touch with Vikki, or with any of the guys at Croud for PPC or SEO services, please visit www.croud.co.uk or email [email protected] to see if they can help you.

Sectors: Advertising & Marketing Services
Topics: Advertising, Business Development, E-commerce, Insights & Statistics, Promotion, and Sales & Marketing
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