Clix Marketing PPC Blog

It happens to all of us eventually. We manage our PPC campaigns day in and day out and then one day — boom! We hit a wall.

What do I do next? Is this really all I can get out of my PPC campaign?

Even more startling are those PPC managers that never reach the wall due to stagnation. The “set it and forget it” crowd.

Today we’ll cover five common sense ways to push through the proverbial PPC wall so that you can truly maximize your PPC potential.

1. Leverage Existing Campaigns

When you think there is nothing left you can do to improve your PPC performance, the first thing you should do is take a deeper look at your existing campaigns. Hundreds, if not thousands, of articles have been written on this topic. But here are some of the high level ideas:

• Review your campaign settings.
• Analyze your current ad testing and pause losing ads.
• Find keywords with Quality Scores under 7 and break them out into smaller, tighter ad groups.
• Review search query reports and find new negative keywords.
• Test your landing pages.
• Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s so easy to become blind to some of these mundane tasks when you’re entrenched in a PPC campaign, but all of these little tasks add up to big improvements in performance.

2. Don’t Neglect or Ignore Microsoft adCenter

While I still grumble about Microsoft adCenter from time to time, I’m becoming more of a fan with each passing day. As I spend more time managing my adCenter accounts I find that I’m achieving a proportionate level of increases in performance, too.

If you already manage an adCenter PPC account, don’t ignore it. While it may not drive as much traffic or as many conversions as AdWords, it’s still an important piece of the PPC puzzle.

Millions of people actively use Yahoo and Bing search every day and they want to do business with you, too. For those of you who still haven’t started advertising on Microsoft adCenter, well, if you’re looking to get past your PPC wall — look no further.

3. Display Advertising: Duh, Winning!

Cheesy Charlie Sheen references aside, display advertising is “where it’s at.” There is a tremendous potential for any PPC advertiser to discover new customers and dramatically improve PPC performance with Google’s (and Microsoft’s) Display Network.

Create some display campaigns and push some exciting, enticing text ads out and get the ball rolling. Create some image ads — animated if you can swing it — and get those out there, too.

For those of you already complaining because you don’t have the resources to create image ads, Google AdWords has the Display Ad Builder which you can use — for free.

And don’t forget about Microsoft adCenter. Microsoft has a large Content Network (different terminology, but is the same as “Display”). Just note that for now, you can only publish text ads to this network via adCenter.

4. The Art of Remarketing

Remarketing is a fun, exciting extension of Google’s Display Network. For the sake of an example, let’s pretend that you have exhausted all options in your Search Network campaigns, you have rocked your Microsoft adCenter account and dominated the Display Network (this work is never really done, but we’re pretending).

What is left? Start targeting those website visitors that did not convert.

Remarketing lets you place a cookie on a visitor’s computer. When that visitor leaves your website without converting, you can begin to show ads on Google’s Display Network to entice them to come back and complete their purchase.

You can fine tune remarketing to segment visitors by webpage, product, etc., so that you deliver the most targeted ad to them in the future. This is a powerful method of PPC advertising and one that you should consider using ASAP.

5. Social PPC

The new Wild West of PPC advertising is on the social networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Twitter (to name a few) are all developing super-targeted PPC advertising platforms.

There is some learning curve to these platforms as they are considerably different from the comfort zones of Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. But don’t let that deter you. They are easy to learn and manage.

So when you’re feeling frustrated because you’ve hit the PPC wall, take a deep breath and open a Facebook Ads account and expand your PPC horizons!

Summary

There you have it — five common sense ways of pushing through the proverbial PPC wall. Or PPC brain block. Or whatever you call it.

My hope is that I have inspired a few of you to press on and find new and exciting ways to improve your PPC performance. Does anyone else have suggestions on ways to improve PPC performance when you feel there is nowhere else to go?

This article was originally posted April 1, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com.

If you’re like me or thousands of other Google AdWords advertisers, you have lamented the loss of the “old school” AdWords reports. Last year Google began pushing all of the report modules into the physical interface of AdWords in lieu of bundling them all in a central location. While all of the old reports technically still exist, they are more difficult to find and certainly less intuitive to manipulate. So, if you have been struggling to figure out the new reporting system, or just simply want to use the old reports again I’ve got good news for you. There is a loophole that you can exploit to get those reports back!

The process is super simple. Create an AdWords Master Client Center (MCC). Serendipitously, Google recently simplified this process so that anyone can create an MCC without the help of AdWords support. Just visit this website and follow the instructions. Once you have created the MCC, follow the instructions to add your AdWords account to your new MCC.

At this point, when logged into your AdWords MCC, you will magically (OK, so no magic was really involved) have access to the “old school” report center. Click on the “Client Reporting” tab and behold the glory of your reports.

Enjoy!

by Joseph Kerschbaum

Director of Client Services, Clix Marketing

Recently, we acquired a client whose AdWords accounts were in a state of disarray. This is using the term “disarray” lightly. Our initial objective was to consolidate quite a few campaigns, from a number of different AdWords accounts, into one single account.

Basically, the client wanted to consolidate the campaigns without lead flow being hindered greatly in the short term and/or permanently.

Let’s Run the Numbers

The first step was to review the performance of the campaigns pre- and post-consolidation. This data was compiled from a few of the campaigns before they were moved, and compared to the data after these campaigns were consolidated into one account.

Looking at these stats, things looked a little rough. Impressions, clicks, and conversions were down. And our cost-per-click and cost-per-conversion was up.

However, things weren’t as bleak as they first appeared. Considering that we moved thousands of keywords and hundreds of ad texts throughout a short period of time, we (and the client) were happy with the progress.

When each campaign was moved into the new account, it took a few days for it to adjust and gain back its impression volume. Over time, things started picking up. For example, here’s the progress we’ve made within the consolidated account:

Our clicks, impressions, and conversions have increased over the past few weeks and our cost-per-conversion is starting to decrease.

Plan of Action

The campaigns are in much better shape now, and all in one place. Our next step is to begin optimizing the newly consolidated campaigns now that they’re “getting back on their feet.” Our key performance metrics (KPIs) were down for a short while but they’re making a comeback.

So, how did we move thousands of keywords without crippling the account for the long-term and sending the client in a tailspin?

1. We created a tiered plan so that we moved campaigns slowly. We didn’t move everything at once.
2. We conducted a thorough analysis of the campaigns and removed the weak elements before moving anything. This process included pausing underperforming keywords, adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, and pausing weak ad text variations. This allowed us to move the best elements of the campaigns.
3. We set the proper expectations with the client. Before one keyword was moved, we made them aware that by moving keywords between accounts we’ll be losing their performance history and this could negatively affect the account.

Long-Term Implications

Sure, we can see how this process affected this client on a micro level, but what does this mean on a macro level for PPC management?

• If you have a pretty solid campaign structure and move your campaign, it should gain back its performance traction quickly. Just be prepared for short-term turbulence.
• This idea can apply to moving ad groups between campaigns within the same account. If you move an ad group between campaigns, you’ll see a blip in performance but it should pick up.
• If your account is littered with keywords that have poor quality scores, low CTRs, and high CPCs, then opening a new account and moving your campaign won’t fix your problems. A good account should gain back its good graces with Google, and bad accounts should suffer the same fate.

A few additional notes if you plan to move campaigns or ad groups:

• If you migrate an entire campaign between accounts, check your account settings. Technically, you’re creating a new campaign. This means that your campaign settings could be set to AdWords defaults.
• When moving ad groups between campaigns, make sure that higher-level campaign settings, such as ad delivery, rotation, and campaign-level negative keywords, don’t hinder your recently-moved ad group.

If you need to make major changes to an AdWords account, such as moving ad groups between campaigns or even moving campaigns between accounts, come up with a plan first and expect a fluctuation in your performance and overall volume.

If you’re suffering from performance, optimize the account you have. Don’t try opening a new account and moving your old, junky campaigns into them. You may see a short-term boost by doing this, but if your ads are irrelevant and landing pages don’t convert in one account, they’ll do the same in a new account as well.

This article was originally posted May 26, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com.