5 Practical Ways to Optimize Your PPC Spend

5 Practical Ways to Optimize Your PPC Spend

1. Define A Few Simple Goals

• Do I want to:1. Control costs?2. Increase conversions?3. Deliver a branding message?4. Clean out the dead wood?

• Ask Yourself: What is my decision making process when I analyze a campaign?

Clean Out the Deadwood

• Follow the 1% CTR Rule– Apply it to keywords AND ads

• Allow 200 – 300 impressions before deleting• Consider creating a campaign only for long-tail

keywords

Test Ad Variations

• Test everything– Experiment with case– Display URL variations– Test your call to action– Optimize for mobile

2. Don’t Manage Manually

• Consider using alerts and bid rules• Remember that they are not magic• Rules automate your own strategies so you

can analyze and optimize more efficiently• Carefully-crafted rules are faster and more

effective than any human

Set Max CPA Targets

• If you are tracking conversions, how much can you afford to spend for each one?

• Max CPC = Conv-Rate * Max-CPA– Assuming $65 Max CPA and a Conv Rate of 1.5%– The Max CPC cannot exceed $0.98

Sample Analysis: Control Costs

• Try to lower CPA to $65• Identify campaigns with highest CPA

Drilldown Into Offending Campaign

• Half the costs are in one ad group (0 Conv.)

Examine the Keyword Details

• High costs, CPCs, and Avg. Pos are shared by five non-converting keywords.

• Since they receive a lot of clicks, you hesitate to pause them and decide to try lowering bids first.

Build a Bid Rule

When Conv = 0Decrease bid by 20%

When Cost/Conv is highDecrease bid by 10%

Test Your Bid Rule

Five keywords will have their bids reduced

SURPRISE!!!We found 1 converting

at too high a cost

3. Optimize Conversions with Call Tracking

• 60% of online traffic comes from mobile.• 61% of local searches result in a phone call.• 52% of all mobile ads result in a phone call.

Phone calls are still regarded as the highest quality lead source, even in an online world.

Match Call Data to PPC Keywords

Integrate Calls with Search Metrics

Now Do It in a Bid Rule

Summary

• Define your goals and isolate each analysis• Test everything and remember to be ruthless• It’s no use being in first place if you’re losing

money• Consider automated analysis and

management• Maximize conversion value with the phone

AdWords and Phone Calls

As you work to optimize your PPC campaigns it is essential to consider the role of phone calls.

Data from Google and BIA Kelsey shows clearly that local businesses need phone calls. Phone calls produce clients more reliably than do web leads.

SMBs and local businesses depend on phone calls, they expect their marketing firms to generate phone calls, and they expect these phone calls to produce customers.

If you are not tracking the calls generated by your campaigns then your marketing is suffering from a MASSIVE blind spot.

4. Data-Driven Campaigns

It is impossible to accurately attribute leads and build a data-driven marketing strategy without tracking phone calls.

Marketing efforts that do not take phone calls into consideration are built on a weak foundation.

With DNI Call Tracking, you can literally marry a specific phone number to a specific ad, group of ads, or your entire spend.

A Complete Picture

You can get as granular as you want…

This allows you to determine which campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are generating phone calls.

5. Determine Lead QualityWith an advanced call tracking platform, it is also possible to extract data from phone calls and determine lead quality.

Imagine being able to, not just know which campaigns, ads, and keywords, are generating calls, but rather, which campaigns, ads, and keywords are generating GOOD calls.

Use call tracking to determine how many appointments have been booked as a result of marketing spend.

Measure the quality of your AdWords efforts by the number of appointments that you have generated for your clients.

How many sales or reservations did your PPC efforts generate?

This metric has an immediate impact on the bottom line.

Why did a good lead fail to convert?

This type of data can be extracted from phone calls and you can set alerts to be sent to you via email or SMS whenever there is a missed opportunity.

That kind of information transforms ROI…

More Metrics = Better Decisions

Optimize your current and future AdWords Campaigns to achieve the BEST outcome.