VP of Internet Marketing - AdzZoo
We get lots of calls into AdzZoo from clients who have questions about the Pay Per Click (PPC) component of their holistic AdzZoo campaigns. Although PPC just comprises a portion of your overall campaign, it seems to generate the most questions. So here, in no particular order, are 7 myths about PPC – debunked.
Why seven and not eight or ten? There actually are many more myths, but it’s my blog post and I am busy working hard on client accounts.
1) You need to be number 1 for best results – Leave your ego in the conference room, you do not have to rank number 1 (or even 2 for that matter) for your pay per click campaign to work or to get volume. As a matter of fact there is a school of thought out there and studies that show the top position can lead to accidental clicks, reactionary clicks and lower quality converting clicks as typical from organic traffic. many studies show the “sweet spot” to be 3rd-5th position.
2) Broad /Advanced matched keywords are bad – Many people call in with advice about how we “should” be doing our keywords. Keyword picking, if done properly, is a lot of science and a little bit of art. It cannot be done properly by reading the latest blog post or by using Google’s keywords suggestions (unless you want to go broke fast). There are many different conversations about the use of broad (or advanced) matched keywords. However, if used in the correct manner, broad match & advanced match can be very effective. The expanded match element of Google’s broad match can be very unpredictable, but the data yield can be very rewarding.
3) High bids increase your quality score – Click Through Rate (CTR) and hence quality score do help determine an ads position in a formulaic way with other elements. Yes, coming in with a high bid will get you more clicks (and in turn, good history) quickly – but it will not necessarily improve your Quality Score or Avg CPC. Only time and consistency will do that. For smaller budget clients, this is good news. Effective campaigns can be built from small budgets as long as you stick with the game and realize this is a campaign that gets better over time.
4) PPC has a bearing on organic rankings – No, it doesn’t. The two are not naturally connected. However, a holistic campaign that includes organic components will have a bearing on natural rankings.
5) PPC is only short-term until organic rankings arrive – Pay per click can integrate with your SEO campaign in a beautiful way and help you dominate a search results page in multiple ways. The key is to have a searcher choose your listings over the other choices. The real question is, if the PPC campaign delivers the right ROI then why would you stop just because you are ranking organically? Do you really want to give up customers? Do you really have too many?
6) PPC Optimization is a one time event – Like SEO, it’s not a set up and forget campaign. Optimization and performance improvement is a continuous process and must be monitored. Just like any business, pay per click campaigns continue to develop, change and evolve over time. The best way to make sure your campaign evolves properly is to have an expert at the helm or you may end up extinct
7) Optimization is campaign only, not the landing page – Don’t expect miracles from a campaign if you will not consider the power of the landing page. A quality landing page has more than 35 elements to consider. Maybe not 35, but who knows the exact count beyond the search engine engineers. The point being is the two work hand and hand. Don’t think you can just clone another Pay Per Click account that works (using spy software) and automatically achieve success. There are no short cuts, only hard work.
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Good post, good information.
I really found your information helpful to me as a Area Campaign Dirctor, because it helps me understand our services better.
Thanks for the work!
After reading your blog, I have a better understanding of some aspects of a campaign. As a Campaign Director I can better this information to my prospects & clients. I appreciate your blog.