subject: Free Guide to Local Pay-Per-Click Advertising [print this page] Free Guide to Local Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Part IV: The Basics
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT PPC ADVERTISING CAN BE SUMMED UP IN ONE WORD.
RELEVANCE
Your ad MUST BE relevant to the search query. If not, your account will suffer, and any attempts to be successful with PPC will fail.
Being RELEVANT means a higher CTR (click-through-rate).
Which results in better positioning relative to your bid.
Which results in an even-higher CTR.
And so on.
Advertising to people who aren't searching for your product(s) or service(s) will NOT work with PPC. If you want to do that, then I would suggest using a mass-medium such as magazines, newspaper, radio, television, direct mail, etc.
Anyway, in order for PPC to work, you need to be relevant. This means that you must have the right KEYWORDS. Keywords trigger your PPC advertisement. When people type something into the search query box, this is known as a KEYWORD. If I do a search for "plumber" then this would be a KEYWORD, and it will trigger all ads from companies who have this keyword in their PPC account. A keyword can be a single word, or a collection of words.
There are four types of keywords. We will explain the differences later:
broad match
"phrase match"
[exact match]
-negative match
Each collection of "related" keywords will be stored in a single "ad group". An AD GROUP is a group of keywords that will trigger a single advertisement.
A collection of related AD GROUPS are all stored in a single CAMPAIGN. Multiple CAMPAIGNS are what make up an ACCOUNT with the PPC company (i.e. Google).
Part V: Sample Company Set-Up
For the purposes of this guide, I am going to use a carpet cleaning company as the example. This will help you understand each of the above-mentioned terms.
Let's say I have a carpet cleaning company called "Eco-Pure Carpet Cleaning" located in Olathe, KS (a suburb of Kansas City), and I want to advertise via PPC. First, I need to determine when I want to advertise - that is, when do I want my ads to appear?
First thing to figure out is what does my company do? Let's say our primary services are carpet cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, hardwood floor cleaning and restoration, and laminate floor cleaning and restoration. These are going to be our basic AD GROUPS. We will have related KEYWORDS in each of the AD GROUPS.
Now, where do we offer our services? We do work around the entire Kansas City metropolitan area. This is going to define the GEOGRAPHIC AREA where we want to advertise, which we define in the "settings" portion of the CAMPAIGN.
Are there any specific searches that might require a separate AD GROUP, where we might want to advertise more aggressively? In our case, we have a specific system of carpet cleaning that is "dry", and it is also very environmentally-friendly. So, we might create AD GROUPS for "dry carpet cleaning" and "green carpet cleaning".
Are there any name-brand competitors that people search for by name? Yes, there are a few. So, we'll put them in the "competitors" AD GROUP. ***Please note: Using a trademarked name as a keyword to trigger an ad may be illegal. If you wish to use a trademarked name as a keyword to trigger your business' ads, please consult with an attorney.
So, let's review how we're going to organize our ACCOUNT. The account name is ECO-PURE CARPET CLEANING. Our first CAMPAIGN is going to target the entire Kansas City metro area, and let's say we're going to set a budget of $50.00 per day (we'll discuss budgeting, max CPC, and other details later).
We are going to put all related KEYWORDS together into AD GROUPS. Multiple AD GROUPS are what will make up our first CAMPAIGN.
Now it's time to define our KEYWORDS before actually setting up our CAMPAIGNS and AD GROUPS.
