Remember when we asked you to show us your PPC villains? PPC Hero heard your cries and came rushing to the rescue! This month’s culprit: declining Google display traffic, submitted by erikalynneparke. A worthy opponent indeed!
Question: I have seen a 30% decline in traffic from February to March in my placement campaign. What can I do to address this issue?
Check out PPC Hero’s response below. He took some time to offer four simple steps to increase display network traffic, all while taking care of some office “chores.” Making coffee, catching thieves, answering your display advertising questions…it’s all in a day’s work for PPC Hero.
Transcript:
Question: I have seen a 30% decline in traffic from February to March in my placement campaign. What can I do to address this issue?
Answer: Well, there are two types of placements campaigns on the display network: one where you simply choose websites that you feel are relevant for your message, and another where you include keywords as well as managed placements to help you appear on relevant websites and pages.
If your display campaign is using placements only and your traffic has declined, first check your bids. On the display network, you have to out-bid your competitors for the ad spot so make sure your bids are high enough for your chosen sites. Secondly, did you exclude any placements in the last few months? If so, review your exclusions and make sure you aren’t eliminating sites that were bringing in substantial traffic.
If your display campaign is using placements as well as keywords for contextual targeting, do the same thing! Make sure your bids are high enough for your managed placements and make sure you’ve made the right site exclusions in the last couple months.
Another thing you can look into is how your campaigns’ ad groups are structured. Our best practice is 3-5 keywords per ad group. You want to treat ad groups more like keywords on the display network—have multiple ad groups with only 3-5 highly targeted keywords. Consider adding more ad groups to expand reach.
Also, have you recently added negative keywords? Go back and check them to be sure you aren’t excluding terms that actually are applicable to your site. We recommend using the placements and keywords tools on the content network to get your campaign as much exposure as possible on the display network.
Thank you for tuning into Hanapin Marketing’s video blog. For more news and information about the pay-per-click industry, check out our blog at PPCHero.com, and our Twitter account, PPCHero.
