Have you ever clicked on a PPC ad that was exactly what you were looking for only to be taken to a webpage so full of clutter that you couldn’t find the information the ad promised? This is a common problem in PPC advertising where the landing page doesn’t take customers where the ad suggested it would. Michael Mostert has written a post on adCenter Blog about the importance of having unique destination URLs. By linking each ad to a specific, relevant landing page you are saving your customers time and taking them one step closer to the purchase decision.
In response to the craziness that is the holiday season, Google’s Adwords Blog has declared the release of a new page by Google called, “Think Holiday.” This site details all the recent Google search trends, as well as a lot of other analytical data. For example, the site goes on to list several statistics, such as 89 % of consumers have started shopping online, and that 71 % have started at least researching their holiday purchases. This data could be used for your PPC campaign to help get you the holiday sales you need, so you don’t bomb like this holiday marketing ploy.
Part of why Google and MSN’s online PPC servers have seen such success is that their tools make it possible for anyone to run a PPC campaign – whether they have prior experience or not. However, as the third installment of Ryan Wolley’s Secrets to Paid Search Success Revealed series on SearchEngine Watch.com reminds us, an online PPC business plan will go nowhere without successful, nuanced tracking. Should you measure first-click or last-click conversions? What about assists? And which customers are the most important to acquire? These are the types of questions that the PPC-savvy will remember to ask themselves, pushing beyond the basics and really seeing the direction their business is headed.
Now that November has arrived, you should think about your accounts’ holiday goals. Typically, B2B clients will see a drop in sales around the holidays, but B2C tends to peak. Kevin Gibbons wrote a post for Search Engine Watch full of great holiday SEM ideas. Starting with a revised (and larger) budget, will help prepare you for the competition of the holidays, while some updated, temporary ad copy and careful customer targeting should help your ROI. Kevin also suggests considering a microsite just for the holidays for targeting holiday shoppers with your more festive offerings.
In today’s PPC world, it’s expected that you know the Google Display Network and how to use it for a great ROI. …Not sure if you fall into that category? Well whether you’re new to the Google Display Network or you just want to make sure you’re optimizing your site lists on the GDN, check out Josh Dreller’s post at Search Engine Land. He gives a rundown of the basics, plus some great tips from Google on how to optimize your GDN campaigns with a placement report.
