Hot Summer
Filed Under (the PPC Book) by Jeff Hudson on 11-07-2008
Things are heating up this summer, even in hockeyland USA. Temperatures reach the high 80’s and everyone in a house older than 30 years struggles with the same problem. Temperature variations on multiple floors. When the central air is running our basement could freeze buffalo, the main floor is comfortable, and upstairs we wonder when the winter will come back. Someone mentioned ductless air conditioning to us the other day so I did some research online, of course.
As you can see, this is fairly representative of small business PPC advertising. Of the 11 total ads showing, only 2 knew what I was searching for exactly and crafted their message correctly. Every other ad focused on AC REPAIRS, not Ductless AC.
AC is no cheap niche, especially for a regional service business. Wasting money, clicks, and impressions will hurt all the way around - ROI, Quality Score, and Revenue. This is such a common affliction that I decided to make it the focus of my conversation with David Szetela on Webmasterradio’s PPC Rockstars (airing July 21st)
The old way of PPC is completely irrelevant and actually quite harmful. Build 10,000 keywords, set low bids and see what sticks? No, that will ruin your account and render it useless due to the ACCOUNT QUALITY SCORE What's the solution? Well, at the moment, here's what I recommend, and it's exactly what David and I discussed. START SMALL - The idea behind starting small is to build a good quality score, little by little, both at the keyword/campaign level as well as the account level. Even if you’re not a small business, here’s a good rule of thumb if you’re just starting out self managing a campaign: 1 Keyword per adgroup For example, if your niche is volkswagen jetta repair - here some keywords grouped into themes that can share the same lander: volkswagen jetta repair vw jetta brake repair vw jetta transmission repair Remember to keep them in separate adgroups and exact match to start, but landing these 3 types of visitors on separate pages with relevant content will make a huge difference. Starting small in this manner allows you to: Segment themes I’ll cover this more in a future post as it is the way of the future in PPC. I’ve seen this trend in the smallest campaigns as well as some of my accounts in the most competitive niches online. It works. So remember - When it gets hot - go small! And don’t forget to tune in to David Szetela’s PPC Rockstars.
1 Match type - start with exact
5 Ad versions minimum - try different calls to action, feature, benefits, etc
1 Separate landing page for each ‘theme’
vw jetta repair
Segment visitors
Customize messaging
Diagnose problem areas in the campaign more quickly
Hi Jeff,
“1 Keyword per adgroup”
I have a client that has a huge line of products, and although I agree with your “start small” approach, I’m wondering if just one keyword per adgroup is going to be a little low for me? Mainly because I’m working on a per-hour basis, so I do need to keep the process as cost effective as possible. If I’m starting that small, I really get a chance to correct even the smallest mistakes, but it might be adding a little more time to my clock as opposed to maybe having a few more keywords per adgroup. Let’s say I have five words that are all equally relevant to a particular theme, is that going to be a problem? In other words, are you picking one keyword per campaign because that has been the absolute best solution you’ve found, or is that number a bit more arbitrary?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Amad - Thanks for stopping by. Love the post about MMA - I’m a fan as well.
Anyhow - your question is a good one. It brings into play the reality of client work. You have to do the best job you can with the time you have per the ‘contract’.
Think of it this way - 1 keyword per adgroup is the easiest way to control a campaign at the most granular level. Is it always realistic? No. If you have:
red nike basketball shoe
red nike basketball shoes
red nike basketball shoe size 10
red nike basketball shoe size 7
Could you get away with having those in the same adgroup? Of course.
2 years down the road would it be nice to see how size 10 buyers convert vs. size 7? Sure.
Are they paying you enough to take the time to figure that out? I don’t know. You have to adjust your level of service to fit the client budget, and that doesn’t always allow for this type of segmentation.
Does that help?
Thanks for the kind words Jeff.
That definitely answers my question. I agree with the fact that on client websites, I need to do the best with what I have. I think that I can reserve the hyper granular analysis for either my own sites, or the client who understands and is willing to pay for that type of service.
Great post btw!
Thanks again