In examining how we can increase the performance of a pay per click campaign the key issue is addressing the reduction of the cost per conversion (cost per acquisition or cost per sale).  To do this we would consider the 2 key problems affecting this: 

1)       Cost per click (CPC) being too high

2)       Conversion rate being too low

In addition to this but also being integral to both of the above we would examine whether the keywords previously used are exhaustive and include all the relevant phrases. We would also work with all major search engines as over reliance on one (usually always Google) can mean relying on over competitive keywords and pricing.

1)       Cost per click 

The cost per click can only be justified if cost per conversion is acceptable. Considerations such as 1^st page positioning are relevant but our focus is always on ROI.

Quality Score - The CPC plays the major part in affecting position. However increasingly with Google and as of July 07 with Yahoo the quality score (QS) of the keywords plays a major role e.g. it is possible for company A to be paying 50p for the keyword ‘widget’ and be in 3^rd position and company B be paying 30p for 1^st position. Because of this QS is a major factor to be addressed in reducing CPC. (If you don’t have a good knowledge of QS your current campaign will certainly not be as effective as it should)

We can increase the QS of keywords by ensuring we run and test multiple ads in rotation ultimately defining what is the best ad with highest clickthrough rate (CTR). Ads with higher CTR lead to better QS and therefore cheaper CPC’s.

We can also increase QS in other ways. One way is by making sure Ads are highly tailored to specific keyword variations e.g. keywords such as ‘widget supplier’ ‘uk widget suppliers’ and ‘best widget suppliers’ would be in ad groups with the ad content focused on the base keyword ‘widget supplier’ – see below. With different themes e.g. ‘widget manufacturer’ the ad would be changed again to reflect this and thus have a higher CTR and better QS and consequently lower CPC. You can also see in the ad below that there are techniques to increase CTR & QS. For example the keyword 'widget supplier' appears 3 times in the ad below which will show as bodl for a search, each word is capitalized, there is a superlative (UKsd Leading) and a call to action (get your free widget today.)

UK Widget Supplier

UKs Leading Widget Supplier. Get

Your Free Sample Widget Today!

Bid management - We employ techniques and know how to ensure that the cpc is at the right level. Most in house per click campaigns and even those run by other ppc providers we find will have static and obvious bid amounts e.g. bidding at amounts such as 10p, 20p, 25p, 50p etc. For keywords with a lot of competition this can be damaging as others will be bidding at these ‘obvious’ amounts therefore staying a position less with lower CTR & QS than bidders bidding at for example, 11p, 21p, 26p, 51p. This is a very obvious example but there are other powerful bidding strategies and benchmarks we use and evaluate.

2)       Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the key to achieving desired amounts of sales. There are numerous factors affecting conversion rate and these fall into two categories from our stance; market forces and ppc campaign variables.

Market Forces -          Number of competitors-          Product pricing-          Seasonality-          Reputation-          Product quality and issues (e.g. delivery times etc) 

PPC Campaign variables -          The web site – the single biggest thing affecting the conversion rate is the web site (often more particularly the landing page/s). We almost always have recommendations as to how the site can be tweaked to ensure maximum conversion rate. This is very important as we have seen examples of site tweaking increasing conversion rate by 300% which ultimately reduces cost per conversion by 300%.  We use detailed tracking analysis to understand what is and isn’t working with the site e.g. we can see the most common routes through the site to purchase (e.g. landing page > faq > order page). This kind of information helps us to help the client work out how best to alter/edit content, site structure. With eccomerce sites we very often can pick fault with particular elements of the order process or payment process e.g. we can see that a vehicle leasing client gets 30% of all traffic to add a car to the quote system from which 60% select vehicle terms (mileage, deposit etc) but only 20% complete the quote (contact details submission). We work with them to identify these issues so they can adjust the process of completing a quote and improve their ROI. -          Ad copy (as discussed) -          Timing – we can see which days and which hours of the day produce the highest conversion rates and thus adjust your campaign spend accordingly e.g. most of our hotelier clients only appear in the engines from 1pm onwards and a specialist accountancy firm only runs 9am – 6pm Monday to Friday. This helps ensure ad delivery is as targeted and effective as can be and ultimate produces best ROI. This also helps us pick out trends produced by seasonality e.g. we can see that for one of our clients we will spend 90% of their annual ppc budget from November 24 to December 19^th this year as it produces best results instead of spending it equally throughout the year. -          Search engines and keywords – we constantly analyse which engines and keywords are producing the highest conversion rate and lowest cost per conversion and allocate client budgets to these areas. This ensures maximum ROI. As basic practise we will also ensure ad delivery doesn’t occur from irrelevant searches resulting from broad and phrase match options on keywords e.g. in the case of a greetings card company  the client wouldn’t appear for keyword variations of the base keyword ‘greetings cards’ such as ‘free greetings card’ or ‘paper mache greetings card’. If ‘free’ and ‘paper mache’ hadn’t been added as negative keywords to the campaign the client would appear for those irrelevant keyword variations which damages CTR, QS as well as resulting in costly unwanted traffic -          Other factors – can include geography e.g. if the client desires a European ad delivery and we see Germany and Italy are producing results at unacceptable cost per conversion we would stop ad delivery in those countries.  

Summary  As alluded to previously we use sophisticated tools and resources to ensure lowest cpc’s, highest quality score and ultimately the best possible conversion rate and cost per conversion. In addition to the factors highlighted we qualify for the highest level of support from Google Adwords (because of our combined client spend) which enables us to fast track campaign set ups and queries and access the resources and time of 3 dedicated Adwords campaign managers to help improve the campaign performance e.g. QS, CTR and conversions. This level of support isn’t available to any but the largest advertisers. Our sole focus is achieving ROI and our ppc management practises and business philosophy demand that we stay as the ppc provider that can deliver the best results.

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