"10 Lessons I’ve Learnt From 10 Years of PPC"

[directmarketingadvice]

Not my article, but an excellent list. (My own 10 wouldn't be so different.)

#4 - "PPC success is more down to website conversion optimisation than anything else" - is the greatest truth about PPC - and something very few advertisers do.

http://intelligentppc.com/lessons-learnt-10-years-ppc/

Steve

 

[Jeff FV]

A good article - worth a read.

I particularly liked this from #2:

"... conversion from click to sale should be your only consideration when running a PPC campaign. ‘Brand awareness’ provides a means for agencies to spend more of your money and rack up more fees without any accountability or measure of success."

 

[Tin]

An excellent read Steve and very typical of the type of useful information you post on here.

Cheers

 

[intelligentppc]

I wrote this article - just wanted to say thanks for the great feedback, and that this forum looks great!

Mike

 

[seoswat]

Good article.
For me i think lesson 5 is the key. That for me is when you find out whether who currently is running your PPC actually has a clue or whether they are just flushing money away.

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

It is a good article and I respect the author's view, but I've got to say that dismissing the Display Network to be a waste of money and suggesting that this is a way of earning more money for the agencies is not something I quite agree with. There are many good agencies including here.

• Sure, on the Display Network, people aren't searching for their problem's solution, however, we do the same when watching TV, reading magazines & newspaper, etc. If something catches our eyes we will take note and look into that product / service.
  
  
• Lesson 2 only shows low clicks and low CPC. However, we don't know whether the conversion rate is higher or not. I don't think I would spend £20,000 just to see if DN works or not. At the end of the day, it is all about conversions.
  
  
  For businesses like ours, where our product / service is very visual i.e images. Display Network is a perfect platform for us to promote our work. On some campaigns, we get better ROI on the DN then on the search.

One needs to compare apples to apples and not oranges. Search & DN are different platforms which will give different results. Just my 2 cents!

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

It is a good article and I respect the author's view, but I've got to say that dismissing the Display Network to be a waste of money and suggesting that this is a way of earning more money for the agencies is not something I quite agree with. There are many good agencies including here.

• Sure, on the Display Network, people aren't searching for their problem's solution, however, we do the same when watching TV, reading magazines & newspaper, etc. If something catches our eyes we will take note and look into that product / service.
  
  
• Lesson 2 only shows low clicks and low CPC. However, we don't know whether the conversion rate is higher or not. I don't think I would spend £20,000 just to see if DN works or not. At the end of the day, it is all about conversions.
  
  
  For businesses like ours, where our product / service is very visual i.e images. Display Network is a perfect platform for us to promote our work. On some campaigns, we get better ROI on the DN then on the search.

One needs to compare apples to apples and not oranges. Search & DN are different platforms which will give different results. Just my 2 cents!

Yes I think it is important when using Display Network to provide banners rather than text only ads, in order to achieve this. Do you agree?

 

[intelligentppc]

It is a good article and I respect the author's view, but I've got to say that dismissing the Display Network to be a waste of money and suggesting that this is a way of earning more money for the agencies is not something I quite agree with. There are many good agencies including here.

• Sure, on the Display Network, people aren't searching for their problem's solution, however, we do the same when watching TV, reading magazines & newspaper, etc. If something catches our eyes we will take note and look into that product / service.
  
  
• Lesson 2 only shows low clicks and low CPC. However, we don't know whether the conversion rate is higher or not. I don't think I would spend £20,000 just to see if DN works or not. At the end of the day, it is all about conversions.
  
  
  For businesses like ours, where our product / service is very visual i.e images. Display Network is a perfect platform for us to promote our work. On some campaigns, we get better ROI on the DN then on the search.

One needs to compare apples to apples and not oranges. Search & DN are different platforms which will give different results. Just my 2 cents!

I respect your opinion too. I'm not saying that the Google Display Network can never work, just that in my 10 years of using Google Adwords I have never found it to be a better place than Google Search or Search Partners for my budget. I think it depends on the niche to some extent too.

In terms of conversion, Google Display Network will always be inferior to Search and there's a very obvious reason for this: with search, someone is actively searching for your product or service. With the display network they are browsing some related topic - there is no intent there from the outset, so it tends to convert poorly.

As far as banners are concerned, I have found that they are virtually invisible these days. To get people to click on banners requires them to really stand out with some amazing offer. If you can't back this up on your website then you will again see a poor conversion rate from this.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

It is a good article and I respect the author's view, but I've got to say that dismissing the Display Network to be a waste of money and suggesting that this is a way of earning more money for the agencies is not something I quite agree with.

Me, neither. That was the one thing that was far too glib.

Steve

 

[OxfordCS]

I've just come away without shirt from a disastrous PPC Adwords campaign, organised by BT Search Marketing. £250 / mo (including their fee) for a mandatory 4 months.

1 k down the drain: poor choice of search terms, very static (no change after several complaints), almost no sales (I needed about another £750 / mo extra sales just to break even), you get it..

It's shaken my belief in PPC to the core. I believed that it would be fairly easy and outsourced it to the 'experts' to save time. Month after month £250 came out of my account and Internet sales remained as stagnant as ever.

eBay and Amazon Seller Central have their drawbacks but sales (and the cost of these sales) are almost guaranteed.

Google is a casino and they'll always keep it that way. If I had a magic wand to wish them out of existence I'd hesitate for about 1 nanosecond.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I've just come away without shirt from a disastrous PPC Adwords campaign, organised by BT Search Marketing.

Asking BT to set up your adwords would be like asking me to set up your phone.

(Tin will know just how funny that is!)

Steve

 

[OxfordCS]

Asking BT to set up your adwords would be like asking [me] to set up your phone.

([Tin] will know just how funny that is!)

Steve

Very funny (not). Keep the daytime job.

Give me a reason why would I place my trust in a member of that army of 'ppc managers' that promises the earth but about whom I even don't know the first thing?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Give me a reason why would I place my trust in a member of that army of 'ppc managers' that promises the earth but about whom I even don't know the first thing?

I don't think you should.

I don't think you should hire someone you know nothing about. Nor do I recommend hiring someone who "promises the earth".

But, clearly, you thought hiring someone was a good idea. Do you think that - given your criticisms of them - your experience with BT changes the logic that led you to consider PPC as an advertising medium... or that hiring a professional could produce better results than doing it yourself?

That doesn't make sense.

If you came to those conclusions while thinking BT did a good job, that would make sense.

But you don't appear to think they did a good job. So it seems odd you're judging PPC based on results produced by bad PPC work.

Steve

 

[OxfordCS]

They did a terrible job.

But it isn't the only PPC campaign that didn't work for me. I've had several bad experiences. Even going back to Overture.

I'll probably start over doing it myself once again for a much smaller campaign at much smaller risk.

For another project I'll probably hire someone but try to get better references and start smaller. Which isn't easy either because many won't get out of bed for less than £250 / mo.

It's hellishly time consuming and despite all that dazzling technology far from easy to get a decent ROI. I want to spend most of my time producing and trading, not spending days on end using a technology that is far from fail safe.

 

[intelligentppc]

I've just come away without shirt from a disastrous PPC Adwords campaign, organised by BT Search Marketing. £250 / mo (including their fee) for a mandatory 4 months.

1 k down the drain: poor choice of search terms, very static (no change after several complaints), almost no sales (I needed about another £750 / mo extra sales just to break even), you get it..

It's shaken my belief in PPC to the core. I believed that it would be fairly easy and outsourced it to the 'experts' to save time. Month after month £250 came out of my account and Internet sales remained as stagnant as ever.

eBay and Amazon Seller Central have their drawbacks but sales (and the cost of these sales) are almost guaranteed.

Google is a casino and they'll always keep it that way. If I had a magic wand to wish them out of existence I'd hesitate for about 1 nanosecond.

I wouldn't call them a casino because I've never won at a casino whereas I've fed my family via Google Adwords for the past 7/8 years, but I can see your point - they do not make it easy and they are constantly changing the goalposts.

I always advise my clients to avoid agencies where possible because most base their fees on a % of monthly spend and there is a clear conflict of interest there. Also what can you really expect in terms of time they will spend on your campaign for £250/month. The bulk of the work is in setting up the campaign and optimising your website (which they probably didn't touch).

You should be picking your own search terms as you know your own business better than any agency. You should be optimising your website for PPC and not just using what's already there. PPC is a different animal - you must force customers into a conversion (application/sale) as quick as you possibly can. The way you do this is through good landing page optimisation, and a smooth & CONSISTENT customer journey from ad impression right the way through to application/checkout.

I can help you set up a campaign - I don't charge a monthly fee, I charge by the hour with the aim being to put it back in your hands when it's making you money (as you can do the maintenance yourself).


Mike

PS can I ask whether your agency used the Google Display Network, and if so what % of your budget did they spend on that?

 

[OxfordCS]

Thanks, I'ppc.

Let's call it a casino where counting cards is allowed, encouraged even.

As far as I recall I indicated I didn't want any GDN exposure.

I believe the failure was due to:

1. too generic search terms
2. poor choice of landing urls
3. no attempt at optimisation
4. bare minimum reporting
5. flat, uninspiring ad copy

I'll dredge up the reports and start from there: at least I know what NOT to do.

I might call you for a consultation on my own campaign (you don't know how much I look forward to getting in there again! :-( )

The way you do this is through good landing page optimisation, and a smooth & CONSISTENT customer journey from ad impression right the way through to application/checkout

Although I can't disagree, it's harder done than said for most of us. My site is a basic WPEC site, with a niche audience, there really isn't a lot of room for optimisation. I keep product pages short and clear, WYSIG, clear pricing and shipping and if that doesn't convert I don't really know what would.

Thanks for your input.

 

[intelligentppc]

No problem, happy to help

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

If anyone is interested, I'm hosting a webinar Google Adwords: Made Easy (Mods: I hope this is OK to post here). This is aimed at the beginner to get started and learn all the various terminology. You also get a £75 Adwords voucher and my other course Traffic Leads Conversion as a bonus.

I've set up a discount code for UKBF members, saving you 30%. Use ukbf on the checkout.
Normal price is £47. Discounted price: £32.90

4 hours webinar and you also get the recordings so you can watch it over & over again. Hope to see some of you online.