Hi Peter,
What advice would you give for building out a PPC campaign if the budget increases considerably?
Especially If the account is already pretty big. Would it be a case of thinking outside of the box a bit more and maybe testing less relevant or more generic keywords?
Thanks
Hi Matt,
It's quite a broad question, but I'll try to give you as comprehensive an answer as possible.
I would always start by prioritising the campaigns in your account which work best from an ROI point of view. Hopefully you have conversion tracking in place, or at least some idea of what is driving your business. Once you know which campaigns are your best, go through the top ones looking for opportunity to expand. Always have the following questions in the back of your mind:
-Is this campaign profitable?
-Am I losing any impression share to budget? (you can bring this column into the Adwords interface under competitive metrics). If yes, increase the budget so you're appearing 24-7
-Are my ads appearing at the top of the page? (consider anything above about position 1.6 as top of the page, as clicks get exponentially more expensive thereafter)
-If no, would I make more money if my ads were in a higher position - would the greater number of clicks outweigh the increase in CPC?
If all of your campaigns are maxed out, you then need to look for new opportunities:
-Are there any keywords I'm matching to (do a Search Query Report) which I could actively bid on & build a campaign around?
-Are there any keywords Google recommends in the Opportunities tab? (99% of the time this won't be much help, but here's hoping!)
-Are my competitors bidding on any keywords that I'm not?
-Could I use a little more phrase and broad match (with an eye on appropriate negatives) to expand the account and look for additional terms to bid on?
Hopefully this will drive more volume. If you've maxed out all of the above, I would then look at the Google Display Network. Managed carefully, this can be a goldmine. Managed badly, and it can spend a lot of money very quickly.
1) Look into remarketing anyone who has come to your site and not followed through with a purchase/whatever else you consider a conversion.
2) Try a small amount of contextual targeting. Pick your best performing generic keywords and set low bids (definitely sub-£1, possibly even sub-£0.50). Run them for a few weeks and see if they are performing.
3) Test audience targeting, with similar principles. This is historically less effective than contextual, but worth a try.
If the above work, and you get more than 15 conversions within a 30 day period you will be eligible for the Display Campaign Optimiser. This is an automated tool that enables Google to use it's vast amount of data to go out and find orders within a target cost per order. Volume is normally huge, and it is extremely efficient.
If none of the above work, you may be struggling. I've had accounts in the past that have got to this point, where every conceivable keyword is in its most efficient position and the GDN is maxed out. After this you could look into Bing, which works similarly to Google, or potentially try YouTube TrueView ads (the skippable ones) if you're feeling creative.
Hopefully this will help you find an idea or two. One final thought - remember, ROI is everything. Never spend a penny that you don't think will add to your business' profits. If you've maxed out PPC, it may be time to look elsewhere.
Let me know your thoughts,
Cheers,
Peter
