In our Ask PPC Hero series we will answer the questions we’ve received from you about all things PPC. Read on to find out how to effectively remarket, pausing low QS keywords, and why Mario Lopez is still really, really good looking.

Q: How much should one spend and how long should one run a campaign before giving up?

How much you spend in PPC should be determined by your overall marketing budget. The more money you spend, the faster you’ll accrue data, which will allow you to make management decisions faster. However, I firmly believe that a PPC campaign can be effective no matter what the budget. You’ll just have to adjust your strategy in order to maximize your spending.

As for how long you should run before giving up, we recommend starting with a 3 month minimum. This gives you enough time to analyze the account and make changes to improve performance. Take a look at an example below:

This client had a small budget and even reduced budget in April, but by the 3^rd month had a 203% ROI. It is common to experience some losses in the first month as you are trying to figure out what works for your account. Don’t be discouraged. Give your account time and you will see improvements happen quickly.

Q: What are some effective ad messages for Google Remarketing, given that the audience is familiar with the brand already?

Determining your different Remarketing audiences is the first step to creating effective messaging. Segment your Remarketing lists so that you can tailor unique messages to each group. Just because a group of people visited your site, does not mean you should target them all with the same ad copy.

Instead of just targeting people who came to your site and didn’t convert, target people who visited certain pages on your site. For example, if you sell clothing, create different Remarketing lists for people who visited Women’s, Men’s, Children’s, etc. Then target each group with specific information about these products. For example, if you’re running a sale on Women’s clothing include that in the ads.

You can also target people differently based on how far they were into the buying cycle. People who added an item to the shopping cart but didn’t purchase should be targeted differently than people who just visited the homepage. The further along in the buying cycle, the more specific your ads should be.

Ads for Remarketing should be less branding focused, as you said they are already familiar with you. Of all the Display Network targeting options, Remarketing has the highest conversion rate. Focus on giving reasons to purchase, like sales or free shipping. Let consumers know when you launch new products. Show how your products compare to your competitors. But don’t treat all Remarketing consumers the same.

Certified Knowledge wrote a great post on how they split out their Remarketing lists and the messaging they use for each.

Q: What are broad session keywords in search terms?

Here is the definition straight for AdWords Help:

The search term is considered to be a variation of a keyword from your account, based on previous searches that the user has done during his or her search session.

Basically, AdWords determines that this search query is relevant to your ad group, even if it doesn’t match an active keyword. I’ve had both good and bad experiences, where Google seems to really nail it but then sometimes completely misses the mark. If you find you are showing for many irrelevant search terms from these session based keywords you can add them as negatives or turn off your broad match keywords. You can also narrow your scope by utilizing modified broad match keywords.

Q: Should I pause low QS keyword with high clicks?

This is a question I’ve asked myself, and without knowing more about  your account I can’t give a definitive answer. In my experience, sometimes the keywords Google determines are low quality actually perform well for accounts. I would take a look at the rest of your metrics first to decide if you want to keep these keywords active or pause them.

You may have high clicks, but have you received any conversions? If not, you are just spending money on a low QS keyword without reaping any benefit. If you are getting conversions, I would keep these keywords active and focus on improving Quality Score through restructuring.

Break out these low QS keywords into individual ad groups. Write very specific ads including these keywords to improve CTR. Make sure you have landing pages that are relevant to the keywords you bidding on. I’ve found that just by following these best practices you can start to see QS improvements rather quickly. Check our a case study about improving Quality Score to see how much impact restructuring can have.

Q: Why Google has an “Other” line item in search query reports (interface) that can have up to 90% of impressions, and how that means broad match isn’t working for you.

There are a few reasons why the SQR have a column for “Other search terms”:

• The search term resulted in an ad impression but didn’t receive any clicks in the last 30 days.
• The search term wasn’t entered by a significant amount of users.
• The search term triggered your ad within the past 24 hours.
• The user has blocked their referrer URL from being passed on to the destination website.

I’ve experienced frustration with this issue when I started a new account in an unsure market and was anxious to see what search terms our keywords were triggering. Although my campaigns had spend plenty of money, the SQR still listed the majority of search terms in the “Other” category. I just had to wait a few more days for these search terms to begin showing in the report.

And now for something completely different…

Q: Reveal the google algorithm

Q: Why does Mario Lopez still look so hot at his age?

Exercise, healthy eating, and saying nope to dope.

Q:Why do they call fries chips in England?

British chips are usually significantly thicker than the American-style French fries sold by major multinational fast food chains, resulting in a lower fat content per portion.In England, the term “fries” usually refers to the narrow-cut (shoestring) items that are served by American-style fast-food shops. People in or from the United States may eat a thick type of chip, more similar to the British variant, called “home fries” or “steak fries”.

If you have a question for PPC, submit it via the ASK PPC Hero box on the homepage above our Twitter feed!

Question: I have seen a 30% decline in traffic from February to March in my placement campaign. What can I do to address this issue?

Check out PPC Hero’s response below. He took some time to offer four simple steps to increase display network traffic, all while taking care of some office “chores.”  Making coffee, catching thieves, answering your display advertising questions…it’s all in a day’s work for PPC Hero.

Transcript:

Question: I have seen a 30% decline in traffic from February to March in my placement campaign. What can I do to address this issue?

Answer: Well, there are two types of placements campaigns on the display network: one where you simply choose websites that you feel are relevant for your message, and another where you include keywords as well as managed placements to help you appear on relevant websites and pages.

If your display campaign is using placements only and your traffic has declined, first check your bids. On the display network, you have to out-bid your competitors for the ad spot so make sure your bids are high enough for your chosen sites. Secondly, did you exclude any placements in the last few months? If so, review your exclusions and make sure you aren’t eliminating sites that were bringing in substantial traffic.

If your display campaign is using placements as well as keywords for contextual targeting, do the same thing! Make sure your bids are high enough for your managed placements and make sure you’ve made the right site exclusions in the last couple months.

Another thing you can look into is how your campaigns’ ad groups are structured. Our best practice is 3-5 keywords per ad group. You want to treat ad groups more like keywords on the display network—have multiple ad groups with only 3-5 highly targeted keywords. Consider adding more ad groups to expand reach.

Also, have you recently added negative keywords? Go back and check them to be sure you aren’t excluding terms that actually are applicable to your site. We recommend using the placements and keywords tools on the content network to get your campaign as much exposure as possible on the display network.

Thank you for tuning into Hanapin Marketing’s video blog. For more news and information about the pay-per-click industry, check out our blog at PPCHero.com, and our Twitter account, PPCHero.

Often, you refer to contacting your Google or Yahoo rep about a problem. How do you get a rep? I have not seen a way to find that kind of assistance.

After speaking with my Google rep, she mentioned that getting a dedicated rep is mainly based off of Google’s resources and availability. Essentially if you’re advertising in Google Adwords you can submit a request via their contact form and Google will put you on a list. If the appropriate ‘resources and availability’ come forth then Google will email/call you if you have received a dedicated rep.

Another way to get a dedicated Google rep, is to qualify for what Google calls ‘Premium Service.’  To qualify for the premium service you must spend a minimum of $30,000 over three months, with at least $10,000 each month.

For agencies, you must spend a minimum of $10,000 per client per month with a minimum of one month. Contact Google to find out if you qualify for their premium service.

Google also has what they call a jumpstart program where Google will set up new advertiser’s PPC campaigns and get 90 days of a dedicated Google rep as long as they’re spending $6,000 each month.

Gaining access to a dedicated account rep at Yahoo! is determined on a case-by-case basis. Some of the determining factors include: spend, size of account, etc. If you’d like to request a dedicated Yahoo rep. you can email or call the customer service line and request one be assigned to you. Like that of Google, it is up to the Yahoo! upper management and other factors on whether or not you get one.

If you do not meet the minimum requirements for Google or can’t get a dedicated rep. from for Yahoo!, you can use the help section or customer support in both search engines to get answers to your questions.  Not as nice, but you can still get help from the customer support line on any questions you have regarding your account. Google’s main line is 1-866-246-6453. Good Luck!

“If I keep bad performing campaigns and good performing campaigns in a single account, will they affect each other in any ways?”

Good question! In a nutshell; yes, a poor performing campaign can negatively affect your account history, therefore damaging your account level Quality Score.

How does this happen? There are numerous levels to the Quality Score within each account: keyword, ad text, ad group, content, campaign, account. A weak campaign can have a negative effect on your account history which can hinder other campaigns within a given account.

We have asked our Google AdWords Representatives for specifics on this topic and they responded vaguely by saying that account history does not directly affect your Quality Score. However, they have  also said that having a positive account history is extremely important to your AdWords success. What does this mean? It means that they didn’t want to explicitly state how your account history and account level Quality Scores are determined. And in turn, this means that this is an element of your account that can’t be ignored.

Shweta, another aspect of this question is why keep a poor performing campaign around? If your ROI is negative; your click-through is low; and your cost-per-conversion is inflated, what are you getting out of this campaign?

Sounds like this poor performing campaign could be hindering your Quality Score and your bottom line. Here are your next steps to head in the right direction:

1. Determine why this campaign is performing so poorly. Remember to use all of the AdWords report tools at your disposal.
2. Decide whether this campaign is salvageable or if it should be paused outright. What is holding this campaign back? Really drill down to the ad group and keyword  level.
3. If you decide that this campaign is crucial for the success of your account, then you need to create a plan to streamline/optimize this campaign.

I hope this helps!

Do you have a pay-per-click related question? Ask PPC Hero! You can drop us a line by clicking here!

I set up a campaign, using different Ad Groups to target different locations; including location in keywords: [party hire yorkshire] exact matches. Had planned to target whole of UK. But would like to try Location Targeting different areas of UK instead. I would modify campaign to include both general & geographic keywords. What do you mean by ‘Companion Campaign’; does this mean a duplicate campaign targeting the whole of UK instead of specific areas. What are geographic modifiers? Thanks for the help!
- Jessica

Well Jessica, I believe I can help you out! First of all, it’s important to note that there are 2 distinct strategies for targeting searchers by location: IP Targeting and Keyword Targeting.

• IP Targeting: As the name implies, the search engines have systems in place to recognize the IP address of each user. This IP address includes their geographic location. When you set geographic restrictions at the campaign level in Google or Yahoo!, the keywords in that campaign will only display ads for users within the specified location! When working within an IP Targeted campaign, you should employ the use of broad, phrase or exact match keywords that cover the spectrum of general to long tail keywords. All of your normal keyword savvy still applies, but my point is you don’t have to append a location to every keyword with this strategy.
• Keyword Targeting: This method involves appending what I call “geographic modifiers” to your keywords (as Exact Match) as to only display ads to searchers who are looking for your product/service within that location. To use Jessica’s example, [party hire Yorkshire] contains the core keyword “party hire” and the geographic modifier “Yorkshire” – which will only display ads for users who enter that exact search – regardless of their physical location. That being said, when trying to target searchers by location with keyword targeting, your geo targeting settings should be open to all users in your area (i.e. US or UK; Indiana or Cornwall, etc.) for maximum effect.

In most cases, I would recommend creating campaigns to account for both methods. Be aware that when using IP Targeted campaigns, each campaign can only target a single location – be that Country, State, City, or custom region. The IP Targeted campaigns should be your top priority. The Keyword Targeted campaign(s) are what I call “Companion Campaigns” and they serve as a safety net to catch any searchers who may have slipped past your IP Targeted campaign!

Jessica, I hope this helps to answer your questions and gets you headed in the right direction! Does anyone else have anything they would like to add to help Jessica out?

I will answer today’s question with a series of links! Greg Moore recently asked,

“Is it OK to bid on a competitor’s trademark? Would really like to know what trends you see – is this happening more and more, or less and less? Thanks!”

This is a tricky question! Here is a tricky response: you can and you can’t bid on a competitor’s trademark terms. I will answer this question in two of ways: legality and best practices.

Legality: This issue is addressed in both the AdWords help section, and the Yahoo’s Legal Guidelines. Both of them state that they take the issue if trademark/copyright bidding very seriously, and they should. To get it straight from them, you can just click on the links above.

Best practices: If you want to bid on your competitor’s name and trademark terms, you can do this but you have to do it wisely and fairly. Google & Yahoo want to provide a great user experience by delivering the most relevant search results possible. When a user types in a company name, they are more-than-likely looking for that specific company. However, you may be able to serve your ad as an alternative to the searched-for term if you have a similar product or service. This means that you need to make a direct comparison between your company/product/service, and that of your competitor. Don’t be tricky, just be honest and try to present a viable option to a possible customer. Check out a recent article on PPC Hero on this topic!

In summary, be careful, be smart, be fair and most importantly, be relevant. Those should be the four rules to consider when bidding on your competitor’s trademark/copyright terms and brand names.

If you would like to ask PPC Hero a question – please do! We welcome questions of all shapes, sizes and complexity (simple to advanced). Just click here to drop us a line!