 |
How To Launch a New Keyword: Hit the Ground Running!Posted by Joe on November 9, 2007 in Basic PPC Strategies |
When you load new keywords into your campaign, what is your initial bidding strategy? There has been some recent discussion on the best practices for setting bids on brand new keywords and I thought I’d throw in my two cents. If you want to quickly determine the keywords that will best enhance your PPC efforts, I suggest hitting the ground running, rather than limping.
There are a number of reasons to hit the ground running, and here are just a few:
Get Results Faster: If your initial keyword bid is low, you’ll start off with a low position which could mean minimal traffic and you’ll need more time to determine the results. You’ll be limping! With a higher position you’ll can determine which keywords work best in a matter of days (maybe even less time), rather than weeks.
Deflating Is Easier than Inflating: Deflating your bid is your bid and ad position is easier than raising bids, trying to get a higher rank. Once you’ve determined the keywords that have maximum potential, then you can begin adjusting bids in order to find the “sweet spot” for these keywords. They may need to stay where they are, or you can slowly lower your bid, paying close attention to your CTR and conversion rate.
Build Account History: Also, hitting the ground running will allow you to build your click history even faster. As we’ve mentioned before, a rich performance history can positively impact your Quality Score.
Of course, you don’t want to break the bank with aggressive bids! You need to be smart in your bidding strategy, but to test these new keywords you should set your CPC as high as your comfort level (and budget) will allow. To maintain your click/spend, you should set a daily campaign budget that will mitigate any extreme fluctuations in your spending.
If you’re loading new keywords into your campaign, obviously you must think they’re worth while, so why not get behind them?! Let them hit the ground running, rather than limping!
November 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Joe,
I’d agree with you 100%. Its simple maths. To see if a search term works or not you need to see if it generates conversions. Let’s use an average conversion benchmark of say, 2%. On average you would need to 50 clicks to generate 1 conversion. But at those low volumes statistical variation is high. So 50 clicks may get you zero or 2 clicks. So you really need 100-200 clicks before the conversion rate, all other things being equal, settles down.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Hello David:
And I agree with you. You need to launch your keywords with bids that will give them some traction, and then you need to give them time to gain speed. If you start off with low bids you’ll never gain steam and you’ll prolong your discovery period.
Thanks!