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Managing Successful PPC Campaigns is a Science and an Art FormPosted by Joe on September 8, 2009 in Advanced PPC Strategies |
Managing paid search campaigns requires a mixture of science and art. The scale probably tips more toward the scientific elements when it comes to optimizing your performance. However, in order to create a successful, well-balanced campaign, you can’t completely disregard either end of the spectrum.
Here are some skills/traits that you need to manage your PPC campaign effectively:
Statistics
Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data (according Wikipedia). This is the main driver behind PPC analysis and optimization. Having a thorough knowledge on how to collect and interpret data within your account is mission critical.
You also need to understand how to present this information as well. This presentation of data could be within your team or, even more importantly, to clients. Your clients (or upper management) are not in the accounts every day and they don’t have as clear of a picture as you do in regards to the direction of your campaign. Providing the right statistics in the easiest way possible is a must.
Information architecture
I know what the standard definition of information architecture is but I like this phrase so I’m going to re-appropriate it for my own usage. This skill/trait refers to the logical categorization of similar search terms into themed groups. Or other in terms, creating awesome PPC account structures.
You have to be able to find themes, patterns, and parallel user intent within disparate phrases in order to create an account structure that is likely to generate excellent results as well as enhance your AdWords Quality Score.
Psychology (Human information behavior)
The psychological element is the middle ground between science and art. As paid search marketers, we need to understand the thought patterns and intentions of our search engine audience. What are they thinking? What are they looking for? How can they be convinced that I have what they’re looking for? When conducting keyword research, creating account structures, writing ad copy, and optimizing landing pages, these are the questions we’re trying to answer.
You need statistics to give you some great insight to answering these questions. This is why ad text testing and landing optimization are so important. However, from trying to understand the online buying cycle to determining why a certain ad has a higher click-through rate involves understanding the mindset of your audience as well as hard-fast stats.
Copywriting
Now we’re getting to the artistic end of the spectrum. Writing great PPC ad texts requires a certain finesse that goes above and beyond ordinary copywriting skills. This is because you only have 70 characters to tell someone who you are, what you have to have offer, why they can trust you, and why they should disregard everything else on the SERP and click on your ad.
This requires tapping into your creative side. You need make bold, convincing statements within a very, very small amount of space. When every character counts (literally!), you need to have a strong command of the English language (or whatever language in which you write PPC ads) in order to truncate a great deal of information into a few brief phrases.
Graphic design
This where your landing page optimization comes in (and this is an artsy skill). Yes, you need data in order to tell you how your landing pages are performing. And performance data can tell you what is appealing best to your audience. However, you need analytical and artistic skills in order interpret this information and turn it into images, copy, and an overall design that engage your visitors.
As you can see, successful paid search management requires a blend of scientific and artistic skills. This is what makes our industry so interesting! And there are many more skills that are helpful to generate great PPC results, but hopefully this list will get you thinking about your strengths and weakness. Where can you improve?
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September 8th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Hi, Joe. Nice post. One of the things I love about my job is that it forces me to use both sides of my brain. You’re right in the fact that there is a lot of math involved, but using your talents to utilize the analytics is just as important. Things like ad text, landing page design, copywriting, etc. So SEM pros are sort of like Renaissance men/women in a way.
By the way, I love how the superhero sidekick in your logo is like SEO-boy. Classic.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
This is exactly why you can’t just assign PPC to the low man on the totem pole of the web team. Proper PPC management requires a lot of different skills, the possession of which makes them a valuable commodity. You may have to hire an agency to get this kind of talent, but if you have it in-house, you’re fortunate.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
[...] Managing Successful PPC Campaigns is a Science and an Art Form, PPC Hero [...]
September 9th, 2009 at 6:41 am
@Mark: Oh man, you are right! I didn’t even think about the Renaissance Person aspect of SEM management! I should have used that in my headline! Good one!
@Robert: Thanks! Yep, excellent PPC management is not novice business. It requires a lot of skills in varied areas of expertise.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Another great article Joe. I fully agree PPC management is a blend of scientific, mathematic, and artistic skills. It’s very rare to meet marketers who encompass superior knowledge of all three of those skills. I think the most important trait/skill is the willingness to learn, increase your knowledge set, and apply that knowledge. If you think about it, PPC isn’t really that hard. You choose keywords, set CPCs, write ads, and create landing pages. However, in order to be successful in the long term, you always have to be ahead of the curve and the only way to do that is by reading a lot and listening/questioning to other PPC managers.
On the lighter side, now I have something more eloquent to say when someone asks me what I do ;0)