Home > Ticker Tuesday: Fixing PPC Problems With Keyword Match Types

Ticker Tuesday: Fixing PPC Problems With Keyword Match Types

In this episode of Ticker Tuesday, we’ll walk you through how to use different search keyword match types to fix problems in your PPC account. So whether you have a low CTR or a high CPL, we’ve got a solution for you!

Want more PPC strategies and tips?  Check out our other episodes of Ticker Tuesday:

Ticker Tuesday 1: Making Good PPC Accounts Great

pay per click management

In this episode of Ticker Tuesday, we give you 4 tips that will help clean up your account and get it ready for the pay-per-click big time.

Ticker Tuesday 2: Bidding Strategies, Part 1

adwords bidding strategy

In this episode of Ticker Tuesday, we walk through when it’s a good idea to increase bids, and when to decrease them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ticker Tuesday 3: Bidding Strategies, Part 2

Bidding strategies

In Part 2 on our series on bidding, we discussing the specific tools Google AdWords has to offer for bidding, and how each method relates to your end goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ticker Tuesday 4: Understanding adCenter’s Quality Score

adcenter quality score

In this episode of Ticker Tuesday, we discuss how adCenter’s Quality Score works, and how it differs from Google AdWords’s Quality Score.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ticker Tuesday 5: Setting Up Data Feeds In Google Merchant Center

Google merchant center feed

In this episode of Ticker Tuesday, we take you through what to be especially careful of when setting up a feed on Google Merchant Center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 7, 2011

About the Author

Jessica Rooney

Jessica is a former Account Manger at Hanapin Marketing, a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through pay-per-click advertising.

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  • http://www.esparkinfo.com/ Anand Mistry

    Generally, Exact match type can give us good conversion rather than any one. I have very good experience with exact match type. Right now, I am working on Google Adwords campaign & getting very good conversion with exact match type. Any inputs??

    • Anonymous

      Hi Anand -

      That’s great that exact matches are working so well for you!  It sounds like you have an account whose audience is already very aware of your products/services, and knows how to find them.  The only problem I see with using lots of exact matches is that it can limit your traffic.  As you expand your campaigns to let the account grow, I would suggest adding in some short phrase keywords as well, and maybe even modified broad.  If you make sure that your negative keyword list is very complete before you start (and that you use all three match types for negatives too), this could help bring in traffic while still keeping your conversions high.  

      Thanks for reading!

      • http://www.esparkinfo.com/ Anand Mistry

        Hi Jessica -

        This is true. But, I have done work on eCommerce website & keyword was office chairs. I have done experiment to add office chairs keyword with broad phrase. But, It raise unnecessary  impression as well as clicks.

        Than, I tried exact match & got good conversion. One thing, Right now, I am not working on that campaign but , I felt that why should I not share my experience to blog?

        Thanks for your prompt reply. Now, I am thinking to start Google adwords campaign for my service sector website. This is my first experience in service industry.

        I have following big question to get it done.

        Q1: How to convince my client to start it?

        Q2: How to design best landing page which help me improve ad score?

        Q3: How to define best budget which will give me good ROI?

        Any inputs???

        • Anonymous

          Those are big questions.  While I could spend hours answering each one, here are some simple answers:

          Q1: The most basic formula for convincing clients to do PPC is to say that it will expand their reach, that it will show ads to customers who are ready to buy, that it gives you a large amount of data that can be used to understand your overal marketing plan, that you only pay for clicks, that you can track customer involvement other than just sales, and it’s very flexible and good for many budgets.  AdWords actually has a good article on it, which you can find here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=23859&guide=23857&page=guide.cs

          Q2: For landing pages, it’s very important that your text and images directly relate to your ad content. If your ad says “contact our sales team about computer repair,” your ad should be about computer repair, not electronics in general. Using the same keywords that you use in your ad text will help keep your message congruent, and it will raise your quality score. Also, the conversion form should be very visible and above the fold, and it should only require them minimum information you need for the conversion.  If you’d like more information on landing pages, you can check out our articles on PPC Hero here: http://www.ppchero.com/category/landing-pages-increasing-conversion-rates/.  I also suggest checking out http://blog.doppelpager.com, a blog completely devoted to landing page optimization.

          Q3: This is a question that doesn’t have a definitive answer.  The best way to keep your ROI optimized is to make sure you’re finding the customers who are most likely to make a conversion. Sounds simple, but as you know, that can be tricky! Experiment until you’ve found the right match type for your product, and also make sure that your ad text is very specific, and includes details that relate to the stage of the buying cycle your customer is in.  You’ll also want to make sure that you have a solid list of negative keywords to limit your unwanted traffic, and that you exclude any sites on the display network that are not profitable for your ads. I’d also make sure that you monitor your account very closely, and keep adjusting bids, ad content, landing page content, and keywords additions. 

          Good questions!

          • http://twitter.com/OnlinePeregrino Online Peregrino

             Hi Jessica,

            I am a big fan of using one match type per adgroup and I’d never heard It could hurt my QS or my overall performance account.
            So It is good to hear that from you! But still. You know that if you have the same Keyword in a different match type, sometimes Google  pick out the wrong one. I mean, a user type my exact match type keyword and the impression is triggered by the broad one, with a different CPC.
            How do you handle that?
            Cheers

          • Anonymous

            Hi Online Peregrino -

            That is a tricky situation.  I think in that situation, Google will pick the match type that has the lowest CPC for you. So if the search query is “black pants,” and you have black pants (broad) for a $1.00 bid, but [exact pants] for a $2.00 bid, Google will pick the $1.00 bid for you automatically.  I don’t really see why in this situation this can be that bad for your account. However, if you ONLY want exact matches, you can just pause all your broad and phrase match keywords.  There’s no need to always have three match types going at one time!  If, conversely, you only want broad match keywords, make sure to use negative exact keywords to weed out exact matches. And finally, by making sure your ad text is focused on your target audience, you will still be able to reach people in the right stage of the buying cycle, regardless if the keywords are exact or broad.  

            If you’re interested in reading more about including all match types in ad groups, check out this article from our archives: http://www.ppchero.com/separating-your-matches-types-into-different-campaigns-is-a-bad-idea/.

            Google AdWords’ help section also talks about match types and ad groups here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=23650&guide=23648&page=guide.cs and http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=23652&guide=23648&page=guide.cs&answer=152055.  You’ll notice that in the first article, they say to first group by theme, and then to pick match types.  In the second, they suggest including several match types in a single ad group.  

          • http://twitter.com/OnlinePeregrino Online Peregrino

            Thanks Jessica

          • http://twitter.com/OnlinePeregrino Online Peregrino

            But if my 1$ CPC Keyword has an ad rank of 7, and my Exact match keyword with the 2$ CPC an ad rank of 1?  Will Google pick the match type with the lowest CPC for me? In that case for an exact match query, my ad will appear in a 7 postion!

          • http://www.esparkinfo.com/ Anand Mistry

            Hi Jessica -

            Thank you very much for your quick reply as well as some valuable referring articles.

            I am going to deal with it & looking forward for big success with my campaign.

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  • http://www.thebarn.com.au/c-3-office-chairs.aspx Office Chairs

    Dear Jessica,

    For the first time, an online article has managed to entice me to the possibility of considering PPC.

    I specialize in SEO, and come from a school of thought that PPC results are temporary and rigged, but your thoughts and answers here make sense – and that they could support each other. Usually, I only use PPC as a pointer and to test the  click through rates of potential keywords.

    In your opinion, how much of a transition is it to jump from SEO to PPC? They both involve keywords and optimizing on page. But it seems, and I feel intuitively, that I’m missing an integral difference…

  • http://www.thebarn.com.au/c-3-office-chairs.aspx Office Chairs

    Dear Jessica,

    For the first time, an online article has managed to entice me to the possibility of considering PPC.

    I specialize in SEO, and come from a school of thought that PPC results are temporary and rigged, but your thoughts and answers here make sense – and that they could support each other. Usually, I only use PPC as a pointer and to test the  click through rates of potential keywords.

    In your opinion, how much of a transition is it to jump from SEO to PPC? They both involve keywords and optimizing on page. But it seems, and I feel intuitively, that I’m missing an integral difference…

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