[Ultimate]

Tips to be Successful with Pay Per

Click Advertising

October 20, 2015

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 About Atilus
Atilus is a digital agency that provides full web design, web development and online marketing.
Growing your business online: the driving force behind everything we do at Atilus. We dont just
build websites. Our one and only goal is to help our clients grow their businesses and increase their
bottom lines.

The Atilus Experience

For more than a decade, weve helped hundreds of clients grow, market and run more effectively
using the web. Our average client sees a 900% increase in leads. From construction and service to
telecommunications to business consultancy, weve provided custom web solutions to our clients
that have provided results, and more importantly, a return-on-investment.

WHITEPAPER

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Table of Contents
About Atilus .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2

The Atilus Experience ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction to Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing ............................................................................................................ 5

Search Engine Marketing ................................................................................................................................................... 5

Atilus Qualifications ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

Define Your Campaigns Objective ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Define &Create Customer Profiles ................................................................................................................................... 11

The Type of Information You Need in This Step Varies Depending on Your Business ....................... 11

Learn Their Language ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

Keywords ................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Putting Yourself in Your Customers' Shoes ............................................................................................................ 14

Organizing Your Keywords ............................................................................................................................................ 16

Google Keyword Planner ................................................................................................................................................ 17

Google AdWords Account Setup ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Understanding Quality Score ........................................................................................................................................ 19

Organization of Your Entire Account ........................................................................................................................ 20

Setting Up Your First Campaign .................................................................................................................................. 22

Setting Locations and Languages Expanded ..................................................................................................... 23

Select your Bidding and Budget .............................................................................................................................. 23

Tinker with Advanced Settings ............................................................................................................................... 24

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 Setting Up Your AdGroups ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Setting Up Ad Extensions ........................................................................................................................................... 25

Digging Deeper Into Keywords ......................................................................................................................................... 28

1) Broad Match Type ........................................................................................................................................................ 28

2) Modified Broad Match Type .................................................................................................................................... 28

3) Phrase Match .................................................................................................................................................................. 28

4) Exact Match ..................................................................................................................................................................... 29

How Do Match Types Affect Your AdWords Results? ........................................................................................ 29

Leverage Negative Keywords ....................................................................................................................................... 30

Concentrating on the User Experience .......................................................................................................................... 31

Creating Great Ads ............................................................................................................................................................. 32

Create a Landing Page ...................................................................................................................................................... 33

Target Your Ads ....................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Combine PPC and With Organic SEO .............................................................................................................................. 34

Combining PPC and Organic SEO Gains You More SERP Real Estate .......................................................... 34

Combined, PPC and Organic generates More Keyword Data .......................................................................... 35

Track, Evaluate, and Refine Your Campaigns ............................................................................................................. 35

Glossary & Relevant Websites ........................................................................................................................................... 36

Google AdWords & Pay Per Click Marketing .......................................................................................................... 36

General Search Marketing Terms ............................................................................................................................... 37

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 Introduction to Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing
As weve explained in the past, a website by itself wont drive much traffic. Sure you might get
drips and drabs of visitors organically, but unlike Kevin Costner if you build it they will NOT
come.

Instead, its only through a sustained advertising and marketing effort that you can attract the
qualified visitors you need. Pay per click marketing is one of the very best of those tools
combining the relevancy of Organic Search with the immediacy of advertising.

As weve revealed in other articles, search is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING all businesses
should be looking at and concentrating on:

1. 90% of all local transactions begin with a search (for investigation, research, and discovery)
2. 75%+ of all business-to-business transactions originate with search
3. Search drives more than 1000% the traffic social media does
4. Search is inherently how people find things eclipsing all other methods combined.

Search Engine Marketing

Search marketing refers to everything one can do to

get in front of searchers. Underneath search More than 90% of retail
marketing (or SEM search engine marketing for
purchases begin with SEARCH!
short) theres many different sub-sets of
marketing/advertising including:
SEO Remarketing/Retargeting
Pay Per Click Display Advertising

Pay Per Click marketing, the topic of this white paper, is a form of advertising thats a sub-category
of search engine marketing. PPC is a model where advertisers like you target web visitors with
relevant ads when people search for particular phrases. Unlike organic search listings where it can
take a long time and lots of creativity to prove to Google your website should be at the top of a
particular search PPC allows you to say to search engines: I know my audience is searching for
XYZ put my ad up and within minutes youre getting in front of people looking for the answers to
the questions that your product or service solves at EXACTLY the moment youre looking for
them.

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PPC ads can be displayed, on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) and on pages throughout the web
that customers visit after leaving the company page. Pay per click is a great way to:

Advertise in General Once weve set a client up on Pay Per Click marketing weve NEVER
had them leave (and weve been managing accounts for over a decade).
Reduce Acquisition Costs across the board our clients see a 900% increase in sales and
leads with us, and PPC advertising is
one of the largest ways we achieve this.
Reduce Conventional Advertising Pay Per Click is one of the best kept
Costs On many of our largest
secrets in online advertising.
accounts, weve been able to provide a
reduction in cost/client by 75%+ -
when compared to conventional advertising (TV + Radio). In one particular case we drove
the cost/lead down from $800+ to less than $160 through this form of advertising.
Increase Brand Awareness
Prepare for a more broad Organic Search campaign
Get in front of your audience at precisely the moment theyre looking for your
services
Gain More High Quality Business!

But, Pay per click is dangerous.

On one hand weve NEVER had a client stop Pay Per Click advertising as its so valuable and
provides such a great return. However, EVERYTIME a client ran their own campaign, or hired a
less-then-qualified company, they always stopped using this tool.

Why? Because in the wrong hands pay per click can quickly spend a ton of money and provide no
results.

Creating, managing, and running a PPC campaign is not a simple task its a game. A game where
you and Atilus are rewarded for being good, rewarded with less expensive advertising and more
leads. But, if you or your vendor arent playing that game properly it can mean higher spends and
wasted clicks and budgets. Pay per click is simultaneously one of the most dangerous tools a
business can yield, and one which will quickly eat up all of your money and at the same time, its
still one of the best kept secrets in online advertising.

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Luckily many of the rules are pretty simple and which youll learn throughout this whitepaper. You
can increase ROI and reduce PPC spend by effectively defining the purpose of Search Engine
Marketing (SEM), researching your target audience, planning and organizing your ad categories,
and tracking and updating your ad campaigns.

Atilus Qualifications

Dont just take our word for it

Zach Katkin, Atilus CEO, Co-Founder, and co-author of this whitepaper has been a certified
AdWords professional for over a dozen years. Initially managing AdWords accounts for a company
in 2002, then as the head of the Internet Marketing Department for a nationwide Ad Agency
managing dozens of accounts for clients throughout the country and finally since 2005 with Atilus
he has built a team of AdWords Certified Professionals in South Florida where the company is
based.

Atilus has been an AdWords Certified Partner (meaning our clients meet a certain spend threshold
and our team is tested every year on Googles Pay Per Click and analytics systems) since the
program first started. Atilus clients include businesses and organizations of all sizes throughout the
World. Our most notable clients have been featured on Oprah, Huffington Post, Inside Edition,
Shark Tank, and other amazing places on and offline.

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This whitepaper will guide you through the PPC marketing process and highlight important tips for
streamlining your campaigns:

1. Define Your Campaigns Objective

2. Define &Create Customer Profiles
3. Research and Brainstorm keywords
4. Campaign Setup
5. Focus on Organization
6. Leverage specifics (broad match, exact match, phrase match, location, etc.)
7. Negative Keywords
8. Create Compelling Ad Copy
9. Create Landing Pages
10. Target Your Ads
11. Combine PPC and with Organic SEO
12. Track, Evaluate, and Refine Your Campaigns

Finally, a key point, which well go over again during the actual setup portions of this guide - this
guide is solely centered on Search Network campaigns. Additionally, this guide primarily
concentrates on the Google AdWords system (although it can be applied to any PPC system
including Bings PPC tools).

This means were intentionally not providing additional setup/guidance/tips on setting up your
account for display advertising. Although Display Advertising can provide great advertising
opportunities for a small business its primarily the search network that provides the highest
return and results for all the clients we work with and generally is easier to setup and manage.

As you move through this guide, should you have any questions feel free to reach out directly to
our team at: contact@atilus.com.

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 Define Your Campaigns Objective
What is the purpose of your investment in PPC ads?
Increase brand/product awareness, or increase conversions and sales?
Will you commit to tracking the effectiveness of these goals? If so, how?

Normally, the point of PPC campaigns is to grow sales as opposed to generating awareness. Hence,
it is essential that you clearly define the action that you want your target audience to perform up
front.These actions can range from signing up for something, completing a lead form, calling your
number, downloading a resource, completing an online purchase, or more. Its important to get this
down up front as one of the most common problems we see with AdWords and PPC is that
everything is all setup and setup properly, but no one is buying (or calling).

Youre also not restricted to just one action here outline ALL the actions youd like your new
visitors to take.

Take a few minutes to think about what you hope to see happen in a PPC campaign. Your
brainstorming sessions should focus on those actions that only qualified leads will perform, and
which your PPC campaign should be directed to target. Dont worry about keywords and strategy.
Just take a step back and ask yourself some big business questions. If I could get in front of anyone
(or my target) what would I want them to do?

Some strategic goals might include:

Generating qualified leads Maybe your business works from leads. You have a sales
force waiting and ready for pre-qualified names and numbers. Therefore, your PPC
campaign should be focused on generating leads that will rapidly build your list of prospects
and boosting the number of inquiries entering your marketing/sales funnel.
Building and consolidating a brand image You want to increase brand awareness,
tying your brands name to your business focus, or tying your name to some tangential
search. Therefore, your PPC campaign will focus on consistently keeping your business
message in front of the target audience across a wide range of specific and generic search
queries. For example if youre a restaurant, perhaps you decide to bid on restaurant
within your targeted area or region (which isnt very targeted) with the goal of getting your
regions foodies to know about your restaurant.

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 Keeping your online shopping cart taking orders 24/7 Perhaps you have an
eCommerce portal. You want to simultaneously drive sales, while communicating your key-
differentiator amazing customer service in a niche thats often not known for it. With a
properly targeted and tracked PPC campaign you can drive sales and keep your customer
service busy nurturing lasting customer relations.

Once youve defined some overall goals (as outlined above) go ahead and jot down some hard
numbers. HOW MANY LEADS will you want to receive in the next 6 months from PPC? How many
orders or new customers are you looking to have by years end?

Whatever the final items you decide to track end up being the next MOST critical components are
setting up tracking, and putting in place processes or checkpoints so that you review what youre
doing. Great tracking up-front ensures:

1. You achieve the best possible results

2. Have the information you need to make informed decisions about this form of advertising
3. Can evaluate all of your actions to see whats improving or harming results
4. You can more easily spot issues down the road

Atilus recommends defining a handful of goals. For us we have the following defined across our
own pay per click accounts:

Sales Opportunities (General)

Sales Opportunities (Specific Segments)
Email Newsletter Signups

From our PPC efforts we want the above 3 objections to be met, and set in place tracking to see
how well PPC is performing across these areas.

Beyond tracking on the web, weve set our CRM (customer relationship manager salesforce) to
record these as well. So along the lifetime of a client we know

a) What originally brought them in our door (PPC or other).

b) The average acquisition costs of that client.
c) The average revenue and margins for that client.

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 Define &Create Customer Profiles
Who is your target audience? What are their demographics? And what is the language they are
using to communicate their informational and transactional intent to the search engines?

The Type of Information You Need in This Step Varies Depending on

Your Business

Your task is to find out as much about your target customers as you can. The information that you
must collect is dependent on your type of business. For example, if you target individual customers,
then it will be helpful to know their spending habits, income, their primary location, gender, and
age bracket. If you are targeting other businesses then you should know their niche, target sector,
size, and communication channels. Whats the best way to find this information? Perform your own
research online or better yet, pick up the phone and ask your existing (and best) customers.

Learn Their Language

Consumers use three types of language when using the search engines:

1. Navigational
2. Informational
3. Transactional

Each is directly linked with different types of keywords.

Searchers use navigational keywords when they are finding authoritative and market
relevant resources that can inform them about the products/services they need. Examples
include top-rated, reviews, top10, etc.
Searchers use informational keywords and key phrases when they are researching a
product/service or niche. The best way to find such keywords is in niche specific forums or
threads on popular Q/A platforms.
Searchers use transactional keywords and phrases when they know what they want to
buy and are looking for comparative alternatives to the services/products. These keywords
specifically define the features and/or benefits of the product and service they are looking
for. Examples include vs., buy, coupon, etc.

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Broken out another way, informational Intent is just a fancy way of saying what kinds of searches
are they doing? Transactional Intent dives a bit deeper and are hooks you can use to discover the
searchers likeliness to buy (are they high up in the buying funnel, further down, or not looking to
buy at all?).

Take these 2 keywords:

Construction company New York City careers

Top-Rated Construction company New York City

Clearly both searches are for construction companies (informational intent).

However, the first one is most likely looking for a job (no transactional value unless youre a
construction company looking to hire).

The second search is most likely being done by a broader audience, perhaps a journalist doing
research, perhaps an investor looking to complete a new development project.

Understanding your target audience and their intent(s) is crucial to creating PPC ad text that brings
in qualified leads, and prevent and minimize costly worthless clicks. All of the phrases you create
(or discover) have clues like this on each individuals state-of-mind, and state-of-intent-to-buy.

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 Keywords
Keywords are the driving force behind PPC campaigns, and must be selected very carefully.

If youve gone through the above 2 steps, youll probably already have a few ideas on what
keywords youre going to select. In this step were going to brainstorm a list of keywords that
potential customers will be searching for, and which reflect the services and benefits you offer. Its
vital that these words reflect the image and content of your website and your marketing materials.

Keywords can be broadly organized into the following four types:

1. Brand terms Keywords that contain your brand or trademarked terms. Using our own
company as an example Atilus is a brand term.*
2. Competitor terms Keywords with brand or trademarked terms of competitors offering
similar services/products to yours.
3. Product & Service terms Those terms that
searchers type in that match your own [Google AdWords] works on a system that
product or service offering. is setup to reward advertisers who play
4. Related& Generic terms Keywords that the game well.
your target users may be searching for, but
which are not directly linked to what you are
selling.

When researching and collecting keywords, your task is to find a balance between being so specific
that no one (or very few people) search for your keywords, and being so general that you appear
for every keyword including one that make no sense at all.

Specific Keywords help limit over or unnecessary exposure

General Keywords target both transactional intent and informational, adding ambiguity and
increasing costs.

At this point its important to note that Pay Per Click marketing (in particular Google AdWords)
works on a system that is setup to reward advertisers who find this balance. Its VERY important,
for example, to work to increase your ads clicks and to not be too general. If you dont do this you

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will be penalized with higher ad costs, and generally poor results. If you DO this, you will be
rewarded with lower ad costs and more business.

The starting point for keyword research should be the following:

1. Your business think about all you know about your business. Each product/service can
be turned into a keyword. Industry specific keywords are particularly great here as there
are generally fewer competitors, and higher results. Be careful though do your customers
actually know your business lingo?
2. Customers Get in the mind of your customers and clients. What would they search? What
questions do they generally ask about your product/service? Every interaction youve ever
had with a customer is a great opportunity to mine for keywords. For example, do they have
questions about your products pricing, integrity, levels, etc.?
3. Website Your website probably already has a number of keywords sprinkled throughout.
Review your existing website (and analytics) for keyword opportunities. Later in the guide
Google allows us to type in your website address to pull back keywords.
4. Landing Pages (pages youll specifically direct people to if they click on your ads) If you
already have pages you specifically want to send users to on your website (called a landing
page as its the first page they land on) review the page copy for keywords. Great examples
include service or product pages.

Putting Yourself in Your Customers' Shoes

What search queries do you think your customers will type when searching for your
products/services? What keywords will they use, or would they have to type in to arrive to your
website?

Start broad, and move to more specific keywords:

Coats >mens coats > mens winter coats > mens stylish blue winter coats

Observe, as you move towards more specific queries (which show higher buying intention for the
customer/searcher), you gain what are called long-tailed key phrases three-to-four-word
phrases (or more) that are specific to your product. Think of long tail as a fancy term for more
complex.

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Long tail keywords are important because they are highly specific and, depending on the words
they contain, are used by customers who are further along in the buying or research cycle and
hence know what they want, have made the purchase decision, and are comparing alternatives.

Example for targeted reach: the keyword boots turns into buy royal blue knee-high
boots.

This person knows what they want!

Furthermore, long tail keywords offer lower competition and hence can be added to your arsenal at
lower rates. Finally, combining them with words that have high transactional intent further
increases reach and impact. Example: where to buy, price, buy, etc.

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Once youve completed your own personal brainstorming, we recommend checking out some of the
tools that are out there. Once youve signed up for AdWords, Google has one of the best and most
powerful keyword research tools available. To get to the tool login to your account and go to Tools
> Keyword Planner (at the top of the screen). For more keyword research tools check out the
glossary section of this guide.

Organizing Your Keywords

We find it helpful, prior to cracking open Bings Ad Manager or Google AdWords, to simply start
with a spreadsheet for organizing your keywords. Depending on your particular company, service
offering, or products we also recommend doing the following: create 4 sets of keywords.

Start With Base Keywords (these are typically your primary services)
Move to Prefix Keywords (these are modifiers that illustrate intention)
Expand Into Suffix Keywords (any additional modifiers different or NA for some business)
Finally, Layer Location Data (if you serve a market)

Lets take a glass business as an example to really illustrate this step. Well go ahead and setup
Column 1 in our spreadsheet as Prefix | Column 2 as Base | Column 3 as Suffix | Column 4 as
Location.
Prefix* Base** Suffix Location
Best Sliding Glass Doors NA Fort Myers
Cheap Sliding Glass Door NA Fort Myers FL
Reliable Window NA Fort Myers Florida
Great Windows NA Ft. Myers FL
Impact*** Mirror NA Ft. Myers Florida
Hurricane*** Mirrors NA Ft. Myers

From this base list we can use tools like: http://www.keywordlizard.com to create our final lists.
The final keyword list for the above combination of words ends up being quite large. With these 3
simple columns and only 6 keywords per column we get a total of over 100 keyword combinations.
Of important note here, Pay Per Click systems DO NOT count commas, periods, etc. as different
keywords however plural and singular keywords ARE DIFFERENT.

* You may end up having multiple pre-fixes depending on what makes sense for your business. IE, best
hurricane windows would probably be applicable here. For simplicities sake we kept within 1 column.

** Notice there IS a difference in the keyword when using an S

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*** Of important note, impact is the technical term in this industry (we recently helped a client in this
industry). Although technically all tradesmen call the windows that can withstand hurricane
force windows and impacts impact windows we found that MOST laymen (most of the
customers searching for this particular kind of product) were actually searching for
HURRICANE WINDOWS. Remember, never assume, and always listen to your customers.

Google Keyword Planner

The keyword planner is available in 2 variations one for those that have signed up for AdWords,
and the free publicly available tool (https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner). The difference
between the two versions? The free tool doesnt give you # of searchers and estimated prices for
keywords. Our recommendation go sign up for an adwords account and put in your billing
information. Even if you NEVER use AdWords, this tool is worth it for research! This tool allows
you to scour your website, or type in your own keywords and see relevant suggestions Google has
based on other peoples searches as well as the number of searches that are done per month and
allows you to see approximately how much each Keyword will cost/click.

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Google AdWords Account Setup

Even with all the planning and research your ads will not deliver the ROI you are expecting if your
account and campaigns are not setup and organized properly. Proper account setup will make it

To setup your account visit:

http://adwords.google.com
IMPORTANT: If you have other google services for your business/website (analytics or
webmaster tools) its helpful to setup your AdWords under this same account. You may
want to continue reading this section prior to actually creating your account.

If youre reading this guide and need any assistance during this step feel free to email us
at contact@atilus.com we can assist you by adding your adwords account underneath our
master account, and provide guidance, suggestions, etc.

easier to spot issues, fix issues, and make beneficial updates to your account to bring you more
business.

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Understanding Quality Score

Before we jump into the specifics of how to setup your account, its important to discuss Quality
Score. Googles Quality Score is a measure of the relevancy and effectiveness of your ads. Quality
Score is the single most important thing to understand as a new Pay Per Click advertiser (within
Google AdWords system). The higher your score the more likely you are to:

Pay less for all of your advertising

See more ad impressions, clicks, etc.
Get more business

At the end of the day a high Quality Score means less money out of your pocket and more
customers.

What is Quality Score?

Quality Score is an algorithm Google uses to evaluate

everything. It is a rating of your ads as well as the At the end of the day a high Quality Score
keywords within your account. Quality Score is how means less money out of your pocket and
Google determines the cost per click (CPC) when more customers.
someone clicks on your ad. Its also used to determine
your ad ranking. Your Quality Score depends on
multiple factors, including:

1. Relevance of keywords to their ad groups Are keywords tightly grouped and relevant?
2. Ad Text Is your ad text well written, include the keyword, and make sense?
3. An ads click-through rate (CTR) Each keyword/ad has a # of times it was shown
(impressions) and a number of times it was clicked. Dividing the 2 gets the CTR (click
through rate) one of the most important metrics to look at and to ensure an overall high
quality score.
4. Landing Pages Do the pages your sending visitor to make sense? Is it related to the
keyword and ad?
5. Overall Account Performance Combining the above, and the history of your account is
also a factor in the quality score.

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Your Quality Score is calculated at every possible level (campaign, group, keyword, and account).
Gaining a higher Quality Score makes organization of your account very important. With that out of
the way lets get to account organization.

Organization of Your Entire Account

Before actually going to AdWords and signing up we recommend planning the organization of your
account. PPC Ad account organization is crucial for optimizing your SEM efforts, freeing up
resources, and increasing efficiency and returns from your account. Organization of your account
has three dimensions: Campaigns > Ad Groups > Ads & Keywords

1. Organization at the Campaign level

a. Organization at the Ad Group level
i. Keyword Organization (bid type)
ii. Ad Organization

Although this might vary for your business, generally at the campaign level, each product/service
should have a unique campaign. For some businesses we also recommend breaking out each
product and service AS WELL AS each location serviced. For example the campaigns for a local
bakery that services 2 cities might look like this:

1. Campaign #1 - Local City (1 - Minneapolis) Bread

2. Campaign #2 - Local City (2 - Minnetonka) Bread
3. Campaign #3 - Local City (1 - Minneapolis) Bagels
4. Campaign #4 - Local City (2 - Minnetonka) Bagels

At the Ad Group level, each ad group should be very specific, only targeting a specific
product/service along with a keyword or keywords and an ad that matches these keywords closely.
Our best managed accounts feature ad groups with only a handful of keywords (some with only 1
keyword) within each ad group.

To start, similar to our keyword step, we recommend coming up with a simple outline (on paper, or
using a spreadsheet) on your business and how youll organize you campaigns. Lets use us (Atilus)
as an example. Our current setup (both pay per click and overall marketing) is VERY local oriented
as weve found advertising to be most effective in areas where we have a presence. So our AdWords
account is organized as follows:

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 Campaign - Bonita Springs (Local)*
o Web Design (Ad Group)
Web Design (Keyword)
(Corresponding Ad)**
Bonita Springs Web Design
Beautiful Websites from an Award-
Winning, Local Firm. Contact Today!
www.Atilus.com/Bonita-Web-Design
o Web Development (Ad Group)
o Website Development (Ad Group)

* CITY TARGETED CAMPAIGN - This is marked as local as were setting the campaign settings to
ONLY trigger ads when people search within Bonita Springs. Also of important note, the actual
keywords in the campaign are more general. For example if someone searches for web design
within the geographic boundaries of Bonita this ad will trigger.

**AD This is an example of an ad that is triggered. Because this particular campaign is set to
display when anyone searches within the city-limits of Bonita Springs if someone searched for
Web Design and was inside the geographical area of Bonita this ad would appear.

Lets look at what this is like within AdWords

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Setting Up Your First Campaign

Once youve logged into Google AdWords select the +Campaign button > Search Network Only

On the next screen youll see a LOT of settings already J thanks for making things simple Google.
Although many are self-explanatory lets walk through them one-by-one:

Campaign Name - This is simple, but appropriately naming campaigns helps keep you organized
down the road.

Type - Here you can select the kind of campaign this will be (similar to the step referenced in the
above image). Make sure to select search network only. To the right of this, youll notice there are
some additional options you m ay want to tweak depending on your situation. In all but the most
specific/unique cases, this should have the All Features option selected.

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Load Settings - Here you can copy the settings of another campaign. We recommend using this
once you have one campaign setup properly as most campaigns will have identical campaign-
wide settings.

Networks - This is selected by default, but youll want to make sure include search partners is
selected. Search partners include other Google properties (maps for example), as well as business
partners like AOL that use Google to power the search on their site.

Bidding Strategy For a novice its nice to rely on Googles enhanced CPC (cost per click).
Essentially this is where Google takes your budget and adjusts things based on getting you clicks.
Over time and as you get more practice using AdWords we recommend either taking things into
your own hands (manual bidding) or, if you have enough conversions, switching to CPA (cost per
acquisition bidding).

Setting Locations and Languages Expanded

This is the setting you tweak to control what geographical locations do you want your ad to show?

You know your audience and their demographics, and even if it is global, you have an idea of the
highest qualified traffic generating regions. Furthermore, if you are planning on targeting people
speaking a different language, then check the settings to reflect your target audience.

As an example to further explain this setting and how to use it - we have a client that does high-end
remodeling and interior design for commercial spaces. Although they have a global audience (and
have done work all over the world) lately theyve seen a boom in work in Israel and Jerusalem.
By creating a campaign that targets these locales they can capitalize on their existing work,
examples, pictures, etc. and concentrate.

Select your Bidding and Budget

Arguably, these are the two most important settings when it comes to PPC.

Set your daily budgets too high, and your campaigns will become thrift spenders, guzzling the entire
months budget within days. Set the daily budget too low, and you risk decreasing reach and
efficiency. To determine the right budget limit, divide the budget by the number of days in that
month and split the budget across campaigns. However, you cannot determine the near-perfect
daily budget on the first go, you can only find out once the account starts running.

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Once the account is running, you can reallocate accordingly.

As for bidding settings, start by gaining greater control over your bidding with Focus on Clicks and
manually bidding for clicks. Other options should only be experimented with once your account
has run long enough to collect actionable data.

Tinker with Advanced Settings

Focus on Ad Delivery options. Do not confuse this setting with the Delivery Method Setting
available in the Bidding and Budget area. Change the delivery method to Standard, so that your ads
are displayed evenly over time and hence avoid spending your entire budget in one swoop.

Primary option in the Ad Delivery settings includes rotating ads (displaying different Ad copy for
the same search to different users) which allows you to perform A/B testing for your ad copy and
granting you better control over your metrics. Other options include Optimizing for Conversions
and the default optimizing for Clicks (which must be changed).

Setting Up Your AdGroups

From within the campaign we just created in the above steps select the +ad group button to create
your first ad group. From here-on-out setting up the initial stages of the ad group is pretty self-
explanatory. You title the ad group with an appropriate name (again, weve already taken care of
this with our spreadsheets), but to re-iterate try to focus this on a topic.

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Well detail out what those lines around the keywords are below.

From here we do recommend clicking on estimate search traffic to see approximately how many
impressions (views), clicks, and the cost of the resulting combinations. Finally, all you have to do is
set a default bid and click save ad group.

Setting Up Ad Extensions

So you have your first campaign up and running (and were intentionally leaving out the billing
setup step as its self-explanatory and Google will prompt you at every turn to enter your billing

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information if its not already in the system) but theres one very important piece that we have to go
back and update. If you go to your campaign, by clicking All Campaigns at the top of the screen (or
clicking on the campaign on the left hand side of the screen) and then selecting ad extensions
youll get to the setup area for ad extensions.

What Are Ad Extensions?

Ad extensions as the name imply show (depending on how relevant they are) additional
information to the user as they view your ad. In AdWords, part of the name-of-the-game is take up
as much real-estate on the screen as possible, and show your users as much relevant information as
possible. Ad Extensions allow you to do just this. Below is a breakdown of all of the extensions.
Along with some examples of what they look like in Ads.

Sitelinks Sitelinks are geared towards specific sub-sections or pages of your website that might
be relevant to a searcher. Google can show up to 6 sitelinks at a time so we recommend adding at
least 6. You can add as many as youd like and group them into bundles of similar/related
keywords/sections.

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Location As we stated previously, its helpful to use the same email address for your adwords
account and other Google services. If youre setup a Google My Business profile and confirmed your
businesses address you can link it here.

Call As the name implies, this will display a phone number with your ad. You can have it display
your own phone number, or a forwarding number which will allow you to track if a keyword led to
a phone call.

App App extensions are the newest of the extensions lot. If you have an app thats a part of your
business offering you can provide a link to download the app and best of all Google will only
display this if the user is on a mobile device and even then it will display a link specific to the
mobile OS the user is using (iOS or Android)

Review Similar to locations, if youve linked your Google My Business account you can bring over
not just the location data, but also the reviews. So each of those reviews your customers give you
are now displayed every time future customers search for words youve targeted.

Callout These are small additions of text, typically helpful to display text like Free Shipping, etc.

Once youve setup a campaign, ad group, added your keywords, created your ads, and added
extensions (optional, but helpful) youre set. Your ads will now be showing when people search for
the keywords youve targeted.

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 Digging Deeper Into Keywords
When setting up PPC campaigns, you have the options of setting the keyword match types. Your ads
are generated and shown when the search query from potential customers matches these settings.
Properly leveraging these settings allows you to snipe in on the most qualified prospects.

1) Broad Match Type

Broad match is the default match type and allows your ad to reach the widest audience. With the
broad match, your ad is eligible to appear on all search queries that include any word in your key
phrase in any order.

Example: broad match for luxury hotel suites will show your ad for luxury apartments, luxury
cars, top Asian hotel suites, and so on.

As a result, customers querying irrelevant topics may see the ad and click on it. The costs can add up
surprisingly fast. Use them by relying on search query reports so that you do not pay for irrelevant
traffic. Overtime its best to use the information you gather from broad match keywords to refine
your ad groups over time.

2) Modified Broad Match Type

Leverage the reach of broad match without losing control over ad targeting with modified broad
matches a middle ground between broad match the more restrictive match types below.

A modified broad match is created by using the + parameter between the keywords. When the +
is added, it tells Google that the ad should only be displayed when the search includesall the terms.

3) Phrase Match

Phrase match offers the versatility of the broad match but offers higher levels of control. You ad will
only appear when the customers search query uses the exact phrase with all the keywords in the
exact same order.

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For example the phrase match for amazing PPC gains will trigger for all queries of the following
sort: how to drive amazing PPC gains, guide on how to achieve amazing PPC gains, etc. Notice
that each has the same keywords, in the same order.

However, it will not display the ad even if a single keyword is out of order, e.g. I need amazing gains
from PPC, etc.

4) Exact Match

Exact match triggers and displays ads when the when a user typesthe exact keyword phrase, and
that keyword phrase alone. So, for paranormal PPC gains, the ad will be displayed only when the
user types in the exact key phrase keyword by keyword.

To better illustrate this heres a great image from Google:

How Do Match Types Affect Your AdWords Results?

Match types can have a major impact on your accounts performance: theyre the control you use to
determine exactly which search queries youre bidding on. As you determine which match types to
use for each keyword, there are a few key components to consider:

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 Performance to Date How a keyword or similar keywords have performed can give you
insights into which match type will provide the best return on your investment.
Competitors How your competitors bid on certain terms and structure their own
accounts, as well as how their accounts have performed historically will all impact the
return you see from certain match types.
Bids Cost per click and cost per conversion are heavily impacted by bids often
advertisers employ various methodologies for manipulating bids and frequently bid more
or less aggressively based on the match type this can strongly influence which match type
is most appropriate.
Ad Text & AdWords Account Structure Many advertisers will break out a money
keyword and run it on broad, phrase and exact match types perhaps even segmenting
those match types out and writing specific ads for each. The way an advertiser structures an
account can also have a massive impact on performance for different match types.

Optimizing your use of AdWords match types is crucial because it allows you to reach your target
audience while avoiding unnecessary spends on irrelevant clicks.

Leverage Negative Keywords

Keywords that wont trigger your ad are termed negative keywords. Negative keywords are one
of the most important part of AdWords and one of the most overlooked (or in some cases, many
people dont know what they are or that they exist!).

Negative keywords eliminate wasteful ad spend if negative keywords and the right match types are
proactively identified and set.

Your marketing campaigns and content must have a lot of keywords, but not all of them are there
for targeting the type of visitors you want from your ad. These are negative keywords, which when
added to your ad campaign, prevent your ad from being displayed to people searching for items
that you do not offer (hence, the people who would not click on it anyway).

Streamlined Ads = More Relevant Search Results = Qualified Traffic + Higher Google
AdWords Quality Score

Increase productivity and save time by identifying whole clusters of related negative keywords
instead of focusing on single instances of negative terms.

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Check your Search Query Report go to a campaign, or ad group and select Keywords > Details >
Search Terms > All.

The report shows the searches are currently triggering your ads. Filter and sort the report to find
the irrelevant yet frequently searched queries that are wasting your money and budget. Find
opportunities for negative keywords by sorting them:

1. By the highest impressions to see the most popular queries your ads are showing up for.
2. By money they are costing you (with the highest spend).

Once sorted, check their CTR, conversions, and conversion rate to gauge the quality of the keyword.
If the keyword isnt resulting in any conversions, it is irrelevant and should be used as a negative
keyword.

Lets look at quick example of where a negative keyword would be beneficial. We have a client who
distributes and sells online hand dryers. One of their most popular models shares its name with a
muffler company. So we were bidding on Xlerator (the name of the hand dryers). However we
noticed that this would be triggered (and we were getting clicks for Xlerator mufflers). Since our
client does not, and will never sell mufflers, we add muffler and mufflers as a negative keyword.

From now on Xlerator will continue to trigger our ad, but if a user adds in muffler it will no longer
display. This helps because it increases the overall click through rate of the ad group, campaign, and
account, and is far more targeted.

Concentrating on the User Experience

One of the interesting things that have made search engines and search engine marketing so
successful is that conventional advertising has been flipped on its head. Companies (most notably
Google) have setup their ad platforms to incentivize businesses to provide a great experience. If this
might be detrimental for business in the short-term, in the long-run it has meant more market
share and more advertisers. After years on this path Google has taken over and its one of the most
amazing harmonies of businesses who need to find customers/clients and those of us searching for
products and services that solve our problems. As such as an advertiser venturing into the world of
Pay Per Click marketing its VERY IMPORTANT to understand THIS 1 IDEA

FROM NOW ON EVERYTHING CENTERS ON THE USER EXPERIENCE

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Reverse roles for a second and put yourself in your customers shoes. Would this not be the ideal
situation?

1. Youre looking for a solution to a problem (lets say youre hungry for a bagel)
2. You do a search for bagels in Detroit
3. You see an ad at the top that references this (mentions we have the best bagels in Detroit),
speaks to you and gets you to click
4. You then land on a page with the bakers location (in Detroit) with some information on
their world famous bagels (including pictures) and allows you to quickly call to place an
order, or get directions, or order online

Perfect.

In less than a minute youre on your way to ingesting a delicious poppy-seed bagel!

This is exactly what Google and the other search engines want. This is what will continue to allow
them to grow their ad network and ad revenues. They understand if that end-customer doesnt find
what theyre looking for, theyll be unhappy. And similarly if that end customer leaves your website
without placing an order or deciding to come in to fulfill their deepest bagel desires then youve lost
as an advertiser. So a system is in place to make sure that you continually move towards perfection.
If you ignore this your competition will beat you theyll out rank you, theyll get more clicks,
theyll close more sales.

So begin thinking (and improving) the ENTIRE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. From keyword, to pay per
click ad, to landing page, to final experience with you and loop it back around with reviews (but
thats for another whitepaper!).

Creating Great Ads

Create a catchy headline. It represents the ad you are offering. Make sure touse your target
keywords and communicate the product, the service, or its benefits (depending on what your ad
category is targeting). The purpose of your ad copy is to make visitors click on the link. Your
landing page is supposed to do the other works.

Quick Ad Tips:

1. Include keywords if possible they appear bolded and will help get attention.

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 2. Your ad copy (features and the benefit) should match what you will deliver to your
customer on your landing page.
3. For the Display URL make sure it includes the keyword (if possible). Also make sure the
landing page URL references the keyword.
4. Make sure to enable as many ad extensions as possible (calls, location, ratings, etc.) they
mean larger ads, more real estate, and click through rates.
5. Mention Key Differentiators Do you know your best customers demand free shipping? Do
you offer free shipping? Make sure to highlight here.

For additional tips on writing great AdWords Ads check out:

http://unbounce.com/ppc/write-high-performing-adwords-ads/
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704392?hl=en
http://www.smartinsights.com/paid-search-marketing-ppc/paid-search-creative/laura-
hampton/

Create a Landing Page

Your homepage is NOT a landing page. Back to that beautiful bagel example a landing page should
really concentrate on one thing! You can get overwhelmed with this so at first, dont go too crazy
with how specific you get, but remember everythings setup to reward you if you get really specific.

Quick Landing Page Tips:

1. Make the URL relevant: IE DetroitBakery.com/Bagels (more relevant than say)

2. Optimize your landing pages with A/B testing and Multi-variant testing experiments.
3. Try testing different page elements in a controlled environment (one to two elements at a
time). Test keywords, headlines, body text, CTA on buttons, page layout and design, form
layout, design, and position, and navigation, among other aspects.
4. Make converting (whatever you think the user should be doing calling, contacting,
downloading something, etc.) as easy as possible.

Target Your Ads

Use all types of keyword targeting (exact match, phrase match, broad match) into your targeting
strategy:

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 Bid least for broad match
Bid most for exact match
Continuously improve your exact match cluster (remove ones with low ROI)

Organize ads by keyword type and category

Target with targeting criteria go for:

Geo-targeting (location, zip, street radius, etc.),

Type of website (tech, education, automobile, health, etc.),
Web behavior (sites often visited, and related to your business/niche/industry)

Combine PPC and With Organic SEO

In this final technical part of this guide wed like to talk about organic search engine optimization
and how pay per click marketing plays a role in SEO. PPC is often one of the first (and best) steps
towards great search engine presence.

Combining both PPC and SEO means that you will take up more search engine real estate. But some
studies have shown it goes further than that that theres actually a branding effect that happens
leading to a 70% increase (overall) in conversions once visitors land on your website when they
saw you have BOTH a pay per click ad and search engine result listing. Heres breakdown of the
benefits of combing PPC & Organic SEO:

More screen real estate

Less competitive real estate
Higher conversions
Target keywords that work (convert)
Target keywords that matter (that people are searching for)

PPC and SEO supplement one another (keywords with proven ROI can be used in SEO).

Combining PPC and Organic SEO Gains You More SERP Real Estate

Unlike organically ranked content, PPC has a fixed space in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Hence, if combined with organic SEO content, a visitor searching for your target keywords/queries

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will find most of the SERP real estate occupied by your target content (navigational, informational,
and transactional!).

Combined, PPC and Organic generates More Keyword Data

When your organic and PPC campaigns are run simultaneously, you gain double the data. This data
provides tons of insights to optimize your existing content strategy and to improve your PPC with
keywords that are generating more qualified traffic to your content or landing page.

Given that your Ad copy/text is a direct measure of the effectiveness of your Ad, all high converting
PPC copies can direct the meta titles and meta descriptions for your organic content! This will boost
the CTR for organic content as well as inform your content strategy to target those topics/keywords
that are in demand by your target audience.

Track, Evaluate, and Refine Your Campaigns

For lasting results, your PPC ad campaign needs to be tweaked on a fairly regular basis (once a
week). Consistent tracking allows you to remove keywords that are wasting your PPC budget, add
newer keywords (both positive and long-tail and negative ones).

Possible changes include pausing ads and keywords with low CTR, adding newer ad copy (changing
ones that are underperforming), reducing keyword bids if the campaign is hitting daily budget limit,
etc.

Use search term reports.

It helps you can help you identify low CTR, keywords with higher cost-per-click, time on site, and
other aspects that negatively impact your PPC ROI. This can be used to clear out low performing
keywords and replace them, and test out new ones.

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 Glossary & Relevant Websites
Google AdWords & Pay Per Click Marketing
Ad Position Also known as ad rank, is the position in the ad rank your ad appears. When performing a search on Google.com
for example if your ad is #1 it will generally be the first thing you see on the screen. An ad position of 2 or lower, may mean
your ad appears on the right side of the screen.
Ad Extensions -
Bing Ads Microsofts advertising tool. Allows you to advertise to searchers on Bing, Bings search partners, and other
publishers.
Click Through Rate (CTR) A formula characterized as Clicks/Impressions. CTR is one of the most important elements in a
Google AdWords account. The higher the CTR for a given keyword, ad, ad group, and campaign generally the higher the
Quality Score of the overall account, the lower the cost of the advertising, and the better performing.
Cost-Per-Click This is both a target, as well as an exact amount you are assessed as an advertiser when someone clicks on
your website.
Display Network (Display Advertising) A form of pay per click marketing where ads are placed on relevant websites
(triggered by words that appear on those websites, or topics discussed on those websites). Advertising can be in the form of
text-based ads, or graphic ads.
Google AdSense Googles tool that allows publishers to make money with their website by placing a snippet of code on their
site that then shows relevant ads to visitors. Visitors see those ads based on the content of the website/web page they are on
as well as their own history on the web.
Google AdWords Googles advertising tool. Allows you to advertise to searchers on Google, Googles search partner, Google
Adsense publishers (with Display Advertising) and remarketing.
Google AdWords Certified Partner A company with more than 3 certified AdWords Professionals on staff that manages a
certain ad budget within Google across a list of clients, and maintains AdWords professional status for each person by taking 2
AdWords courses yearly.
Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) A form of advertising where you ask a search engine to display your ad for a keyword and
are (generally) only charged or debited a fee when someone clicks on your ad (and calls you or lands on your website).
Quality Score An estimate of the quality of your ads and landing pages triggered by a keyword. Quality score affects ad
position, and cost-per-click.
Remarketing/Retargeting Ads that are displayed to people who have been on your website. Ads are displayed on websites
that former visitors to your site are now on (examples include Facebook, Google Adsense publishers, etc.)
AdWords AdGroup Sub-level organization element in an AdWords Campaign that organizes a group of keywords matching
them to an ad.
AdWords Campaign Top level organizational element in an AdWords account. Its where advertisers set preferences like,
type, network, device targeting, location targeting, language, bid strategy, budget, delivery method, and much more.
Search Network - The Search Network is a collection of Google search sites and search partner sites where your ads can
appear.

Search Network Partners - Search partners extend the reach of Search ads to hundreds of non-Google websites (like AOL), as
well as Google Maps, YouTube, and other Google sites. On search partners, ads can appear on search results pages, on site
directory pages, or on other pages related to a person's search. With Shopping campaigns, your Product Listing Ads can appear
on search partner sites that display and link to products for sale.

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General Search Marketing Terms

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) A coordination of efforts on your site and on the web that communicate to Google and
other search engines that your website and business should be trusted as the authority on various topics and for various
keywords.
Marketing/Sales Funnel The process your customers go through to determine they have a problem, search for a solution,
find you, and then make a purchasing decision.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) An all-encompassing phrase for how to get in front of those people performing searches
online. Generally includes paid and non-paid/creative efforts.
Ecommerce Website Website that presents products or services online and allows end-users to input payment information
allowing you as a business owner to receive income directly from the website.
CRM Customer Relationship Manager Examples include Sugar, Salesforce, Highrise a tool used to record names, email
addresses, questions, transactions, birthdays and other important information about your customers.
Navigational Intent Keyword that connotes users desire to find move through a particular product space or category.
Information intent Keyword that connotes users desire to learn more about a particular product space or category.
Transaction intent Keyword that connotes users desire to purchase a product or service.
Long Tail Keyword More detail keyword that generally means the user doing the search is more qualified than a shorter
keyword. Long tail keywords also (generally) have less competition when it comes to marketing, pay per click, or search
engine optimization.
Landing page Landing pages have a couple definitions most generally this is a page a user lands on when they click on your
ad or search engine result listing. More specifically landing pages are pages that target a specific keyword or keywords that
your company has deemed high-value, and then have corresponding advertising campaigns that point to these pages. The
pages have content and design that increase conversions (contacts).

Keyword Research Tools (Free)

Google Keyword Planner - https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

http://keywordtool.io/
http://ubersuggest.org/
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
http://www.semrush.com/

Keyword Research Tools (Paid)

WordTracker - http://www.wordtracker.com/
SEOMoz - https://moz.com/tools/keyword-difficulty
RavenTools - http://raventools.com/seo-tools/
KeywordSpy - http://www.keywordspy.com/
Keyword Lizard - http://www.keywordlizard.com/

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