Posts Tagged ads
One Keyword per Ad Group: Pros & Cons
Posted by Alan Mitchell in Techniques on August 11th, 2009
I recently stumbled across a Google AdWords video by Derek Faylor describing how to boost AdWords relevancy. He suggests picking one keyword that is core to your business, setting it to exact match and giving the keyword its own ad group with its own tailored ads. The idea is this: if your ads closely match your keywords, you will be seen by Google as being highly relevant, so your Quality Score will increase. This will lead to a higher ad rankings, higher click-though rates (CTR) and lower costs per click (CPC).
It makes sense, and I completely agree that a highly relevant approach such as that outlined by Derek is essential to achieve great results in paid search.
However, although Derek emphasises that his one keyword per ad group strategy should only be applied to one keyword which is core to your business, there will rarely be a case where a business will only want to advertise on a single keyword. There will likely be hundreds of possible phrases that will be highly relevant to a business, and having a portfolio of hundreds, even thousands, of long-tail keywords (instead of just bidding on one or two highly generic short-tail keywords) will often achieve better results.
So is Derek’s strategy of one keyword per ad group practical if applied on a larger scale?
Let’s have a look at the pros and cons.
ad groups, ads, expansion, keywords, long-tails, ppc, quality score, relevancy, rule, structure, tailoring
Relevancy: The Holy Grail Of PPC
Posted by Alan Mitchell in Techniques on July 18th, 2009
I’m going to focus my first post on what I believe is the most fundamental concept in PPC: relevancy. Giving users what they are looking for. Directing them to where they want to go. Answering their questions.
Why? Because paid search relevancy can pay massive dividends. Not only is a highly relevant pay per click (PPC) campaign more likely to receive a higher click-through rate (CTR), higher Quality Score, higher ad rankings, lower costs per click (CPC) and benefit from less wasted spend, but users will more qualified so bounce rates are likely to fall (the number of people who immediately ‘bounce’ back), conversion rates increase and return on investment (ROI) will ultimately improve. So a highly relevant paid search campaign is definitely a good thing.
To achieve PPC relevancy, keywords, ads and landing pages need to work together in tandem. Messages in ads need to match users’ search queries, landing pages need to match messages in ads and landing pages need to relate to users’ original searches. (For a more detailed explanation of how each component interlinks, you might like to consult Acquisio’s great article on AdWords relevancy and Quality Score).
Closely matching ads and landing pages to keywords to encourage only targeted and qualified users to visit your site is a simple theory, and one that’s been around since the dawn of Google AdWords.
So nothing new then – does that mean relevancy is no longer relevant?
Well, not exactly, for two reasons…
ad groups, ads, adwords, campaigns, holy grail, keywords, long-tails, personalisation, ppc, quality score, relevancy, research, structure, tailoring, user journey
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