Just because setting up a blog is easy doesn’t mean everybody who blogs is an all-star. Along the same lines, just because Google and Bing make it easy to set up a PPC campaign doesn’t mean every advertiser is doing it properly. In fact, the low barrier to entry means a high number of PPC advertisers are doing it wrong.
This is good news! If you understand how to set up an effective PPC campaign, the odds are good you will outperform competitors who haven’t learned the value of following this checklist.
10-Point Checklist For Effective PPC Advertising
1. Have a clearly defined goal. Without one, how will you know if you are spending too much or not enough? A well-defined goal includes both a target number of leads generated by the campaign, and also a time frame in which to obtain them.
2. Understand the value of a customer. If the ROI calculation of your PPC campaign is based only on the value of the conversion, you may grossly underestimate your results. For instance, a PPC campaign may revolve around a $100 introductory offer that generates $20 of profit. But if the average lifetime value of a customer is $1,000 of profit over five years, what is the true value of your PPC conversion — $20, $5,000 or something in between? Define value with care.
3. Define what you are willing to pay for a validated lead. Once you have established the value of a customer, the next step is to determine how much you are willing to spend to obtain a new customer through your PPC campaign.
4. Have an appropriate budget to support your goals. A lofty goal plus a shoestring budget equals disaster. A significant ad spend is necessary – probably much more than the $500 per month many advertisers view as their ceiling – to generate enough conversions to make the campaign pay.
5. Make sure the market is viable. To some extent PPC is a numbers game. If enough people aren’t searching for your products or keywords to generate a critical mass of conversions, your campaign will never get explosive results. Do preliminary keyword research to make sure sufficient keyword search volume exists for your target terms.
6. Create landing pages for the campaign. Sending PPC visitors to the home page of a website is a huge mistake. Instead, craft customized landing pages specifically designed to convert visitors into sales leads.
7. Have resources to make site changes and manage the campaign. PPC campaigns involve systematic testing that leads to continuous refining and adjusting. To execute properly, a firm needs talent and experience in both managing campaigns and making changes to landing pages.
8. Have sales people ready to answer phone calls and emails immediately. Many potentially blockbuster PPC campaigns are destroyed by inept follow-up. When a PPC visitor converts, responding quickly and effectively is absolutely imperative.
9. Don’t give up too quickly. Several months are required to establish valid PPC performance benchmark data, and to know whether PPC is a good fit. In the early months of a campaign, conversions may be few and far between – but this does not necessarily mean you’ve failed. What you learn during those early months will help you adjust your campaign in terms of budget, the offer and the keyword targets. As the campaign is refined, conversions may well improve, and improve dramatically.
10. Track and validate phone calls and emails generated by your campaign. Without tracking, you cannot know whether a phone or email inquiry was generated by your PPC campaign, making ROI calculations impossible. But tracking is not enough: A firm must validate leads to separate true leads from other types of inquiries such as misdials, sales solicitations and customer service requests. If you consider all inquiries to be sales leads, you will greatly overestimate the effectiveness of your campaign.
Stay Actively Involved At All Times
Most of the points in this checklist require ongoing attention. Besides monitoring things within your control, such as the nature of your offer and the keywords you target, you must take into account things beyond your control that can change the dynamics of your PPC campaign. Competitors change strategies in ways that affect your results. Keyword volumes change as user behavior changes and as buzzwords come in and out of fashion within a niche. Thus, bonus tip, #11, is to conduct a strategic review of your campaign, preferably every six months, but definitely once each year. A fresh strategy will make your tactical proficiency that much more productive.
http://socialmediaimpact.com/10-point-checklist-effective-ppc-campaign/#
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