Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [241]
In doing this, I can remove my ad from appearing to nonrelevant or unqualified searchers. Even more, by preventing nonrelevant or useless ad impressions to those searchers who have a different intent, you can reduce the number of unnecessary impressions. By lowering the number of nonrelevant ad impressions, you could increase your CTR and improve your quality score.
Utilize Ad Groups
One of the easiest ways to ensure that you have a targeted ad that will also increase your quality score, not to mention your effectiveness and profitability as an advertiser, is to utilize ad groups. In short, don’t create one ad and then bid on hundreds of keywords. Use different ads for different keyword groups. As you’ve seen in the examples so far this week, often “boilerplate” ads attempt to cover as many search terms as possible without showing an ad that is specific to the search. Instead, some advertisers present a very general ad for the store, but it is not relevant to a searcher’s keyword.
This method of advertising is not only lacking in matching the searcher intent; it is also a big budget buster. The lack of relevance in the ad in comparison to the keyword will reduce the quality score. Bidding on separate keywords while attempting to use the same ad will only compound the problem and significantly decrease your quality score, costing you more money.
Cabela’s is an advertiser that does this type of advertising. In bidding on multiple keywords but showing the same ad, the campaign is not targeted and could be improved significantly by creating a different ad for each keyword group. You got a taste of the Cabela’s approach in Figure 19-1. In Figure 19-5, the same Cabela’s ad shows up for searches on hunting equipment and for camping gear.
Figure 19-5: Different search terms, same ad
The advertiser is attempting to show an ad for any type of keyword but with a single ad. The campaign would yield better results with more targeted ads for each specific keyword group. Searchers respond to ads that are more targeted and specific to their search terms and intent. In addition, the quality score of the campaign increases significantly when there is more relevance and the ad group is tightly focused rather than disparate words with a single ad group.
An advertiser that is going after the same terms with more targeted ads and a higher quality score will spend less money and gain better visibility than one who takes this approach. In addition, that targeted advertiser will also most likely be sending their searchers to a targeted landing page, which will enhance conversions (which I will cover in tomorrow’s content). When bidding on multiple keyword topics with a single ad, the destination page will be the same for everyone, regardless of what they are searching.
When displaying the same ad for so many different topics, the ad will lose prominence when compared to more targeted, specific ads that utilize the search terms and provide a relevant offer. For example, the Fisherman’s Warehouse ad that appears for searches on fishing tackle (Figure 19-6) will be much more relevant for the searcher when it appears next to the general Cabela’s ad from Figure 19-4.
Figure 19-6: A targeted PPC result for fishing tackle
Similarly, a search for camping gear will yield more targeted ads than the general ads that will have to pay more because of a lower quality score. Which ad in Figure 19-7 is more relevant for a search on camping gear?
Figure 19-7: PPC search results for camping gear
For best results, break up your keywords into like groups and write ads that are specific to those groups of keywords. You will find that the more targeted the message and offer can be for a specific keyword group, the better the performance will be for that group, and the better the performance will be on your budget. The more targeted the keywords and ads are in each group, the better your quality score will be, which improves your campaign.
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