Module 3: Optimize
Learn to control the levers that influence PPC performance, such as measurement, structure, targeting, creatives, and automation. The tools that we setup in Module 2 will be essential for us to optimize our PPC engine. As we become more familiar with the levers of optimization and the software used to enable them, we'll start to achieve even greater business outcomes.
Table of Contents
Part A - Measurement: Conversion Tracking & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Audience targeting is where retargeting & personalization happens.
Your measurement strategy starts with how you’re able to track important metrics and business actions (i.e. users, clicks, conversions). Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help us understand how our PPC campaigns drive key business outcomes. In simple terms: is our PPC working.
Part B - Structure: Build your account infrastructure with simplicity and automation in mind.
3 Account Structure Tips:
1. Your should separate campaigns by marketing objective (lead generation, ecommerce, app downloads), product focus, location, or wherever it makes sense to control for budgets.
2. Ad groups should be separated by theme (web development vs graphic design for example), but you should mix your keyword match types in the same ad group.Â
3. Always double check your account, campaign and ad group settings. Understand what each configuration does and how it impacts your campaigns. Leverage that PPC platform’s support documentation.
Part C - Targeting: Isolate the keywords, audiences, locations, and ad schedules that drive conversions.
2. Create/Apply Audiences to Your Campaigns For a Deeper Level of Performance
Audience targeting is where retargeting & personalization happens.
We can custom tailor our PPC campaigns to address specific groups, so in addition to the keywords that are being searches, we can layer audience groups most likely to meet the profiles of ideal customers.
3. Understanding bidding signals such as location, audience, and device.
Locations
Audiences
Ad Schedule
Device
Set your location bids first and then your ad schedule (what time you want ads to run). We recommend splitting campaigns by device, so for your desktop campaigns run a -100% bid modifier for mobile and tablet traffic and for your mobile campaigns run a -100% bid modifier for desktop and tablet. Lastly, do the relevant adjustments for your tablet campaigns.
Part D - Creatives: Leverage the power of value-based smart bidding
1. Building a Website is easier than you think. You only need a few ingredients.
Ingredients for a website:
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1. Domain Name: GoDaddy $20/year
You will need a domain name (www.example.com). You can register one at Godaddy.com. Choose a name that reflects your organization (preferably the org's name), is short, and easy to spell.
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2. Hosting: Kinsta $360/year
Hosting is also required to run a website. A good hosting provider generally means a faster website with fewer crashes. I like Kinsta because of its easy integration with WordPress.
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3. CMS: WordPress Free
You will need a content management, such as WordPress, that will essentially be the hub for managing your website and creative assets. Start with a simple sitemap: home, about, services, contact, and blog.
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4. Builder: Elementor Pro $49/year
Elementor Pro makes creating webpages easy. You can also use their pre-built templates to get a beautiful and functioning website up quickly.
Consider these 5 tips when running a website:
1. Be clear, transparent and make your information easily accessible. Visitors should understand what you do in less than 5 seconds.
2. Reward your audiences for visiting your website. Don’t show them ads or spammy links if they aren’t needed.
3. Contact forms should be easy to find, easy to complete and easy to submit. The same with cart checkout.
4. Invest in a speedy website. Navigating a slow website is like being stuck in traffic. So is navigating a confusing one.
4. Invest in a speedy website. Navigating a slow website is like being stuck in traffic. So is navigating a confusing one.
2. Develop a wide variety of Creative Assets. Test multiple mediums.
- Blog Articles
- Business Cards
- Case Studies
- Coupons
- eBooks
- Images
- Infographics
- Merchandise
- Music
- Newsletters
- Patents
- Podcasts
- Price Calculators
- Trademarks
- Research
- Webinars
- Whitepapers
- Videos
Your content should seek to educate your audience and empower them to make better decisions.
3. Showcase your content on a variety of Digital Channels.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Bing
- Etsy
- Quora
- Snapchat
- Spotify
- Tiktok
- Tumblr
- Twitch
- Waze
- Yahoo
- Yelp
- Vimeo
- YouTube
All of these websites, search engines, social networks or apps offer some form of PPC advertising. Many of them let you create a free profile, meaning free organic visibility for your organization.Â
Communicate with your audience through the platforms and mediums that they regularly engage with.
Part E - Automation: Leverage the power of value-based smart bidding
Make use of Google Ads automated bidding whenever possible. The best methodology is to feed the Google Ads engine as much data as possible and train the bid signals to target the audiences most likely to convert.
1. Bidding For Volume
Bidding by volume means seeing how many clicks or conversions I can get for my budget. Because we set up conversion tracking in module 3, we have all the necessary components to bid by conversions or conversion value — if our objective is purely quantity.Â
2. Bidding for Return on Investment
I only recommend test budgets. If we can hit a profitable return on ad spend (ROAS) target — for example 1000% ROAS or $10 revenue for every $1 spent — then why put a limit on how much we can make. If you can scale your PPC campaigns with ROAS in mind, then spending $100k could potentially make you $1M using this framework and budgets become less important if your organization can support the growth.
Of course there are other factors to consider, such as a company’s ability to fulfill or support that level of business.
Remember that conversions should measure our website objectives, leads, calls, sales, etc…Set a target cost per action (CPA) that makes sense for your business goals.Â
Target return on ad spend (ROAS) bidding is the highest level of automated bidding and what we want for our lead generation accounts (how we assign lead magnets an ROI value is a different topic that will come later), and a must for e-commerce campaigns.Â
For user acquisition campaigns, we match ROAS to a lifetime value or average revenue per user. We should ideally be able to control the volume of our conversions/conversion value by adjusting our target ROAS up or down, setting the stage for scalability.