Alright, so now that you’ve gone through my “Define.Research. Deploy.” process, you’re ready to start setting up your paid search campaigns. Within that process you should’ve completed the following items:

• Define your Niche
• Research your competition within your niche using Keyword Research Tools
• Solidify your Objective
• Creating a compelling CTA (Call to Action)

With those items behind you, it’s time to talk about the setting up your paid search campaigns. What I mean by that, is how are you going to be organizing your account structure?

Why is Account Structure Important?

The last thing you want to do is start creating a bunch of random campaigns with no real direction. You’ll end up overlapping campaigns, have an un-organized account and will most likely cause you more work.

Back in the day, your campaigns would be stuffed with thousands of keywords with just a few ad groups. Now, I don’t ever have more than 10-15 keywords within an ad group.

Essentially, with a structured account, you’ll be able to pin-point any item you want in your account which allow for better management. No matter how granular you want to manage your account (e.g. down to the keyword level) you’ll know exactly where everything is within your account.

Paid Search Account Structure & How it Effects your Quality Score

I can’t emphasize enough how important your account structure is. This is one of the biggest factors when talking about Google’s Quality Score. In case you’re not familiar with the quality score, you need to definitely understand it before you setup a Google Adwords account. In short the Google Quality Score is:

The AdWords system calculates a ‘Quality Score’ for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

Back in October of 2008 I did a post on “How to Help your Google Adwords Quality Score“. All of it is still relevant and will play a huge role in building up your quality score.

Inside Google Adwords (and Yahoo! & MSN, etc.) your account is laid out like this.

• Campaigns (e.g. Mens Nike Shoes)
  • Ad Groups (e.g. Nike Shox, Nike Air Max, Nike
  • Ad Copy
  • Keywords

TIP: The more specific you layout your campaigns the more specific your ad copy & keywords will be. Thus, resulting in better ROI and conversion rate.

Solid Account Structure = Extreme Relevance & Google Love

Google’s main goal with their search results is to be as relevant as possible. If you’re campaigns as relevant as possible, Google will reward you for your hard work & effort.

It’s easy to be lazy and throw up a few campaigns and a few ads. Try to avoid that and make it a goal to reach the maximum amount of campaigns within your account.

If you’re not shooting for that, you’re just being lazy.

Let’s look at a few examples

Let me show you a quick example of how a well structured campaign, makes you get more specific & relevant.

In this examples, I’m using the new Nike Shox that just came out, the “Nike Shox NZ id”. You could either setup your own Nike Shox campaigns or just add another ad group to a General Nike Shoes campaign.

If it were me, I would use the more specific example. (See below.)

Campaign Name: Mens Nike Shox
Ad Group: Nike Shox NZ id
Ad Copy:
Nike Shox NZ id
Customize your NZ’s with Nike ID.
Get 20% Off & Free Shipping Today!
www.JRazzlesShoes.com/Nike-Shox-NZ

When you setup your account strucutre this way, you have no choice but to have a very specific ad, that targets very specific keywords. This does a number of things. Compared to the other ads you’ll be displaying next to, you’re more likely to be clicked on and you’ll be linking to correct product page the consumer is looking for.

Here’s what happens when you don’t have account structure

When I searched for “Nike Shox NZ id” these were the top 3 ads to show up.

First thing you’ll notice is out of all 3 results, none of them use the descriptive ad copy to really “sell” the product. It’s unfortunate to see. In my opinion, if the account was structured in a precise manner, they would be much more specific for each product. For the most part, these ads are geared to just the Nike Shox shoe.

But after clicking on each of the ads, it get’s worst.

All of these ads failed to send the me, the visitor, to the appropriate landing page. Out of the 3, Footlocker was the worst, as it sent me to this page:

Uh — what is this?

I mean, it’s nice of you to show me your New Balance shoe collection but your ad told me it would take me to your Nike Shox? Seriously, Footlocker out of all sites out there too. I expect more out of a big company to have it more together. To me, this is a classic case of having an un-structured account which ultimately takes away your ability to manage your entire account.

Either way, just remember to keep it relevant. Having a well thought out account/campaign structure will give you the ability to manage your paid search campaigns at an optimal level.

If you’ve already created a few campaigns within your account, that’s ok. Next time you’re begin setting up new campaigns and ad groups, remember the importance of your paid search account structure.

Was this helpful? Let me know if I didn’t touch on something or you need more clarification. In the meantime be sure to Subscribe to my RSS Feed or Follow @jrfarr on Twitter for the next Rockstar PPC installment.

A Component of the Rockstar Marketing Series – Custom Crafted by JR Farr.

Paid Search is more then keywords & bidding wars. This my friends, is PPC for today’s world… 2009.

I’ve been looking forward to break out my new Rockstar PPC Series as it’s something I feel very confident in. For the past 3-4 years I have been deeply involved with the paid search landscape so get ready for some amazing content and the learn the ropes of how paid search works.

The Basics – What’s Paid Search?

Paid Search, Pay per click, PPC — I guess whatever you want to call it is extremely powerful and when used correctly, can set you apart from your competition.

Essentially, the search engines (like Google) display your advertisements throughout the engines and you only pay when a user actually clicks on your ad. You pick the keywords you want to show up for, you determine the bids & position you want to rank and send visitors to your website or landing page.

What you’ll Learn in the Rockstar PPC Series

I see paid search as two-fold. I think most advertisers forget how important the second part of the paid search equation, therefore, they FAIL.

1. The first part is being competitive in the search engines, bidding appropriately on long-tail keywords, wiritng compelling ad copy, etc. You do this all in an effort to get the users attention to click on your ad and make there way to your site. Keeping your fingers crossed that a conversion takes place.
2. The second part, in my opinion, is often over-looked. It’s all about where you’re sending your visitors and what you’re telling them to do when they get. It’s a paid tour and you’re the guide… Are you leaving your visitors lost or helping them find their way?

Stay Tuned…

Here’s a quick look on what up-coming posts you can expect.

• Writing Compelling Ad Copy
• Taking advantage of FREE Keyword Tools
• Geo-Targeting & Day-Parting your Campaigns
• How to have a High-Quality Score from Google
• The Formula to a Highly converting Landing Pages

Remember to Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

If you’re running some hefty campaigns through Google Adwords then it might be time to check out the Adwords Editor.

What is the Adwords Editor?

AdWords Editor is a custom Google application (which is FREE) for managing your ad campaigns. Use it to download your account, update your campaigns with powerful editing tools, then upload your changes to AdWords.

• Work offline, then upload your changes any time.
• Make bulk changes (such as updating bids or adding keywords) in just a few steps.
• Copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns
• Navigate through your account quickly and easily.
• Circulate proposed changes and get feedback from other users.

A few reasons I find it useful

There are those days when managing paid search campaigns when the hammer comes down.  When it feels like something will take a week to complete.  I know I have been there and more times then I can count, the Adwords Editor has really saved some headaches and most importantly, my time.

Time Saving – No need to wait for Adwords to load the next page as your creating new ad copy, or making bulk changes.  The tool is an offline application.  Just load up the Adwords Editor, find the account you want to edit and you’ll be done in no time.

Changing Destination URL’s – If you have 100 campaigns that all need the dest. URL’s changed because your client just got this new tracking system and want’s to track variables in the URL then this is a life saver.  Find the account in the Adwords Editor, sort by “ads” and updated the dest. URL’s within minutes.

Updating Bids – You can easily select a handful of ad groups you want to update the bids for in seconds.

My Favorite: Downloading your Google Account/Campaigns/Ad Groups – This is my favorite feature of the Adwords Editor.  Sometimes you have everything looking so great in Adwords but you’ve not giving the same tender loving care to Yahoo! and MSN.  Well, Yahoo! & MSN have made it possible to accept your downloaded Google Accounts and import them right into their systems.  Saving you time to work on other things while they upload the new account or campaign.

There are tons more features and benefits of the Adwords Editor so I can’t name them all.  If you have a question about a particular feature, let me know and I’m sure it’s something you can use this tool for.

Anyway, I’m almost positive that someone experienced with paid search is using this.  I’m also sure that a big majority of your aren’t.  Don’t be afraid to try it out and see if it provides some value to you.  This is just another way to be more effiecient and make better use of your time.

So… are you using the Adwords Editor?  Was this helpful?  Let me know

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

What I’m talking about is the new Google Adwords Quality Score update.  Don’t know what that is? Read about it here.

On top of that, I’m actually afraid to change anything with my Adwords accounts because who knows what keywords will get the boot!

But, don’t let that scare you.  Don’t be afraid to re-vamp your old paid search campaigns.  If you want “Google Love” then that’s what you have to do to get it.

I’ll admit, I was one of those peeps.  I was one of those complainers.  “This new Google Qualtiy Score update is awful, what were they thinking?”  Yeah, it does have a few bugs in it, but it’s time stop complaining and it’s time to do something about it.

At least that’s what I have been doing over the past few months.  One thing that has helped me is creating an idea of what it is I’m actually doing to help the quality score.  I like to call it, having “tight” campaigns and ad groups.  Gone are the days of 2,000 keywords in an ad group.  10-15 keywords in an group is where we have landed. Bringing more and more relevacny to your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and of course your ad copy.

I know everyone and their dog has talked about how to help quality score, but try not to get tangled up in the B.S. and stick to a simple plan.  Keep your campagins tight and you’ll be good.  Just remember, if your not exceeeding the amount of campaigns and ad groups in your accounts, then you’re not doing enough.

Best of luck and hope that helps you on your paid search journey!

More to come…

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

There are 100 factors that affect your Google Adwords Quality Score.

When you have a higher quality score you gain a huge advantage over your competitors and you pocket.

You awarded in with:

• Lower Minimum Bids
• Higher Placement for your Paid Search Ads

2005 Quality Score implemented by Google – The overall goal was to create a better user experience and of course, more relevancy.

What are some the Quality Score Factors?

• Historical CTR
• Relevance of the keywords
• Quality of Landing Page
• Relevance of landing page
• Landing Page load time

What actions can you take to help your Quality Score?

Account Organization

• Number 1 factor on Quality Score
• Keep your campaigns tight
• Keep your campaigns and ad groups relevant with each other
• You should only have 15 keywords in each ad group

Content

• Content Rich
• Robust, Descriptive
• Unique to your site

Usability

• Useful, relevant, direct response to query
• Consider the user experience

Navigation

• Keep the flow going
• Guide your visitor down a path

Transparency

• Nature of Business
• Interaction with Computer
• Use of personal information

Load Time

• Minimize your Re-directs (301′s)
• Balance design and content considerations
• Work around for slow servers

Testing, Testing, Testing

• Focus on your CTR%
• Balance design and content considerations
• Work around for slow servers

The biggest point that Google, Yahoo! and (slightly) MSN is trying to get across is to just be relevant.  If you aren’t getting granular with your paid search campaigns then you’re not doing all that you can with your paid search campaigns.

Are you being conscious of your accounts Quality Score?

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Search Engine Strategies – San Jose 2008

Whew, so the first day of Search Engine Strategies is finally complete.  What a crazy day, I have so much in my brain right now it’s almost overwhelming.  There are so many things I can apply to what I am doing currently, let alone what I haven’t already implemented.

The sessions I sat in today we’re extremely valuable to me.  I was able to get an insiders look from high end experts deep inside the search engines themselves as well as reputable website conversion experts such as Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now and Grok Dot Com.

Here is a quick breakdown of what my day consisted of:

Universal & Blended Search

• The expert panel consisted of Senior Level Management from the following search engines

Pay Per Conversation

• Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder, Future Now Inc.
• Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google

Storytelling Marketing: Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing

• Gary Stein, Director of Strategy, Ammo Marketing
• Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc.
• Larry Lawfer, Founder/President, YourStorys.com

Opening Keynote Presentation: Lee Siegel

• Lee Siegel, Author of “Against the Machine”

So yeah, pretty informative day yeah?  Yeah you’re right.  Also, on top of that, I received a signed book from Bryan Eisenberg – “always by testing – The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”  You can purchase the book here at amazon. As I get some time to read through the book I will make a review post on what I have learned from the book.  Apperantly the book has over 250 different mulit variant testing scenarios.  I believe it after sitting in a hour and half session with him.

This guy is awesome.  I made a comment about it on Twitter today, and within minutes he responded to it and started following me on twitter.  I just thought that was so neat, and just solidified my thoughts about him and Future Now as a company.

I apologize for such a brief post.  I will breakdown the following items when I get a few breathing moments. I just need to put down the main points and then I will start to share my experience with you throughout a few posts breaking down Search Engine Strategies – San Jose!

More to Come…

-JR-

Apperantly, Microsoft Live Search admitted to being too “strict” on websites and how they were indexed. They are in the process of making the algorithm no so tough on websites.

Quote from a Microsoft Represenative:

The Live Search team is in the process of modifying the algorithms we use to determine which sites are indexed by Live Search index and which sites receive a ranking so our crawlers will visit the site. At the end of September we launched new ranking and indexing algorithms that were stricter than we anticipated, and we are now changing them to bring back many sites that were removed from our index or given a lower rank. We apologize that it is taking so long to remedy this situation, and we are treating it very seriously. Having high quality content is important to us and we want to make sure we get this right.

We do not have an exact date for fixing this issue, but our plan is to have it resolved near the end of spring. This is our number one priority and we have put all our resources into solving it and bringing a better balance to our indexing so it won’t happen again. We appreciate your patience while we resolve this issue, and hope you understand that at this time there is nothing we can do to modify or improve your site’s index or ranking.

Even when it comets to pay per click, Microsoft adCenter is still so far behind Google Adwords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search its not even funny. Don’t get me wrong they have come a long way & are continuing to get better everyday. Not to mention adCenter has created a fair amount of revenue for me and my clients.

I understand that Microsoft Live Search and adCenter are new but It’s just crazy to me the Microsoft can’t even get there algorithim right?

Does anyone else agree with me?

“Hey, now that the site is up and going why am I not showing up in the search engines?”

It’s hard to answer because how do you explain everything to them in 1. less then an hour session 2. without sounding like your trying to make an excuse or justify something. Honestly, anyone that has attempted SEO knows it take months before you show up in the search results and you see any type of benefit at all.

Really, most people do not understand all the algorithms given by the search engines, keyword density, age of the domain name, title and meta tags and so on.

Here is a better description direct from Wikipedia

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As a marketing strategy for increasing a site’s relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.

The initialism “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers”, a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Wikipedia Description of PPC

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser’s website. Advertisers bid on keywords they predict their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser’s keyword list, or views a page with relevant content, the advertiser’s ad may be shown. These ads are called a “Sponsored link” or “sponsored ads” and appear next to or above the “natural” or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster/blogger chooses on a content page.

ROI

The most obvious benefit to SEO is the ROI. It doesn’t cost anything to you when a visitor finds you through organic or natural search. Thats not to say the ROI earned on SEO efforts is necessarily better then PPC though.

Why? With SEO you are limited to a number of things. How you can manipulate the user and where you show up in the search engines is night and day when it comes to SEO and PPC.

With PPC in just a few clicks you can show up in Google, Yahoo, MSN or any 2nd tier search engines. With SEO its just not that easy. It can take months and months before you have made any impact in the major search engines.

A few benefits of PPC -

• Manipulate what position or rank you want to show up in the search engines (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th………..)
• What time of the day you want to show your ad.
• You choose the budget you want to spend.
• Geo Target Specific Locations.
  • Local (by zip code, radius of location, metro areas, etc.)
  • Regional (one region or scattered regions throughout the country.)
  • Nationwide
  • Global
• Most importantly you choose the keywords you want to target.

If you have an experienced PPC specialist running your Paid Search campaign the ROI will always be bigger with PPC and the results and growth of your business will rise tremendously.

Keyword Targeting

Targeting the keywords you want in your search engine marketing strategies is a must.

Obviously, certain keywords are more profitable then others. More specific keywords tend to convert better then more generic keywords. Again, with PPC you have the ability to send traffic to your site with any keyword you want.

SEO is a little different ball game. Maybe after months of hard work you are finally ranked number 1 in Google for the keyword or term, “Apple MacBook Pro” but thats only ONE term, the more popular searched term is actually “Macbook Pro” and you are no where to be found. Plus, say that was three months ago and now that new hot product is the “Macbook Air.” Now what??? All that time, energy & manipulating the search engines weren’t as effective as you hoped.

With PPC you would of course have all of those keywords or terms in your ad groups keyword list to gain the most traffic and revenue.

Flexibility

With PPC you have all the flexibility you could ever want.

• Advertise in any search engine.
• Choose keywords you want to target.
• Point to product detial pages and landing page of your choosing.
• Write the ad copy specific to the user, your product, seasonal etc.

So now when you ask yourself, “Can I afford to spend money on paid search in my budget?”

Ask yourself this instead… “Can I afford not to?”

And for all of the “Search Marketing Gurus”

This post is my opinion. Not anyone else. The points I make are true. I know that the entirety of SEO and PPC are much more then this post but this is more of a brief explanation rather then a Search Engine Marketing Handbook… So just chill out and don’t leave comments on how much you know and what I missed.

I have been involved with online/internet marketing industry for several years now. Doing mostly interactive stuff, everything from PPC (Pay Per Click), SEO, Blogging, Web Design, Affiliate Marketing and the list goes on. By far my biggest passions are being an expert PPC marketer and a Web Designer. I am constantly using my skills as a PPC professional day in and day out to make my clients successful as well as myself.

Today I was on a site I visit on regular basis, SEOmoz.org. This site has great content for any level of expertise in this industry. Anyway, this article really caught my eye for some reason.

I really learned an important lesson here, and I wanted to share this lesson with other PPC noobs like myself. My first encounter with AdWords, when we were running our impressions test, was pretty embarrassing. I thought you could just set up a campaign and let it do all the work for you, but that’s certainly not the case. You need to check your campaigns constantly, and you certainly don’t want to be losing money in your advertising attempts. In my experience, it’s imperative to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, so to speak. If something’s wrong with your campaign, sometimes the right thing to do is pause your ads and figure out what’s causing the problem, then make those changes and resume for testing. There’s no reason why you should have to dump unnecessary amounts of money on your campaigns, and we’ve now learned that.

You can read the rest of the article here.

It’s just crazy to me that even some of the most experienced marketers can make mistakes.

Most importantly though, I don’t understand how anyone can think that running a successful PPC campaign can be done on “auto-pilot.” Paid Search Marketing is not at the least bit, a set and forget. It is, in my opinion the most powerful online marketing tool today. If you have the right individual or team managing the campaign with the proper techniques and strategies it can turn the success of an online company around overnight.