4 Easy Steps to Create Great PPC Campaigns & Ad Group Structure
4 Steps To Help You Easily Organize Complex PPC Campaigns & Ad Groups
If you’re an agency who manages multiple clients you’ll want to ensure you use your time effectively when managing PPC campaigns. Here are some things to consider when setting up a new client or taking over a campaign.
1. Site Navigation
2. Products or Services
3. Inventory & Brand
4. Reporting
Site Navigation
First and foremost the navigation of your client’s site is a great way to help you set up campaigns and ad groups especially if the site is well organized already. If the site is not well organized then this would be a good time to assist your client in some re-organization of the site and gain some extra work that will pay off for both you and your client in the long run. This is not to say if the client’s site is extremely poorly designed that you couldn’t do well but you will want to be aware that you’ll most likely need to build landing pages to help improve results.
Look at the navigation and how the inventory of products and services is laid out. Get to know the site and understand the value of the product groups. For example if the client sells women’s clothing then learn how they have organized the site and directories. They might have separate product group pages for Pants, Blouses, Shoes, and Accessories. These areas are important for your campaign and ad group structure.
Products or Services
Let’s look at a possible product group category such as Accessories. The site may have many different accessories and organize those by type and brand, such as: Accessories > Purses > Scarves> Belts> Shoes. You have the main category being Accessories and the sub categories being Purses> Scarves> Belts> Shoes, then you might even have type, brand and price as a 3 storable feature under all of those. This type of navigation is important to note because it will tell you their priority they have given the way they present products to site visitors and this should tell you how to set up the campaigns and ad groups.
Inventory & Brand
Let’s look at the way a site places priority on type and brand for example a site navigation may have priority on both type and brand such as: Accessories > Purses >Hobo or yet another sortable product page with Accessories > Purses > Calvin Klein.
You want to think about the bigger picture in these areas. Note if they have more different types of brands or more product types themselves. Next learn their inventory, you may need to ask your client if they expect to add a lot of inventory in the future or are they sticking with a more niche strategy for inventory and brand. If they have a huge amount of inventory or plan to grow in that direction then you may want to consider breaking out campaigns by sub categories vs. main categories, such as: Campaign Name: Purses with ad groups being broke down by type and brand. Now however if they are a smaller site and hope to stay more in a niche market with less inventory then you will want to keep the campaign structure in this manner: Campaign Name: Accessories with ad groups being Purses, Scarves, Jewelry, etc…
Reporting
It’s very important that you keep the campaign and ad group structure organized not only for your own ease of creating and maintaining campaign but for your clients ease as well when looking at reporting across their site and campaigns. When you are mindful of how a site is structured and what is important for your client not just now but in the future you can create long last campaigns and ad groups that can grow and be easily reported on in combination with other site reports.
Google’s Newest Caffeinated Panda Algorithms Change List
Google's Latest Panda Algorithm Releases Changes - Find Out What They Mean
I am posting this to list the different code names along with Google’s supposed reasons they will improve and enhance your search experience. I guess that depends on who you are and how much you like being spoon fed “info” you possible really didn’t plan to “digest”. These are not in any particular order but may be able to help you pinpoint problems in positioning drops, or if your lucky gains.
Keep reading to see that Amit Singhal did admit his wife impacted Google’s newest neseda algorithms (*Just wondering, in the back of my mind, if that is his wife’s name*)
nftc:
Freshness & Relevance
My Take: This is easy peasy pie, create fresh content often that is relevant to your target audience and the nature of your sites purpose. Well Duh! I thought that was the basics of SEO 
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Snappy Suggest:
Auto complete predicted queries especially where spelling is concerned
Note to self: Get Snappy Chick! & Never forget to use spell check for SEO work
Oooni, sgap:
Query results spelling corrections, meaning Google will show you results they believe match a query if it is presumed to be misspelled on the page?
My Take: I am pretty sure this is what they mean but I don’t want to assume I know exactly what Matt Cutts & Amit Singhal really schemed up.
(UhOh, Is this where White hat meets Black hat and gets a little bit dingy Grey)
They also seem to point out that overall they have improved spell check algos, time will tell who this new “Spelling Bee” might sting. Ohhh don’t forget Bee’s also create honey ;o)
neseda:
Recurrent event pages, Content dating/freshness.
My Take: Amit goes into detail about the way Google will look at this to serve the most current content. He even talks about how his wife impacted algo decisions. (Hey I give him credit for that! I respect any guy who respects his wife!) Here’s my take if you have content that is noteworthy because of date or event then ensure it has a date attached to it. If you have content that is general and useful anytime, anywhere then no need to place a date on it.
You might want to form your own conclusion on this one and you can read more about Google’s new Fresh & Recent Results Here
PPtl and Stitch
Google says this is to more high quality sites, and that they have integrated more closely with their “Pipelines”
My Take: Do a search on Google Pipelines, I believe Google will be looking deeper into CRM & sales data to serve results that drive money not just for Google but for businesses, as well as helping Google’s search users find not just the best deals but the more reputable and customer service focused businesses.
I believe Google will also be pulling data from Gmail, Google+ & other social media networks to enhance PPtl and Stitch.
Xiangfan
Auto detects search queries by language typed in, not by what is set in your language setting.
My 2 Cents: Now wouldn’t it be nice if they thought this same way when it came to location queries! I hate being forced into local settings all the time, come ‘on Google do you think I ONLY eat in Redmond, WA! Geeesh! This location idea works decent if I am on my mobile phone but at home on my laptop it really kinda sux!
endearo
Better ranking in image searches for high quality sites! They also state they have improved scrolling for image searches.
OK This is one of my favorite new algorithm updates and I believe endear has true endearing qualities. Make extra sure you name your images properly and use keywords that relate to the content that is also on the page where the image sits. Also remember to use the alt tag; sounds like this will be helpful tips for this new algo update.
final-destination
Breaking News, Newest News
This says to me that Google is trying harder to serve the most current version of the news and as close to real-time as possible. (Wow I bet if they continue to stick me in my local results that means I could just look out my window hey!)
Psychic Search
Projects your computer speed to serve you better results based on speed
Hmmm not sure what to make of this, the name makes me a bit nervous, however I am a Sci-Fi Fan so I’m game and would be cool with little bots that started talking to me saying you like chocolate, pizza and coffee so you better upgrade to a faster computer girlie!
They also mention related search query results at the bottom of the page, but do not give a code name to this; however they have been serving these types of query refinement options for a while now so the only improvement here would be better keyword taxonomy.
Fun Ads for Facebook
I ran across a great ad today on Facebook that was done by Goupon. It was targeted to the Seattle area and the image was of a Pig in rain boots. Anyone who is a Seattleite will get it. Since Pike’s Market is one of the more famous attractions in Seattle, and the statue of the Pig at Pike’s Place entry combined with the pig wearing red rain boots symbolizing how much rain Seattle gets, it made for a cute ad that I wanted to click on. This well thought out ad and image sticks in the mind and creates a fun want to click on ad. Facebook has such incredible targeting options that if you select the right combination of targeting, call to action message and images you’re sure to win clicks. According to Web Trends who points out an “international survey by DDB, fans stated that they are still primarily on Facebook for fun.”
There are many tips on creating a great Facebook ad that will encourage clicks and interaction. Changing wording and images often and running test to see what combination works better. Also focus on highly targeted ads and understand you want quality over quantity. Facebook has targeting by interest and even Birthday targeting, so use some creative mojo and you’ll more than likely have a great campaign. Facebook has some great information about all the different targeting options that you can find in their help center.
Recently I was reading about how being yourself and being opinionated within social media circles is more effective than staying neutral. If we follow that same thinking in the advertising we do on Facebook then it goes to reason that ads that are more fun and engaging will be the ads people are more willing to like and share.
Don’t under estimate the power of Free or BOGO, buy one get one on Facebook can go a long way especially if you let the user buy a product from you and select a Facebook friend to send the free one to.
If you’re serious about advertising on Facebook and want to make it successful get advice from others who have had good responses or use a social media agency with proven results. For more great tips I recommend reading: 15 Tips for A Successful Facebook Ads Program by Adam Riff at Search Engine Land.
Did Matt Cutts Cut His Own Throat On Keyword Not Provided Percents?
If you’ve been reading about the numerous complaints on huge amounts of loss keyword knowledge based on Google’s new encrypted search for logged in users your not the only one. With this new privacy lock down on keyword queries and the large percent’s that are showing up as (not provided) it has many of us scrambling to try to figure out how we will make up for the valueable loss in keyword query data.
I have been feeling the big impact of Google’s new encrypted search. My sites and clients sites along with so many other sites and agencies, have had a tremendous loss in keyword knowledge. We now have no idea about large amounts of keyword queries that helped determine what keywords were driving site visitors, and this is causing a wave of outrage! Matt Cutts believed the loss of keyword not provided data would be in the single digits, and this is not at all the case. SEOMoz Rand Fish has posted some great charts and percent losses over at their blog and many of his blog comments can be found crying about this new change Google’s Matt Cutts smacked us with.
The percent’s are increasing daily in most everyone Google Analytics tool and soon I predict 80% of sites will see a 30% loss in keyword query data. My message to Matt Cutts is “Mark My Words Mister, You’re in for a Fool Hearted Folly when it comes to making the choice at dropping logged in user’s keyword search data. Yup you heard me right, I am predicting 80% of all sites Matt Cutts and Google said they apparently studied before making this move,will end up loosing close to around 30% of their keyword data by the second quarter of the New Year. I have already heard of sites loosing up to 50% and this is going to be hurtful to all marketing firms who help clients improve positioning for queries. It is sad that Google is doing this and I suppose they have their reasons because of their privacy issues in the past, but this is going to have a larger ripple effect than Mr. Matt could have imagined! But hey no one is perfect however I think we may be in for a frustrating bumpy ride on learning to live without the info we once had.
Creating a Facebook Page with Wix
I just starting using Wix to create Facebook pages and I really like it. I would love to try out Pagemodo but currently I am having some log in issue with it so I found Wix and have created a new Facebook site for one of my clients. You can see their Facebook site here: http://www.facebook.com/AllenMarineInc. It was fairly intuitive using Wix Facebook Page creation tools. They have many templates which are easy to modify and customize.
I really like all the features and am excited to try the ecommerce tools for Facebook pages. I believe having a lead generation form on a business Facebook page is useful and it was easy enough to set up a contact form. You just need to make sure to include the email you want the leads to go to. You can then take the leads you get and enter them into any email tools you have.
