Tips For A Happy Holiday And A Successful PPC Year

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

For many people, the holiday season is a time for reflection. A time to look back on the year that has passed and think about what went well and what didn’t.  Keep these tips  in mind when reviewing your Paid Search campaign at the end of the year.

Don’t be a Scrooge (a.k.a. Under-budgeting)

As we discussed in our PPC Budgeting post, determining the proper budget for your PPC campaign is crucial for success. Make sure the budget you have chosen is appropriate for your business and the market you are in. Come back and review the budget periodically to make sure it is effective over time.

Don’t Buy The Wrong Presents (Bad Keyword Selection)

Holiday Presents
Photo Credit: di_the_huntress

 

Pay Per Click Keyword Research and Selection is possibly the single most important element of your campaign. You should always carefully monitor the keywords you have chosen to make sure they are relevant to your products and services. The keyword list is a living document; add and subtract from it based on any new research and results you get while your campaign runs.

Watch where you hang that mistletoe! (Mis-targeting)

Most PPC advertising platforms offer robust targeting options; make sure you use them. Whether it be the times of day you set your ads to display or the states, countries, or regions you advertise in, make sure you double check your targeting to ensure you aren’t showing ads where you shouldn’t be or missing an opportunity where you should be.

Pay Attention To What People Ask For (Review Actual Search Terms & Add to Negatives)

Google and other PPC platforms allow you to see the actual terms that people typed into the search engine when they clicked on your ad. Use this data to inform your future decisions about what keywords to target and which ones should go on your negative keyword list. This list should be reviewed frequently to ensure that clicks from irrelevant keywords and phrases are kept to a minimum.

December 16th… Time to take those lights down! (Giving Up Too Early)

PPC is a data driven marketing process. As with anything that relies on data to be effective, a small sample size can lead to you to make poor decisions. Even if you haven’t had immediate success with your campaign make sure you allow your campaign to run long enough that the data you have collected is statistically significant. Just because your first click leads to a conversion doesn’t mean they all will, and even if you haven’t had any after a few days doesn’t mean your campaign is a failure.

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (Know Yourself)

Be aware of where your company stands in the market for your products. If you are a small local company you might have trouble competing with larger national brands without a very large budget. Know who you are as a company and what your reasonable goals and targets are for success.

Read the rest of the Internet Marketing Advent Calendar

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