CPC

April 4, 2019

Find Customers With PPC Advertising

PPC marketing is something you’ve probably come across in some form or another.

The paid channel advertising landscape is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2011, the ad-supported Internet contributed more than $500 billion to the United States economy.

Holy smokes. That’s a lot of spend.

The numbers alone tell us that this marketing channel far too robust to ignore, but more often than not, marketers are scared to take the plunge for two reasons:

It costs money to get up and running
There’s a big chance you’ll lose money if you aren’t smart about your strategy

PPC advertising is a powerful marketing medium because it is measurable. It’s possible to calculate both a long-term and short-term value for how much revenue resulted from even one incoming website visit. You can also deploy targeting features to ensure that you’re reaching the right audiences.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google all offer products for marketers looking to reach customers.

Which network should you use?

The answer to that question goes back to user psychology. Understand what people are doing when they’re using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google products. These details will help you determine which channels are the right fit for your brand and advertising message.

Start by Knowing the Different Advertising Sales Models

The capacity in which you work with a website or advertising network to show your ads will depend on how you are able to pay. Tools like Facebook will generally give you some different options from which to choose. Making the right decision will ultimately impact the efficiency of your online ads. Here is a breakdown of the different paid channel pricing models, as well as their strengths and pitfalls:

CPM/Display

The Basics:

Defined as cost-per-mille.
You’re billed a flat rate per 1,000 impressions of your ad.
You’re not charged for any clicks.
This ad format is common on display advertising networks (banners, ads with an image, etc).

What’s an impression? It’s a measure of the number of times an ad is displayed, regardless of whether it’s clicked on or not.
With CPM-based advertising, a specific number of impressions are guaranteed by the ad spend; whereas for other types of online advertising (like CPC), there is no guarantee that your ad will shown.

Strengths:

CPM rates can be relatively inexpensive.
You’re paying directly for people to see your ad — these are likely to be top of the funnel consumers.
You can easily apply a budget that makes sense, as you are only paying for views.
Works well for visual, branding-oriented campaigns.
Guarantees that your ad will be shown the number of times that you want it to be seen (per impression).

Weaknesses:

If people aren’t clicking on your ads and converting, you risk overspending.
Performance (resulting sales from ad views) are tough to accurately track and monitor.
You can’t easily quantify the return of your traffic buy until the end of the campaign.
Rush of resulting web traffic is uncommon.

Here are examples of CPM banner advertising on Investopedia.com (see the ad from Underwater Audio on the top of the page). It’s possible to purchase ads with sites like these directly or through the Google Ad Exchange.

Here is how Forbes runs display advertising (see the banner ad from HP at the top):

PPC (also called CPC)

The Basics:

Defined as cost-per-click.
You pay for every click on your ad, at a price determined by the marketplace value of the keyword or expression you’re interested in.
CPC marketplaces operate on an auction model, where strong-performing ads are likely to win.
Strong performance is defined by a function of ad click-through rates (CTRs) and the CPCs that the advertisers are willing to pay.

Strengths:

Clicks are straightforward to track.
You’re only paying for traffic directed to your site.
It’s possible to place budget caps on traffic coming in through large networks.
CPCs and budgets are modifiable in real time.
You can make modifications to campaigns (CPCs and budgets) in near real-time by tracking performance on your website.
You only pay for the clicks you need.
When well-optimized, CPC traffic can be a significant and well optimized traffic driver.
For marketers who are tracking ROI, CPC advertising can be much more cost-effective than traffic generated via CPM.

Weaknesses:

You’re competing against other advertisers for traffic, which can cause CPCs to become high and sometimes unaffordable.
Clicks coming in now may result in monetization later — attribution models need to be accurate.
If you’re not bidding with a competitive CPC, it’s entirely possible that you won’t get traffic.
It’s complicated.
If you don’t have a handle on your strategy, it can quickly become super-complicated.
It requires a dedicated resource to monitor and optimize campaigns.
You need to know what you’re doing to see an ROI.
You may lose significant money initially in order to optimize over time.

Here are example PPC ads targeting the keywords “usability testing” on Google:

CPA and Revenue Share

The advertiser pays for traffic based on a proportion of revenue earned. For instance, if you advertise on pqr.com, you will pay 20% on sales generated from pqr.com’s traffic. If no conversions or transactions occur, you won’t pay.

The strength is that you pay for performance. The downside is that because performance is difficult to track through the correct attribution models, this type of advertising model is quite rare.

Cost Per Install (CPI)

CPI stands for cost per install and it’s geared towards mobile app developers.

Strengths:

You pay directly for installs.
Some ad network algorithms will decrease costs for higher number of installs.
On some ad networks (like Facebook), you can target your creatives and messaging to people who have downloaded similar apps in the past.

The main weakness is that you pay the same amount for user-installs that yield both high and low long-term user value.

Here is an example of a mobile ad from HotelTonight, an app that helps consumers book hotel rooms at the last minute. These ads are targeted to Facebook newsfeeds.

Cost Per View (CPV)

Cost per view is a rate structure for video advertising, you pay per number of views to your video ad.

Strengths:

Structured entirely for video-based advertising.
You can choose to have ads autoplay or for users to click “play.”
You can very easily find the right videos and users through massive distribution networks like Google/YouTube.
Video is a highly engaging marketing medium.

You’re paying for views, not conversions. So CPV has all the same weaknesses as CPM ads. It’s easy to esceed your budget if the traffic doesn’t convert.

Here is an ad for a television show before a YouTube video that will teach you how to dance in a club:

Key Concepts of PPC

Your paid channel advertising campaigns are only as strong as your overarching strategy. Here are some important concepts that you should know before you shop around for advertising opportunities:

Day Parting
These are features that allow you to pace how ads are shown throughout the day. You can specify that ads are shown during certain hours of the day only.

Remarketing or Retargeting
Market to your existing audience. If you’re an e-commerce company, you can show them products they’ve already expressed interest in buying. You can remarket to users through a variety of platforms including Google’s advertising network and Facebook (more on this topic below). Here is an example of an ad that was remarketed to me (Ritika) via Facebook — I’ve been shopping around for the perfect laptop bag.

Geotargeting
Target your advertisements to audiences at the country, state, city, or metropolitan area level.

Interest-based Targeting
Connect with audiences based on their browsing activity/shopping behavior/interests.

Behavioral Targeting
Target advertisements to users based on past purchase activity.

Quality Scores
These are ratings of how well your advertisements align with your offer/marketing message/landing page. Quality scores are especially important for Google. Higher quality scores can result in lower CPCs (aka – cheaper web traffic). Advertisers are incentivized to show high quality ads.

CPC/CTR
Costs per click (CPCs) will frequently decrease with higher ad CTRs. In online auction models, the highest CPC bidders will not always win.

Targeting capabilities and features typically vary by ad network, but these concepts are fairly standard.

Match Types
Keyword match types control which searches or terms initiate your ad. This concept relates to precision.

For instance, you can use broad match to show your ad to a wide audience, phrase match to ensure that your ad is part of a searched expression, or exact match for the most rigid possible precision. Negative match lets you pick keywords and expressions that you don’t want to align with (for instance, your competitor’s branded keywords).

Match types are most relevant to search engine marketing but frequently apply to other text-based marketing channels.

How to Choose the Right PPC Network

Choosing the right ad network is an important strategic decision. You should base your decision on the following criteria:

1. Available Targeting Options

How will this ad network help you reach the right audience with the right advertising message at the right time?
Do you care more about demographic targeting, interest-based targeting, or both?
Do you care more about reaching a B2B or consumer-facing audience?
Do you care about reaching a certain demographic or cross section of the internet, or are you trying to reach general consumers?

Here are example targeting options that are available on Facebook:

2. User Experience Alignment

How well does the ad network align with certain user experiences?

Search advertising through Google AdWords and Bing can help you reach consumers based on keywords they’re researching online.
Facebook advertising allows marketers to show display ads that drive awareness about new businesses, services, or products.
LinkedIn advertising allows marketers to target professionals (by interest or job title) when they’re browsing through feeds, job listings, or groups.

3. Ad Format

Are the ad formats likely to inspire user engagement and align with your brand’s needs?

Unattractive ads will generate a negative user experience, costing you time and money. Don’t jump into an ad network because you feel like “everyone’s doing it.” Choose ad products and features that create the best user experience possible.

4. Ad Network Reputation

The Internet is filled with dark corners of shady people who are manipulating web traffic.

Low CPCs are frequently too good to be true, coming from click farms, spambots, and shady user experiences.

Make sure that you’re reaching real people and delighting them with a positive user experience. ‘Cheap web traffic’ is usually too good to be true. Make sure that you’re always working with a reputable web traffic partner with publicly accessible testimonials and reviews.

Know What You Can Afford and Work Backwords

Start with your user value and work backwards:

On average, how much does your business earn, per user, through CPC advertising?
What type of margin are you hoping to make?

A common mistake that marketers make is working with in-session ROI data. This is the wrong approach. You need to look at your customers’ lifetime values in tandem with what you’re earning in the short run. These metrics will give you significantly more flexibility with your marketing spend.

Let’s say that you learn that a customer is worth $1,000 in the first year and $5,000 over the course of three years. You can hypothetically spend up to $4,999 on marketing in the short run.

Granted, you wouldn’t want to spend that much money to acquire a customer. You should focus on establishing a happy medium, in between the maximum and minimum. If you increase your PPC spend to $1,000, you may realize that you’re able to get 5x more customers compared to spending $500. In the short run, you may not make much money, but in the long run, your earnings will be significant.

You shouldn’t optimize your marketing campaigns for in-session revenue. Instead, you should ideally be optimizing them using lifetime value metrics as that will allow you to acquire more customers and make more profit.

Focus on Driving Conversions, Not Just Traffic

We emphasized earlier that traffic is only part of the marketing equation. You need to focus on driving conversions and sales through your PPC traffic acquisition.

A/B testing isn’t optional. You need to include it in your marketing plan. If you can double or triple your conversion rate, your customer acquisition costs will decrease dramatically.

The cost of your web traffic is irrelevant. You can buy cheap traffic? Awesome. So what? What matters most is the ROI you’re driving and how you’re monetizing your marketing spend.

Stop Dwelling on Your Budget

If your paid channel advertising strategy is doing its job, your budget shouldn’t matter. Every dollar you invest should generate a margin-positive return.

Focus on optimizing your ROI, not how much you’re spending on a daily or monthly basis. Once you feel more comfortable with your marketing spend and you are able to track a positive return, you can grow your budget.

Start your spend low, and scale up.

Key Takeaways for PPC

PPC acquisition is an extremely viable marketing channel. Don’t let costs scare you away.
Focus on generating ROI based on your long-term user acquisition value instead of in-session revenue.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to online advertising. Learn the basics, and choose the right marketing channels for you.
Pursue conversion opportunities, not traffic for the sake of traffic. Less traffic is better if you can earn viable business.
Start with small tests and scale up as you get more comfortable.
Use budgets to regulate your spend. Don’t use budgets as a measurement of efficiency. If your paid channel advertising efforts are truly efficient, you won’t need a budget.

March 18, 2019

How to Add Adsense to Your Website

You’ve spent countless hours designing and updating your website. But you’re not getting paid for all of your hard work.

Rather than letting your efforts go to waste, you can monetize your website by adding Google AdSense.

What is Google AdSense?

In short, AdSense is an advertising network run by Google. It’s a free way for websites to make money by displaying targeted Google advertisements on their sites.

Advertisements come in all shapes and sizes. Your site can display images, videos, text, and interactive ads as a monetization strategy.

Arguably the best part about Google AdSense (aside from the cost — it’s free) is that you won’t have to deal with advertisers directly. Everything gets handled through Google’s platform, so you don’t have to worry about collecting money or maintaining relationships when you’re hosting ads.

Google does all of that work for you. It collects money from the advertisers, keeps 32% for its role in facilitating the process, and the remaining 68% goes to the publisher (you).

It’s essentially a hassle-free way to earn money by displaying ads on your website.

How AdSense works

AdSense is based on a bidding system, which is referred to as an “ad auction.”

Advertisers determine how much they are willing to pay for their ads to be displayed by setting a maximum bid price. Google automatically connects advertisers with publishers who have relevant users for the advertisements.

For example, if you run a blog for new mothers about getting through that first pregnancy, your website visitors won’t see ads related to skateboarding targeted at teenage boys.

If more advertisers bid to be displayed on your site, bids will increase as well in order to stay competitive. In this case, you’ll be able to earn more money as a publisher.

Google uses a tool called Ad Rank to determine which ads will appear on your website. This is the basic formula used by Ad Rank.

Quality score is extremely important, which is why it equally weighted with the bid. Quality score is measured by predicted click-through rates based on past performance as well as other relevant factors, such as keywords.

This means that an ad with a lower bid could win an auction if they have a high quality score, even if other advertisers had a higher bid.

That’s because Google wants to make sure that the ads get clicked, which is a win-win-win scenario for your website, the advertiser, and Google.

Getting paid with AdSense (bid types)

Website owners get paid based on various bid types for the ads they display.

CPC (cost per click)
CPM (cost per thousand impressions)
Active View CPM (active view cost per thousand impressions)
CPE (cost per engagement)

With the CPC monetization strategy, you’ll get paid for each time a website visitor clicks on an ad displayed on your website. Depending on the content of the ad, some advertisers are willing to pay higher rates for clicks than others.

CPM

In the advertising world, the “M” in CPM stands for mille, which is Latin for thousand. So, Cost Per Thousand — or the cost per 1,000 impressions. In this case, publishers are paid for displaying the ad, regardless if a user clicks on it or not.

CPM bids are typically lower than CPC bids since the fee structure is not contingent on the user taking an action. Google will display whichever ad type (CPM or CPC) is expected to earn more revenue for the publisher, which is in Google’s best interest, since they take a 32% share of the revenue.

Active View CPM

In order to get paid for Active View CPM ads, the impressions must be measured as “viewable.” This means that at least 50% of an ad needs to be shown on the screen for at least one second.

These bids will be higher than traditional CPM bids since the chances of a website visitor actually seeing the ad are increased.

CPE

Cost per engagement is based on how active a user is with an advertisement. For example, let’s say an advertiser decides to run a lightbox ad. These formats are expandable — they take up a large portion of the screen if they’re clicked on. If a website visitor hovers over a lightbox ad for more than two seconds, the ad will expand. This is the type of engagement that is required for CPE payouts.

How to add Google AdSense to your website in 7 easy steps

Now that you understand the basics of AdSense and how it works, it’s time to get it set up on your website. Believe it or not, this actually isn’t very complicated. You can put AdSense on your website in just four steps.

Step 1: Set up your site

Before you get started, you need to have an existing website. You can’t apply for AdSense on a hypothetical or future site. So for those of you who are in the process of creating a new website or have an “under construction” landing page, you need to hold off before applying.

If you’re at this stage, I have a few guides that can help you out:

Step 2: Make sure your site is in compliance

Google does not just accept any website into this program. You need to meet their eligibility requirements to be considered.

This means that you must have an easy to use navigation. Elements need to be lined up properly. Text must be easy to read. All of the functionality of your site has to work properly.

AdSense won’t work with any publishers that sell counterfeit goods on their website. Any publishers in the AdSense program aren’t allowed to receive traffic from certain sources, such as paid-to-click programs or unsolicited emails.

Google has a responsibility to its advertisers. Businesses don’t want their ads associated with certain types of websites, so it’s Google’s responsibility to review your website content before you get accepted. These are some examples of content that cannot be included on pages with Google ads:

Mature or adult content
Shocking content
Excessive profanity
Malware or adware
Drugs or drug paraphernalia
Sales of alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, weapons, or ammunition
Illegal activity
Hateful content or discrimination against religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, etc.

For the full list refer to Google’s eligibility requirements for AdSense. You need to make sure your site complies with all of the guidelines before you apply, or your application will just be rejected.

Step 3: Apply to AdSense

Now that your website is up and running, you’re ready to apply to AdSense.

The first thing you need to do is navigate to the Google AdSense website.

From the Home tab, look for the Sign Up Now button, and click it to start the application process.

Step 4: Configure your ads

Now you have to determine which types of advertisements you want to be displayed on your website.

On the left side of your dashboard, look for the Content option. Once you click on Content, there will be a drop-down menu with some additional options. From here, you’ll want to click on the Ad Units menu.

This is where you’ll select things like the ad type, ad size, style, and everything else associated with the advertising space that advertisers will be bidding for.

When choosing a size, it’s in your best interest to go with one of the options recommended by Google. While there are a wide variety of choices, Google gives you recommendations based on the most popular sizes for advertisers.

For ad style options, you can control how text ads are displayed on your site. The best way to do this is to match the style with your website’s color scheme.

Step 5: Copy and paste the AdSense code onto your site

After you’re done configuring your ads, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click on the “save and get code” button.

Google will automatically generate a code for you to add to your website, which will look something like this.

Next, you’re going to copy and paste this code to your website. If you’re using WordPress, you can do this by using widgets.

From the administrative dashboard, go to Appearance and find Widgets.

Paste the custom AdSense URL, then you and just drag and drop the code into the widget area where you want it displayed on your website.

Alternatively, you can use plugins to help you manage your ads. I’d recommend the AdSanity plugin for this.

Step 6: Update your privacy policy

When AdSense is enabled, you need to include a privacy policy on your website. This is in place to let your website visitors know that an ad network is displaying ads on your site.

Here’s the full Google resource for required content in your privacy policy.

Step 7: Verify your address

Once you start generating earnings from Google AdSense, you’ll receive a card from Google in the mail. Before you can withdraw your earnings, you’ll need to make sure your address has been verified.

The card will include a PIN associated with your AdSense account. Just follow the instructions on your card for verifying the PIN online.

Once the PIN and address have been verified, you’ll be able to cash out payments when your account reaches the specified payment threshold.

Google AdSense best practices

Now that you’ve got AdSense installed on your website, you’ll want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of being a publisher. There are certain do’s and don’ts you need to be aware of.

Following these best practices will help you earn more money and reduce your chances of violating Google’s policies.

Never click on your own ads

Since AdSense is based on clicks and other engagement, clicking an advertisement on your own website is considered fraudulent. It’s important that you don’t let any family members in your household click on those ads either.

Google won’t be able to tell the difference between you or your spouse if you’re living together. If they see clicks coming from your house to ads on your website, they can remove you from the AdSense program.

Don’t display ads on your ecommerce site

This isn’t a violation of Google’s policy, but it’s not in the best interest for driving conversions on your website. Remember, AdSense is based on relevancy. So it’s possible (and likely) that one of your competitors’ ads could appear on your website.

If this happens, you could be driving visitors away from your website to a competitor’s site instead. The amount you’ll get paid for displaying the ad isn’t worth the lost sale. Furthermore, ads can distract users from your CTAs and sales copy, even if they aren’t associated with your competition.

So, I wouldn’t recommend AdSense to any websites selling products or services.

Run different ad units

Everyone has different preferences. Different website visitors might be attracted to different styles and types of ads displayed on your website.

If you’re just running the same ad unit over and over again, you could be leaving some money on the table. For example, let’s say you’re only running text and display ad units right now. You can probably earn more as a publisher by running native ads.

But you won’t know this for certain until you experiment with different ad units.

Find the best placement

In addition to experimenting with ad units, you’ll also want to test different areas of your website for displaying ads. You can’t assume that the first place you put your ad is the best.

I’d recommend checking out Google’s best practices for ad placements based on the type of website you have. They have different suggestions for:

Blogs
Gaming sites
News sites
Travel sites
Sports sites
Classifieds
Forums

It’s also a good idea to look at some of the most popular and successful websites in your industry. Look at their ad placements. If you notice a common formula across the board, you can try to replicate that as well.

Create content and drive traffic

AdSense isn’t a magic ticket to making money on your website. It’s 100% reliant on your website traffic. So you need to be constantly creating new content and coming up with ways to get more people to your website.

If you’re in a rut with creating content, you might want to read these guides:

The more traffic you have, the greater chances you’ll have of getting ads seen, clicked, and engaged with.

You can’t just put yourself on autopilot once you add AdSense to your website. It’s imperative that you continue doing all the good things that brought people to your website in the first place. This will be the best way for you to earn money.

In sum: It’s easy to add AdSense to your website

There you have it. You can add Google AdSense to your website in just seven steps.

I’d recommend AdSense for any website that isn’t already selling a product or service. There are tons of other ad networks out there, but Google is definitely the most reputable. AdSense is free for publishers, so there is no harm in trying it out.

Be sure to use this guide as a reference when you’re ready to set up AdSense. Follow my seven-step guide and your site will soon be earning money with ads.

July 31, 2017August 22, 2017

Loah Qwality Add Werds Clix Four U

Google recently announced they were doing away with exact match AdWords ad targeting this September. They will force all match types to have close variant keyword matching enabled. This means you get misspelled searches, plural versus singular overlap, and an undoing of your tight organization.

In some cases the user intent is different between singular and plural versions of a keyword. A singular version search might be looking to buy a single widget, whereas a plural search might be a user wanting to compare different options in the marketplace. In some cases people are looking for different product classes depending on word form:

For example, if you sell spectacles, the difference between users searching on ‘glass’ vs. ‘glasses’ might mean you are getting users seeing your ad interested in a building material, rather than an aid to reading.

Where segmenting improved the user experience, boosted conversion rates, made management easier, and improved margins – those benefits are now off the table.

CPC isn’t the primary issue. Profit margins are what matter. Once you lose the ability to segment you lose the ability to manage your margins. And this auctioneer is known to bid in their own auctions, have random large price spikes, and not give refunds when they are wrong.

An offline analogy for this loss of segmentation … you go to a gas station to get a bottle of water. After grabbing your water and handing the cashier a $20, they give you $3.27 back along with a six pack you didn’t want and didn’t ask for.

Why does a person misspell a keyword? Some common reasons include:

they are new to the market & don’t know it well
they are distracted
they are using a mobile device or something which makes it hard to input their search query (and those same input issues make it harder to perform other conversion-oriented actions)
their primary language is a different language
they are looking for something else

In any of those cases, the typical average value of the expressed intent is usually going to be less than a person who correctly spelled the keyword.

Even if spelling errors were intentional and cultural, the ability to segment that and cater the landing page to match disappears. Or if the spelling error was a cue to send people to an introductory page earlier in the conversion funnel, that option is no more.

In many accounts the loss of the granular control won’t cause too big of a difference. But some advertiser accounts in competitive markets will become less profitable and more expensive to manage:

No one who’s in the know has more than about 5-10 total keywords in any one adgroup because they’re using broad match modified, which eliminated the need for “excessive keyword lists” a long time ago. Now you’re going to have to spend your time creating excessive negative keyword lists with possibly millions upon millions of variations so you can still show up for exactly what you want and nothing else.

You might not know which end of the spectrum your account is on until disaster strikes:

I added negatives to my list for 3 months before finally giving up opting out of close variants. What they viewed as a close variant was not even in the ballpark of what I sell. There have been petitions before that have gotten Google to reverse bad decisions in the past. We need to make that happen again.

Brad Geddes has held many AdWords seminars for Google. What does he think of this news?

In this particular account, close variations have much lower conversion rates and much higher CPAs than their actual match type.
…
Variation match isn’t always bad, there are times it can be good to use variation match. However, there was choice.
…
Loss of control is never good. Mobile control was lost with Enhanced Campaigns, and now you’re losing control over your match types. This will further erode your ability to control costs and conversions within AdWords.

A monopoly restricting choice to enhance their own bottom line. It isn’t the first time they’ve done that, and it won’t be the last.

Have an enhanced weekend!

Categories:

google