Pay-Per-Click: Reach Clients and Grow Your Business

1. Keywords

The starting point for every search marketing campaign is your keywords. You are paying for every click, so you want to start with the right keywords.

When doing keyword research, the more specific you can be the better. Long-tail keywords (which have multiple words in the phrase) are often easier to optimize than broad, shorter keywords that may have only one or two words in the phrase. Monitor those shorter keywords very closely if you are using them.

Themes:

Building keywords by theme is an important part of the process. Each keyword theme will get different results. A campaign around the word “investment” will get completely different results from one about “retirement.” Separate these into their own themes and make sure your ad copy says something about “investment” or “retirement” in the headlines. The tighter your themes, the more relevant you can make your ads. This will improve your click-through rates (CTR), which is the percentage of people clicking on your ad, and potentially lower your costs per click as a result.

Professionals tend to set up very tightly constructed campaigns and within those, very tightly constructed Ad Groups. Sometimes, there may even be a single keyword within a single Ad Group.

Match Types:

You can tell the search engines how you want to bid on a keyword by defining match types. There are four different keyword match types:

• Exact: you bid on only the exact keyword
• Phrase: the phrase may be included within a larger keyword—for example, “retirement planning” may match to someone searching “best retirement planning”
• Broad: the search engines may match to something related but that may not contain any of your specified keywords
• Modified Broad: matches must contain words you have highlighted—for example, in the keyword “research +retirement +plan,” the + signs mean that “retirement” and “plan” would always be part of a search, but not the word “research”.

Different match types of the same keyword will get different results, so you may want to play with multiple match types with different bids on each.

Brand/Competitor Keywords:

Bid on your own brand name in a separate brand campaign. Often, you may have competitors bidding on your brand and taking potential traffic from you. Generally, this will be cheap traffic as you have higher click-through rates, forcing your competitors to pay several times more than you. Defending your turf should be inexpensive as a result.

Another reason to bid on your brand is that Google may on occasion match your brand keywords into one of your other non- brand campaigns. Since your brand is likely a high converting keyword, it’s better to silo them in their own campaign so that you see cleaner return on investment (ROI) data on other campaigns within your account.

Whether you want to bid on competitor brand keywords is up to you. It is generally considered fair game by PPC professionals, but may ruffle the feathers of a competitor. One thing to note is that competitor campaigns sometimes struggle with Quality Scores, which generally means you will have to pay more to bid on them. In any event, these are often high converting keywords.

2. Ad Copy

Your ad copy is a critical element in determining your campaign’s success. Ad copy needs to connect with both the keyword search (the step before users see an ad) and your landing page (what users see after clicking on your ad).

A misstep here can result in a disconnect that may cause users to skip your ad and click on one of your competitors’ ads. If Google sees that the CTR is much lower than your competitors’, you will start to be penalized with lower Ad Rank and Quality Scores. This means you will have to pay more than your competitors to receive the same placement.

On the flip side, if your ad copy is strong enough to outperform your competitors and gets a higher CTR, Google will reward you with higher Quality Scores so you can pay less and still out-rank your competitors.

There are a number of different types of ads within Google Ads — Text, Image, Responsive, App Promotion, Video, Product Shopping, Showcase Shopping, and Call-Only. The most commonly used type is Text Ads, sometimes referred to as Expanded Text Ads. These are the ads you see when you do a standard Google search.

Each text ad can be made up of eight main components (* indicates required items):

• Headline 1 (30 characters)*
• Headline 2 (30 characters)*
• Headline 3 (30 characters)
• Description 1 (90 characters)*
• Description 2 (90 characters)
• Path 1 (15 characters)
• Path 2 (15 characters)
• Final URL*

As of this writing, Headline 3 and Description 2 are relatively new additions to Google Ads. The jury is still out as to whether the longer ads with those fields generate a higher CTR. In our experience, it depends on the product or service being advertised as well as the quality of the ad copy.

Just because there are eight potential components of a text ad does not mean you have use all eight. The only required components are Headline 1, Headline 2, Description 1, and Final URL.

Here is an example of an ad that uses two headlines, one description, a final URL and one path:

Note that the Path is not indicative of the actual landing page. When you click on this ad, you most likely will not be taken to “www.tdainstitutional.com/Independence”. Instead, you will be taken to “www.tdainstitutional.com”. “Independence” is Path 1. Paths offer an extra opportunity to include key phrases in your ad copy and can help increase relevancy.

Split-Testing:

The most important factor in PPC ads is never to stop split-testing. You want to include 3-5 different sets of ad copy within each ad group. That way you can constantly split-test to determine which ads work best for each keyword.

If you are running multiple sets of ad copy (as you should), then split-test ads with different messaging as well as different components. Try some ads that include two headlines and others that include three. Try some ads that include one description line and others that include two. Try some ads that include a Path and others that don’t.

Of course, in the investment industry, it’s important to ensure your ads pass compliance. Just because Google approves your ad copy doesn’t mean that it is legally compliant. Always run ad copy by your compliance department before going live.

Although in many industries we may recommend using Dynamic Keyword Insertion, this should be avoided in any industry with strict regulations. Dynamic Keyword Insertion allows the search engine to dynamically insert the user’s keyword in your ad copy thus increasing ad relevance. But imagine if a user searched for “best investment adviser ever” and you were using Dynamic Keyword Insertion. Your ad headline will change to read: “Best investment adviser ever” — a phrase that would be problematic.

Ad Extensions:

In addition to the basic ad elements, there are other more advanced ad elements, known as Extensions, which may help your ad stand out and increase CTR.

Here are the current Extensions available from Google:

• Call
• Sitelinks
• Callouts
• Structured Snippets
• Message
• Location
• Price
• App
• Promotion

Consider the first four — Call, Sitelinks, Callouts, and Structured Snippets — to be the most important to include with your ads.

Call Extensions provide a tracking phone number that can show next to your ad copy. If someone calls the tracking phone number, you can identify exactly which keyword and which ad copy generated that call.

Sitelink Extensions offer an opportunity to include links to other areas of your website.

Callout Extensions are extra bits of short ad copy you can use (max 25 characters) to try to call attention to your ad, usually used to highlight benefits or features.

Structured Snippets are more clearly defined pieces of text that can be included with your ad. For example, you can add Brand Structured Snippets and include specific brands of products carried. Or you can add Services Structured Snippets and include the services you offer.

Here are two examples of ads that use the four most common types of extension:

Note: Google will also create Automated Extensions. You can turn these off if you are concerned about potential compliance issues.

The two key takeaways regarding ad copy are:

• Ad copy should be highly relevant to both the keyword and the landing page to ensure high CTRs.
• Launch 3-5 sets of ad copy for each ad group. Never stop split-testing in an attempt to improve CTR.

Pause ads with low CTR. Look at your best-performing ads. What elements do they have in common? Do they use similar messaging? Similar ad elements? Take the messaging and elements from your best-performing ads and launch new ads for split-testing.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a high-performing “set it and forget it” campaign. If you continue to track, split-test, and fine-tune your ads you should see better and better results. PPC professionals will also deploy software to manage these optimizations with precision and speed. Stay active to keep up.

3. Landing Page

Once a user has typed in a keyword search and clicked your ad, they are taken to the next step in your sales funnel — the landing page. This is the page of your website where you want the user to go after clicking your ad.

Choose your landing page carefully. If there is a disconnect between the ad copy and the content found on the landing page, it only takes a second for someone to click the back button. Keep in mind that you pay for the ad click even if that person bounces off the page immediately.

On the flip side, if the content on the landing page seamlessly connects with the content in your ad copy, then you can engage that user to continue through your sales funnel and move closer to your goal.

Your goal can be for the user to call you, fill out a contact form, download a whitepaper, etc. Once you determine what your goal is, every element of the landing page should be designed to push the user towards that goal.

When designing your landing page or determining which page on your website to use as a landing page, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Put yourself in the mind of the user: “If I type in this keyword and click on that ad, what information am I trying to get?” Place that information front and center on your landing page.
• Be clear about the benefits: If you want the user to call you, why should they call you? What do they get out of it? What is your unique selling proposition? Is it your 30 years of experience? Are you providing a free portfolio review? Do you have a risk tolerance survey? Figure out what benefits you offer and make sure they are prominent on the landing page.
• Have a strong call to action (CTA), as well as multiple secondary CTAs: Don’t let the user guess at what you want them to do. Tell them straight out.
• What is your risk tolerance? Fill out our free survey today.
• Ask how we can help transform your retirement. Schedule a call now.
• Get your free portfolio review. Fill out the form below.
• No matter what your goal is, make your contact information easy to find: Don’t bury it in the footer or make the user click a Contact Us link. Every single landing page should have your phone number featured prominently at the top and either a contact form or an easy-to-find link to get to a contact form with one click.

“Landing Page Experience” is a factor in Ad Rank and Quality Score. The five factors Google considers in relation to Landing Page Experience are:

1. Relevant, useful and original content.
2. Transparency and trustworthiness.
3. Site is easy to navigate for both mobile and desktop users.
4. Landing page loading time.
5. Website speed.

For more detailed information, review Google’s recommendations here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404197

Remember that you don’t need to use the same landing page for all of your PPC keywords. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. For each group of keywords, figure out the most relevant page on your site that best addresses the user’s needs.

In addition to helping push the user further down the sales funnel, a good landing page may factor into your Google Quality Score. A strong landing page will increase your Quality Score and lower your cost per clicks (CPCs). A weak landing page will have the opposite effect.

4. Tracking

Before launching any PPC campaigns, ensure that you have tracking in place. PPC optimization is all about driving up leads and improving conversion rates. Without clean data on success or failure, it’s difficult to optimize. The more conversion data you can acquire, the better.

Conversion data is a PPC marketer’s gold standard. The most straightforward type of PPC tracking is when a site visitor fills out a contact form and hits the confirmation or “thank you” page immediately after that. You can identify that page in Google Analytics as a Goal and automatically import that data into your Google Ads account. Or you can add Google Ads’ sitewide tagging code to track those conversions.

This video also mentions (near the end) how to integrate your Google Analytics and Google Ads account. This allows the two to share information in a detailed fashion. You will get cost and campaign data into Analytics and you will also be able to view various metrics, like the amount of time a user spends on your site, inside your Google Ads account. This is a must-do for any PPC marketer as it will give you additional data points to optimize against.

Phone Tracking:

One of the most overlooked types of tracking is phone tracking. Despite PPC becoming an increasingly mobile environment, few businesses do a thorough job of tracking calls from those mobile devices.

If you are using Call Extensions in an ad (which you should be doing), you will get basic data when someone dials the number that appears on the ad. But what about when a user clicks on the ad and goes to your site? For this, most PPC professionals use a dynamic phone insertion to track when a call is made after visiting a site.

This type of code will dynamically change the phone number on your site for just that visitor. If they call the number on the site, it forwards to your regular number, while data is sent back about the ad campaign, keyword, ad copy, etc. for that event. Again, this is valuable data that you want to capture. Google has a free version of this type of tracking for your Google Ads account. If you want to track from other advertising channels, you will need to use a third party that will help you cover those traffic sources. For more information on installing Google’s tracking on your site, review this page: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6095883

Other Tracking:

The above are typically viewed as hard conversions. You may find it useful to track other types of soft conversions–various activities that show clear interest and increase engagement with your site. These could be live chat interactions, email subscriptions, video watches, certain button clicks, whitepaper downloads, hitting important pages, webinar registrations, etc. All of these may be leading indicators for a hard conversion. All of these can be tracked and used to optimize a PPC account.

5. Setup & Launch Tips

Before launching your PPC campaigns, we recommend going through a check-list of items to make sure everything is set up correctly. There are a number of default settings in Google that can quickly leak funds from your campaigns if not changed prior to launch.

Here are a few items worth double-checking:

Google Analytics:

Is your Google Analytics account linked to your Google Ads account? See the above section on how to do that.

Conversion Tracking:

Double-check that all conversion tracking is set up prior to launch. If you can’t track results, then that data and ad spend is wasted. Make sure you have followed the tips in the previous Tracking section. After the campaigns are launched, make sure you are receiving conversion data. If not, Google support may be able to help with troubleshooting (866-2-GOOGLE).

Remarketing Pixel:

A remarketing campaign can be one of the most profitable in your account. Here’s how remarketing works:

• A user comes to your site, browses, but does not contact you. A cookie is placed on the user’s computer identifying them as previously visiting your site.
• When the user browses the internet, they see remarketing ads pop up on other sites (outside Google.com) because they have been identified as a previous visitor.
• The user clicks on one of the remarketing ads to return to the site.

Why does a remarketing campaign work so well? Here are a couple reasons:

• There is no cost for your ads to show up and keep your business top-of-mind for your potential customer. At the very least, it is the cheapest branding campaign you’ll ever run.
• You only pay when a user clicks on the ad to return to your site. A returning visitor is usually more valuable than a first- time visitor. If they clicked the ad to come back to the site, there is a better chance that they are going convert. For those reasons, remarketing campaigns tend to have much higher conversion rates than standard search campaigns.

Here are instructions for adding a remarketing tag to every page on your website: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2476688

Campaign Type:

Make sure the Campaign Type for each campaign is set up as Search and not Display. You can find this in Google Ads under Settings.

Locations:

Under Locations, check that you are geo- targeting each campaign to only the areas where you want your ads to show. It is very easy to make a mistake here and suddenly discover that your ads were showing nationwide — or even worldwide — and find your budget depleted quickly.

Ad Schedule:

Usually we would recommend running your ads 24/7 initially to gather data. You may be surprised as to when your highest- converting traffic occurs.

But if your budget is limited, you may want to limit the days of the week or the hours of the day your ads run. Make sure your settings match your intentions for each campaign.

Bids:

Bids can be set at either the ad group level or the keyword level. Do a spot check in each campaign to make sure your bids are set as you want them. If bids are not set up correctly, Google may default to bids of $0.01, which is way too low and will sometimes cause your ads to never show.

Also check your Bid Strategy. Google’s default setting is to enable Enhanced CPC. That allows Google to increase your bids automatically if they feel that search is more likely to result in a conversion. However, we recommend launching with Enhanced CPC disabled.

Budget:

Double-check each campaign budget. Your budget needs to be higher than your minimum bids but not so high that you go through ad spend faster than you want to.

If you have multiple campaigns, it may make sense to set up a shared budget. Here is how to set up a shared budget: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2517512

Also confirm your Delivery Method.

• Standard Delivery ensures that your ads run periodically throughout the day so that your budget is spaced out evenly. However, with Standard Delivery there could be key times where your ads are not online.

• Accelerated Delivery runs your ads continually until your campaign budget runs out for the day. Accelerated

Delivery is usually the better option because it ensures your ads run continually, but you may want to choose Standard Delivery if your budget is limited.

Keyword Match Types:

Check your keywords to make sure your Keyword Match Types are set up the way you want them to be. There are four keyword match types as discussed above in the keyword section.

Check URLs:

Spot-check your ad URLs prior to launch. Simply navigate to your ads in Google and click on a few of them. Your landing page should open up in a new browser tab. Make sure that the links work prior to launching your campaigns.

Negative Keywords:

Negative keywords are crucial for the success of your PPC campaigns. Without negative keywords you will end up paying for traffic that is unlikely to convert. Pay close attention to your search queries especially at the launch of a campaign.

Targeting Optimization:

When building your campaigns, turn off or disable Targeting Optimization. Otherwise, Google will take it upon themselves to bid on other keywords they feel are related to your users’ intent, regardless of the keyword match type you have selected.

If you accidentally selected Conservative or Aggressive automation when building your campaigns initially, there is no easy way to change this within the Google Ads interface. In order to change this, you will have to download Google Ads Editor, a free offline tool for managing campaigns. Once it is set up, download your campaigns and then click on Ad Groups. Select all Ad Groups and make sure that Targeting Optimization is Disabled.

Credit Card

Once all of those settings have been reviewed and confirmed, add your credit card in the account, make sure your campaigns are enabled, and you should be good to go!

6. Conclusion

The above tips and tricks will help you avoid some of the most common issues that professional PPC agencies see when reviewing PPC accounts. This should help you build a strong foundation for search marketing. Remember, this is not set-and-forget advertising. It is a fluid environment, an ongoing auction with hundreds of variables, and it requires continual optimization.

Two decades ago PPC was a fairly simple process. Pick a keyword, write an ad, place a bid, and battle your competitors. Since then, Google and Bing have introduced multiple bidding algorithms and hundreds of ways to segment and analyze the data.

Beyond Google and Bing, most professionals also use various third-party tools, software, and scripts to optimize their accounts.

PPC advertising offers wealth managers a huge opportunity actively to build their pipeline, but it must be done strategically. Failure to pay attention to best practices may have quick and severe consequences, including compromise of domain authority on search platforms such as Google and wasted advertising dollars. Firms must find the right keywords for whom they want to reach, ensure that their ad copy is attracting the right prospects, set up a landing page that encourages visitors to carry on with the suggested call to action, and carefully monitor and track results. Campaigns that include these elements stand a higher likelihood of delivering results sooner with lower overall cost.