With the flood of businesses choosing to advertise via Paid Search, it has become increasingly more difficult to gain the desired campaign ROI which was once so easy to achieve. The fact is, many organisations are making a number of mistakes and are not maximising there profits from Paid Search. Listed below are five ways to get the most out of your Paid Search campaigns.

1. Position one in Google isn’t always the best position to be in.

As marketers, this goes totally against our competitive nature. We all want our ads on the coveted position inside the cover of a magazine, or our TVC shown during primetime television. But the truth of the matter is that search engine advertising is different. Occupying the first ad position in Google is only important for a selection of keywords.

Generally, there are five steps to the consumer purchasing process

1. Identify a need/want which needs to be satisfied

2. Search for a solution

3. Evaluation of alternatives

4. Purchase

5. Buyers dissonance

For search engine advertising, we focus on in the middle three steps, starting with ‘searching for a solution’. Typically consumers weigh up a number of alternatives before making a purchase. Consumers will click on two-three (sometimes more) ads before evaluating alternatives.  Therefore, advertisers can avoid paying the premium of occupying position one as lower ranked ads are going to be clicked. For example, if you owned a company selling dieting books, you wouldn’t want to rank number one for the search phrases ‘how to lose weight’ or ‘diets that work’ as these are ‘searching for a solution’ based phrases.

The same applies when consumers are evaluating their alternative solutions and would apply for broad product related searches such as ‘compare diet books’ or ‘top five gyms’.  Also, when consumers are doing comparison shopping they’ll click on a number of ads to check the offerings of different advertisers - in the same way people typically don’t buy from the first shop they walk in to. For such search queries the perfect ad position is the last one people click on - not the first!

Where you do want to rank high in the search results is for purchasing keywords. For example, you would want to occupy the top positions for keywords such as ‘buy diet books’ or ‘apply gym online’.

2. Failing to apply the correct match types to keywords will hurt your ROI.

Identify the right match type for your keywords is critical to the success of your campaign. With Google there are three match types, ‘Broad’, ‘Phrase’ and ‘Exact’. Yahoo! has two types; ‘Standard’ and ‘Advanced’. Google’s ‘Broad’ and Yahoo’s ‘Standard’ match types are the default when setting up your campaigns and as the names state, they provides the ability to drive a wide range of visitors through to you website, including those you want to target and those who are less valuable. By only using broad/standard match in your campaigns, you are channeling a high number of unqualified visitors to your website which reduces your ROAS and is essentially a waste of money.

Furthermore, if you were to target using only Google’s ‘Exact’ or yahoo’s ‘Advanced’ match there is the potential that you are neglecting qualified traffic which will be snatched up by your competitors.

By analysing your keywords and using the suitable match type, you are ensuring that you are driving quality traffic to your website which will convert.

3. Failing to include negative keywords will also hurt your ROI.

Negative keywords play a vital part in controlling the quality of the traffic being driven via your campaigns. Negative keywords can be either associated with the keywords that you are targeting within your campaign, but are not resulting in conversions, or keywords which when combined with your keywords have a different meaning e.g. you are a educational institution and targeting keywords such as ‘degree’, ‘courses’, ‘study’ etc… you would have the negative keywords ‘free’, ‘fake’, ‘buy’ as negatives . By using negative keywords, you are weeding out irrelevant searches and saving your budget for qualified traffic.

4. Having too broader ad groups makes it hard to target customers.

Simply put, your ads must match the keywords your customers are searching for. If your ads do not contain your keywords or there relevant synonyms then your ads will not appear relevant to your customers and will not stand out against the competition. This is magnified by the fact that when an ad contains the keywords a customer use within a search the matching keyword is highlighted in bold.

5. Test, test, then test again.

Testing variations of your ads is critical to your campaigns success. Starting with totally different ad copy and working through to the finer details can drastically improve your ROI. By testing your ads ‘call to action’, titles, the two lines of copy, and display URL you can fast discover what catches your customers eye and what doesn’t.

The bottom line is that by keeping a close eye on your Paid Search campaign and constantly tweaking all of its aspects both large and small you will provide the best possible chance of driving the right kind of traffic to your website.  However, in order to maximise your ROI from Paid Search requires investing a lot of time & effort into proactive & continuous campaign management. If you don’t have the time available or specialist skills necessary then it should be outsourced to specialists. So if you are taking a set and forget approach to Paid Search, perhaps it’s time to reassess your strategy. Otherwise you are wasting your time and money

source : http://www.surefiresearch.com/pay-per-click/five-ways-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-paid-search-campaign/

Let me enlighten you about something you might not have considered. Ultimate conversions from pay-per-click (PPC) ads come from a process, not a single event. Oftentimes, online marketers focus on the effects of PPC copywriting and the click-through rate it achieves. That click-through rate is thought of as the end-all, be-all for the campaign. But, the overall goal of PPC copywriting is not to get people to click to your site. Clicking a PPC ad is merely step one. The ultimate goal is to get visitors to take action once they reach your site.

Consistency is a vital attribute to successful PPC campaigns. Including the same keyphrases you target in the PPC copywriting throughout the rest of the steps in the conversion process can make or break your end results. This really shouldn’t be surprising, however. After all, it’s not a new development.

For decades, offline marketers have known that consistency was the key to profitable multimedia campaigns. For instance, if you developed a promotion for mouthwash that included direct mail, magazine, television and newspaper, then you’d want the message to be consistent from medium to medium. Offline marketers proved long ago that a single, repetitive voice where one medium interacts with and/or reinforces another brought about the best results. Let’s look at an example.

For our fictitious mouthwash (we’ll call it Fresh Breath), a campaign might start with television ads that show smiling people going through their morning routines including swishing Fresh Breath after brushing. A slogan or tag line could be used to help people associate a core message with the product. The voiceover might also say something like, “Look for money-saving coupons in this Sunday’s newspaper.” Great! We’ve got their attention and offered something (coupon) that can pique interest.

Next, we move on to print. The newspaper coupon insert will feature a full-color layout with the same smiling face, the tag line and $1.00 off the customer’s next purchase. But, what about people who don’t get the newspaper? We’ll cover them in magazine ads that feature a duplicate message. You might also consider sending out samples and coupons via direct mail, too.

Do you see what’s happening? Consistency is foremost in the campaign. Everywhere the customer looks, s/he sees the same core message about Fresh Breath and relates her or his opinions with this message. The same should be true with your PPC campaigns.
PPC Copywriting Starts the Process

All a PPC ad consists of is copy. VERY short copy. That means using successful methods to develop your PPC copywriting is a vital first step. Blow this part and the rest won’t even get a snowball’s chance to prosper because the visitor will never make it past Yahoo! or Google’s search results page.

Think about your core message. Develop headlines that attract visitors and pique curiosity, so they’ll want to click for more information. Don’t
try to close the sale with your PPC ads. That’s not their purpose. The sole purpose of PPC ads is to drive visitors to your site where they can collect enough information to take action, whether that means buying, subscribing, joining or whatnot.

When you write PPC ads, include the keyphrase in the headline, if possible. If not, then you’ll want to incorporate the keyphrase into the body copy. Remember the tag line or slogan used in offline marketing? The keyphrase you choose for this ad will act as your tag line and will follow your copywriting efforts throughout the entire conversion process.
Consistency During Every Step

When developing your landing page (the page visitors will land on after they click the link in your PPC ad), use a headline that matches or is extremely similar to the copy in your PPC ad. Experiments have proven time and time again that the closer in content the two headlines are, the longer visitors will stay on your landing page.

But, don’t stop there. If your sales channel is a multi-step process, then you’ll want to continue use of the keyphrase all the way to the end. Let’s look at an example using a Magnavox HDTV.

The PPC copywriting might include the keyphrase “Magnavox HDTV.” The headline could read:

Save $$ on Magnavox HDTV

The two lines of copy might read:

All 26″-42″ HDTV models now on sale-
30% off. Free shipping over $200.

Anyone who types the keyphrase “Magnavox HDTV” into a search field will quickly be drawn to this ad because it includes the very item they were looking for… Magnavox HDTVs. In addition, the copy piques interest. All 26″-42″ models are on sale for 30% off. And, I get free shipping. Great! I’d be clicking over in a heartbeat to see what was available.

But, what happens if I, the customer, land on your home page where I find dozens of DVD players and iPods and stereos? Huh? Where are the Magnavox HDTVs I was just reading about? I’d be lost. I’d likely click back to the search-results page and select another ad.

When I land on a page after clicking a PPC ad that specifically mentioned the very item I wanted, I expect to see a selection of Magnavox 26″-42″ HDTVs. What’s more, I’ll need to actually read the phrase “Magnavox HDTV” to ensure me that I’m in the right place. Consistency.

And, when I click the 36″ model I think I want? What then? I’ll expect to see “Magnavox 36″ HDTV” on the product description page, so I can continue to know I’m in the right place. Consistency.

When I add the item to my cart? Right… same keyphrase. And, when I check out? Yep! And, when you email me my order confirmation? You got it! Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Don’t stop with your PPC copywriting. It’s simply not enough. That’s a tragic mistake most online marketers make. You have to convey a uniform message all the way from beginning to end to get the highest conversion rates possible from your PPC campaign. When you do, your sales will flow in with more… consistency!

source : http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1837/1/Consistency-Is-Key-in-the-PPC–Conversion-Process/Page1.html