It is an open secret among PPC account managers that the answer to almost every PPC question would turn out to be “Well… it depends on your account/business goals…” However, I have compiled a few – 10 to be precise – questions that I come across often or people keep asking me and I would attempt to answer them to my best ability.

When I start a campaign, how many ads should I have for each adgroup?

It depends. If its a new account, I would choose to include 3-5 ads per adgroup for testing and metric report purposes. For an old account, it is wise to say you already know what ads work for those adgroups, so a maximum of 3 of your best ads per adgroup is enough to do the job. A few more ads is always better than just a couple.

How do you decide what ads to use when testing ad copy?

Ad Copy testing is most effective when you’re tracking conversions. You are always going to use impressions as a metric until you get some conversions(especially for a new account). The most common way to make this decision is to divide your impressions by your conversions for each ad copy; the lower the result, the better the Click Through Rate(CTR) and Conversion Rate(CR) of the ad copy.

Is the ultimate aim to increase CTR and decrease Cost Per Click(CPC)?

That is an easy NO! If you did that, you would be making traffic a business goal instead of profit and for most businesses, profit is more important than traffic. You want users to click on your ad, but you also want them to buy stuff. So, what you need to do is maximize your CR, which is, CR multiplied by CTR. That turns out to be conversions per impression. To maximize PPC profit, you test ads and keywords and compare both their CTR and CR.This can get awfully complicated as sometimes an ad with a higher CTR can still be the bad ad to choose. However, as long as you are tracking conversions, you can make a decision based on conversions per impressions.

How do I increase my Quality Score(QS)?

Loaded question. Three things though; quality keywords, content rich and keyword relevant landing pages and then awesome ad copy. It works most of the time.

Do I always have to make pivot tables?

Yes, you do. They really do come in handy when you have to compare data that is nor readily available. If you have to find out the CR per impressions for 17,000 keywords, you would be thankful pivot tables exist.

My CPC keeps going up and then I have to up my bid. What is happening?

It could be a few things. The first thing I would check for is whether my quality score is dropping or search volume is dropping by using Google Trends. If that is not the case, then it probably means that there is new competition for those keywords. The way to find this out is to use Google’s Auction Insights tool. If all fails, you can use a Quality Score analysis tool to find out what the issue is.

Should I have a adgroup for my brand?

Always! It should be the first adgroup you make. Biding on your brand keywords could increase your quality score and most importantly, I have found, leads to a lot of conversions. You can have different ads that show up and double your visibility to searchers whiles capturing the organic results too. Sweet Deal!

Are ad extensions necessary?

Extremely necessary. Several case studies will prove that ad extensions, product listings and location extension produce more conversions than raw ads. A searcher on mobile is more likely to hit the call or buy ad extension than click on the ad itself to read content.

Do you add negative keywords on a regular basis?

Negative keywords are tricky, they can hurt or improve your performance. I typically add negative keywords if my search report analysis prompts me to. It is important not to add negative keywords sporadically because they could easily hurt your campaign performance. A good ad campaign rarely needs negative keywords added, however, your weekly search report should guide you to make that decision.

Should I add Google Display Network to my account? Does it work?

Google Display Network works. It is not advisable to make use of it when your account is fairly new or your campaign is not performing too well. What happens is, your impressions would sky rocket and your CTR would be very low. So yes, it can work, but it would be a little difficult in the beginning since you have to try a host of things to see what works.

What tools do you use for keyword research?

Search Query reports(especially for an old account that has PPC history), Google Keyword Research tool, Wordtracker and Semrush if I absolutely have to.

By: Kwasi