(Author's Note: This post does not cover text ad writing, as that discipline requires multiple posts in and of itself. See this Search Engine Land Post about writing effective text ads to start)
I often sit in awe watching TV's Top Chef, trying to figure out how anyone can be given a pile of random ingredients and make it into an amazing dish in such a limited time frame. It occurred to me while watching that a paid search advertiser can be a lot like a Top Chef in many ways; building a paid search campaign from scratch can be like having a heap of unforeseen food items thrown at you before having to build it into a gourmet meal (oftentimes, with a limited paid search budget).
How is a paid search "chef" supposed to start a campaign from scratch? What are the correct ingredients? Which appliances should be used to create the best, most delicious dish?
Well, consider me the poor man's Julia Child (...okay, now stop). Below is the Ultimate Guide to Cooking a Paid Search Program from Scratch.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp Strategy
2 cups Keyword Research
1/2 ounce Campaign Architecture
1 tsp Budget Planning
1. Strategy
As in anything, the key to a great dish is the strategy and planning. Going in to your paid search program build, you should have an idea of the following:
- What is the goal of your campaign? If you don't know why you are running paid search, please pack your knives and go.
- How will you be tracking PPC program goals?
- Who is/are your searching audience/s? The searching audience is key to discovering unique keywords, phrases, search colloquialisms, or content network sites.
- Are there other media running? If so, how will they impact your campaign?
- Targeting. Location, time of day, day of week, computer device.
2. Keyword Research
If you've been managing paid search programs for more than one day, you know the importance of keyword research. However, the methods that we use to conduct the research varies (no family makes pasta sauce the same, right?). Below are some tools that might be useful in your keyword research:
First step: Build the preliminary list, let simmer
- Google keyword tool - the Kitchen Aid of keyword research tools. I start here for general ideas of competitiveness, search volume, and synonyms.
- Organic Search Results - Often an overlooked method of researching keywords, a simple set of competitive searches on any of the top search engines will provide you with a wealth of knowledge regarding what competitors are targeting, what colloquialisms are used, what industry terms might be (in B2B cases, especially) as well as keywords that may be simply missing from your preliminary list.
- Website analytics results - A useful tool for deciphering what visitors want when they come to your website is the actual results; what are they currently searching on to get there organically? What are visitors looking for when they get there (site search)?
- Additional keyword tools such as the Wordtracker Keyword Tool, SEObook keyword tool (signup required), or SpyFu can provide additional insight, while paid services such as Keyword Discovery or Compete research often give longer-tail keyword ideas and actual search queries from historical listings.
Step 2: Refine List, Bake for 25 min
- I use a simple PPC campaign building template to begin organizing and fleshing out my campaigns.
- A great tool to get a jump start building keyword families is SEOBook's keyword list generator, which helps to organize keywords based on the parents and qualifiers that you input.
- Negative keywords - It is important to put the time in up front in building negative keyword lists. Although these lists should always be growing based on results, your competitive research, general keyword research, and goals should assemble a hefty list of terms that are undesirable. Mark all of them down along the way, and don't forget to use phrase and broad matching negatives when necessary.
You've already built out preliminary lists, now's the time to develop campaigns using the lists you have along with budgets, targeting, goals, and other critical information. Here are ways you might want to consider organizing your paid search campaigns:
- Keyword Families: The most obvious structure is by related keywords. This can be especially helpful if you are working with limited budgets or unique targeting.
- Location: A powerful way to structure campaigns, building campaigns based on targeted locations means that you can measure, control, and optimize your paid search effort based on each targeted region. This is specifically helpful if you need to budget regions on their own, if certain locations are on unique timelines, or if locations references within your ads are particularly important.
- Seasonal/Business Cycle: For greater message targeting and ease of optimization, controlling a program by seasonal or business cycle means you can easily turn off keyword lists that aren't useful anymore (for example, a shoe company focusing more budget on sandals during the summer by using a "summer campaign").
- Other Targeting: PPC programs that target particular devices and networks shouldn't allow budget to flow uncontrolled to all areas. To curb this and ensure optimal use of funds, your program should break out Mobile Campaigns, Content Network Campaigns, and Promotional Campaigns with individual budgets and specifications.
4. Budget Planning
By now, you should know what your budget is and how the client wants to deploy it, but an important planning piece still remains. Are there ways to more effectively use budget through the course of the year? See some tips below:
- Check out my recent post on working with limited PPC budgets for details on some unique budget challenges.
- Use this handy PPC budget calculator to determine flow of budget between search engines and net vs. gross.
- Determine whether or not your budget should remain constant throughout the year, or if you should be flighting your budget strategy around times or events.
- Refer back to your campaign planning and ensure that budgets are appropriated correctly between regions and targeting methods.
Each chef has personal flair and technique, and paid search "chefs" are no different. Above are some ingredients that can help you create your PPC program, but I'd love to hear if you have your own methods or tools to build a search campaign.
Now if only I could learn to cook some real food...
