Peter Zmijewski

Peter Zmijewski

We would not be wrong in assuming that virtually all PPC marketers would have been through a stage with an account or another where, no matter what you sample, the account would not just take place. You would typically view that the conversion numbers would drop in a significant manner through the past months, and you perform standard steps in correcting what has flopped with the account.

1) Keyword Performance: Do a thorough analysis of the best performing keywords on the account to see if there has been any drop in the traffic to be sent. Compare these with state you have derived from reliable keyword tools, including KeywordSpy.

2) Keyword Diagnosis: You should diagnose the keywords to see if any of the negative keywords added by you have been blocking the ads from coming up for the most relevant keywords.

3) Seasonality: Check the seasonality trends to spot the drop in conversions has taken place because of seasonal variations.

4) Competitor Behavior: Is there a new competitor in the market who has been aggressive online, or have any of the existing competitors get new strategies that would work wonders for them? You should make a competitor analysis to see if changes in the advertising strategies have harmed you.

Apart from the common steps stated to solve the issues that face the account, a lot of PPC marketers also put in a few additional techniques to increase the number of conversions seen on an account. Some techniques include:

1) Display Network: Try out the display network, notably for the theme that would generate the biggest number of conversions on the search network.

2) Image Ads: Use image ads for the existing display network campaigns because of the fact users surfing on the network will be encouraged towards clicking image ads.

3) Conversion Optimizer: Utilize the Conversion Optimizer with a view to acquire a big number of conversions at the target CPA value.

4) Remarketing: Retarget users who have been on the site but may not have converted.

5) Google Analytics:  Utilize Google Analytics data including Bounce Rate to see if the performance of the standalone landing pages. See the Top Content report to see which pages on the site function best, and then make specific standalone landing pages based on the report.

6) Ad Extensions: Put in ad extensions including site link extensions or call extensions to engage individuals in a more efficient way with the standard text ads, etc.

While any of the strategies noted above could have worked for you at some moments, there would still be a chance none of those above have functioned for your account and have only led to a high spend that did not have any conversions, which had resulted in a big account CPA. For instance, if remarketing and image ads would not work for you, they would have resulted in high account spending and cause more damage instead of repairing the issue

So would there be any options in a scenario? There certainly is still some hope that exists, plus the chance of the account getting back on track would still be existence. So what if the strategies stated do not work? We are to look at some basic concepts that would be generally overlooked by a lot in favor of strategies that are foolproof, but those things could make the account perform

Optimization of Budget

Have you been spending a lot on campaigns that would not be working for you, or have you lessened budgets on campaigns that had worked before but have recently dropped off? We make the suggestion that budgets should be increased for historically best-performing campaigns and see what wonders could exist for you. Past historically best working campaigns, put the budget up for a campaign that hasn’t worked well in a while, but that used to work well, and there would be a nice chance that the campaign may get leads again once it would begin to attract a bit of attention.

Bid for Keywords

Along with the budget optimization, the bid optimization would play a big role in aiding the account do well, even a dead account as well, for that matter. If they have been running the keywords in the same average positions for a long time, and you would still be happy with the conversion results , we would suggest taking out a few average performing keywords plus trying new positions for them to see if this can put up conversion performance and make you happier than you had been with the account performance. Should you be a risk taker, you need to go ahead and sample various positions for the top-performing keywords on tools such as KeywordSpy, as this would be worth the risk.

Broad Match Modifier Type

The significance of broad match modifier match has had an emphasis repeatedly since the time Google has made the launch. Even in our personal experience, we think it could be of great assistance, and we ensure that each theme of ours has keywords in the BMM match configuration. To make great use of the match type when you require the account to perform, take out the top-performing keywords for every theme and put them all in the BMM match type. This will aid you improve the traffic proceeding to the site in terms of both the quality and quantity, which is better quality than broad and better quantity compared to phrase), and as we are aware, quality traffic would always be key to getting conversions for an account.

Ad Copy

Human nature would be such that we would easily be bored. You would have to perceive your target audience in the same manner. They could get bored viewing your same old ads with similar old USPs, Therefore, you should keep revising the ads to make new, attractive ads increasing the odds of users clicking on these. New ads would also aid you stand out from the competition.

Basic things similar using exclamation points, capitalizing the first letter of every word, utilizing trademark symbols to make brand credibility, and utilizing prices in ad text would make a big difference and have to be remembered when making new ads for the account. Check to see if the ads that exist would be lacking any of the basic components and if they should be, make some of the basic changes to encourage users to click on the new ads.

Keywords Variations

When you optimized your account before, you may have paused particular particular, broad keywords that could have gotten conversion for you, however at a poor ROAS or CPA value. Now could be the time to add broad match keywords in restrictive match types compared to exact or phrase as such variations have a big probability of earning conversions for you, preferably with a tolerable CPA or ROAS value.

Ad Scheduling

Did you wholly forget about the ad scheduling you performed on your account? Too bad it took some time to realize that the same ad scheduling has been restricting visibility, and it should be turned off now to let ads run through the day. This is to give the account a fair chance to show its potential cause it would get the most possible traffic. Needless to mention, negative keywords should be added frequently to aid refine the traffic received in terms of the quality, which is to improve the odds of getting conversions from exceedingly relevant traffic.

To conclude

Though the points appear basic, PPC marketers would tend to ignore or neglect them often because of the lure of improvement of the accounts performances through implementing the foolproof strategies. One should explore the basics before giving up hope, so you would be bound to view good results to please your clients.

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. His expert knowledge on Internet Marketing practices and techniques has earned him the title “Internet Marketing Guru”. He is also an innovator, investor and entrepreneur widely recognized by the top players in the industry.