Lead generation is one of the tougher challenges among paid search advertising. An even bigger challenge lies within generating qualified leads. This tends to be a problem within PPC because we know the more traffic we drive to our clients’ sites, typically the greater our chances are of obtaining leads. But obtaining the most leads isn’t worth spending money; generating qualified leads is. One way to qualify customers to your site lies within your ad text. By first qualifying people to your site through your ad text this increases the chances that someone that does turn into a lead is a qualified lead.
Below I’ve listed 4 ways to make your ad text qualify customers to your site.
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Tell people what you want them to do. If you have a form you want a user to complete then say so. If you want them to download a pdf or whitepaper, then say so. If someone doesn’t want to download a whitepaper or fill out a request form, they won’t click on your ad. Don’t make these actions the main focus of your ad text, however, be sure to give benefits first and foremost. You can keep your action requests to a minimum, and say Request Info Here, SignUp Today, Download Whitepaper, etc.
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Include Price Points: Another way to qualify your customers is by adding price points into your ad text. I usually will add these in the last line of my text or if I have room, in my ad text title. If someone is looking for a gift for Christmas and only wants to spend $50, and your item is $200, perhaps think about putting that price point in your ad. Of course you’ll get fewer clicks – but the clicks you do get should be people who are willing to pay $200.
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Announce Your Target: If you’re a B2B (business-to-business) or a B2C (business–to-customer) then say so in your ad text! Many times I put in my ads that ‘we work with large companies’ or ‘customized solutions for companies’ so that smaller companies don’t click-through my ad. If your client sells or buys something and works mainly with customers, say something like, “We Buy Artist Paintings” or “We Sell Artist Paintings.” Be clear, concise and to the point.
- Avoid ‘Disqualifying’ People: Don’t get in the mode where you’re taking up most of your ad text trying to disqualify customers. For one of my clients, I could easily say, we work with large companies, no job seekers please (since we tend to get job seekers fill out our forms). But adding ‘no job seekers’ takes up too much space in your ad text and doesn’t allow enough room to engage the potential customer about your business/service.
I’m not sure there is a client out there that can’t somehow use these qualifiers in their ads to weed out non-qualified traffic. Think about your target audience, and think about the people you don’t want to your site. Try to avoid sending mixed messages to customers or business’ about your services or products. Don’t be afraid to highlight exactly what you’re looking for in your ad text.
When you load new keywords into your campaign, what is your initial bidding strategy? There has been some recent discussion on the best practices for setting bids on brand new keywords and I thought I’d throw in my two cents. If you want to quickly determine the keywords that will best enhance your PPC efforts, I suggest hitting the ground running, rather than limping.
There are a number of reasons to hit the ground running, and here are just a few:
Low Click-through Rate
Before you can worry about your conversion rate, or the quality of your conversions, you first need to get users to click on your ad! The realty on SERPs is getting more crowded each quarter, and drawing a user’s attention to your ad, and inspiring them to take action (i.e. click on your PPC ad), is one of the core challenges of pay-per-click management. If your CTR isn’t soaring like it should, here some quick fixes:
- Write new ad texts! I know that may seem obvious, but it needs to be said. Take your best performing ad text, pause the rest, and use this remaining ad as your control ad. Ask yourself a few questions: what made your best ad successful; why did the the other ads fail? Also, don’t forget to review your competition to see how you can differentiate your message, and call-to-action. Determine which phrases, benefits and headlines work best, then write those new ad texts.
- Once you’ve inserted your new ad texts - get to testing! For successful split testing you need to set your ad serving option within AdWords to Rotate (show ads more evenly). Within Yahoo you need to set your match to ‘Advance’ rather than ‘Standard.’ If you do not choose these setting, AdWords and Yahoo will determine and display your best performing ad texts.
Using negative keywords in your campaigns allows you to filter out unwanted or irrelevant traffic to your site. Negative keywords eliminate the chances that your ads might show up for a keyword that you don’t offer. Negative keywords can help you control the clicks you receive, so they remain relevant clicks, and you’re only paying for relevant traffic.
Of course, you don’t want to overdo your negative keyword list; therefore, it is important to do a little negative-keyword research first. In Google, under the Keyword tool, you can enter keywords for your ad group that are relevant, and if you click on the drop-down “possible negative keywords,” then run your search, it will bring up possible negative keywords for your keyword search.
Here is an example: If you’re an e-commerce site selling only women’s shoes and someone types in kids’ shoes or men’s shoes, you want to make sure that one of your ads are not triggered by these keywords. So you would add “kids” and “mens” to your negative-keyword list.
Also, there is a pool of general negative keywords that would be applicable for most campaigns. Here is a short list to consider:
free
discount
cheap
reviews
history
definition
We have found that users who are searching for “free” or “cheap” tend not to be the highest-converting traffic.
How to Add Negative Keywords to your Campaigns
In Google it’s really easy. Click on the campaign to which you want to add negative keywords. Under the tools link, click on the link that says Edit Campaign Negative Keywords. At this point you can then simply add your negative keywords into the box that says Enter Words Manually, and then click Add Keywords.
The Yahoo! keyword tool works differently from Google’s. They do not necessarily have a negative-keyword generator, but they have alternatives to this.
When building your keyword list, you can insert a small sample list within the Find Keywords field. You can then use the field Specify Words That Must not Appear in Any of the Keywords, and your negative keywords will not appear in your keyword list. For example, you could type in “used books” within the Find Keywords field, and then you can type in “rare,” “audio,” and “technical,” and these words will be excluded from your list.
Also, you can do the opposite with your keyword research: you can use the field Specify Words That Must Appear in Each Keyword. When you choose this option, your keyword list will contain keyword variations with only your required phrase. For example, within the Find Keyword field you can type in “publisher,” “book publisher,” “literary publisher,” and within the Specify Words That Must Appear in Each Keyword field you type “children.” Here is your keyword list:
child book publishing
child book publisher
publish child book
child book
child publisher
child book publishing company
self-publishing child book
story for child
child book printing
self-publish child book
child picture book publisher
the child
publisher of child story
child author
child picture book
gift for child
child story book
child storybook
Christian child book publisher
how to write and publish child book
how to get a child book published
child literature publisher
child publishing
Within Yahoo!’s interface, if you know the list of negative keywords and you want to insert them directly into your ad group, you can just go into your Tactic Settings at the ad group level and set your “excluded keywords” on the right side of the page.
