As Director of Digital Strategy, Lauren oversees all things related to PPC, SEO, and other digital advertising campaigns.
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From the Blog
A Beginner’s Guide To Keyword Bidding and PPC
Introduction
The Digital Marketing world is made up of many different parts. Oftentimes we find ourselves lost in the sea of tools at our disposal. It can be tricky to try to figure out which tool to tackle down first. Should you start with Keyword Bidding, SEO, Google Analytics or should you be taking care of all of them at the same time?
All of these tools work together to make up a successful campaign. It is important to understand every single one since they all end up building up on each other.
We have broken down two important foundations of the Digital Marketing tools that will propel your business into success, Keywords and PPC.
What Are Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases that describe the product or service that you will be providing. They will help determine when and where your ads are shown.
Keywords can range from single words to very specific and “longer” phrases. Even though single words have higher search volume, you probably want to stay away from those.
For example, if you are a tree service company you probably don’t want to invest too much money or energy on the keyword “Trees”. There might be thousands of search queries for this keyword but there will also be thousands of search results for people to pick.
The audience searching for trees might just want a picture of a tree, or maybe a list of types of trees they can plant in their backyard. This is why specific keywords are the way to go.
You might want to invest in a keyword like “tree removal services near me”. This will make sure that those search queries are a lot more targeted towards your specific business and audience of interest.
It is important that your keywords are relevant not only to your business but also to the general public’s search queries.
Marketers will use these keywords to create content that is relevant and accessible for a specific audience. This kind of targeted content creation will attract even more audience to your website, whether that comes organically or not.
In order to choose the right keyword for your needs it is important that you do intensive keyword research and that you monitor and track the keyword activity. This can be done with tools such as Moz or Google Keyword Planner. This research will allow you to have an even better understanding on how to drive an even more successful keyword bidding and ppc campaign.
What is Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay-Per-Click or PPC is exactly what it sounds like. You pay a small fee every time someone clicks on your ad. This is a way in which you can buy visits to your website rather than waiting for those visits to come organically.
These fees are relatively trivial. While you might be paying $5 on PPC you could make 10 times that amount (or more!) if someone ends up buying your services. This is the reason PPC is such a popular tool in Digital Marketing.
Setting up a successful PPC campaign is very important. While the fees are small, there is a chance that you will be able to save even more money. Search engines end up charging you less per ad click if you have a relevant and successful PPC campaign.
So How Does Keyword Bidding Work?
Google Ads is one of the most popular PPC Bidding systems in the world. Basically, business owners bid on specific keywords they want to use for their Google Ads.
Every time someone starts a search query Google dives into the pool of ads they have at their disposal. They end up picking the ads that are the most relevant to the individual’s search query.
In order for your ad to be chosen there are two factors they take into consideration. Google ends up multiplying your CPC (Cost Per Click) Bid, which is how much you are willing to pay for the ad and your Quality Score. Your Quality Score is determined through your CTR (Click Through Rate), relevance, and landing page quality.
For example, if your CPC Bid is $5 and your Quality Score is 3 your ad rank will be 15. If your competitors CPC Bid is $2 and their Quality Score is 8 their ad rank will be 16. This means that their ads will be displayed before your does, even though you are paying more money for them.
This is why it is important for you to monitor and try to improve your Quality Score as much as possible.
Even though your CPC Bid is $5, it doesn’t mean that this is the price you will end up paying. The way Google determines how much you pay is by dividing the ad rank of the person below you by your Quality Score plus $0.01. If we follow the example above, your competitor will be paying $1.885 every time someone clicks on their ad.
Check out the video below if you are looking for a more detailed explanation of Keyword Biddings and Quality Scores.
Conclusion
In order to launch a successful digital marketing campaign you need to understand all the tools that make it up. Eventually every single factor will end up relying on each other in order for you to have a great digital marketing experience.
Understanding Keywords and PPC will allow you to know how to launch your first digital marketing campaign. These two factors are extremely important foundations for your campaigns.
When you keep in mind the importance of a relevant and specific keyword. This way you will be able to create the best content possible for your audience. This content will be able to reach an even bigger audience once you take care of your Quality Score. This will build upon each other to create a better and more efficient PPC campaign.
Experts like Deksia take care of PPC and Keyword Bidding Campaigns that generate the best results for their clients. If you are looking for guidance or advice as to where to start make sure to contact professionals that will guide your company to success.