Tom Foster: Let’s talk about five tips they can do right now to help them with their pay-per-click (PPC).
Nick Caceres: 1. Have that solid foundation SEO.
Tom Foster: The website?
Nick Caceres: Right.
Tom Foster: A good landing page—that’s what we mean when we say website. You want to make sure that when you build an ad that it is going to the right place.
Nick Caceres: You want it to go somewhere relevant. It’s going to help you out with your quality score, which will help you out with your ads and how much you pay. If you have relevant landing pages, you will pay less money for your ads.
Tom Foster: That’s going to save them a lot of money right there because most of you are sending your ads to the home page. That’s another tell; if your pay-per-click company is sending all of your ads to the homepage.
Nick Caceres: Imagine you are a customer. You see an ad and click on it and get directed to the home page, as opposed to landing on a page talking about exactly what you were looking for. A customer is more likely going to covert in that case. Do some keyword research if you are trying to do it yourself. Maybe have some ideas of what you want it to come up for.
Tom Foster: What are you going to tell someone who is a smaller firm in a tough market like Atlanta or Miami? That is a tough market—Miami. Trying to do personal injury, but they don’t have the budget of Morgan & Morgan.
Nick Caceres: So people doing research, compared to people ready to convert and call somebody, are going to search in different ways. Longer keyword strings are going to actually cost less most of the time, and they are more likely to do something. When you type in a long sentence on Google, you are more likely to do something about it. You are looking for action right now. That is something you strategize with your marketer, with your agency. When you do things like that, you can save money. And a smaller budget can go further in a place like Atlanta.
Tom Foster: If you are smart about it and not going after those vanity keywords.
Nick Caceres: Exactly. You don’t have to be number one every time, as long as you get some traffic.
Tom Foster: That’s a tried-and-true old-school method. You don’t need to be number one. Everybody is always trying to compete to get to be number one. There is a big difference in the spend for numbers one and two compared to three and four.
Nick Caceres: And a lot of times it’s not a big difference in results.
Tom Foster: Right. Because people are going to go to all of those things. They always click on position one, but they may not convert on the first one.
Nick Caceres: Especially if they are serious about what they are looking for.
Tom Foster: Right. They will look at other stuff. I agree with that. You want to target the third or fourth spot, especially for those bigger keywords. Another good tip is good ad copy on the landing page. Make sure everything stays relevant and there is no brand confusion.
Nick Caceres: Right. Really, the way you set up your ad is a big deal. You can take some input from the client, but you can also suggest things. I know ways to set up ads that have been tried and proven and have words that really drive action. We then can marry that with your business—maybe a slogan that you have and things you provide—and add extensions and callouts. So many things can go into your ad copy that can drive up your conversions.
Tom Foster: One of my favorite cool guerrilla marketing methods that not a lot of people are doing that they should is remarketing. What’s that?
Nick Caceres: Remarketing. It’s a great method. You place a tracking cookie on your site. When someone visits your site, but they think “I’ll come back to this tomorrow or later today,” we follow them around with ads. Often at very low prices—so much cheaper than other types of ads. You are really targeting people who already went to your website, so why not follow them around? I see this with other services all of the time. I’m sure you have too. You think about buying something, you leave and then you see their ad everywhere. And oftentimes, you’re like “Oh yeah, I forgot to buy that, or I forgot to call that guy.”
Tom Foster: A lot of our clients and lots of businesses have been very successful using remarketing. We do it ourselves.
Nick Caceres: It’s pennies on the dollar. It’s a no-brainer.
Tom Foster: So what’s the last thing on your list of advice?
Nick Caceres: Find out what you want to get from this, and then find out from your agency how to tell. Ask them the following questions. What are some key performance indicators I should be looking for? What are the average click-through rates I should be looking for? When I look at my report, it’s not just a wall of numbers that I don’t understand, can you walk me through it? If they don’t walk you through it, or if they send you stuff every once in a while, ask for clarification. You really want to know what you are doing and what you are paying for, and that’s something we want to provide for you.
Tom Foster: Okay. We are almost done here. I’ve gone over time because you’ve been taking so much. That’s what professors do.
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