Introduction xxxiii

Chapter 1 The Art and Science of PPC Advertising 1

PPC and Direct Advertising Fundamentals 2

Components of a Successful PPC Campaign 5

Keywords 6

Ads 6

Bid Prices 7

Landing Pages 8

Conversion Path 10

PPC Campaign Uses 10

The Science of PPC 11

The Art of PPC 12

The State of the PPC Industry 13

Chapter 2 How the PPC Machine Works 17

Think Like a Search Engine 18

How and Where Ads Appear on SERPs 19

How Advertisements Are Triggered 20

How Advertisements Are Ranked 21

How Keyword Match Types Work 27

How Ads Appear on the Google Content Network 30

After the Click 33

Chapter 3 Core PPC Skills and Objectives 37

Learn Scientific Advertising and Ad Copywriting 38

Know Thy Customer 40

Ask the Right Questions 40

How Do Potential Customers Search? 41

What If There’s No Search? 45

What’s Your PPC Strategy? 46

Chapter 4 Month 1—Research Keywords and Establish Campaign Structure 49

Week 1: Research Keywords 50

Monday: Defining Personas 50

Tuesday: Using Keyword Research Tools 51

Wednesday: Using Your Best Keyword Source—Your Intuition, and Reports 60

Thursday: Permuting and Concatenating 62

Friday: Researching Your Competitor’s Keywords 63

Week 2: Create Your Campaign Structure 68

Monday and Tuesday: Planning Your Campaign and Ad Group Structure 69

Wednesday: Determining the Number and Granularity of Ad Groups 75

Thursday: Getting Acquainted with AdWords Editor 77

Friday: Building Out the Campaign 78

Week 3: Adjust Campaign Settings 78

Monday: Setting Budgets and Delivery Methods 79

Tuesday and Wednesday: Setting Your Bidding Strategy and Options 81

Thursday: Targeting Networks and Devices 82

Friday: Using Ad Scheduling and Geo-Targeting 84

Week 4: Use Conversion Tracking and Set Click Pricing 89

Monday: Setting Up Conversion Tracking 89

Tuesday: Setting Up Google Analytics 90

Wednesday: Testing Conversion Tracking 91

Thursday: Determining Your Starting Keyword Bids 91

Friday: Setting Keyword Bids 95

Chapter 5 Month 2—Create Great PPC Ads 97

Week 5: Take Stock of Your Advantages 98

Monday: Surveying Your Competition 99

Tuesday and Wednesday: Listing Your Own Advantages and Benefits 99

Thursday: Creating Causes for Urgency 101

Friday: Collecting Your Resources 102

Week 6: Write Right 103

Monday: The Fundamentals 103

Tuesday: The Headline—The Most Important Characters 107

Wednesday: Line 1—Features and Benefits 108

Thursday: Line 2—Urgent Calls to Action 109

Friday: The Display URL 109

Week 7: Explore Industry Examples 110

Monday: The Single-Product Retailer 111

Tuesday: The Multiple-Product Retailer 111

Wednesday: The B2B Service Provider 112

Thursday: The Professional Services Provider 112

Friday: The Financial Services Provider 113

Week 8: Understand Ads for the Content Network 113

Monday and Tuesday: Writing Contextual Text Ads 114

Good-Better-Best 116

Wednesday: Writing Static Banner Ads 117

Thursday: Creating Animated Banner Ads 122

Friday: Advertising on YouTube 124

Friday Night: Taking Stock 126

Chapter 6 Month 3—Design Effective Landing Pages 127

Week 9: Understand the Differences between Site Pages and Landing Pages 128

Monday and Tuesday: One Store, Many Entrances 129

Wednesday: The ADHD Site Visitor 131

Thursday: The Golden Triangle 132

Friday: The Risky Business of Landing Page Links 133

Week 10: Create the Mock-up 133

Monday: Start with the Golden Triangle 134

Tuesday: Bullet Points, Not Paragraphs 134

Wednesday: The Hero Shot 135

Thursday: Action, Trust, and Privacy 136

Friday: Sample B2C and B2B Mock-ups 137

Week 11: Lay It All Out 139

Monday: If It’s Not Helping, It’s Hurting 140

Tuesday and Wednesday: Form Design 140

Thursday: Error Trapping and Handling 142

Friday: Spouse Testing before Deployment 144

Week 12: Design for Testing 145

Monday: Decide on Test Elements 145

Tuesday: Headlines, Subheadlines, and Hero Shots 146

Wednesday: Action Buttons, Bullet Points, and Form Elements 147

Thursday: Testing Never Stops 148

Friday: Simple A/B Testing 148

Chapter 7 Month 4—Advertise on the Google Content Network 151

Week 13: Understand Google Contextual Advertising 152

Monday: Ad Types and Sizes 152

Tuesday: Ad Formats 156

Wednesday and Thursday: Why Search Ads Don’t Work on the Content Network 158

Friday: Demand Generation vs Search Satisfaction 161

Week 14: Build Keyword-Targeted Ad Groups 161

Monday and Tuesday: Why Keywords Are Different 162

Wednesday: Building Your Keyword List 165

Thursday: Demographic Bidding 170

Friday: Ad-Frequency Capping 171

Week 15: Build Placement-Targeted Ad Groups 173

Monday: Placement Targeting 173

Tuesday: Choosing Sites and Placements with the Placement Tool 174

Wednesday: Other Tools for Choosing Sites for Placements 178

Thursday: Bidding Considerations 181

Friday: Separating Ad Types into Ad Groups 183

Week 16: Launch and Refine Your Content Campaign 184

Monday: Flipping the Switch—Campaign-Management Checklist 184

Tuesday: Placement Performance Report 185

Wednesday: Site and Category Exclusion 186

Thursday: Enhanced Ad Groups 187

Friday: Flipping the Switch (Again) and Judging Performance 188

Chapter 8 Month 5—Launch Your Campaign 189

Week 17: Bid Your Brands 190

Monday: Your Brand May Be Weaker than You Think 191

Tuesday: Brand and Domain Name Variations 193

Wednesday: URL Variations 195

Thursday: Competitor Legal and Ethical Issues 196

Friday: Competitor-Name Ad Groups 197

Week 18: Make Prelaunch Double-Checks 198

Monday: Budgets and Bid Prices 198

Tuesday: Campaign Settings 199

Wednesday: Keywords—The Broad-Match Stomp 200

Thursday: Verify Ad Destination URLs 202

Friday: Launching Initial Ad Testing 202

Week 19: Flip the Switch 205

Monday and Tuesday: Launching All Your Campaigns at Once? 206

Wednesday: Are Your CTRs High Enough? 207

Thursday and Friday: Are You Reaching Your Target Conversion Rates and Costs? 208

Week 20: Perform Early Course-Correction 209

Monday: Activating Additional Ad Groups 209

Tuesday: Adjusting Ad Group and Keyword Bids 209

Wednesday: Adding Keyword Variations to Winning Ad Groups 210

Thursday and Friday: Adjusting Campaign Budget Limits 212

Chapter 9 Month 6—Optimize Your Campaign 215

Week 21: Review Your Top-Level Reports 216

Monday: Campaign and Ad Group Reports 217

Tuesday: Network Distribution Reports 220

Wednesday: Ad Performance Reports 222

Thursday: URL Performance Reports 223

Friday: Placement/Keyword Performance Reports 223

Week 22: Review Your Deep-Level Reports 226

Monday: Search Query Reports 226

Tuesday: Impression Share Reports 229

Wednesday: Geographic Performance Reports 231

Thursday: Placement Performance Reports 233

Friday: Reach and Frequency Performance Reports 236

Week 23: Create Additional Useful Reports 236

Monday: Quality Score Reports 236

Tuesday: Demographic Performance Reports 236

Wednesday and Thursday: Google Analytics Reports 237

Friday: The My Change History Report 238

Week 24: Act on Your Data and Optimize Your Account 239

Monday and Tuesday: Improving Your CTR 239

Wednesday: Improving Your Quality Score 241

Thursday and Friday: Improving Your Conversion Rate 242

Chapter 10 Month 7—Test Ads by Using Advanced Techniques 247

Week 25: Implement Advanced Text Ad Design 248

Monday: Google Dynamic Keyword Insertion 248

Tuesday: Ad Sitelinks 253

Wednesday: Product Extensions 256

Thursday: Product Listings 257

Friday: Local Extensions 259

Week 26: Insert Ad Text Symbols 261

Monday: Bullets and Squares 262

Tuesday and Wednesday: Multiple Characters in One 262

Thursday and Friday: Non-English Punctuation and Random Characters 263

Week 27: Use Google Content Nontext Ads 263

Monday and Tuesday: Static and Animated Banner Ads 264

Wednesday: Video Ads 266

Thursday: Mobile Banners 270

Friday: Banner Fatigue and Ad Rotation 272

Week 28: Perform Advanced Ad Testing 273

Monday: Set Up Split Tests 273

Tuesday: Know What to Split Test 275

Wednesday and Thursday: Conduct Initial A/B Split Testing 278

Friday: Reflect on the Outcome of the Test 283

Chapter 11 Month 8—Test and Optimize Landing Pages 285

Week 29: Plan Your Tests 286

Monday: Prioritizing Test Elements 286

Tuesday: Testing Headlines 286

Wednesday: Testing Body Copy 288

Thursday: Testing Offers 290

Friday: Testing Other Elements of Your Landing Page 290

Week 30: Use Google Website Optimizer 294

Monday and Tuesday: Introducing Google Website Optimizer 294

Wednesday and Thursday: Tagging Pages for Google Website Optimizer 296

Friday: Validating Your Pages 298

Week 31: Conduct A/B and Multivariate Tests 298

Monday and Tuesday: Using A/B Split Testing 298

Wednesday and Thursday: Using Multivariate Testing 300

Friday: Choosing the Right Test Method 302

Week 32: Report and Interpret Results 302

Monday and Tuesday: Reporting in Google Website Optimizer 303

Wednesday and Thursday: Interpreting Test Results 305

Friday: Reaching the End of Your Landing Page Testing 305

Chapter 12 Month 9—Migrate Your Campaign to Microsoft and Yahoo! 307

Why Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter Matter 308

Different Look, Same Strategy 309

Week 33: Understand YSM Differences and Advantages 309

Monday: Standard and Advanced Match Types 309

Tuesday: Geo-targeting 311

Wednesday: Ad Types and Lengths 314

Thursday: Ad Scheduling 316

Friday: Demographic Targeting 320

Week 34: Understand Microsoft adCenter Differences and Advantages 323

Monday: Keyword Match Types 324

Tuesday: Geo-targeting 324

Wednesday: Ad Types and Lengths 326

Thursday: Ad Scheduling 330

Friday: Demographic Targeting 331

Week 35: Create Google AdWord Exports 333

Monday and Tuesday: Creating the Root CSV from AdWords Editor 333

Wednesday and Thursday: Creating the Root CSV from Yahoo! 335

Friday: Creating the Root CSV from adCenter 335

Week 36: Upload and Fine-Tune 336

Monday: Uploading into Yahoo! 336

Tuesday: Troubleshooting Yahoo! Import Problems 338

Wednesday: Uploading into adCenter 340

Thursday and Friday: Reviewing Campaign Uploads 340

Appendix A Advanced AdWords Editor 343

What Is AdWords Editor? 344

Getting Started 344

Opening and Downloading Your Account 345

Downloading Campaign Statistics 346

Uploading Your Changes 346

Navigating, Editing, and Expanding Your Campaigns 348

Saving Time with AdWords Editor 356

Find and Replace 357

Detailed Ad Text Changes 357

Spreadsheets Are Still Important 359

Backup Files (AEA) 359

Export Changes (AES) 359

Export Spreadsheet (CSV) 359

Global Edits 359

Upload to Yahoo! or MSN 360

Import Changes 360

Working with General Tools 360

Find Duplicate Keywords Tool 360

Keyword Grouper 361

Keyword Opportunities 362

Appendix B Facebook PPC 363

Getting Started 364

Targeting Facebook Ads 366

Managing and Reporting 371

Using Facebook Ad-Performance Reports 373

Index 379