Tips to Energize Your PPC Campaigns

With more and more catalogers transitioning online, search marketing, in particular pay per click (PPC), has become essential to their marketing plans and budgets. At last week’s Search Marketing Expo East conference in New York City, a panel of search experts led a discussion on how to revive a failed PPC campaign. Here are some thoughts/observations/tips gleaned from that session.

* Many sites aren’t lacking for traffic, noted Alissa Ruehl, manager of paid search services at the online marketing services firm Apogee Search. But for the most part, it’s irrelevant traffic. The first step is to find irrelevant search terms in Google’s search query report. Then, when you find these terms, use them as negative keywords in all search engines, Ruehl advised. Try testing keywords in multiple match types on Google, she added. For Yahoo, adjust advanced match settings. These techniques can reduce unqualified traffic by 50 percent or more.

* Joanna Lord, senior SEM strategist for the travel shopping comparison site OneTime.com, listed four steps to survive a failed PPC campaign.

1. Isolate the problem. Keep detailed team-based records (e.g., daily agendas, updated calendars); maintain an internal database (e.g., TWiki, Yammer, Basecamp); and hold regular meetings to be aware of each others’ changes. “The best thing about our industry is a lot of the tools are free,” Lord said. “Use them.”

2. Consider the context. Are you a seasonal business? Has anything changed in regard to your competitor’s budget? Were there any tool, application or search engine changes that could’ve affected your results? Any industry movement, mergers, buyouts, etc.? “Look beyond any internal issues you’re dealing with,” Lord said, to see if an external factor has affected your campaign.

3. Determine a plan. Buy some time by day-parting, turning off some keywords for a period of time, Lord advised.