Planning and organizing are often overlooked aspects of PPC accounts. A retailer knows their product inventory and wants to sell it online. Let’s say they sell sporting goods, everything from bowling shoes to tennis balls. They create a pay-per-click account and get a huge list of keywords that anyone might use to find the products they sell. The problem is that they do this without planning ahead.
They compile a gigantic list of keywords because they sell hundreds of products. They create one campaign with one ad group to sell everything in their inventory. Their ad lists the company name and points everyone to the home page. Thousands of impressions, hundreds of clicks and dollars later, few conversions are the result.
Sometimes it is hard to figure out just how to organize such an overwhelmingly large list of products. I find using the grocery store an an organizational model can be very helpful.
- What do you sell?
Create one gigantic list of everything you sell. Canned corn, fresh corn, frozen corn, bread, cheese, milk, cereal, lettuce, eggs, tomatoes, napkins, oregano … - How are you organized?
Is your website organized by category? If it isn’t, it should be. Organize your ad campaigns as thoroughly as your website, if not even more so. Canned goods, produce, dairy, butcher, dry goods, frozen foods, paper goods …
- What items belong in which category?
Figure it out and split up your keyword list accordingly. Within your canned goods category/campaign, you may break that down into smaller levels of organization such as vegetables, meats, or soups - Why should someone buy from you?
This helps you write your ad creative – use your keywords in the creative: Top quality organic chicken broth - What aisle will you find a specific type of product?
There’s your landing page. If you’re selling creamed corn, the landing page has creamed corn on it. You don’t want to pay for a click for Kosher Hot Dogs and have the ad click through and land on the Frozen Dairy page.
If you can’t think of how to best organize your campaign, visit your local grocery shop and take a lesson from them. Make it easy for your customer to find what they want, create the ad text that tells them you have what they want, and insure their click lands them on just the right page.