How To Setup A PPC Ad

Do you want to set up a PPC ad but not sure where to start? Maybe you read our post explaining what PPC advertising is and think your business could benefit, but you’ve never done it before. Here is an explanation of how you can set up a campaign.

In the last post we made up a company called Jay’s Bikes to show how PPC advertising can benefit businesses. We’ll use the Jay’s Bikes example in this post. But don’t worry – PPC advertising is useful for much more than selling bicycles.

Planning Your Campaign

To set up a PPC campaign in Google you will need an Adwords account. But you have some work to do before you get to that stage. In our fictional example, Jay wants to broaden the reach of his business to find customers outside of his current geographical area. He believes he can offer better deals on certain types of bikes than the local competition, and offer better service.

Before setting up Adwords, he needs to do three things:

1. Decide on the objectives of the campaign
2. Prepare the website landing page
3. Prepare a list of keywords

Let’s take each one in order. First, you need an objective for the campaign. You can have multiple objectives as long as they’re clear. In the case of Jay he is going to target customers looking to buy mountain bikes.

Second, he needs to decide on the landing page. This is the page on Jay’s website that the visitor first sees right after they click on the ad. Remember that once the click happens, Jay is charged. Make sure your landing pages encourage users to take an action.

In Jay’s case this means prominently highlighting the discount offer. He should also feature the mountain bikes included in the deal, shipping information, the customer service benefits, and Buy Now buttons.

Third, Jay needs to prepare a list of keywords for his campaign. The best place to start with this is by looking at his website and noting down the keywords. His keywords may look something like:

• mountain bikes
• mountain bikes for sale
• <brand> mountain bike

He will need about 20 keywords. The key with these words (pun intended) is to try to think like your customer – what would they search for? You can also go to Google to get other ideas: type in your search and then scroll to the bottom of the page to find the “Searches related to…” section. Include any of the suggestions that are applicable.

Setting Up Adwords

Now Jay can now go to Adwords to set up his campaign. Here’s how to do that:

1. Click the red “Campaign” button
2. Click “Search Network only”

The search network displays your ad on Google’s search pages. The Display Network is for advertisements on third-party websites who display Google Adsense ads. These ads usually don’t work on a PPC basis, though. Instead they work on something called CPM which basically means you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is displayed, whether it is clicked on or not.

Here is an example of a Display Network ad:

Here are some examples of search network ads:

Now we can continue setting up the campaign:

1. Select “All features”
2. Give your campaign a name – e.g. Mountain Bike Campaign
3. Uncheck “Include search partners” to ensure your ads only show on Google websites
4. Enter the target area for your add. For Jay this could mean a radius of 200 miles from his shop.
5. On “Bid Strategy”, select “I’ll manually set my bids for clicks” so you can exercise more control
6. Enter your budget
7. Click “Save and continue”
8. In “Ad Group” give your ad group a name – e.g. 20% off mountain bike offer
9. Choose “Text ad”
10. Write your ad

You have limits to the number of words you can include in your ad, but it should include your main target keyword. It should also clearly outline why someone should click, and it should create a sense of urgency. For example:

• Headline: 20% Off Mountain Bikes
• Description line 1: Free shipping and full warranties
• Description line 2: Huge discounts this month only

No you can continue setting up your ad:

1. Enter the list of keywords you prepared earlier
2. Click “Save ad group”

That’s it – you’ve set up a PPC advertising campaign.

Most importantly, don’t forget about your ad. Devote time each week to looking at the stats and making refinements so that you can get the best possible results.