5 Myths About Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Debunked

1ThinkSEM Consulting, LLC – Confidential and Proprietary

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Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Marketing and Landing Pages

Clint Danks - ThinkSEM

ThinkSEM Consulting, LLC – Confidential and Proprietary

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- Who are we?

ThinkSEM• Founded Nov. 1, 2007• Core Services

– Pay-per-click marketing (PPC)– Landing page design & testing– Website design– Search engine optimization (SEO)– Much more….

• Preferred Vendor of TrustedChoice.com

• Google Partner• Bing Ads Accredited• 4-time Design Award Winner


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- Who am I?

Clint Danks• 12 years’ industry experience• Managed over 20MM in client ad

spend• Founder of Minnesota Search

Engine Marketing Association (MnSearch)

• Advisory Board - MnSearch


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Table of Content

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

• What is Pay-Per-Click?• Features and Benefits• How does PPC marketing help

your insurance agency?• Introduction to the platforms

Landing Pages

• What is a landing page?• What is NOT a landing page• Why landing pages?• Tracking PPC and Landing Pages


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What is Pay-Per-Click?

• PPC is a model of online marketing wherein advertisers pay when their ads are clicked, essentially buying traffic for a website/landing page.

• PPC, also known as CPC (cost-per-click), SEM (search engine marketing), or Paid Search, is an immediately effective way to funnel traffic to a website/landing page.


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Sponsored Search - AdWords

• Most noticeably, paid search occurs on search engines (i.e., Google). Ads are triggered by keywords visitors type into the search box.This type of PPCis called SponsoredSearch.


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Sponsored Search – Bing Ads

• Most noticeably, paid search occurs on search engines (i.e., Google). Ads are triggered by keywords visitors type into the search box.This type of PPCis called SponsoredSearch.


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Display Ads/Banners• Advertisers can also opt to have their banner ads appear on

related websites. This is called the Display Network.


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Remarketing

• Scenario: You visit a car website, researching a new vehicle. Later, you visit weather.com to check the temperature…

…and lo and behold, you see a banner ad for the very car dealership you visited earlier. You’ve been remarketed to!

• Remarketing is a way for advertisers to get back in front of a previous audience – visitors who didn’t take a desired action on the site – with ads shown on other websites in the Display Network.


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Features and Benefits of PPC

• Geo-targeting• Day-parting• Device Targeting• Keyword Control/Relevancy• Demographic Targeting


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Geo-Targeting

• Most often, advertisers don’t want their PPC ads to show world- (or even nation) wide.

• Geo-targeting allows you to target an audience within a specific geography (whether a country, state, county, DMA, city, zip code or radius target).– Saves money on wasted clicks – visitors outside your

desired location.– Efficient use of (tight) budget for local businesses.


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Day-Parting

• Day-parting allows advertisers to run ads at certain days of the week or even specific hours of the day.

• E.g., most B2B businesses are better off serving ads during hours of operation vs. weekends.


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Device Targeting

• Two ways to target audience by device:– Desktop/laptop + tablets– Smartphones

• Why target this way?– Different activity levels/needs depending on device– Varying experience based on size of screen, etc.


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Keyword Control & Relevancy• Sponsored search PPC’s entire model is built around keywords

– Ads only show for relevant queries (Sponsored Search) • Account Management

– Keywords organized in niched groups– Ad copy written specifically to those

keywords– Ads link directly to landing pages

that match copy’s message


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Demographic Targeting (Display Network)

• Reach the right audience segment by targeting specific demographics– Age– Gender– Parental Status– Job title– Household income– Interests


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How does pay-per-click marketing help your agency?

• SEO is a long-term endeavor– Takes a long time (sometimes years) to “ramp up”– “Free” (if in-house) but very time-intensive

• PPC is immediately effective– Click “enable” and ads start showing– Allows greater flexibility• Keyword targeting• Volume of traffic/leads• Easily target by device/demographics/location


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Lead Generation That Makes Sense for Your Business

• Many different strategies to choose from.• What makes sense for your business?• Highest profit insurance lines?• Volume?• Branding?


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Brand Awareness

• Banner ads can accomplish two primary goals– Local brand awareness– Lead generation


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Introducing the PPC Platforms:

• Google AdWords• Bing Ads• LinkedIn• Facebook


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Google AdWords• Serves ads on Google and their partner network• Market share

– Google AdWords: 67% – Bing Ads: 28%

• Primarily a keyword-driven platform• Multiple ad types/delivery methods

– Text ads for Sponsored Search– Text and/or banner ads for Display Network


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Bing Ads

• Serves ads on both Bing and Yahoo search engines (and AOL in the near future)

• Primarily a keyword-driven platform• Less competition• Cheaper cost-per-click (CPC)• More flexibility with campaigns/ad groups


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Pro’s and Con’s of AdWords and Bing Ads

• Pro’s– Laser-focused (keywords)– Take back control over Google and Bing (and Yahoo)

• Con’s– Account size can become very, very large and difficult to

manage• 1000’s of keywords• 100’s of ads

– Can get expensive if not managed correctly


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LinkedIn• Demographic-driven platform• Continuity from audience to

ad copy to landing page• “Hybrid” ad styles (50x50

pixel image and text)• B2B

– Commercial lines– Vs. Facebook (B2C)


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Facebook• Demographic-driven platform• “Hybrid” ad styles• B2C

– Personal lines• Also supports remarketing


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Pro’s and Con’s of LinkedIn and Facebook

• Pro’s– Much cheaper traffic– Demographic control (age, gender, likes, geography, etc.)

• Con’s– Ads can experience “fatigue” over time.

• Same ads served to the same audience over and over.• Need to have a many different creatives in order to avoid going stale.


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Where To Send PPC Visitors?

• The Landing Page– After we’ve acquired the click, we need to send

visitors to a page where they have a much better chance of turning into a lead/client.


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What is a Landing Page?

• Two “Proper” Definitions– Website:• Any page a visitor lands/arrives upon, whether from

organic listing, referral or direct traffic.

– Paid Search:• A standalone, custom page built for the sole purpose of

converting paid traffic.


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Need a Quote?


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Want to Find an Insurance Agent?


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Custom Business Solution?


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Don’t Forget Your Mobile Audience


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Other Examples of Landing Pages


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Other Examples of Landing Pages


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What is NOT a Landing Page?


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If You Saw That After Clicking an Ad

• You would set the world record for leaving a website!

• I apologize to the Rezin Insurance Group


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What is Not a Good Landing Page?


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What is the Worst That Could Happen?

• These environments do not represent the company brand effectively

• No clear calls-to-action (or far too many)• No leads• Most importantly…wasted marketing dollars!• And a bad attitude towards pay-per-click

– “Pay-per-click doesn’t work”


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Why Landing Pages & Not Website?

• Send PPC visitors to website– General messaging– No (specific) message match between keyword/ad

copy/landing page– Multiple goals on website– Too many distractions

• Send visitors to specific landing page– Page designed for specific purpose (1 or 2 goals)– Minimal distractions– Message match/continuity


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Why Landing Pages? (cont.)

• Attention ratio– Eliminate distractions and keep visitors focused on what

YOU want them to do (convert).• Conversion improvement – Click to trackable lead (form or phone call)– Maximize ability to convert click into lead

• Isolated testing environment– Messaging, imagery and form length


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Track Your PPC & Landing Pages• PPC can be tracked to the penny– Keywords, ads > conversion > ROI

• Call tracking– Measure every phone call

• Forms – Capture lead info– Pre-qualify

• Google Analytics– Free platform; robust


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Who is Going to Effectively Manage Our PPC Accounts?

• Outside vendor who has years of experience, is a Google Partner and has case studies.

• Improve account efficiency over time– Negative terms – Test ad copy– Eliminate “dead weight” keywords/ads


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Debunking PPC Myths

• Buying PPC traffic means we’ll perform better organically• Higher spend per click = higher ranking• Top position = top results• Bidding on keywords I already organically “rank” well for is a

waste of money• Click fraud• Custom landing pages = waste of money (I already have a

website)


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Take-Aways

• PPC is the best digital marketing medium – When done correctly!

• Consistent lead volume• PPC isn’t for everyone • Before you start pay-per-click marketing:– Know your agency close rate on non-referral leads.– Know your average lifetime value for each client.


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Take-Aways (cont.)

• Why close rate on non-referral leads and lifetime value?– PPC manager can work backwards in determining the following:

• Monthly ad spend budget• Optimal cost-per-click (by given insurance line)• Estimated lead volume/month• Forecast accurate return-on-ad-spend!


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Questions?


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Thank You!

Clint Danks, Founder & Co-owner of ThinkSEM

[email protected]

2277 Highway 36 West, Suite 220Roseville, MN 55113


mailto:[email protected]