In Part #1 of our more in-depth look at paid media, you can see examples of interruptive advertising on Facebook, Twitter and on various websites across the Internet.
This time we’re going to talk about intentional advertising. These are ads you see when you enter specific search terms in a search engine. This is also known as PPC advertising and it’s a great way to get more traffic to your landing page.
However, just like any form of paid media, you need to create the right kind of campaign to get the best results. Otherwise you risk wasting time and revenue.
So let’s talk about the right way to do PPC advertising.
First off, I’d like to give you a glossary.
Glossary
There are so many terms and acronyms surrounding PPC advertising that I figured I’d make it a bit easier on you up front. Here are a list of terms you will see if you spend any time researching PPC advertising:
- PPC – Pay Per Click: Let’s start with the basics. This means that you, as the marketer, pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. You are paying for your traffic instead of just hoping you’ll get it through organic search.
- Google AdWords: The most popular PPC advertising system in the world. This system is the most commonly used and tends to drive trends in the PPC arena. It also has the Keyword Planner, which lets you determine which keywords will work best for your ads.
- Keywords: These are the words that you will focus your ads on and bid on within the Google AdWords system. You want these words to be relevant to your product and to the person searching for them.
- Long-Tail Keywords: Longer strings of words that identify a more specific search goal. Let’s compare the search terms “craft beer kit” and “home brewing craft pilsner kit.” The first set of keywords indicates that someone may just have started their search. The second set of keywords indicates that the searcher is looking for something specific, and may be ready to buy.
- Ad Groups: These are essentially “containers” to house your keywords, text ads and landing pages within the Google AdWords system.
- Text Ads: The actual ads that show up on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). They look like this:
