Thread: Careful With PPC Ads

Make sure you bracket your keywords for exact matches such as [Atlanta real estate]. So if someone types in "Atlanta real estate lawyers" your site does not show up.

We have found the best way to make PPC to work is use one keyword in three different types (i.e. broad, phrase and exact) per adgroup. A campaign may have 20 or 30 adgroups each with one KW.

Then, the keyword is used to write a very tightly related adgroup ad so the keyword, the group, and the ad all match.

Tracking is key as to where your success is coming from to trim, expand and profit.

Keith

Keith obviously knows more about this than I do, but I have a few suggestions as well.

If you are selling homes and you are paying for adwords such as "real estate" or "homes for sale" it wont do you much good. These clicks will cost much more, and the people searching "real estate" might be looking for investment advice, real estate books, homes in Costa Rica or who knows.

"Chico, CA real estate agents" "Chico, CA homes for sale" "Chico, CA lake front property" are much better keywords. They target a specific area and are more unique. They will cost MUCH less and the people who click on these links are much more likely to be interested in your services.

In a smaller city(Chico is ~90,000) PPC might be a great way to go. Here only two or three agents use it, so the price is cheap and you have little competition for placement. If you live in Atlanta, you may want to use even more specific keywords, maybe breaking it down by certain parts of the city. I.E. "Downtown Atlanta homes for sale"

One technique that I read about, but haven't tested, is to use commonly misspelled words. Maybe try "Atlamta real estate" Obviously they meant to type in "Atlanta" but they hit the wrong key. These words will be very cheap and still reach your target market. They just wont be searched as often, but may still be worth the time to do.

I haven't tested the above method, but always thought it sounded solid.

Good luck with your PPC campaigns people!

The best cost per click and quality score for adwords means making the ads as relevant as possible to the search.

Local words like zip code, city, neighborhood, streets, school areas etc will deliver low traffic and low clicks BUT very high relevance and high CTR therefore using low money.

Just make sure you target location and use Conversion tracking tool to make sure your ROI is up. It takes time and testing to build a successful campaign. But, I wouldn't recommend ignoring these keywords altogether.