If you’ve ever wondered whether your client’s or  your own ads are showing, especially when geo-targeting, there is a great Google tool that allows you to see them without affecting Click Through Rate.

Google Ad Preview Tool

Not only can you target by region but by language as well in case you’re displaying foreign language ad copy.

This tool is especially useful for branded terms that typically have a very high Click Through Rate and might be affected by an individual, or group of individuals, constantly checking to make sure they’re live on the engines.

-Brian Renner

If you’re like me, you like to build as big a keyword list as possible with as many variations you can think up based on existing traffic and various other keyword building tactics. However, a lot of the time and energy it takes to build such a comprehensive list might be better applied to other aspects of your PPC campaign.

Evolution has occurred
Much like evolution has made man’s tail obsolete, the long tail that was touted to be the key to running a successful Pay Per Click campaign has gone by the wayside in favor of focusing one’s efforts on testing.

What is the long tail?
The long tail was used by PPC advertisers to direct highly targeted and cheap traffic to their site. The traffic was cheaper than normal because most competitors tended not to create a huge list of keywords initially. This long list of other keywords, when added together, could potentially drive a significant amount of cheaper traffic and leads/sales as well.

Don’t completely ignore the long tail!
While it is a best practice to create a large list of keywords at the beginning of a new campaign (cast a wide net), it’s more important to focus one’s efforts on testing out different positions, ad copy and most importantly landing page changes with the highly trafficked keywords.

Try landing page testing instead
Taking an hour to create a few variations of a landing page that can be tested with some high volume keywords is much more beneficial than taking an hour to create hundreds of variations of a particular keyword or phrase that is key to your business.

Benefits of testing over big keyword lists
With match types being what they are, the chances of stumbling upon a group of “undiscovered” keywords that end up shooting sales through the roof are slim. However, changing the shape/color of some buttons on your contact form or testing different images or messaging on your landing page can have a great impact on conversion rates. If after testing out various elements you end up moving from a 1% conversion rate to 2%…you’ve essentially doubled your actions/sales.

Time well spent.

-Brian Renner

Does having a dynamic landing page, or set of dynamic landing pages, help the quality score or conversion rates?
Since August of 2007, Google has REALLY increased the amount of weight they put into what’s on the landing page for PPC ads. You can see a considerable difference in your average CPC just by having a few mentions of the keyword you’re bidding on.

BUT

I’m not sure how they go about sending their automated bot to check out the landing page. If they go through by using some keywords in the header, then you’re set…but even so I doubt this would last long as Google would catch on that any person that develops a dynamic set of landing pages can then have their entire keyword list integrated into those landing pages.

HOWEVER

It will certainly help with conversion rates as the people landing on the page will always see something dynamic that speaks to what they’re searching for. If you have to pay more to get them there since Google doesn’t deem the landing page as relevant then it still would be worth it.

CONCLUSION

Do the dynamic pages but keep in mind that this might not help lower your CPC…but will increase conversion rates.

Most important. It’s easy to get caught up in developing a huge keyword list to get as much long tail traffic as possible, but it’s truer now than it was a couple years ago that you can have the most impact on your bottom line by simply taking the keywords that have the highest traffic and rigorously testing different ad copy, positioning and most importantly landing pages. If you have a keyword or small group of keywords that drives most of the traffic and converts at a decent rate (let’s say 1%), then making a small change on that page to target it towards those keywords could essentially double your profits just by increasing the conversion rate to 2%.

Click fraud is a big concern in the Pay Per Click industry and is often times hard to combat. What makes it especially hard sometimes is when you can’t isolate the clicks to one source. This is especially true with AOL since each time someone logs on through AOL they are assigned a different IP address.

Here are some tips that will hopefully help you combat click fraud that you’ve detected as being AOL traffic:

1. Exclude AOL Traffic
This may or may not be an option. If a lot of your sales/actions are coming from AOL, then this obviously isn’t the best choice. If you find that this traffic doesn’t convert anyways, then it may be best just to exclude it completely.

2. Look for consistency:
Are the clicks always coming in on a particular keyword or group of keywords? If so, then consider making changes to that keyword or removing it temporarily to see if the fraudulent clicks top. If it’s a high traffic or high converting term then you’ll have to be more careful with this option.

3. Day/Time Parting:
Do the clicks occur at a particular time? If so then consider displaying ads only during certain parts of the day. This tactic could also be used in conjunction with option 1 above to further target the user

4. New URL/Landing Page:
Consider getting a different URL and creating a custom landing page that then links to your main site if you think there’s someone out there targeting your specific site. This might even be a good thing since you’ll then be able to test out different landing pages (this is often the best way to quickly increase conversion rates).

All four of these tactics could be used together and may even help you optimize your account further. It may even end up being a good thing that you’re a victim of click fraud as it forces you to think creatively and test out different targeting methods you might not have tried before.

-Brian Renner

Welcome to DailyPPCTips.com. This is the first of many, daily, posts about the Pay Per Click industry as well as the industries and practices outside of PPC that affect pay per click advertising.

From here on out there will be daily posts on various topics which will include, but aren’t limited to, click frauid, cpc prices, cpc myths, landing page testing, ad copy testing, quality score, keyword research, ppc account structure and various other subjects.

Check back daily as there will always be something new to read and hopefully help you make some money online for yourself or your clients.

-Brian Renner