Pay per Click Questions

Hello, I am Panos and I am a Pay per Click specialist.

When it comes to PPC [pay per click], clients have a lot of questions. Here you will find most of the PPC questions grouped together. The short and sweet PPC answers range from Google Ads to Facebook Ads to Programmatic and everything in between.
So, let’s start answering.

Does Schema affect my PPC performance?

Schema or more precisely Schema markup is a collection of data points that are designed to communicate with bots. All Ad platforms use bots in order to better serve the advertiser and the ad platform.

For free Google Shopping listings (organic shopping), Schema markup will need:

To be present on the landing pages.
Match the data of the Google Shopping Feed.
Match the data of the rendered page[s].

If the Google AdsBot can’t find or read the Schema markup found on the landing page[s], then that will generate error messages in Google Merchant Center.

In short, yes, Schema does affect PPC performance, especially in Google Shopping.

Follow the link below If you want to check the schema of your pages [for free]

https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a webpage a visitor lands after clicking an advertisement or a listing found on the SERPs. Landing pages are the most important part of your PPC strategy. A landing page is a link between the service or product you are offering and the intent of the searcher. The better the link the better the conversions.

There are many elements that distinguish a normal landing page from a high performing one. High performing landing pages load fast on mobile, have good UX, and answer most of a visitor’s questions.

Landing pages can be part of the site or provided by another service such as Mailchimp, Unbounce, Instapage, etc.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing is the practice of showing one version or another and tracking the results based on the version the user saw. One version is usually the default version of the page and the other version is often called the ‘challenger’.

A good practice for A/B testing is making serving the user with a ‘challenger’ page that has minimal changes compared to the original landing page. Even though there is no limitation on the changes one can make, the ‘copy’ is the first element that is changed and tested.

Modern WordPress themes provide users with A/B testing ability.

Alternatively, you could use Google Optimize and run A/B tests for free.

What is ad inventory?

The number of page views and/or virtual “real estate” a site has available for advertising.

A site can show your display banner on single or multiple parts of a page.
Do note that multiple impressions on a single site may or may not be desired by brands and/or performance marketers.

What is Attribution?

In simple terms: what ‘source and medium’ was responsible for the sale or lead. There are multiple attribution models in Google ads but the most widely used are, ‘Last Click’, and ‘Data Driven’. Each marketer and/or advertiser should choose the attribution model that best fits the sale cycle of the product or service.

What are KPIs?

KPIs are Key Performance Indicators. Each ad platform offers KPIs for every scenario imaginable.

Even though there are multiple KPIs to choose from, each campaign should focus on a handful of them.

E.g. impressions and CTR are meaningful metrics for brand awareness campaigns but not so much for sales campaigns.

What is ‘bidding’ strategy?

A bid strategy tells the ad auction how to bid in order to manage your spending budget while driving the desired results.

In Google Ads, you have the following options

• Manual Cost per Click [CPC]
• Manual cost per click with enhanced CPC
• Maximize clicks
• Target Impression Share
• CPM
• tCPM
• VCPM
• Maximize conversions
• Maximize conversion value
• Target CPA
• Target ROAS

In Facebook Ads conversion campaigns, you have the following options

• Highest value or lowest cost
• Cost cap
• Bid cap
• Minimum ROAS

Analytics

Technology that helps track and analyze the performance of a website or online marketing campaign.

What is AOV?

Average Order Value [AOV] is an eCommerce metric representing the average total of shopping cart orders over a particular time period. In Google Analytics, you can find the metric in ‘Conversion > eCommerce > Overview’

Banner Ad

An electronic ad in the form of an image that is available in many sizes (often standardized sizes) and resides on a webpage.

Banner Farm

A webpage, often found on a free Web host site, that consists of pay-per-view banner ads or banners linked to affiliate programs.

Behavioral Targeting

The practice of targeting and serving ads to groups of users who exhibit similarities in their location, demographics, and how they act and react in their online environment.

Eg Sending Display Ads across the web to anonymous visitors that interacted with a webpage but did not convert.

Behavior segmentation is based on purchase behavior, occasion-based behavior, benefits sought, and customer loyalty. This type of marketing segmentation influences PPC campaigns and sales funnels.

What is Google Ads API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. A language and message format used by an application to extract data from a database management system (DBMS) or communications protocol.

Google AdWords API allows apps to interact directly with the Google Ads platform, vastly increasing the efficiency of managing large or complex Google Ads accounts and campaigns.

This helps with automated account management, Custom reporting, Ad management based inventory, manage Smart Bidding strategies, etc.

What is Google Ads editor?

Google Ads editor is an application created by Google and it allows advertisers to make changes in Google Ads without the use of the web interface. The Google Ads editor also allows for both offline and faster campaign edits.

What is ‘bid’?

The maximum amount of money that an advertiser is willing to pay in order to enter the auction system. Bids can vary wildly depending on factors such as competition, hour of day, impression share, position on the page, etc.

What is AdBot?

Adbot or bot is a common name for crawlers.

Crawler is a generic term for programs [robot or spider] that discover and scan websites. Google Ads have multiple such adbots. The quality of the landing pages and the instructions found in robots.txt will have a positive or negative impact on adbots.

For the full list, visit the following link.

What is Branded Search?

Branded search is the practice where an advertiser bids on brand terms or brand keywords. Branded search is a point of debate among many marketers since it can offer mixed results when it comes to performance marketing and in extent the performance of the media spend. The branded search should be treated as a metric of the efficiency of both online and offline marketing efforts. Marketing focused companies tend to allocate more budget on branded search where Sales focused companies tend to reduce budget from branded search.

What is CTR?

CTR refers to the click-through rate. CTR is the number of clicks an ad received divided by the total number of impressions the ad had.

What is contextual advertising?

The term Contextual Advertising is applied to ads appearing on websites or other media where the ads are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user. Google will analyze the content in the Display Network and try to match the ads with the most relevant content. The analysis will take into account factors such as text, language, page structure, link structure, keywords, and other elements.

Contextual Advertising

• Requires fewer data compared to Behavioral Advertising
• Is not constrained by privacy legislations
• Is easier to implement
• Offers brand safety
• Is relevant without alarming the visitor

Conversions

Conversions usually refer to visitors who take the desired action such as a sale, registration, form fill, telephone call, schedule a meeting, etc.

Conversion rates

The number of visitors who convert after clicking through on an ad, divided by the total number of clicks through to a site for that ad.

Cookies

A small file that is usually automatically downloaded by the web browser and stored on a visitor’s computer that records information. Cookies are important for personalization and enhanced experiences. Also, cookies have expiration dates named Cookie Duration or Return Days.

What is CPA?

CPA is either Cost per Acquisition or Cost Per Action. The term is used interchangeably, wrongfully.

Cost per Acquisition points to qualified actions such as sales and the cost for gaining a new paying customer.

Cost per Action points to actions that may or may not be qualified.

What is CPL?

Cost per Lead is the cost of a lead that may or may not be qualified.

What is CPM?

Cost per Mille is the cost of one thousand advertising banner impressions. The term ‘Mille’ means thousand in Latin

What is CPC?

Cost per click is a cost metric for each click on an advertisement.

What is CPO?

Cost per order is a cost metric for each time an order is transacted.

What is CPS?

Cost per Sales is a term for advertising in which the advertiser pays only for those clicks where the user clicks through on the banner or ad and actually purchases a product.

Creatives?

Creatives can mean a lot of different things. When it comes to PPC, Creatives are the materials delivered in order to promote a product or a service.

What is Cross-channel Marketing?

Cross-channel Marketing refers to the practice of tracking and monitoring the actions, movements, and data of visitors and customers across all devices and all digital channels.

The term is used interchangeably with Multi-Channel Marketing or Omni-Channel Marketing.

What is CAC?

Customer Acquisition Cost is the cost associated with acquiring a new customer via your website. Marketplace, and other mediums. The term is heavily used by Amazon PPC professionals.

What is destination URLs?

Destination URL is the specific location where a user should be directed after clicking your ad.

What is display URLs?

Display URL is the URL shown on PPC ads. It usually appears below the ad text and may or may not match the destination URL.

What are Distribution networks?

Distribution networks are websites or search engines on which paid ads can be distributed.

What is dynamic text?

Dynamic text is an ad customizer.
When a search query matches the pre-defined parameter, then the term [usually in a form or a keyword] is automatically embedded within the ad.

What is Click-Fraud?

The deceitful practice of generating a click without having actual interest in the ad or the offerings.

What is “Double Serving”?

Double Serving is a practice in which advertisers try to trick the ad networks.

What is Data Studio?

Data Studio is a free tool that turns your data into informative, easy to read, easy to share, and fully customizable dashboards and reports. Data Studio has an amazing integration with most Google products and properties. Integration with other ecosystems, although supported, isn’t always free. In order to integrate Data Studio with other ecosystems, you will have to purchase software named ‘connectors’.

Needless to say, Google Ads PPC managers use Data Studio regularly.

What are Google Ads Scripts?

Google Ads scripts are JavaScript scripts that allow PPC managers to reduce their workload by a significant amount. Google Ads Scripts also allow for enhanced productivity through automations that are pre-defined by the Google Ads PPC account manager.

Google Ads Scripts are ideal for managers that have some technical knowledge and JavaScript coding experience. Do note that some scripts have different versions for single ads accounts and MMC.