Help! - Pay-Per-Click SEM Marketing Best Practices

[terrencegordon]

Joe, nice.

I don't know what strategy Yag is using to keep a minute-by-minute account for who's bidding on his client's brand names, but I'd like to have it if it exists. Because it's not in his or his clients' control who bids on their Trademark terms and when.

To further support the "reason" for brand bidding is a study put out by iCrossing - "Search Synergy".

http://www.icrossing.com/articles/Search Synergy Report.pdf

Enjoy

 

[sjordan]

The most effective PPC strategies I've seen implemented have included vehicle based PPC plus a combination of generic, proven strategies like buying competitor names etc. The vehicle based PPC is cutting edge though as the keywords are made from the dealer's inventory such as "2010 Jeep Wrangler". So, in this case 2010 Jeep Wrangler is the paid keyword set to exact match and also inserted into the actual Adwords ad.

The Adwords Destination URL then links directly to the car detail page of the 2010 Jeep Wrangler in stock, or all Jeep Wranglers in stock. We had to be Google Adwords API certified to set up an automated process like that where it updates daily with the feed, but it's extremely successful primarily because the search is so specific that the cost per click is lower, yet a higher percentage of the click throughs convert to goals. Try it as a test with 3-5 vehicles manually, and then make sure you set up your Goal conversions in Google analytics to see for yourself. If you have call tracking you can see the calls it generates also.

 

[amyandr06]

You need to go to google and type ppc management, then look for companies that have good reviews and feedbacks, some ppc companies charge a setup fee and a fee to maintain your account, the setup fee stays the same, the maintain fee is set + if your budget is larger than you pay a additional fee on top of the regular maintenance fee.

 

[ddavis]

Amen.

JQ, in regards to Abandonment - sending highly qualified traffic to a bad website (haven't seen your website, so just saying) is the surest way to high bounce and poor conversions.

Not just the brand of the website and I like eCarList websites. If your marketing sucks, bringing traffic to it, is a waste of money.
I know of a metro dealer that cancelled AutoTrader and Cars.com and decided to spend that money (and some) on PPC. I'm hearing, through the grapevine, it has been a huge disaster. Looking at their website, there is no compelling reason for a customer to spend any time there.

PPC works every time? If your website is sticky like Joe's.

 

[kcar]

Not just the brand of the website and I like eCarList websites. If your marketing sucks, bringing traffic to it, is a waste of money.
I know of a metro dealer that cancelled AutoTrader and Cars.com and decided to spend that money (and some) on PPC. I'm hearing, through the grapevine, it has been a huge disaster. Looking at their website, there is no compelling reason for a customer to spend any time there.

PPC works every time? If your website is sticky like Joe's.

I've seen dealers spending $3,500/month for 6 months+ on PPC what a problem that was to deal with! I had to go in and cancel all of that out immediately after seeing what the previous people had done! They only got 125 leads out of it per six months month, and didn't/barely sold anything off of it. (They were paying around $110-$175 a LEAD!) AND this was through a huge name in the MANAGED dealership service provider industry, I won't say which one but it's widely used by a ton of dealers. People and most companies just don't know how to optimize PPC campaign and they always fail and are immediately turned off by it, or unaware of what's really going on. With that said PPC can be amazing if done right and I'm all for it. I'm more for throwing money at SEO for the long term but a combination of both is always good for now and then. Yeah, I would keep at least one, they are a "necessary evil" for now for all dealers, but to get rid of them completely is not such a great idea.

Also if your website is not optimized to convert those clicks and traffic, and you're half-assing it with photos, comments, content, etc. you won't see much in return or a ton of leads being generated. People just assuming PPC is going to drive all this traffic to their website, generate all these leads and sales, but if you don't have a site than can convert it then it's just not going to work. Another note, if you're targeting the wrong areas and using the wrong keywords and CPC you're going to run your budget to the ground and see nothing from it.

 

[kcar]

You need to go to google and type ppc management, then look for companies that have good reviews and feedbacks, some ppc companies charge a setup fee and a fee to maintain your account, the setup fee stays the same, the maintain fee is set + if your budget is larger than you pay a additional fee on top of the regular maintenance fee.

Be careful LOTS of people AND companies claim to know what they are doing. When in reality they don't know shit but the basics of setting up a simple campaign. MOST of them don't even monitor the results in depth or consistently work on it to improve the results, but they'll gladly send you a report of the clicks/traffic/costs and say everything is going smoother.. And if it's not they'll say we'll just lower the CPC and see what that does and change a few keywords. It's mostly all garbage, it's very tough to find a legit company to work with for PPC, same goes with SEO. Everyone thinks they are an expert.

 

[kcar]

The most effective PPC strategies I've seen implemented have included vehicle based PPC plus a combination of generic, proven strategies like buying competitor names etc. The vehicle based PPC is cutting edge though as the keywords are made from the dealer's inventory such as "2010 Jeep Wrangler". So, in this case 2010 Jeep Wrangler is the paid keyword set to exact match and also inserted into the actual Adwords ad.

The Adwords Destination URL then links directly to the car detail page of the 2010 Jeep Wrangler in stock, or all Jeep Wranglers in stock. We had to be Google Adwords API certified to set up an automated process like that where it updates daily with the feed, but it's extremely successful primarily because the search is so specific that the cost per click is lower, yet a higher percentage of the click throughs convert to goals. Try it as a test with 3-5 vehicles manually, and then make sure you set up your Goal conversions in Google analytics to see for yourself. If you have call tracking you can see the calls it generates also.

Good to see someone else does this as well. I LOVE doing this, and have seen decent results from it and the CPC is usually much lower and much more targeted when clicked through. I can run those selective inventory ads all day vs. main keywords because my budget stays full. Although the traffic is not immediately high, it does bring in those right buyers/traffic.