Proper leveraging and continual testing of ads in the pay-per-click marketplace are essential best practices for realizing improvements in ad positioning. While it is true that ongoing testing and optimization also drive coveted consumer engagement, online marketers understand that heightening a user’s intent to act is largely dependent on delivering higher ad and keyword click-through rates and a higher website quality score. Understanding the role that best practices play in achieving better ad positioning by way of an improved quality score and increased CTRs will benefit your search strategies both in the short- and long-terms.

Quality score
Quality score can influence the cost that an advertiser will pay for first page bids on keywords within its account. Also, it affects ad ranking and positioning on the search engine results pages and influences the actual cost of a given keyword. Best practices tied to quality score include improving landing page quality as well as measuring overall account performance. Building up quality score is partly contingent on advertisers writing better, more relevant ad and landing page text. To that end, ads and landing pages should be rich with keywords and relevant groupings of search terms. For example, a search marketer running a PPC campaign for a financial firm would incorporate keyword groups like “loan servicing,” “retirement account,” and “mortgage refinancing” into its content. Creative text should be continually tested and optimized to keep your site relevant and to drive the best results possible.

Additional best practices that directly raise quality score include establishing lower page load times, building trust by displaying website terms and conditions, and implementing a strategic link building plan to strengthen backlinks. Though these are certainly significant variables for increasing quality score, the most important and impactful metric to achieve a better quality score is the click-through rate. Higher click-through rates allow advertiser keywords to be priced at a lower cost-per-click (CPC) and enable their ads to appear in higher positions.

Click-through rate improvements
As is the case with maximizing quality score, CTR best practices must also be adhered to in order to determine optimum ad performance and maintain cost-efficiency. Considering the complex, technical nature of CTR, it might come as a surprise to learn that one of the most important click-through rate best practices involves basic planning — figuring out the goal of your campaign. Client objectives and spend will determine the appropriate click-through rate to drive results. This will also impact keyword bidding strategies to maximize cost-efficiency and conversions. Utilizing the right blend of short- and long-tail keywords will attract traffic and deliver more conversions. Long-tail keywords are especially effective for PPC programs because there is less bidding competition for them.

Coupled with a forward-thinking keyword bidding strategy, concise keyword targeting should be incorporated into your CTR improvement program. A combination of relevant keywords and ads is a winning formula for increasing higher quality click-through rates. Keywords and ads that share a pertinent relationship are more likely to draw users to click and convert on your ad. Let’s borrow once again from the earlier finance client illustration. Finance clients looking to drive traffic to their sites would benefit from organizing keywords discussed in the earlier example within tightly themed ad groups appropriate to their business model. Keyword groups like “financial planning,” “401K account,” and “IRA savings” will produce desired clicks likely to convert.

Going negative is another important best practice for augmenting click-through rates. By including negative keywords into your PPC campaign, you can eliminate potential searches for that term. Let’s say you were running a PPC initiative for a Wall Street investment firm. The firm might fear that keywords like “financial crisis,” “stimulus,” or “bailout” will appear in searches. Adding these finance search terms as negative keywords will alleviate your client’s concerns. Negative keywords generate relevant searches keeping your traffic on target. They also prevent unwanted, costly clicks that would hinder your return goals.

Another way to bolster click-through rates is through a keyword typo tool. Search marketers can get the most out of your PPC spend by including commonly misspelled keywords into an ad group. The keyword typo tool can also recognize product names that are intentionally misspelled for specific branding purposes. This will draw more targeted traffic and CTRs to your site — potentially profitable click-throughs that would have otherwise been lost in search space.

Leveraging the expertise of search marketers will help you deliver active, engaged consumers to your site and drive traffic and conversions for PPC campaigns. Continuous testing and optimization are needed to maximize PPC performance before, during, and after a campaign. However, click-through rate and quality score best practices must be integrated into a program of continuous testing to achieve the best possible ad positioning for your PPC campaign.

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