Pay Per Click: Hyperlinks and success

Directing PPC hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are key to any pay per click (PPC) campaign. Where will the potential customer be redirected to once they click a sponsored link? There are four main destinations to chose:

Homepage

This is convenient because PPC campaigns would not require numerous webpages for individual keywords.

Search transfer

Clicks will be redirected to a specific, usually a product, search that is directly related to a PPC campaign.

Category browse

A user is directed to a category that matches the PPC ad.

Other

Standalone webpages, for example, forms or generic pages promoting general messages, such as, “check this out” or “great deal”.

Adapted from Becker et al (2009) who also found that category browse and search transfer had a higher conversion rate compared to homepage or other pay per click redirects.

Photo showing the location of PPC ads on Google. Source.

4 things influencing PPC success

WordStream suggest the following elements must be included to make a PPC campaign successful:

• Keyword research;
• Organisation;
• Keyword grouping;
• And ad groups (both creation and management).

Successful PPC campaigns need to be well researched and documented.

Trust and PPC

PPC, compared to organic, search has some limitations. Trust, for example, may be lower in PPC whereas highly ranked organic websites are more likely to have more trust attached to them. PPC click-through rates vary. Big brands, for instance, receive higher click-through rates (3% upwards) compared to non brands (1% to 7%). This suggests that PPC and trust are linked.

PPC tips

Carry out keyword research. What product / service do you want to increase? Choose keywords directly related to your products or services. Set a realistic budget and monitor it. Get a responsive website to ensure mobile users can benefit from any PPC campaign. Have brilliant content and webpages. Think about writing call to actions on page content too. Hire a digital marketing agency if you want the most optimum results; they will manage your account regularly.

Posted by Gerald Murphy

References

1. Becker, H. Broder, A. Gabrilovich, E. Josifovski, V. and Pang, B. (2009) What happens after an ad click? Quantifying the impact of landing pages in web advertising. CIKM. [no volume or issue number]. pp. 57 — 66.
2. Kim, L. (no date) Pay-Per-Click Campaign Success Through Keyword Management. [Online] [Accessed on 02nd September 2013]
3. Raehsler, L. (2012) What Is a Good Click-Through Rate for PPC? [Online] [Accessed on 02nd September 2013]