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Samuel Edwards
|
December 7, 2024
When to Increase Your Bid in PPC (Pay Per Click)

Developing an effective bid strategy is one essential aspect of your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad campaign.

Google offers ‘smart campaigns’ but devising a click-and-go advertising or PPC campaigns that actually works is still a fantasy.

So, having success with your manual bidding or automated bidding largely comes down to your strategy.

Of course, bid strategies are more complex than years ago and there are more features to consider.

As much as Google tries to make our lives simpler with automated bidding, you will still need to do your research.

Below is more information about bid strategy and when to increase your PPC bid.

Setting Your First Ad Bids

ad groups/ad group bid adjustments and ppc bid management

The perfect way to begin your Google Ad bidding journey is to use everything Google puts at your fingertips.

And that starts with the Keyword Planner.

This wonderful free tool will help you find new long tail keywords you didn’t consider – and it gives you a suggested bid based on how you set your advertising account.

Many experts recommend beginning viewing by looking at every keyword’s page 1 bid. Then maybe increase it by 25% to get to the middle of the page/landing page.

This will ensure your PPC ads are more visible but aren’t at the top of the heap (which will greatly increase your ad appears expenditures).

Let’s take a close look at several of the most popular automated or manual bidding strategies:

Target CPA – Cost Per Acquisition

This is a popular Google Ad Manual or automated bidding strategy that can boost your conversions while focusing on a specific desired result on the home page. If your goal is to reduce costs to generate more sales, Target CPA is a worthwhile choice.

That keyword that costs less per click doesn’t always mean it’s superior to one with a higher manual CPC bidding.

Additional site traffic at a lower CPC will not necessarily net your firm more money.

Target ROAS – Return On Ad Spend

Calculate Your ROAS by bid management software or bid management tools

Return on Ad Spend is also a great automatic bidding strategy that will help you reach the desired ROI.

With ROAS, you set your eyes on a certain dollar amount from total sales and not how many items your customers purchase. This is a useful method for products that cost more.

ROAS will adjust your strategy automatically and is based on your desired outcome or goal. Google will utilize conversion data from old PPC campaign to estimate possible conversion chances in the future.

Maximizing Conversions

This is an automated Google Ad strategy. It means the site uses AI to increase conversions and their values in your digital marketing campaign. Google looks at signals during the auction, including OS, device location, time of day, and more to boost your conversions.

Many marketers say Maximize Conversion’s can be best if you already have some conversion history in the books. But it’s not essential. Note, however, that this method could increase your costs a lot if the average spend is below the average daily budget.

Maximizing Clicks

This is like maximizing conversion’s is similar to Maximize Conversions. But the focus is on clicks, obviously. This can be what you want to drive prospects to your new website, so it works well for building audience and brand awareness. If your site doesn’t have conversion tracking set up, this strategy will set ad bids/adjust bids/manage bids to get as many clicks as possible.

When To Raise Your PPC Bids in Google

When To Raise Your PPC Bid in Google and wrong bidding strategy or negative keywords

It’s generally considered prudent to raise your bids when you can net the most profitable traffic from the keyword. And you should probably lower your PPC bid when you can get traffic that converts but it’s too expensive.

Some additional factors regarding when to raise and lower bids:

  • Different product margins: If a product is more profitable for you than others, you could consider lowering your bid.
  • Varying seasons: Does your company sell more products and services before the winter holidays and less afterwards? You probably will consider raising your managing bids before the holidays because more companies will bid on the same thing.
  • Overall competition: You may want to increase your bids based on your competitors, but that could make the product sale unprofitable.

Further, if your company goal is to reduce your cost per action or CPA, you should allow the keyword-level CPAs to tell you when to raise or lower your bids. Naturally, what you do will be different based on the keyword, but here are some guidelines:

If the CPA for a keyword is below your goal and is showing a lower ad position, many say to increase the bid. This boosts your ad higher on the page. Then, you have better advertisement visibility and additional clicks and conversions.

However, if the keyword has a higher CPA and is still in a top position, think about lowering the bid. Fewer conversions will be the result but it will reduce your CPAs.

Which Ad Strategy Should You Use?

Now that you know when it makes sense to raise your ad bid, let’s review how you figure out which bid strategy is best:

  • Check the competition: Google makes it easy to see how many companies you have going for your keywords. Also, see how the other companies write their ads and review the landing pages. It also helps to review their copy and estimate what their minimum buys are and conversion rates.
  • Quality of the ad: Do a test with bids that are higher. Testing the performance of the Google/search engines Ad fast is best. But you could need to begin with a high bid to see how the consumers respond.
  • Best position: Going for the top spot isn’t always the perfect strategy and it’s expensive. For Google Ads to appear on partner websites, it’s fine to be the third or fourth one.
  • Budget: How much can you spend every day consistently? Never bid on what your wallet cannot handle. But if you bid too low, the ads will never appear.

Establishing a Google Ad bidding strategy and knowing when to increase or decrease bids is complex.

That’s why many growing companies turn their PPC advertising strategy and campaign to a skilled and experienced contractor.

Need help with Google Ads management? Contact us, we can help!

Samuel Edwards
|
December 7, 2024
Branded Search: Why Branded Searches Give the Best Conversions

Your brand is your company’s identity.

It’s a keystone for most of your marketing and advertising strategies.

At the center of every message you send, every advertisement you display, and every new marketing tactic you try is going to be your brand name, big and prominent.

Despite this, people commonly neglect branded terms when practicing search engines optimization (SEO). Traditionally, SEO strategies focus on commonly searched keywords and phrases that pull in traffic from search engines, as well as phrases that cleanly reveal user search intent.

For example, you might optimize for phrases like “good pancakes near me” or “auto repair shop Austin.” No branded keywords are necessary here, because you’re intentionally generating a list of brands to consider in your forthcoming purchase.

That works, to a point. But if you’ve ever looked closely at your Google Analytics or Google Search Console data, you’ve probably noticed something interesting. The people who already know your brand name convert more often. Sometimes a lot more.

That’s the quiet advantage of branded SEO. It doesn’t always bring the biggest traffic numbers, but it brings the right people. And that’s what actually moves a business forward.

But if you want to get more value out of your SEO strategies, and earn even more valuable conversions, you need to start optimizing for branded search.

What exactly does this mean? And how can you do it?

What branded search really means

Branded search refers to any search queries that include your company name, product names, or anything tied directly to your business name. If someone types “Nike running shoes” or “Nintendo switch price,” they’re not exploring anymore. They’re narrowing in.

That matters.

At this point, the user already has some level of brand recognition. They’ve seen you on social media, heard about you from a friend, or maybe interacted with your content marketing. Now they’re coming back through Google search with intent.

Compare that to non branded keywords like “best running shoes” or “gaming console deals.” Those searches are broad, competitive, and full of distractions.

Branded search queries are focused. And focus converts.

What Makes a Conversion Valuable?

Google Ads Conversion Rates

First, what makes a conversion valuable?

On some level, all conversions are valuable.

In case you’re not familiar with the term, a conversion is just a meaningful action taken by one of your users. Depending on your organization and your strategy, a conversion could be a product purchase, a newsletter signup, or an interaction with a meaningful piece of optimize existing content on your own  website.

Conversions will either give you revenue immediately or represent one step on the journey to getting revenue.

Our claim is that branded keyword and branded searches give better conversions, so what do better conversions look like?

  • Conversion rate. For starters, we should consider the overall conversion rate. Just because someone conducts a branded search for a specific keyword term doesn’t mean they’re going to visit the top ranked site. And just because they visit the top ranked site doesn’t mean they’re going to buy anything. Branded keyword terms tend to be beneficial for increasing both visits and conversions, as well as your overall conversion rate. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that people who search for branded keywords tend to be in deeper stages of the sales funnel than people conducting more generic searches.
  • Audience relevance. People already familiar with your brand are more likely to be a part of a relevant target audience in your strategy. Instead of mass marketing to as many people as possible, you’ll be fine-tuning your targeting to appeal to the people most likely to bring value to your brand. If you practice and effective branding strategy, that means you’ll be targeting people who are most likely to bring revenue to your brand and grow that revenue over time.
  • Size/value of the conversion itself. Obviously, we also need to consider the size or value of the conversion itself. A conversion where a person buys $500 of merchandise is going to be more valuable than a conversion where a person buys $100 of merchandise. A conversion where a person signs up for a long-term subscription is going to be more valuable than a conversion where a person signs up to be part of a FREE Email newsletter. In some ways, this functions totally independently from the keywords for which you optimize; some of this value depends on what types of conversions you offer and how you position them. That said, optimizing for branded keywords should increase the likelihood of customers being willing to pay more or take more serious action, since they’re already acquainted with your brand.
  • User sentiment. User familiarity with your brand can help you in other ways as well. If a user already knows your brand and likes your brand, their purchase is going to carry more weight; it means they’ll have a positive disposition toward your brand immediately, so as long as their purchase meets or exceeds their expectations, they’ll be willing to spend more money with you in the future.

Why Are Branded Searches Good for Conversions?

Conversion Rate: Branded vs Non-Branded Traffic
Branded traffic usually converts at a much higher rate because people already know the company, recognize the offer, and arrive with stronger purchase intent.
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
7.6%
Branded Traffic
3.2%
Non-Branded Traffic
Traffic Type
Branded
Non-Branded

Ultimately, branded searches are good for your conversion strategy and branded search traffic for a few different reasons:

  • User familiarity. People who branded search for branded keywords are already familiar with your specific brand. They know what your company is, they know what he does, and they know they can trust you (for the most part). This makes users more likely to commit to specific actions, it makes them willing to spend more, and it predisposes them to more interactions in the future.
  • User search intent. People who aren’t even aware they have a problem aren’t going to be conducting branded searches. They’re going to be searching for exploratory terms, hoping to gather more initial information. Consumers using branded queries happens much further along in their decision-making process, so they may already have to buy google search intent.
  • Limited competition. It’s also worth noting that very few brands are going to be competing for your branded keywords; they’re busy trying to gobble up generic keyword branded search ranking space and optimizing for their own brand keywords. Your branded keyword phrases are low-hanging fruit; it should be trivially easy to rank for them, even if you haven’t spent much effort on them to date. Yes, paid search and paid ads can still appear, and sometimes competitors bid on your branded terms. But overall, you have a stronger grip on your own search engine results pages than you ever will with generic keywords.

All of this leads to higher conversion rates, stronger brand reputation, and better business growth over time.

Other Benefits of Branded Search Optimization

Search Your Brand on Google

Branded search optimization, the practice of optimizing your website specifically for branded keywords, offers some other benefits as well:

  • Competitive defenses. Though not especially common, it’s possible that some of your competitors may deliberately attempt to rank for your branded keywords, either organically or with the help of a paid advertisement. This is frequently used as a tactic to siphon traffic from a threatening competitor. Accordingly, optimizing content for your own branded keywords serves as a kind of competitive defense; you’ll make it much harder for your competitors to disrupt you.
  • Peripheral ranking benefits. As you’ll see, many of the tactics you’ll need to follow for branded search optimization are similar to conventional keyword optimization. You’ll be creating more content, fine-tuning your website’s technical SEO, and building links to your domain. In the course of this, you’ll naturally start branded search ranking for other target keywords you’ve included in your overall strategy. As domain authority rises, so too will the authority of all your individual pages.
  • User behavior/intent analysis. Optimizing for branded search terms is an excellent way to learn more about your target audience. With the help of better SEO tools, you’ll learn more about the user intent of people searching for your keyword terms, you’ll be able to observe patterns of behavior once those users get to your website, and you’ll be able to analyze the impact of brand familiarity on your overall conversion rate. If you apply this knowledge intelligently, you should be able to improve many aspects of your SEO strategies in the future.
  • Branded Search suggestions in the future. Spending more time on brand-specific keywords and phrases will open the door to new strategic keyword targeting possibilities in the future. Thanks to autofill branded search suggestion’s, keyword research planning tools, and other strategic research platforms, you can brainstorm better targets and start optimizing for them.

Are There Weaknesses of Branded Search Optimization?

Are there any weaknesses associated with branded search optimization?

The short answer is yes, but most of them present opportunities for compensation.

  • The risk of overinvesting. There is a risk of over investing in branded search terms. As you rise in rankings in branded search engines results pages (SERPs), you’ll gradually gain more visibility and more traffic. It’s much better to rank on page one than to rank on any other page. Rank two is much better than rank three, and rank one is much better than rank two. But you can’t really go any higher than rank one; once you spend enough time, money, and energy acquiring a number one position, all you have to do is maintain that position – and further investments will be a waste. Similarly, you probably won’t have competition for these terms, since competitors will recognize your dominant position. It’s definitely worth investing in your branded search optimization strategy, but you also should avoid overspending.
  • Buyer journey discrepancies. For most companies, it’s safe to assume that a person conducting a branded search is already familiar with your company and is getting ready to make a purchase. But this isn’t always the case. Your buyer journey may look very different then the buyer journeys of your competitors, and your target user behavior may not be as intuitive as it first seems. This can introduce complexities to your strategy that weaken its effectiveness and make it harder to proactively plan.
  • Unclear direction. Speaking of planning, it’s sometimes hard to come up with content and link building ideas for your branded keywords. With generic keywords, you have the luxury of identifying competitive content currently ranking for those keywords; generic keywords and phrases also lend themselves to topic ideas quite conveniently. That’s not to say that it’s hard to come up with ideas for branded content, but it may present more challenges than you would expect.

The role of branded SEO in your overall strategy

A lot of businesses treat branded SEO like an afterthought. They assume they’ll naturally rank for their brand name, so they don’t invest in it.

That’s a mistake.

Branded SEO helps you control how your brand online appears across search results. It shapes your knowledge panels, strengthens your brand's online presence, and protects you from competitors trying to siphon off your traffic with paid search.

It also supports your broader SEO efforts. When your brand recognition grows, so does branded search volume. And that increase sends strong signals to Google's algorithm that your brand matters.

Over time, that can lead to higher organic search rankings even for non branded keywords.

How to find your branded search opportunities

Start with Google Search Console. It’s one of the easiest ways to see how people are already finding you.

Look at your search queries. Filter for anything that includes your brand name, product names, or variations of your company name. You’ll often discover patterns you didn’t expect.

Some people might search your brand specifically alongside product comparisons. Others might include questions or concerns. This is where you can spot gaps.

Google Analytics helps too. You can track branded traffic versus non branded traffic and see how each group behaves. Watch the differences in website traffic, bounce rates, and conversions. It usually tells a very clear story.

Then expand with keyword research tools. Look at branded search volume, related search terms, and even autocomplete suggestions in Google search. These often reveal what people really want to know about your brand online.

How to Optimize for Branded Search

Branded Search

Now to the heart of the matter.

How do you optimize for branded search?

How can you make sure you remain competitively dominant in the landscape of branded search terms relevant to your brand name?

  • Conduct market research. Before you do anything else, revisit your market research and make sure you understand your target audience inside and out. What does your customer journey look like? Who are your target demographics and what are the factors that lead them to convert? What types of things do they branded search for at various stages in the customer journey? Once you better understand this, you’ll be able to create better branded content and optimize for conversions on your site in a way that helps you capitalize on your new branded, organic traffic.
  • Identify and prioritize your branded keywords and phrases. Next, identify and start prioritizing your brain keywords and phrases. Some of these are going to be obvious; you can make a list of your company name, the names of your products, and the names of your services. Some will require more creative brainstorming. You can start by typing your brand names into a Google-branded search volume and seeing if there are any phrase suggestions recommended to you. You can use a more interactive keyword research tool to generate a broader range of possibilities. Be sure to pay close attention to branded search volume, competition, and relevance.
  • Use branded keywords throughout your website in titles and meta descriptions. Now that you have your list of branded keywords and phrases to target, start peppering them throughout your website. Some of the most valuable places to include branded keywords are in your page titles, your meta descriptions, and the headers of your onsite content. As with all forms of keyword optimization, make sure these keywords are included as naturally as possible; don’t get caught spamming your branded keywords too aggressively. Your homepage is arguably the most important page to optimize, since it’s probably going to be the branded search results for searches for your brand name alone.
  • Write detailed, helpful content featuring branded keywords. This is where content marketing plays a big role. Develop individual pieces for each of your branded keyword phrases, including both primary and secondary branded keyword targets in the title, headers, and throughout the body content. Ideally, this content will be at least a few thousand words long, offering plenty of descriptive content and value to the people reading it. The higher this content quality is, the more likely the content is to attract links – and the more conversions it’s going to generate. Quality needs to be your top priority, accordingly. You’re not just chasing traffic. You’re answering real search queries tied to your brand interest.
  • Build strong links to branded pages. Internal links matter here too. Eventually, you’ll have many interior pages of your site fully dedicated to showcasing your branded keyword phrases. How do you support those pages and make sure they reach rank one for their targets? One of your best strategies will be building strong links to these branded pages, utilizing high-quality guest articles written for publishers with high domain authority (as well as branded anchor text when you can). Connect your branded content so both users and search engines can navigate it easily. If your content is good enough, it should also attract some links on its own – especially if you’re willing to popularize that content through social media or advertising. And don’t ignore branded backlinks. When other sites mention your company name and link to you, it strengthens your authority and reinforces your presence across search engines. Even a simple guest post can help build those signals if it’s done right.
  • Consider optimizing for competitor brand terms. Remember that branded search optimize can be used defensively, preventing other competing brands from ranking for your keywords. You can also take the offensive here, deliberately optimizing some of your content to rank for competitor brand terms. If you do this, you should know you don’t have much of a chance of organically ranking past rank two (unless you make this a do-or-die kind of mission). However, you may be able to siphon at least some traffic away from those competitors. Remain honest and accurate in the content you create, writing informative pieces like “Is [Brand] the Right Choice?” or “The Top X [Brand] Alternatives.” This is only one of the reasons competitive analysis in PPC is critical.
  • Consider paying for branded PPC ads. Branded search typically refers to branded search or organic or engine optimization, but we also need to consider paid advertising. Why would you pay for advertisements associated with your brand keywords when you’re already at rank one for those keywords? The short answer is competition. Your competitors may be paying to feature ads for their companies for your branded search terms; you can’t really prevent them from doing this, but you can outbid them in an effort to dominate the SERPs.
  • Monitor your progress. Finally, make sure you monitor your progress. Pay attention to how your branded keyword term rankings change over time, watch streams of organic and paid traffic, and study how users behave on your website. The more data you gather, the better you’ll understand your audience, your competitive landscape, and the most important strategies to use moving forward.

Protecting your brand in search results

Here’s something people don’t talk about enough.

You don’t fully control your branded SEO presence unless you actively manage it.

Competitors can run paid ads targeting your brand name. Review sites can rank for your company name. Even random content can show up if you’re not paying attention.

That’s where branded SEO becomes defensive.

Make sure your Google Business Profile is accurate and complete. Encourage positive feedback from real customers. Monitor your search engine results pages regularly.

This isn’t just SEO. It’s reputation management.

Your brand reputation affects how people respond when they people search for you. A strong presence builds confidence. A messy one creates doubt.

And doubt kills conversions.

The connection between branded search and paid search

Some businesses hesitate to run paid search on their own branded terms. It feels unnecessary.

But there’s a reason many companies still do it.

Paid search lets you control more space on the page. You can highlight specific offers, direct users to high-converting pages, and push competitors further down.

It’s not always required, but in competitive industries, it can make a real difference.

The key is balance. Don’t overspend where you already dominate in organic listings, but don’t leave easy opportunities open either.

How branded search supports long-term growth

Branded SEO isn’t just about quick wins. It’s a signal of something bigger.

When branded search volume grows, it means more people are aware of your business. That awareness often comes from social media, content marketing, referrals, and overall brand's online presence.

In other words, branded SEO reflects your entire marketing ecosystem.

It shows that your SEO efforts, your content, and your outreach are working together.

And when people search for your specific brand instead of generic alternatives, you’ve moved out of the commodity space. You’re no longer just another option.

You’re the one they’re looking for.

Final thoughts

Branded SEO doesn’t always get the spotlight, but it should.

It brings in high-intent users. It strengthens your brand's online presence. It protects your position in search results. And most importantly, it drives conversions that actually matter.

If you’re serious about SEO, don’t just chase traffic. Pay attention to the people already looking for you.

That’s where real organic traffic and meaningful growth begin.

Is your brand in need of further online marketing support? Is there a missing ingredient in your existing branded search engines optimization (SEO) strategy? You’re in the right place: SEO.co is here to help. Contact us for a free consultation today!

Samuel Edwards
|
December 7, 2024
How to Create Your Own PPC Project Checklist for Optimizing Time Management

No matter how much experience you have running pay-per-click (PPC) ads, a checklist will help you manage your time.

Trying to manage your responsibilities without a checklist can make you skip important tasks even when you’ve performed them routinely for years.

There’s a reason professionals in various industries use checklists – they work. Although the consequences for mistakes are more serious in other industries, checklists are the perfect companion for digital marketers.

Time and task management are critical for PPC ad success

Technically, you can’t manage time because it will go on whether you like it or not. We all have the same 24 hours in the day and that won’t change. However, you can manage your tasks within time and that’s what time management is really all about. In other words, it’s about managing your tasks within the boundaries of time.

Time management strategies vary, but they all fall back on the reliability of lists and written tasks. When you’re managing a PPC ad campaigns, time management matters. There are so many different components to set up, manage, and optimize, that if you don’t strictly manage your time and tasks, your campaigns will suffer.

Checklists help you track recurring tasks

Checklists help you track recurring tasks ad account and target audience quality score

The main purpose of a PPC audit checklist is to help you track recurring tasks within your PPC ad campaigns. Most of the time, you’ll have weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and bi-monthly tasks. If you haven’t already organized your tasks into a schedule, this article will provide you with an outline to get you started.

Weekly PPC ad campaign tasks

Here are some common weekly PPC tasks to add to your PPC audit checklist:

  • Performance projections. Are you over or under your goals, or are you right on target? Weekly performance projections can help you figure this out. To get the data you need, pay attention to your ad spend and conversions.

If your projections indicate that you’re going to overspend, decrease your keyword bids and/or budgets. If your conversions are lacking, adjust your keyword bids or put all of your PPC budget into your highest performing campaigns.

  • Review your display network success. Are you spending a lot of money on placements that aren’t converting? If any of your placements aren’t performing well, revisit them and see what you can change.

Also, check to see if your campaigns exclude site categories where you don’t want your Google ads to run. For example, you may not want your Google ads to run on sites with content related to sexually suggestive content, sensitive social issues, or in-game placements on mobile apps. Many advertisers exclude mobile apps completely because they tend to eat ad budgets due to lower click and conversion rates.

  • Adjust your bids. Are you manually bidding on your keywords? Look at the keywords that are using most of your daily spend, especially if they’re not converting or converting above CPL. If you’re utilizing automated bidding, pause your bids on broad match keywords that aren’t generating conversions.
  • Check your budgets. It’s essential to regularly check in with your budgets to make sure your funds are being spent appropriately. Each week, run a report for the last seven days to see where you can reallocate your ad budgets to support your higher converting campaigns.
  • Put low-performance keywords on pause. Don’t let more than a week go by without pausing your underperforming keywords. If you’re bidding on any keywords that aren’t converting or have a low CTR, put those on pause.

Bi-weekly PPC ad campaigns tasks

Here are some common bi-weekly PPC tasks to add to your checklist:

  • Build up your negative keywords list. In your google ads account, run a search query report to identify negative keywords you can use to prevent untargeted traffic to your Google ads. This will keep you from wasting your ad spend. Keep doing this regularly for a while until you have a solid negative keyword list/negative keywords list.
  • Target more keywords. Use all the tools available in your ad accounts to monitor your campaigns for new keywords to target. You don’t have to commit to new keywords long term right away. You can always add them to new ad groups and do a test run first of ad groups.
  • Review your ads and write new ones. How many Google ads are you testing at any given time? Hopefully, you’re testing at least three ad groups. That’s the sweet spot required to gather enough data to evaluate your ad campaigns.

This data will help you stop running google ads that don’t perform well and add new ad variations to see if you can beat your control for your highest-performing Google ads.

Don’t forget to check in on your retargeting/remarketing ads. And if you haven’t started running these better-performing ads yet, it’s something to seriously consider.

Studies have shown that using remarketing ads generate a higher ROI because they bring back potential customers that didn’t convert the first time. Many people who come back to a brand through remarketing end up converting.

  • Run a report for your Impression Share. Running this report will give you the data necessary to make important decisions. For instance, if you have a low Impression Share and you can increase your budget, optimize your match types and pause low performing keywords for better results.

Monthly PPC ad campaigns tasks

Monthly PPC ad campaign tasks,monthly ppc checklist and ppc optimization checklist

Here are some common monthly PPC tasks to add to your checklist:

  • Verify your campaign settings. Every month, it’s important to check your ad campaigns settings to make sure they’re still correct. This is especially important when you have multiple people accessing your account who might change the settings periodically or even accidentally.

Check your account to ensure you’re targeting the right google search network, devices, languages, locations, and any other specific demographics you have set.

  • Check your landing pages. When people click on your PPC ads, they’ll go directly to a landing page, but are they going to the right one? Is your page optimized for conversions? Does the content match your ad? Have you changed your ads without changing your landing pages to match?

Hopefully, you’ve been testing different landing pages with your ads. If so, run a Final URL report to identify underperforming landing pages and send your traffic to the pages that are converting better. Then, look at your landing pages to see if you can identify why they’re not performing as well. Continue your split testing by creating more landing pages based on the ones that perform the best and keep testing your page elements.

Bi-monthly PPC ad campaigns tasks

Here are some common bi-monthly PPC tasks to add to your checklist:

  • Identify geographic performance. Run your Geographic report to find out where your ads aren’t performing as well as they could be and then consider eliminating those locations. Alternatively, you could target those locations with new ad campaigns and target them more specifically.

When you identify locations that aren’t performing well, add negative keyword modifiers to eliminate untargeted or ineligible clicks. Then, add positive bid modifiers on your locations that are performing well.

  • Review Day Parting. Review your ad performance based on time of day. When you identify the times and days when conversions are lowest, pause your campaigns during those times and increase your bidding during the times when your ads perform better.
  • Historical performance analysis. Run the appropriate reports to analyze your ad performance over the last two years, or as long as you can if you haven’t been running ads that long. This will help you evaluate seasonal data and long-term keyword trends.

Checklists are a valuable marketing tool

ppc management Checklists are a valuable marketing tool and ad spending

As you can see, there are plenty of tasks to perform on regular schedules in order to keep your PPC ad campaigns running optimally. By creating your PPC setup checklist, you’ll be giving yourself a valuable tool that will keep track of your tasks better than your memory.

Countless studies have proven that human memory is unreliable, especially when it comes to details. This is seen most clearly in experiments designed to determine eyewitness reliability. In these experiments, witnesses struggle to remember basic things like the color of a suspect’s clothing, their height, and even their physical features.

Don’t rely on your memory to manage your PPC ad campaigns. While you might be able to remember some things, you’ll never remember everything. Additionally, having a checklist makes your job easier because you can simply go down the list and check things off as you complete each task.

Having a list also makes it easier for you to ad scheduling your tasks in your calendar and set those tasks as recurring items. Having a to-do list is great, but if you don’t also schedule your tasks you’re likely to skip important things.

Need help with your PPC campaign? PPC.co has you covered!

Running a PPC campaign takes a lot of work and isn’t really suited as a one-person job. If you want big results from your PPC ads, you need a team to manage your PPC campaign.

Less than 25% of PPC search ads produce conversions, but that’s because most campaigns aren’t properly set up or optimized. When you work with us, we’ll get you the results you want.

We work with businesses in a variety of industries to create effective PPC campaigns that drive leads and sales. We’ll not only create effective ad copy, but we’ll also optimize your landing pages with effective ad copy. This is where most people get PPC ads wrong. A high click-through rate is only worthwhile when your landing pages convert. We’ll make sure your CTR improves along with your landing page conversions.

If you’re ready to take your PPC campaigns to the next level, get in touch with us and tell us about your goals.

Regardless of whether you run digital marketing campaigns for your law firm or for your hospitality business, we’d love to help you generate the impressive results you’re after.

Samuel Edwards
|
December 7, 2024
5 Reasons to Use Dynamic Keyword Insertions in Google Ads

You’ve probably visited a website that dynamically showed the time and date of your visit. That same principle powers dynamic ads in paid search. With dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), your ad text can automatically reflect a user’s search query, helping each ad group serve a message that feels custom-built for the moment. On any search engine, that kind of ad relevance is rocket fuel for clicks.


What is dynamic keyword insertion (DKI)?

Dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) ads is an advanced Google AdWords feature that inserts part of a user searches query into your PPC ads/only ads. It’s quite effective at getting more clicks. Imagine being a user searching for something specific and seeing the same ad group/ad groups that reflects the specifics of your search. You’ll be more likely to click on that ad, right?

If you haven’t used this feature, you’re missing out on clicks and revenue. Here are 5 reasons to start using dynamic keyword insertion work with your Google ads.

1. Dynamic keyword insertion tells users “This ad is for me”

If you’ve spent any time inside Google Ads, you already know how quickly things can spiral. One ad becomes five, and suddenly you’re creating separate ads just to keep each ad headline aligned with slightly different searches.

This is exactly where keyword insertion shines.

Instead of writing endless variations, you can rely on keyword insertion to dynamically reflect what someone typed into a search engine. With the right keyword insertion code, your ad headline can mirror the user’s query almost instantly. It feels personal, like the ad was written just for them.

In your digital marketing campaigns, you want your prospects to think, “this product or service is for me.” When prospects feel like a product, service, ad copy, or web content is meant for them, they’re more likely to convert.

You can get people to recognize that something is meant for them with professionally written sales ad copy that speaks directly to their needs, desires, keyword insertion and pain points. However, you can also achieve this through what’s commonly referred to as “keyword backtracking” in neurolinguistics programming (NLP) terms. Use Dynamic keyword insertion is essentially automated keyword list backtracking for paid ads.

DKI tells searchers, ‘This ad is for me.’ The feature is designed to match users search queries by inserting what they typed directly into your headline. That creates dynamic ads that feel personal, producing more relevant ads and often highly relevant ads — without you writing a brand-new ad copy variation for every keyword. In other words, one same ad can scale across many searches while still sounding specific.

Here’s a simple example of keyword insertion code:

{KeyWord:Running Shoes}

In this case, “Running Shoes” becomes your default text. If Google can’t safely insert a search query, it falls back to that default text, ensuring your ad copy still reads naturally.

Keyword backtracking is a form of active listening, and it’s when you repeat someone’s words back to them in order to make them feel heard. In a live conversation, keyword insertion this makes a prospect trust you more. When used in Google ads, it has the same general effect, but since there’s no live conversation it tells prospects your one ad is exactly what they’re looking for.

2. Your click through rate (CTR) will increase

There are two reasons dynamic keyword insertion increases click through rates. The first reason is that Google automatically bolds dynamic keyword insertion in ads that match the user search. When your ad headline closely matches what someone just searched in a search engine, it stands out immediately. When you use dynamic keyword, your ads will show up with bolded keywords more often, which means more click’s.

The second reason DKI increases your click through rate is because it increases the relevancy of your ad, which brings up the next point. Google also bolds matching terms, which draws the eye even more. Combine that with stronger alignment, and you naturally get higher click through rates.

Over time, this leads to better Google Ads performance, especially when your ads consistently match intent.

3. DKI produces ads with a higher relevancy

Search Query → Ad Headline Match Flow
Dynamic keyword insertion makes ads feel more relevant because the headline stays closer to what the user actually searched.
Step 1
User Search Query
Step 2A
Standard Ad
Generic headline
Buy Used Jeeps
Broad message, but it misses the exact model the searcher wants.
Lower headline match
Step 2B
DKI Ad
Dynamic headline
Buy Used Jeep Wrangler
The headline mirrors the search more closely, so the ad feels more specific and relevant.
Higher headline match

Ad copy with high relevancy get more clicks, period. When you publish standard ads, it’s possible to make them relevant ad/hyper relevant ads to your audience, but nothing makes an ad more relevant than automatically inserting part of the user’s search team into the ad.

With keyword insertion, you don’t need to build dozens of versions or keep creating separate ads. One well-structured ad can adapt dynamically, pulling in the most relevant terms for each search.

This becomes especially useful when working with broad match keywords. Since broad match keywords can trigger a wide range of searches, keyword insertion helps your ad headline stay specific, even when your targeting is broad.

Here’s how it works inside an ad group. If a person searches a specific search term like ‘used Jeep Wrangler,’ DKI can pull that phrase into the headline. That means your ad stays aligned with relevant search terms beyond just one exact keyword. And if Google can’t find a safe match, it falls back to your default text. Either way, you increase ad relevance because the message stays close to intent. It would look like this:

Your headline template: “Buy Used {keyword: Jeep}

Search phrase: “Used Jeep Cherokee for sale near me”

Your displayed headline: “Buy Used Jeep Cherokee”

Search phrase: “Used Jeep Wrangler for sale near me”

Your displayed headline: “Buy Used Jeep Wrangler”

Instead of guessing what variation will work, you let the system adjust in real time while your default text keeps everything grounded. If no keyword can be inserted dynamically, your ad will default to your specified target keywords or competitor keywords, in this case it would be ‘Jeep.” The ad will still be relevant, just not highly specific.

4. High relevance increases your quality score

Google is always focused on quality, and PPC ads are no exception. Google assigns a Quality Score to all PPC advertisers based on the quality, relevance and quality of their dynamic keyword insertion, ad text, default keyword insertion text or ad text and landing pages/landing page URL. You might be familiar with this already, but if not, it’s important to understand how Google’s Quality Scores works.

Your Quality Scores is more important than you may realize because it’s used to calculate your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your max bid to set your ad rank during the ad auction process.

Higher ad relevance improves Quality Score, which can lower CPC. Google evaluates your ad text alongside the landing page experience — including whether the landing page URL reflects what your headline promises. Even if you’re using dynamic search ads elsewhere in the account, DKI helps your standard campaigns stay just as intent-matched.

Better alignment between search queries and your ad copy doesn’t just help with clicks. It directly impacts your overall Google Ads performance.

When your ad headline matches user intent and your default text keeps things clear, your ads tend to perform more consistently. That consistency feeds into stronger results across the board.

It’s also where structure matters. Pairing keyword insertion with responsive search ads gives you flexibility. You can test different headlines while still allowing dynamic personalization to happen in the background.

5. Dynamic keyword insertion saves time

It’s easy to spend hours on end creating variations of ad copy, but that’s not necessary when you use DKI. DKI makes it easy to create ads that target a large number of multiple keywords. It’s essentially automation for ad variations.

Since time is money, it makes sense to use dynamic keywords insertion DKI whenever possible. Think of all the time you’ll save that you can use to work on other, more exciting aspects of your business.

Without keyword insertion, you’re stuck creating separate ads for every small keyword variation. With it, you can scale your campaigns without sacrificing relevance.

A single ad, supported by smart keyword insertion code and strong default text, can cover a wide range of searches across a search engine.

Quick tip: always read your ads out loud after adding keyword insertion. Imagine the following ad appearing live. Does it sound natural? If not, adjust your default text or refine your keyword list.

Also, keep a close eye on broad match keywords. If they’re too loose, you might end up with awkward phrasing in your ad headline. Tight inputs lead to better outputs.

At the end of the day, Google Ads rewards clarity and intent. Keyword insertion helps you stay aligned without burning hours on manual work, while improving click through rates and overall performance.

One caution about dynamic keyword insertion

One caution: DKI can go wrong if the keyword list is too broad — especially with competitor keyword targeting. You don’t want brand names or mismatched phrases to insert into your headline. That’s why your default text and landing page need to be aligned. If a keyword can insert but the landing page URL doesn’t support it, the ad feels clickbaity and conversions drop.

Although dynamic keyword insertion is an excellent strategy, DKI isn’t a substitute for targeting relevant demographics, having relevant content, and creating a persuasive ad copy. It’s simply a tool to capture more attention from your target market. If your ads use broad match keywords in a misleading way, DKI will get you clicks, but not conversions.

Be digital marketing cautious about accidentally creating clickbait with your PPC ads. Not only will this kill your Quality Score by reducing the relevance of your ads, but it will make people stop trusting your brand.

Sometimes clickbait is unintentional, and that’s why it’s important to review your ads to make sure they’re accurately representing whatever content you’re sending your visitors to on the other side. There’s nothing wrong with being clever, but don’t be so clever that your visitors get a good chuckle out of your ad group/tightly themed ad groups and then bounce.

Need help with your PPC ads? We can help!

Running a PPC ad campaigns on any platform can be daunting when you’re trying to learn everything on your own. No matter how many tutorial videos you watch, the learning curve is steep and mistakes are plenty. Normally, mistakes are just opportunities to learn. However, paid ads cost money, and mistakes are expensive.

There’s a reason less than 25% of PPC single word keywords/same keyword ad groups convert; paid advertising is a skilled profession that requires expertise to get results. If you’re not getting results, dynamic search ads or if you haven’t launched a PPC ad campaign yet, it’s time to get started.

At PPC.co ad description, we can help you get the conversions you deserve using established best practices and advanced techniques that get results. Contact us today to learn more about our services and receive a free proposal from our PPC team.