In the fast paced world of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, second tier ad networks are often treated with an almost “Rodney Dangerfield” level of respect (“I tell ya when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back!”). It’s not uncommon to hear complaints ranging from “Too much traffic, not enough conversions” to “There’s not enough traffic for my niche”, and everything in between.
Many first time customers choose to treat their 7search campaigns with a “hands off” approach. It is not uncommon for even experienced marketers to overlook the potential value that dedicated optimization can present for these campaigns, rationalizing that the time invested is not worth the outcome. With an average of more than 3 billion monthly search requests in 2010 , perhaps it is time to take another look at the 7search network.
Here are some tips provided by the Support Team over at 7search.com to help optimize poorly performing offers.
Tip #1 – Review your ad copy regularly
A poorly written ad can destroy a PPC campaign. PPC advertising is a constantly evolving animal, and your client’s ad copy should present an enticing “call to action” to surfers. The ad should tell a potential visitor what makes your client different from the competition, and should definitely feature any special offers (“X”% off, Free Shipping, etc.).
If you are stuck on how to best word an advertisement, review some of your competition for ideas. Most importantly, ask yourself 2 things. First, “Would this offer draw me in?” and second, does this offer deliver on its promises?” Remember, you have very little time to capture a surfer. If your client’s ad offers a 20% discount or free shipping then this should clearly visible on the landing page. This continuity goes a long way towards establishing credibility with the surfer and encourages a potential conversion.
It’s also absolutely necessary to double check your landing page to ensure that the links are live, as well as to confirm that the geo-targeting settings are accurate. There is no use in paying for clicks from countries which you cannot do business.
Tip #2 – Use Negative keywords
Negative keywords are a great way to streamline the traffic an offer receives by ensuring it does not appear on undesirable SERPs. Do not add long tail negative keyword phrases as our system will not effectively block them. Our system supports the single negative keyword model, although you can add some two word phrases (like WalMart) as well.
The best strategy to determine what negative keywords to use is to evaluate the actual searched phrases. This data is readily available in the Campaign and Daily/Weekly/Monthly reports and will give you the most targeted negative keyword possibilities.
You may also choose to use the negative keyword tool found at http://www.wordstream.com/negative-keywords/ although this may be less effective as it does not take into account the real traffic you have already received.
Tip #3 – Try not to bid on too many general search terms
For poor performing offers you should consider minimizing the use of very general keywords. If you feel that you absolutely must use general keywords, consider setting all single keywords to an exact traffic match setting to test their effectiveness and limit irrelevant traffic.
Keyword phrases containing 2-3 words should then be tested at phrase match. You may also choose set a unique bid for each traffic match setting, with the broad bid featuring a significantly lower bid than the other types.
If your clients are utilizing long tail keyword phrases with 4+ words then a broad match setting should be fine. These terms tend to receive less traffic and bidding exact could negatively impact your clients’ exposure. Also consider utilizing the keyword generating tools mentioned previously to identify new phrases to test.
Tip #4 – Consider testing your offers at different positions in the search results page
While we would ideally prefer our customers to bid the Smart Bid amount to receive top exposure, it is possible for them to bid to appear lower in the SERPs for high volume verticals and still receive significant traffic and conversion. Please keep in mind that occupying lower position is a viable proposal to test our traffic.
Tip #5 – Have Traffic Quality (TQ) reviewed the traffic you’ve received
If you have tried all of the suggestions above it might be time to request a traffic quality review. These reviews can be time consuming and should always be submitted via support case (link found on dashboard). Please allow up 24- 72 hours for a response.
If do have access to server logs or other data that may be useful, please attach it to the support ticket. This data is invaluable to our team when optimizing your traffic.
We also strongly recommend that you install our conversion tracking pixel on your pages, if possible. In addition to counting conversions, the data compiled using this code helps our traffic quality team when a review is requested in determining which sources to block.
