Unlike offline businesses, that are usually limited to tracking leads and have to work harder to tie an offline sale back to a keyword, e-commerce businesses can have their sales and revenue data easily integrated into AdWords and use it to intelligently optimize their campaigns.

Understanding what to look for, and how to optimize based on ROI, is crucial for all e-commerce advertisers running paid search. Not all keywords perform the same and not all products have the same profit margins. This makes it even more important for advertisers to be able to quickly evaluate ROI and performance for each product and make changes as needed.

I’m going to show you a step-by-step process you can implement in your e-commerce business to take the conversion data you’ve accumulated and leverage it to maximize profits.

Step 1 – Setup Revenue and Conversion Tracking in AdWords

Shockingly, many of the e-commerce accounts we’ve audited in the past do not have accurate conversion tracking, and for those that do, many do not have revenue tracking enabled. Understanding when a sale occurs, how much you spent to create the sale, and how much revenue resulted are basic metrics that must be tracked if you want an idea of where your sales and profits are coming from in AdWords. There is no way to determine your target cost per sale (CPA) and remain profitable without this data. Step 1 is making sure this is setup correctly.

Quick Note: If you already have conversion and revenue tracking set up in AdWords you can skip to Step 2, if not, follow the instructions in this step, and use our optimization process when you have enough data. In the meantime, I’ve included a formula in Step 3 that can allow you to estimate your max cost per click (CPC) while you wait for data to accumulate.

AdWords allows you to track conversions and revenue simply and easily. Start by visiting the “Conversions” section of your AdWords account under the “Tools” menu in the navigation. Then click on the “+Conversion” button and choose the “Website” conversion option.

Enter the details for the new conversion, but pay close attention to the following fields:

Value - This is where your website will tell AdWords how much revenue was created from each conversion. For our purposes, you have two options to choose from depending on how your products are priced.

Option 1 – All products have the same price & no add-ons/upsells
If all of your products are the same price and there are no upsell options (anything that would increase the total order value) you can choose the “Each time it happens, the conversion action has the same value” option and enter the revenue for each sale. We’ve entered “$100” as the conversion value in the example below.

Option 2 – Products have different pricing or add-ons/upsells
Most ecommerce advertisers fall into this category, so using a static value is not going to work for them. In this case, you would select the option that says “The value of this conversion action may vary.”

In the default value field, we like to insert a placeholder value like “1234.” This will make it easier to later replace this value with the dynamic transaction value variable provided by your store’s shopping cart software in the AdWords conversion code.

For more details consult the AdWords help article on implementing Revenue Tracking.

Conversion Windows - We typically change the time to track conversions from the default 30 days to the max of 90 days. This is especially helpful for us to track products with longer sales cycles and to make sure we are seeing all of the conversion data available.

Once you’ve filled in all the required fields click “Save”, then send your webmaster the conversion code with instructions to replace the placeholder conversion value of “1234” with the dynamic order value token provided by your shopping cart software. They can add this code to the “order confirmation” page customers reach after they make a purchase.

Your dynamic order value token might look something like this: {{ transaction.amount }} which you would use instead of the placeholder values we used earlier. Compare the highlighted areas in the tracking code below that shows what the code might look like before and after we’ve done this.

Before:

After:

In the “After” code above we used our example dynamic order value token of {{ transaction.amount }} and simply replaced the “1234.00” placeholder text. This should dynamically insert your actual order value provided by your shopping cart software and share the information with AdWords.

Technical Note: Some websites trigger an event after purchase rather than sending purchasers to a confirmation page with a new URL. In this case, there is a slightly different setup process and conversion pixel for this type of website, but it’s still relatively simple to implement. Follow Google’s documentation to track transaction-specific conversion values.

Step 2: Know Your Numbers

Understanding the profit margin for each product (or product type) you sell is important. This is how you’ll be able to set bids based on ROI in the coming steps. Shockingly, we’ve found that many advertisers don’t really know what their margins are for each product they sell. Make sure you have the profit margin numbers available for each product (or product type) as they are needed for the upcoming steps.

In addition to knowing the profit margins for each product, determine how many of your conversions happen offline. If your e-commerce store sells items that are typically customizable there may be a large number of people who order over the phone rather than online. Having an idea of what percentage of sales these “offline” conversions make up is crucial to understanding your true ROI.

This blog post won’t cover factoring in the offline conversions as a formula for bid adjustments. Just keep in mind that if 20% of your conversions happen offline, you will need to factor that missing portion in with the AdWords provided statistics below.

Step 3: Begin to Optimize Bids Based on ROI

So now we get to the fun part. You have revenue and conversion tracking in place and you know your numbers. Hopefully, your AdWords account is structured in an intelligent way to make things faster and easier. If not, you may want to consider an account restructure that segments different types of products and product types to make this easier going forward.

For those of you who don’t have any data available yet, don’t worry. I’ll show you a way to estimate your target max CPC using your profit per sale and your website’s conversion rate to make sure you are not bidding higher than makes financial sense to do.

Preparing Your Data

What we need to do first is to enable a few columns in AdWords to help us analyze our current profitability and make bidding easier. First, head over to the “Keyword” tab in AdWords and click on the “Columns” button right below it. Click on “Modify” and look under the “Conversions” section to include the following columns:

• Conv. Value / Cost
• Conversions
• Cost / Conv.
• All Conv. Value (revenue generated)

Click “Apply” once you have selected these columns.

Next, start with keywords related to one of your products and look at the “Conv. Value / Cost” column to determine if the keyword is profitable. If you see a value in this column greater than “1” it means you have generated more revenue than you’ve spent in AdWords for this keyword.

By looking at this column and the profit margins you can quickly see which keywords you are losing money on, breaking even on, and making a profit on, but you still need to factor in your profit margins.

Here’s an example of what this might look like:

• Keyword – “Nike tennis shoes”
• Average CPC – $3.10
• Cost – $154.13
• Conversions – 9
• Cost per Conversion – $17.11
• All Conv. Value / Cost – 2.8
• All Conv. Value (Revenue) – $435.17

Looking at the metrics from the above keyword we can see that the revenue generated is approximately 2.8 times the amount we’ve spent on it. If we know that Nike tennis shoes typically have a 30% profit margin after factoring in our hard costs, shipping, etc., then we need to determine whether or not we’ve made money on this keyword.

You can use this formula to determine whether a keyword is profitable based on the information above and factoring in your profit margin (Don’t worry I’ll show you an easier way for AdWords to do the math for you below). This formula can be used for any traffic source, not just AdWords:

(All Conv. Value * Profit Margin) – Cost = Profit/Loss

Using the example data above and our example 30% profit margin the formula would look like this:

($435.17 * 30%) – $154.13 = ($23.58)

So this keyword actually lost us money and we need to either figure out ways to make it more profitable (negative keywords, ad copy, etc.) or reduce the bid to bring the CPA in-line with our target (more on this later).

Let AdWords Do the Math

Thankfully there is a faster way to tell which keywords are profitable or losing money. The “All Conv. Value / Cost” column we enabled earlier will save us a bunch of time when coupled with the cheat sheet below.

10% Profit Margin = 10.1 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
20% Profit Margin = 5.1 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
30% Profit Margin = 3.4 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
40% Profit Margin = 2.6 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
50% Profit Margin = 2.1 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
60% Profit Margin = 1.7 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
70% Profit Margin = 1.5 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost
80% Profit Margin = 1.3 or higher All Conv. Value / Cost

To understand the numbers above, look at the profit margin that is closest to your business’s/product’s profit margins on the left. Then, look at the corresponding value in the “All Conv. Value / Cost” column that indicates if a keyword is profitable (although very close to a break-even). These numbers are not exact and don’t factor in offline conversions, but are pretty accurate and should save you a lot of time when making bid changes.

Going back to our example above, we have a 30% profit margin on Nike tennis shoes. We can use the information in the cheat sheet to see which keywords are making us a profit by looking at any keyword that has a value of “3.4” or greater in the “All Conv. Value / Cost” column. We can also do the inverse to find keywords that are costing us money.

Using AdWords Filters

Since this is an ongoing process that should be done at least monthly, you can set up “filters” in AdWords which are essentially saved searches. You may want to set up a saved search for “Profitable Keywords” which have a All Conv. Value / Cost number that indicates you are profitable.

You can do the same for keywords that are losing money (below the minimum All Conv. Value / Cost number needed). This way you can easily apply the filter and see what is going on from a top-level view of your account. This can be a great time saver as you continue to optimize your account.

What if you Don’t Have Conversion or Revenue Data Yet?

For those who may have recently implemented tracking and have no data, here’s a simple formula you can use to determine your max CPC for any traffic source. You’ll have to know your profit per sale and your website’s conversion rate to use it. The formula is:

Profit per Sale ($) * Conversion Rate (%) = Max CPC

So if your website has an 8% conversion rate and a $40 profit per sale the formula would look like this:

$40 * 8% = $3.20 Max CPC

Using this formula for each keyword (or group of keywords related to a particular group of products with the same profit value) can tell you the max you can bid. You can easily export your keywords from AdWords Editor into an Excel spreadsheet and use bulk formulas to speed this process up. Then import the changes to the bids in AdWords Editor and post them to your account. ALWAYS double check your spreadsheet before you import it for accuracy.

Adjusting the Bids

Now that we know which keywords are making or losing money we need to make intelligent bid adjustments. There are many factors that play a part in whether a keyword is truly profitable such as second click conversions (First Click Analysis), Assisted Conversions, Lag Time, etc., which we cannot cover in this post. That being said, this is a straightforward approach that will take care of the majority of the bid adjustments needed to make your account profitable.

Keywords that are Profitable

For keywords that are profitable, it’s a good idea to get more traffic if it’s available. That is typically done by increasing your bids, increasing your CTR with ad testing, weeding out bad clicks from unwanted searches (negative keywords), or some combination thereof. Let’s talk about increasing the bids.

We want to make sure that we increase the bids intelligently to maintain profitability. If we increase them too much we may begin to lose money. Our approach is typically an incremental bid increase. We make bid adjustments using certain criteria to ensure we are not increasing too much or too little. Here’s an example rule we might use to adjust bids for profitable keywords.

Using our 30% profit margin model above (which means we would need a 3.4 value in the All Conv. Value / Cost column to be profitable) we might increase bids as follows:

Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 3.9 – 4.5 = 5% bid increase
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 4.6 – 6.0 = 10% bid increase
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 6.1 – 8.0 = 15% bid increase
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 8.1 – 10.0 = 20% bid increase
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 10.1 – 15.0 = 25% bid increase

This is only an example, the point is we adjust bids in brackets based on profitability to maintain that profitability. Once you determine the best model to use set up additional “Filters” in your AdWords interface to make this task even easier.

Keywords that are Losing Money

Much like we do for profitable keywords we also look at incrementally reducing bids for keywords that are not profitable. Once again this is in addition to weeding out untargeted search terms (negative keyword additions) and other optimization techniques that might help a keyword perform better.

Using our 30% profit margin model above again (which means we would need a 3.4 value in the All Conv. Value / Cost column to be profitable) we might decrease bids as follows:

Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 2.5 – 3.0 = -10% bid decrease
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between 1.5 – 2.4 = -20% bid decrease
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value between .5 – 1.4 = -30% bid decrease
Keywords with “All Conv. Value / Cost” value equal or less than .4 = consider pausing

Once again creating “Filters” in AdWords makes this process easier and faster to implement after you have everything in place. Please also note that you may want to use a filter to find “Keywords Below 1st Page Bid” because some of your search terms may now be below the minimum bid. In some cases you may still want ads to show for these terms, but you should review them manually to determine this.

How Often Should You Adjust Bids?

Knowing how often you should adjust bids is not a perfect science. Understanding what is happening in your account and how often changes are taking place to ad copy, keywords, etc. help determine how often bids should be adjusted.

Also keeping in mind the amount of traffic a keyword is receiving is a big factor. It’s typically hard to have statistical data of any significance for keywords that have received less than 100 clicks. Although this isn’t always the case, there will always be keywords that get more traffic than others which means their bids should be adjusted more often.

Our advice is to look at your account each week to make changes to high volume keywords and maybe once per month on the lower traffic terms. This would not apply if there are keywords that are clearly not profitable which we would adjust as soon as that is determined.

Conclusion

So there you have it. A simple, step by step process you can follow to make e-commerce bid management less painful and more profitable. Make sure you have the data you need, know your numbers, and adjust your bids into profitability. If you need help with your AdWords PPC campaigns, contact PPC Professionals today for a free audit at (954) 606-5359.

Why You Need PPC for Your Small Business:

• There are no “spray and pray” tactics involved when using AdWords. Sure, television ads may get your business in front of millions but it’s all timing- the consumer may not be looking to buy your product/service at that moment, turning it into a wasted ad. PPC ads get your business in front of the consumer who has expressed intent to buy when they’re ready to buy.

• Traditional marketing methods are dying. Phone books, newspaper ads and direct mail are the advertising ways of the past. Did you know, only 30% of Americans will use a phone book to lookup an address or phone number? Don’t waste your money or time with this type of marketing method.

• AdWords does not require a minimum commitment from you. There is no long-term agreement, simply pay for what you budget. Unlike advertising with most other traditional marketing methods, which require a minimum commitment to have your ad listed.

• You have the ability to zone in on a specific target location. Show your ads to consumers near your business location, target them as close as a five-mile radius for example. Be sure to review Episode 29 covering local PPC and how to handle targeting for a multiple-location business.

• It is possible to get in front of your competitor’s traffic. You must follow safe text ad guidelines of course (no use of Dynamic Keyword Insertion, do not use competitor’s name in the ad, etc.). This will help build brand awareness and allow you to gain more exposure faster.

• Retarget consumers who have visited your website and show them your ad again in the future. With AdWords retargeting, you are able to track consumers who have visited your website before and gently remind them of the products/services you offer to reel them back into the conversion funnel. Traditional marketing methods cannot do this!

• See what’s performing well and what’s not. The beauty of digital marketing is there is no guesswork involved when making decisions on what is working and what’s not. AdWords allows you to view your ad’s performance with a plethora of gathered data so you can make informed choices on what marketing strategies to pull the plug on and what to keep.

A step-by-step guide and PPC Best Practices Tutorial is available at PPCProfessionals.com.

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

• Location targeting setup: Decide on your targeting method, this can be based on state, city, zip code, radius around a location or other variations. Determine if there are any locations you want to exclude (perhaps your business does not serve a particular area). Tip: It’s important to not fall into the “Set it and forget it” mindset. Revisit these settings in a few months and see what’s converting and what isn’t.

• Conversion tracking: Conversion tracking should not be an option but a requirement. Choose a way to track conversions that makes the most sense for your type of business, whether it’s a form submission, ‘Schedule a Visit’ button, live chat feature or a phone call.

• Campaign structure: Segment your campaigns by business location, this will allow you to track data more efficiently. Setup call extensions for each location for more enhanced call tracking.

• Possible over-segmentation issues: You may not know if you’ll experience problems associated with over-segmentation until they occur. No one can be certain what will work and what won’t from the get-go, stick with a decision for a month or two then make a change and compare the data from the previous month. If over segmentation issues occur, group them back together again. If low search volume proves to be the issue, review Episode 17 to combat low search volume problems.

• Account and on-page optimization strategies: Make your business address and operating hours extremely clear to the user, consider including a visual map. Follow landing page optimization strategies discussed in Episode 19 and as recommended by SiteTuners CEO, Tim Ash.

A step-by-step guide and PPC Best Practices Tutorial is available at PPCProfessionals.com.

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

Booking Windows Extend

Usual booking windows may be extended during this period since customers are doing more research before booking longer vacations. Review your Time Lag reports (explained in Episode 14) to see how long it takes for a typical user to convert.

Destination Seasonality

Review AdWords and Analytics data to find seasonal peaks at the destination level. As an advertiser, you can be prepared to reach out to those people at the right time, with the right message to bring them to your website to make that booking.

100% Keyword Coverage

Review your keyword groups and be sure to include destination terms within the phrases. Don’t miss out on travelers directly searching for you, bid on your brand terms. Use tools like the Google Keyword Planner to expand your keywords and capture demand in all forms.

Flexible Budgets

It is to your advantage to be flexible with your ad budget to capture spikes and go after demand when it happens. You can be flexible and still control exposure through bid strategies by focusing on cost-per-acquisition, return on ad spend and profit made.

Geo-targeted Strategy

Analyze your historical data to see where the most demand is coming from. Get creative with those geolocations and push when those markets are really interested in a particular product or destination.

Target International Markets

There may be an opportunity for some advertisers to show ads to international travelers who are ready to book a vacation, and in some cases may be cheaper to bid in those markets.

Target All Devices

Mobile traffic accounts for 20-40% of all travel-related searches and is growing rapidly year after year. If you’re mobile-ready, be sure to have a mobile ad strategy, include click-to-call and location extensions. Refer to Episode 12 for information about mobile advertising and Episode 21 for help with ad extensions.

Remarketing Opportunities

Reach out to potential customers during their research and inspiration stage and followup with them when they get closer to making their decision. Use remarketing lists for Search ads, Display ads, and Video ads with specific messages and a goal of pulling them back in to book sooner.

Google Flight Search and Google Hotel Finder

These search tools provide real-time pricing and availability to help with traveler research. Google has been working to make these products available globally.

Google Hotel Finder

If you’re an independent hotel, get listed within Google Hotel Finder by creating and optimizing your Google My Business page. Also, be sure you’re connected to a Global Distribution System (GDA) and/or Online Travel Agency (OTA) for inventory availability.

If you’re an OTA or large hotel chain, you can gain access to an exclusive service called Google Hotel Price Ads, which allows bidding for prominent placement within Hotel Finder. Some Central Reservation Systems (CRS) also may have access to Hotel Price Ads and often resell the service to independent hotels.

Google Flight Search

Google says flight search results are not influenced by any paid relationships, but they also say they “will be exploring advertising opportunities within the page to showcase the products and services from other relevant partners, including OTA and metasearch partners.”

Throughout this time of year, be very active in managing, watching, paying attention to trends, and be ready to respond quickly by adjusting your strategy accordingly. Reach potential customers when they’re looking for your products or services with the right message at the right time and be sure you’re capturing that demand throughout their travel planning process.

• Beware of Broad and Broad Match Modifier. Broad modifier can rearrange your keyword order as well as inject words in between your selected keywords, bringing a whole new meaning to the words you originally selected. Broad match can drop entire words from a search query that may have been required to avoid your ads displaying for the alternative/irrelevant meaning of your keywords.

• Do your research. You must first determine which ambiguous words/phrases may be a problem. A good old-fashioned brainstorming session, thesaurus and historical data in the account (if applicable), including past SQRs will give you a good idea of areas of concern.

• Build a list, check it twice. Once you’ve done your research and have a list of all your target terms, be sure to segment all your problematic keywords and keep them in separate Ad Groups. You can then decide whether or not to use Broad match types on your multiple meaning keywords. Note: Listen to Episode 1 for an in-depth explanation of match types, account structure and advanced segmentation.

• Use keyword qualifiers. The keywords “buy,” “purchase,” or “pay” can be used to pre-qualify potential customers and will convert at a much higher rate.

• Use ad qualifiers. Your text ads can help pre-qualify traffic and help avoid irrelevant clicks. Include a message that is going to speak to the customer you want to target and dissuade the person who is looking for a product or service you don’t offer. Pro Tip: Dynamic Keyword Insertion is a big no-no in cases dealing with multiple meaning keywords! Listen to Episode 7 for a review on creating powerful text ads, and Episode 24 for how to effectively manage CPA.

For a more in-depth analysis of keyword match type segmentation and keyword relevance, refer to the PPC Account Structure Case Study which includes examples and actual results, written by PPC Professionals.

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

Your AdWords Remarketing 101 Guide:

• Use product-specific ads and ad groups: Display the actual product or product category in your remarketing ads, this tends to be more effective than just displaying branded ads and will increase conversion rates. Pro Tip: Use offers and special promotions as a competitive edge to get the user back to complete the purchase.

• Create Audiences to include and exclude users: Usually, when a customer completes a purchase you’ll want to exclude them from your remarketing campaigns because they have already bought from you. Pro Tip: The best way to do this is by placing the remarketing tracking code on every page of your website, then create audiences in AdWords for “includes” and “excludes.”

• Member duration and frequency capping: Avoid coming off as intrusive and stalkerish to your audience! Member duration is how long you choose to store the targeting cookie on a user’s computer (the maximum is 180 days). To figure what length the tracking cookie should be, check out the Time Lag report in Adwords (more info in Episode 14). Frequency capping is how often you’d like the user to see your ad during a certain time period. Pro Tip: You may find lowering the frequency cap brings in less clicks but increases conversions.

• BONUS Facebook Remarketing: Use Facebook remarketing to reach more people and increase your chance of conversions. Pro Tip: You can target existing customers using their email address on Facebook. Listen to Episode 15 for a full explanation on how to get the most out of Facebook advertising and remarketing.

To learn more about AdWords Remarketing visit the PPC Professionals AdWords Best Practices Tutorial. We’re here to help, if you have any questions about remarketing, let us know, we are offering a Free PPC Audit for a limited time.

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

How to manage your pay-per-click CPA effectively:

1. Lower your cost-per-click (CPC): An ad at the top of the SERPs = a higher CPC. Lower your bid to lower your ad’s position a bit and in turn gain control of your CPA. It quickly turns into a math game to master since high converting keywords will cost you more.

2. Increase quality score: Your webpage’s bounce rate, average time spent on site and ad CTR are three factors that play together affecting your quality score. Examine your ad copy and landing page to be sure all match the appropriate keywords. As you improve your quality score, you will lower your CPC as well.

3. Increase click-through-rate (CTR): An ad that includes keywords from the appropriate ad group is the start to CTR improvement. Listen to Episode 7 for a review on creating keyword-rich text ads, the benefits/pitfalls of DKI (dynamic keyword insertion) and overall effective ad structure. Utilize negative keywords to filter out unwanted traffic and “dead clicks,” and be sure match types are segmented. For a detailed review on segmenting match types, listen to Episode 1. The use of ad extensions is also a proven way to increase CTR. Check out Episode 21 for an in-depth ad extension review and learn which ones best suit your business.

4. Bid management: Don’t overpay for your clicks. Examine your CPCs, how much you’re bidding on keywords and how effectively those clicks are converting. Also, remarketing audiences play a part here.

To learn more about Managing Cost Per Acquisition visit the PPC Professionals AdWords Best Practices Tutorial. We’re here to help, if you have any questions about managing your CPA, let us know, we are offering a Free PPC Audit for a limited time.

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

• Dynamic ads with real-time updates: AdWords now allows you to customize ads based on the users search or website they are viewing. Ad customizers can insert a keyword, display the time left before a sale ends and other highly relevant information. This helps to avoid the markup from Google on your CPCs and the dip in quality score when updating ads with relevant content and time sensitive sales. Be sure to listen to this episode for great use cases for ad customizers. Roll out began in late September and by now everyone should have access to this feature. See Adwords’ help section for more info on how to set up ad customizers.

• Bing dynamic sitelinks: Similar to the dynamic sitelinks released for AdWords in July, this feature produces notations on what your website offers alongside your ads that do not have sitelink extensions set up. Also, listen to Episode 21 for a more in-depth explanation of sitelinks and possible setbacks.

• Bing campaign planner: Provides vertical insights and competitor information collected from both Yahoo! and Bing. This tool can help advertisers make better informed decisions for keywords and search traffic patterns based on collected data.

• Tablet-related device targeting updates: Bing consolidates their targeting categories (desktop, tablet and mobile) to two options: desktop and tablet separate from mobile (similar to AdWords). The decision was sparked from Bing’s findings of similar consumer behavior on both tablets and desktop, and its strive for greater efficiency within Bing Ads.

• Top Ad Annotations: Bing has begun testing new ad alerts that display the number of monthly visits to an advertiser’s website based off traffic through the Bing/Yahoo Network.

Your 2014 Holiday PPC Campaign Prep Guide:

• Study last year’s campaign performance – Look to see what sold and what didn’t. Be mindful of your product pricing and where you fall in comparison with competitors.

• Make a plan – Set up a calendar to manage all promotions and define key shopping dates.

• Review dayparting settings – Users can be shopping during any time of the day, into the late hours of the night or wee hours of the morning, especially during this busy time of year. Make your business available to every kind of shopper.

• Pulsing campaigns ‘on’ and ‘off’ – Be consistent and avoid turning your campaigns ‘on’ and ‘off’ throughout the holiday season. The goal is to increase the number of overall sales, not shift flow of the days/times the orders are received.

• Update ad copy to reflect the shopping season – Include relevant text in your ads to attract holiday shoppers, phrases like “gift-giving” and shipping offers to increase CTR and conversions.

• Do not decrease bids on mobile ads – Many users make purchase decisions on mobile and switch to desktop to execute them.

• Utilize the appropriate Ad Extensions – Callout extensions are extremely helpful this time of year to further entice potential customers (Review Ep. 21 for more information)

• Update Google Shopping Campaigns – If you haven’t done so already (Review Ep. 3 for an in depth analysis on the topic)

• Brand Keywords – Beware of online coupon aggregator websites and place “coupon code” related keywords in separate ad groups to monitor more closely.

• Remarketing – Use remarketing to target users who might be price shopping and have not completed their purchase.

A step-by-step guide and PPC Best Practices Tutorial is available at PPCProfessionals.com.

BONUS: For a limited time, we’re offering a Free PPC Audit for one of your PPC accounts, your choice!

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.

The Pros discuss the application of the following Ad Extensions as well as how and when to use them effectively:

• Callout extensions – Add an extra line of text to your ads and spotlight additional USPs you wish to showcase that might’ve not made the character-count cut (ProTip: Create no less than four callout extensions that are between 12-15 characters for the optimum amount of callouts to appear)

• Sitelinks – Provide extra links at the top and bottom of Google search results to specific relevant pages within your website (Google experiments show a 30% increase in CTR when sitelinks were in use)

• Reasons against using sitelinks – Generic sitelinks or instances where the sitelink landing page is not a good converting page will have a negative effect on your conversion rate

• Call extensions – Track phone call conversions down to the ad group and keyword level with Google forwarding numbers (these are most valuable for mobile ads because of the featured call button)

• Seller ratings – Increase your credibility and authority amongst your competition, best for ecommerce websites

• Upgraded location extensions – Great for businesses with a physical location, can increase CTR by 10% (all accounts will be upgraded by November 2014)

To learn more about ad extensions and writing great ads, visit the PPC Professionals AdWords Best Practices Tutorial.

BONUS: For a limited time, we’re offering a Free PPC Audit for one of your PPC accounts, your choice!

PPC Playbook provides an interactive and friendly atmosphere for pay-per-click managers to get their industry news fix and questions answered. Subscribers can Tweet their PPC-related questions to @ppcplaybook or comment below.