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KeywordsĮach ad within your ad group will target a set of relevant keywords or key terms. You can set a CPC for each ad group that you create. That’s why you’ll create a series of ads within your campaign based on a set of highly related keywords. You can think of your campaign as the key message or theme you want to get across with your advertisements. The first step in setting up your PPC ads is determining your ad campaign. There are other types of cost-per s… like cost-per-engagement, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), but for the sake of preserving your mental space, we’re going to stick with clicks, a.k.a. It’s most commonly used for paid social and display ads. CPM (Cost per Mille)ĬPM, also known as cost per thousand, is the cost per one thousand impressions. One of these enhanced options involves bid strategies that automatically adjust your bids based on either clicks or conversions. You can set your CPC to manual, where you determine the maximum bid for your ads, or enhanced, which allows the search engines to adjust your bid based on your goals. Here’s an image by WordStream that illustrates what I mean: This is the maximum you're willing to pay per click on your ad. This is the score that search engines give to your ad based on your clickthrough rate (CTR) - measured against the average CTR of ads in that position - the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERP. It’s equal to Maximum Bid x Quality Score. This value determines the position of an ad on a search engine results page.
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Let’s go over the terms in this equation, so you know what you’re paying for: Ad Rank (Competitor’s Ad Rank / Your Quality Score) + 0.01 = Actual CPC. What you actually pay is determined by the following formula: You set your CPC at the maximum price you are willing to pay per click on your ad.
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As you can imagine, a higher bid equates to better ad placement. CPC acts as your bid in an auction that determines where your ad will be placed. CPCĬost-per-click (CPC) is the amount that an advertiser pays for each click on your ad. It’s important to note that not all PPC occurs on search engines - social media has PPC ads, too (think: Facebook Ads). SEM is an umbrella term that encompasses both paid advertising and search engine optimization, that is, ranking organically for keywords. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to any digital marketing (paid or unpaid) done on a search engine, like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. The objective of all forms of digital advertising is to rank for a target keyword, which you can do in several ways. Below, we review the main elements of a PPC campaign, ranging from broad to the more specific. If you’re going to enter the paid advertising space, there are a few terms you should know.
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What’s a marketing channel without a few acronyms and a little jargon?
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