Best Practices for “Pull-through” Pay-per-Click Marketing

The advertising category of “paid search” has grown at a rate of nearly 30% year-over-year for the past several years. A study published earlier this year by Forrester Research and Shop.org (a division of the National Retail Federation) revealed that nearly 40% of major companies’ online marketing budgets were allocated to “paid search” tactics. This is significant compared to other popular online tactics such as email marketing (11%), search engine optimization (3%) and Social Media (1%).

What is “Pull-through” PPC Marketing?

We define “pull-through” pay-per-click search marketing as advertising that appears in the search results based on the keywords a person types into a search engine. In other words, the ad appears and “pulls” a person through to the vendor’s website based on the interest expressed through the use of key words in the search. This process is used in both major search engines (such as Google or Yahoo) or in vertical search engines (such as Business.com or Thomasnet.com).

This form of advertising has become very popular for obvious reasons – your ad only appears to those who have expressed an interest in your product or services, and the marketer only pays for the ad when the respondent clicks on the link. In other words, it is demand-driven. Additionally, PPC advertising is highly measurable.

Best Practice Tips

Here are some tips for best practice in “pull-through” PPC marketing:

o Since marketers “bid” on keywords, test and measure a number of different keyword combinations. Sometimes longer strings of keywords are cheaper, yet are more targeted to the most relevant shoppers.
o Research and choose the best search engines to place your campaign. For consumer searches, Google is dominant for shear numbers, but depending on your target audience, other search engines, such as Yahoo!, may be a better choice. For business searches, many marketers may select certain vertical search engines such as Business.com or Thomasnet.com. The key to success is understanding your audiences and how they generally conduct a search.
o Set up AdGroups based on keyword groupings so they can be tracked and measured.
o Set up specific micro-websites where respondents are driven. It is important to keep respondents’ interests focused. If a respondent clicks on an ad for a specific product, but is driven to a general website, the person will likely get lost and abandon the search. Also, the URL for the micro-web sites should relate to the keywords that are part of the established AdGroup.
o Set up the analytics reports for each of the micro-websites to identify respondents’ behaviors. The focus should be on measuring and testing these ads to optimize performance.
o If you are a B2B marketer, it is important to tie the responses into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to track these leads through the sales process.
o It is also important to back up the online experience with phone support. Often people get to a point where they are ready (or need) to speak with a sales representative before they make the purchase.
o PPC marketing, like all media, is most effective when integrated into other supporting media, rather than as a stand-alone medium.

Evaluating “Pull-through” PPC Marketing Results

When planned, monitored and managed correctly, “pull-through” PPC marketing can be a very effective and efficient form of advertising. Some of the key metrics you may want to monitor:

o Which search engines are being used to conduct a search?
o Which keywords are used most often?
o How are “responders” different from “buyers”?
o At which point are responders abandoning the search process?

There, of course, are many other ways to measure performance. They will depend on your audiences and offerings. But establishing a process to routinely test, monitor and analyze results can provide the opportunity to experience improved campaign performance at a lower acquisition cost.

To discuss “pull-through” PPC marketing or other forms of direct-response marketing, contact us at DMC Advertising. We are specialists in highly targeted and measurable marketing programs.

Watch for our next Marketing Tips when we focus on “push-through” PPC marketing.