PPC - Pay Per Click Management

The previous PPC campaign I analysed was MoneySuperMarket who had made clear that they were the best comparison website out there by using statistics in their PPC text advert and on their click through landing page. In this article, I thought it would be a good idea to look at a market which all advertisers are already part of: online advertising. Considering the companies that make PPC campaigns for this sector will have PPC programs, these campaigns will be well optimised providing many useful tips and tricks to making a PPC campaign successful.

To view Microsoft’s PPC campaign on Bing Ads, I had to type into Google search UK, ‘online advertising’:

It’s ironic that Microsoft are using a competitor’s service to spread awareness about their advertising platform. However, in one sense, the more exposure they can get (be it through PPC, TV, radio etc.) the better.

Looking at the advert itself, Microsoft have made the title of their advert keyword dense while giving the web user a financial incentive in the description. The fact they offer £50 of free ads makes them, to the cost-aware web user, the advert to click on.

As well as that, Microsoft has been able to address every type of web user they are trying to target such as:

• New customers – This is where the incentive of the £50 free ads comes into play.
• Customers that are unsure what program to use for PPC and online advertising – This has been addressed in the advert with the link below the description, ‘Reach More Customers’ and the end of the description phrase, ‘Grow Your Business’. Microsoft are highlighting the benefits of using their service.
• Existing PPC advertisers – Microsoft knows that there are millions of advertisers out there already using Google AdWords. That doesn’t mean these advertisers cannot use Bing too along with AdWords or as a replacement. To address this, Microsoft included the link, ‘Come From AdWords?’

In theory, your advert should address the whole of your target market: if it doesn’t you are limiting your campaign. From the above advert, it is clear this can be done easily with extra links to different landing pages below the description.

After clicking on the above advert, I came to the following landing page:

This is a great landing page because it combines the best of two different types of landing pages:

• Above the fold, the landing page can be considered an infomercial page. This is because there are actually no linked buttons (or buttons for that matter) above the fold with only information about Bing Ads being displayed.
• Below the fold, the landing page can be considered a lead capture page. Microsoft have been clever here since filling in forms is a dull process and, aesthetically, isn’t nice to look at. This is why they chose to leave the boring dull looking form below the fold so that it wouldn’t scare web users off the landing page.

The above the fold infomercial is designed to lure the web user in so that when they scroll to the below the fold form, they are more likely to fill it in. This makes clear that your landing page doesn’t have to be just one type: you can make a hybrid landing page consisting of more than one type of landing page like Microsoft have done here. In doing so, you could potentially increase the number of conversions you gain significantly.