PPC FAQ

Ad Rank is a paid search (Google Adwords) term used to describe where your ad appears in a pay-per-click (PPC) auction.

Ad Rank is recalculated every time your ad is eligible to appear using:

• Bid Amount
• Quality Score
  • Expected CTR
  • Ad Relevance
  • Landing Page Quality

Bid + Quality Score = Ad Rank

By using the combination of these two metrics, your ads will have a chance to appear even if your bid isn’t the highest. The quality of your ads goes along way towards securing a top spot in the ad auction.

How can you improve your Ad Rank?

So let’s say you don’t have the highest bid. How can you improve your ad rank? There are three quality components that will allow you to jump your competition.

• Expected CTR: The history of your clicks and impressions.
• Ad Relevance: How relevant your ad text is to the search.
• Landing Page Quality: How accurately your landing page matches the user’s search and the ad they clicked on.

Example: You are bidding on the keyword “red running shoes”. Your ads headline reads, Red Running Shoes on Sale. If someone clicks on your ad they are taken to a category page that displays a variety of red running shoes. In that situation your ad rank will typically be high allowing you to possible win the ad auction with a below average bid.

Wouldn’t showing ads with the highest bid make Google more money?

Not necessarily, by introducing ad quality components to the ranking equation, Google essentially leveled the playing field. So as long as the quality of your ads is high (with a high CTR) and generates more revenue than lower quality ads, Google has an incentive (they make more money) to keep your ads at the top.

When the ads Google shows are relevant and closely match what customers are looking for, it usually equates to lower overall costs, better ad positions, more ad success for the advertiser, and more money for Google.

When setting up your campaign on the Google Search Network, your ads can appear above or below organic search results when a searcher uses queries that match one of your keywords.

The default match type for all keywords in Adwords, Bing, and Yahoo is “broad match”. With this match type your ads may show for search queries that include misspellings, synonyms, and other relevant variations. One simple solution to stop your ads from triggering for synonyms and other variations (variations that might not be as efficient for your campaign) is the use of the broad match modifier.

The broad match modifier allows for a bit more control than standard broad match type. Your ads will only trigger when the keywords you specify are searched (in any order). Just add a + (plus sign) to the beginning of each broad keyword.

Broad Match Modifier Example

An example of a broad match modifier: +nike +running +shoes

An example of the search queries that will trigger your ads:

• Nike running shoes
• running shoes Nike
• Nike shoes for running
• Nike running shoe
• running shoe Nike

Let’s say you just used the default “broad match”. Here are a few examples of search queries that could trigger your ads for the broad keyword nike running shoes.

• running shoes
• walking shoes
• track shoes
• shoes

As you can see, the broad match modifier is a bit more focused. Google recommends starting with the default broad match but if you’re on a limited budget and looking for the most efficiency possible, the broad match modifier is your next best choice.

When advertising on the Google Search Network, your ad can appear above or below search results when a searcher uses queries that match one of your keywords.

Determining how your keywords match those queries goes along way toward the success or failure of your campaign.

Keyword match types help control the queries that trigger your ads.

Google Adwords offers 4 keyword match types: Broad Match, Broad Match Modifier, Phrase Match, and Exact Match.

Broad match

Broad match is the default match type. According to Google, “your ads may show on searches that include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations”. The broad match type will make you work. Make sure you keep an eye on the search query report to make sure only relevant searches are coming through.

Broad match modifier

The broad match modifier is a more controlled version of the default broad match type. Your ads will only trigger when the keywords you specify are searched (in any order). Just add a + (plus sign) to the beginning of each broad keyword.

Phrase match

Phrase match is an even more controlled match type. Phrase match has a fixed order. Your ads will only show if the the keywords match in the exact order in a phrase. Additional words before or after the phrase will still trigger the match.

Exact match

The most controlled match type. Your ads will only trigger if the exact match (or close variation) is searched. Exact match means your keywords in the exact order you specify.

The Google Search Network is a group of search-related websites and apps where searchers are actively looking for products and services.

Google.com is a part of the Google Search Network. The Adwords program allows you to bid on keywords to show your ads on the search network above and below organic search results.

In addition to Google.com, your ads might appear with search results on other websites (aka search partners). Search partners include hundreds of non-Google websites, as well as Google Video and other Google sites.

Google AdSense is a program that gives website owners the ability to monetize their web traffic by showing Google Display Network ads on their site.

The process is pretty simple (once you have been approved). Google will supply you with a small snippet of code to place on your site. Once the code is in place, Google will start sending content/user relevant ads to those spots. If your ads get clicked on (or seen), you’ll share in the revenue generated by Google.

The good news is that Google handles pretty much everything from deciding what ads to display to payment distribution.

AdSense will typically payout based on:

• Impressions (CPM) – based on the number of ad impressions your site generates.
• Clicks (PPC) – based on the number of ad clicks your site generates..

How much can be made with Google Adsense?

Adsense publishers pocket approximately 2/3 of the revenue that is generated from their sites (Google gets about 1/3). The amount you can make with Google Adsense comes down to the amount of traffic your site receives, your location, as well as the content of your site.

Google AdWords has two networks. The Google search network, where searchers are actively looking for products and services (closer to the bottom of the buying cycle) and the Google Display network, where advertisers can expand their reach and brand awareness on a variety of websites, blogs, and videos. The GDN is closer to the top of the buying cycle.

The Google display network (GDN) is a group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where publishers can display ads alongside their content (also see Adsense). According to Google, “Display Network sites reach over 90% of Internet users worldwide”.

The display ads that are setup in Adwords can be seen on the GDN distribution channels below.

• Websites
• Apps
• YouTube Videos
• Gmail Accounts

The types of ads that can appear on the display network will vary depending on the needs of the advertiser.

Types of Ads in the GDN

There are a variety of ad formats available in the GDN including:

• Static Image Ads
• Text Ads
• Rich Media
• Video Ads

Sizes of Ads in the GDN

There are 20 ad sizes that are eligible to be displayed in the Google Display Network (GDN). It is an Adwords best practice to create display ads in as many sizes as possible to get the most coverage. See the eligible ad sizes below. The most popular ones are highlighted in red.

Square/Rectangle

• 200 × 200    Small square
• 240 × 400    Vertical rectangle
• 250 × 250    Square
• 250 × 360    Triple widescreen
• 300 × 250    Inline rectangle
• 336 × 280    Large rectangle
• 580 × 400    Netboard

Skyscraper

• 120 × 600    Skyscraper
• 160 × 600    Wide skyscraper
• 300 × 600    Half-page ad
• 300 × 1050  Portrait

Leaderboard

• 468 × 60    Banner
• 728 × 90    Leaderboard
• 930 × 180  Top banner
• 970 × 90    Large leaderboard
• 970 × 250  Billboard
• 980 × 120  Panorama

Mobile

• 300 × 50    Mobile banner
• 320 × 50    Mobile banner
• 320 × 100  Large mobile banner

In addition to fixed size ads, Google also offers responsive ads that will automatically adjust their size and appearance to fit the available ad space.

Ad Targeting Options in the GDN

Here is a list of some of the targeting options that are available in the Google Display Network.

• Placement Targeting – pick and choose eligible websites that match your target audience. One of the more efficient targeting methods on the Google Display Network.
• Keyword Targeting – uses broad keyword matching. Google will serve ads alongside content that matches the targeted keywords.
• Topic Targeting – choose from existing lists of page topics.
• Interest Targeting – focuses on user interest instead of page topic.
• Demographic Targeting – target age and gender.
• Remarketing – target visitors who have previously visited specific sections of your site.

Combining the targeting methods above will improve efficiency, however, volume may be compromised.

Conclusion

The GDN is a top of funnel advertising network that Google designed to let advertisers put their message in front of potential customers who are not actively searching for your product or services.