Beginner’s Easy Guide to PPC Keyword Bidding Success (5 Tips)

If you are new to pay-per-click (PPC), this beginner's easy guide to keyword bidding is for you.

Keyword bidding is one of the most crucial steps in creating a strong PPC campaign. An expert Chicago PPC agency recommends the following five top tips for bidding success:

1. Understand the two types of bidding: automated and manual bidding
2. Adjust keyword bids to fine-tune the campaign
3. Consider factors that impact bidding
4. Use trusted keyword tools
5. Analyze the competition

Create better, more effective PPC campaigns with these keyword bidding tips. Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

1. Understand Biddings: Automated and Manual Keyword 

Regarding PPC keyword bidding, you can select from automated or manual bidding. Learning the difference between these two strategies can help you choose the correct technique, and create a successful PPC campaign from scratch.

     Automated Bidding

Google automatically sets bids for your campaign according to the ad’s likelihood of conversion. You can further select from various types of automatic bidding to help improve ad visibility, clicks, or conversions. Marketers can focus on other vital areas of their PPC campaigns as they let Google handle the bidding.

Google also learns as marketers rely on automated bidding. The search engine uses the gathered information to improve future auction results, benefiting campaigns. Google considers various auction signals to understand the context of different searches: device, time of day, location, language, remarketing list, and operating system.

     Manual Bidding

Marketers maximize their bids with an automated bidding strategy. However, they may also prefer manual bidding. With this strategy, Google gives a range of recommended bids for keywords. Thus, you have an idea of the bids won in previous auctions.

You determine the bid for every keyword depending on how much profit you get from clicks. For example, three people searched for your keyword “buy running shoes in Chicago" and clicked on your ad. Two of the three people made a purchase. Thus, the bid amount you select must ensure that the cost of the three clicks is less than the profit from the two sales.

Try different keywords to find out which are profitable. Calculate the cost for all the keywords in the campaign to find out what you are willing to pay for PPC. Back to our example, "running shoes" is a broad keyword, and using this could lead to more clicks. In cases of slower sales, adjust the bids accordingly.

2. Adjust Keyword Bids To Fine Tune the Campaign

Adjusting keyword bidding optimizes advertising campaigns and helps achieve advertising goals. You can increase ad positions to improve visibility and achieve higher click-through rates (CTRs). Higher CTRs lead to more conversions and a better return on investment (ROI).

Bidding too high on keywords can lead to wasted ad spend, especially if the clicks you receive do not result in conversions. Adjusting bids allows you to find that sweet spot to get the best return on investment.

By bidding strategically on keywords, you can outbid competitors and increase your chances of winning the auction for ad space. Finally, adjusting keyword bidding helps target specific audiences. Bidding more on keywords relevant to the target audience increases the chances of reaching the right people at the right time.

Remember these strategies to effectively adjust keyword bids:

• Use keyword research tools to identify high-performing keywords and their current bid prices, to determine how much you should bid on each keyword.
• Analyze PPC campaign data to determine which keywords drive the most conversions, cost the most money, and are not performing well.
• Determine advertising goals and set specific targets for each keyword.
• Monitor campaign performance to see how bid adjustments impact the results.

3. Consider Factors That Impact Bidding

A trusted Chicago PPC agency looks into crucial elements of a PPC campaign. Learning these can help formulate effective and optimized keyword bidding tactics. Here are some of the most relevant:

• Keyword Relevance – You need to bid more to compete with other advertisers if you want to use highly relevant keywords.
• Keyword Competition - Highly competitive keywords with many advertisers bidding on them have a higher bid to win ad placement.
• Ad Position – You need to bid higher for the ad to show at the top of the search results.
• Quality Score - PPC platforms use this metric to measure the relevance and quality of ads and landing pages. Higher quality scores incur lower costs per click. The platform may allow you to bid less while maintaining a high ad position.
• Ad Relevance - The relevance of the ad copy to the keywords impact bidding. If the ad is highly relevant to its keywords, the platform may allow it to bid less while maintaining a high ad position.
• Ad Format – The format, such as text or image-based PPC ads, can impact bidding. Some ad formats may be more expensive, depending on the competition for that format.
• Ad Targeting – Location, language, and device targeting affect bidding. Targeting options with high competition may require a higher bid to win ad placement.

4. Use Trusted Keyword Tools

Ensure bidding success using the latest and most trusted PPC keyword tools. Most of these tools are free, while some require a subscription. You can use one tool or maximize your keyword bidding strategies using two or more tools. Here are the most popular PPC keyword tools.

• Google Ads Keyword Planner: A free tool that helps research and find relevant keywords. You also get estimated search volumes and bid suggestions for every keyword.
• SEMrush: A paid tool with a range of features for PPC management, including keyword research, competitive analysis, and bid management. Get real-time data on ad position, cost per click, and other keyword performance metrics.
• Ahrefs: A paid PPC tool with several keyword research and analysis features. Ahrefs also provides insights into competitor keywords and bid strategies to help outrank the competition.
• WordStream: A PPC management platform that helps with keyword research, bid management, and other features. Marketers use WordStream to optimize their PPC ad copy and landing pages.
• AdEspresso: A Facebook Ads management tool for bid optimization for Facebook Ads. It provides insights into ad performance and audience targeting.

5. Analyze the Competition

Analyzing the competition is essential to keyword bidding in PPC because it helps identify competitors and understand their strategies. Use the information gathered to refine your bidding strategies to stay ahead.

Through this strategy, you can benchmark performance by comparing metrics with competitors. This reveals areas for improvement that strengthens bidding strategy. You can also discover new keywords driving traffic, refine ad copy, and improve messaging, all of which drive better results. Here are some techniques to analyze the competition:

• Find competitors using search engines to search for target keywords, then identify the top advertisers.
• Analyze their ad copy, especially messaging and calls to action that resonates with the target audience. Look at the ad format, such as text or image-based ads.
• Check landing pages to understand the user experience and to see any opportunities for improving landing pages.
• Look for patterns in their bidding, such as bidding at certain times of day or certain days of the week.

Summing Up

Ensure success in PPC keyword bidding by understanding the two types of bidding, adjusting bids, and considering factors that impact bidding. In addition, utilize trusted free and paid tools to maximize your bidding strategy. Finally, closely follow the competition and monitor their bidding strategies and ad positions.

All of these top tips can help improve PPC ranking, visibility, and conversion. Do you want to learn more about PPC keyword bidding? Only an expert Chicago PPC agency, such as Digital Authority Partners (DAP), can help. Contact us today!