10 PPC Hacks, Tips and Tricks to Optimize Your Time #SMX

Kim Thomas, director of Digital Advertising at Wheelhouse Search, is teaching the SMX West 2016 audience how she is making her search campaigns as efficient as possible. Who doesn’t want to learn about that? Let’s dig in.

1. Expand.

We can’t ignore the rise of voice search (Siri, Cortana). Try answerthepublic.com – it works off Google’s autocomplete and brings in a lot of questions that people are asking. Start by typing in the query and look at the different prepositions and question modifiers (which, who, what, where, when, why, how, are, etc.).

2. Be Aware

Use Google Alerts to be notified about your brand. Have those alerts delivered to your email address or an RSS feed.

3. Be Competitive

You can’t compete where you don’t compare. Compare your brand as well as your ads and offers to others. Use SEMRush and SpyFu. But when it comes to display ads, use Moat for competitive display ad comparison.

4. Improve

Constantly chase more leads at cheaper prices. Optimize further down the funnel for opportunity creation.

5. Repurpose

Take advantage of targeting from display and social campaigns. Repurpose that traffic from other digital advertising channels for remarketing/RLSA. Create Audiences by source, destination URL, etc.

6. Organize

Utilize AdWords labels, AdWords comments and Google Analytics annotations. Modify “cents” bids based on performance to quickly determine change history of keyword.

7. Customize

Create custom columns in AdWords Editor. Create column name and description. Select metrics and create formula. Select segments (network, device, top vs. other, +1 annotations, conversion). Ex. metrics by devices, Google search vs. search partners.

8. Automate

Automate to cut down on time. Automate rules. Use ad scheduling. Use AdWords Editor Quick Reference. Use scripts. Scripts are great — try Google Developers AdWords Scripts and FreeAdWordsScripts.com.

9. Be Efficient

Formula Words in AdWords Editor. It’s a feature that’s been around for awhile and is one of Thomas’ favorites. It is similar to the =SUBSTITUE feature in Excel. Find and replace w/ bracket terms. Does not work w/ “Append” Tool. Combine use of UI’s and desktop editors.

10. Share

Utilize shared features to cut down on management and admin. Use shared campaign negative keywords, shared campaign placement exclusion, bid strategies, budges and shared sitelinks.

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.