Top Interview Questions for PPC Marketing job
Top Best PPC Interview Questions And Answers list 2015 -2016:
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is not a new term when we talk about Digital Marketing. PPC is a form of Marketing in which marketers have to pay a certain amount of money as a fee every time one of their ads is clicked. PPC Marketing is basically buying visits to your website unlike other Marketing forms where you earn these visits from.
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Q: What is Actual CPC ?
The actual cost of a click for an advertiser in an auction. The actual CPC is calculated in realtime and we cannot know the Actual CPC, but we can see Avg. CPC.
Actual CPC = (AdRank to Beat/QS)+$0.01
Q: How many ads should I have in every ad group?
I typically take the top 3-5 ad groups by impressions and put 3 ads in those and then do 2 ads in all other ad groups. Then I test the ads, pick winners and add 2 more ads to the top 3-5 ad groups again and 1 ad to the others. I have found that this balances testing enough with it not taking too long to get statistically significant data.
Q: What are the Factors which affect Quality Score ?
Quality Score depends on the following metrics
- CTR of the Keyword
- Relevance of Keywords and Ads
- Landing Page Quality
- Historic Account Data
Q: When do you conclude an ad test?
For a search campaign it is typically 1,000-2,000 impressions or 200 clicks within the ad group. Sometimes at that point the ads are still running neck and neck so I let it ride until statistical significance is reached using the Teasley calculator.
Q: How many keywords should I have per ad group?
This may be the most debated question out of all of these. The keywords that drive 80% of my conversions get one keyword per ad group, the keywords that get conversions but not very many go in ad groups of 3-5 keywords and the keywords that get very little impressions, clicks or conversions go in ad groups of 10-15 keywords. Using this method I have seen QS increase drastically over a 60-day period (27% of impressions coming from QS of 10 to 72% of impressions coming from QS of 10) and have found it incredible easy to manage accounts set up like this.
Q: Should I have different match types in different ad groups, campaigns?
I prefer to do different match types in different ad groups and name the ad groups as such, “productx (exact),” “productx (phrase),” “productx (broad).” I have found the greatest benefit from doing this is that the account is easier to manage.
Q: How do I know if conversion tracking is working correctly?
My favorite tool for this is Tag Assistant for Chrome. It’s not perfect but it does quickly alert you to issues that are worth digging in to further.
Q: Does Google display network work?
I have found that the display network can work but that about half of what you try will not (meaning CPA will be too high or volume too low.) The best types of display I have found are contextual mixed with topics. This means that you have a campaign that targets different topics but with keywords so you show on more specific pages.
Q: How often do you add negative keywords to an account?
I typically monitor Search Query Reports on a weekly basis but typically add negative keywords less frequently. What I am looking for is trends/themes amongst keywords versus worrying about specific queries. Using those themes I then can add negatives at the campaign or even account level. This reduces the total number of negative keywords in an account making it easier to manage them thus insuring you don’t have negatives that are hurting performance.
Q: What tools do you use for keyword research?
I use Google keyword tool, WordStream’s Niche Finder, WordTracker and Search Query Reports.
Q: Do Product Listing Ads work?
Tremendously well. If you’re not utilizing these and you do ecommerce, you are missing out on a lot of revenue every single day.
Q: Should I bid on competitor’s brand names?
CTR and Quality Score will be low on these terms but they do typically convert pretty well, so my answer is yes. Make sure you don’t use dynamic keyword insertion in your ads on these campaigns or else you could violate trademark policies.
Q: Does Quality Score matter?
Sometimes. The best way to know is to see if there is a correlation between Quality Score and CPA in your account. You can do this by simply pulling a keyword report including the Quality Score, doing a pivot table with QS at the right and then a column for calculated CPA. Then do a graph with a trend line. That will show you if generally you see better CPA on keywords with better QS.
Q: How do I increase my Quality Score?
Increase your CTR by writing better ads, keep the number of keywords per ad group down to the ranges mentioned earlier in this post, ensure that the ad has the keywords you are bidding on in it (I am not recommending keyword stuffing, but it has to be in there somewhere to be seen as relevant),
Q: The CPC on my best keywords continues to go up. Why?
This is typically caused by an increase in competition, reduction in search volume or decreasing Quality Scores. To determine if it is competition compare the Auction Insights results to a when CPC’s were lower and see if new competitors are on the list or if your metrics there have dropped. Use Google Trends to see if search volume has dropped and do a Quality Score analysis to see if that is the issue.
Q: What’s the best way to decide what ad wins in a test? (What’s the best metric to use?)
I wrote on PPC Hero a few months ago about my favorite metric and it is still the one I use. It is impressions until conversions. To calculate you simply divide the number of impressions by the number of conversions. You’ll end up with some like 627. The lower the number the better the combined CTR and CR of that ad is.
Q: What is the difference between PPC Marketing and Internet Marketing?
Answer: Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC) specifically aims at search engines and social media channels to market your Business. It is in the form of paid search results where ads are aimed to display greater exposure for targeted keywords at minimum possible cost. Marketers usually go for PPC Marketing when they exclusively want their Ads to be seen at the top of search engine results page.
On the other hand, Online Marketing is a very wide concept wherein you have different range of channels like Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing, etc.
Q: What do you understand by Quality Score in PPC Marketing?
Answer: Google rates the quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads which are used to determine your cost per click (CPC). It is then multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process. Quality score depends on various factors such as:
• keyword relevance to its ad group
• Quality and relevance of your landing page
• Relevance of your Ad text
• Account history.
Quality score is correlated to your PPC success. The better your Quality score is the more your Ads will be effective.
Q: How to reduce costs of paid search campaigns?
Answer: Some of the ideas to reduce cost of paid search campaigns are:
• You can A/B test your ad copies and landing pages to find out the best converting ads and pages to get maximum ROI out of your campaigns.
• When using all types of keyword for your campaign, always try and bid highest on the exact match, followed by the phrase, then broad modified and finally broad match. It can help you in decreasing your cost by almost 20%-25%.
• If your business is on a global scale then find the geographies, in the location settings, where your campaign is not converting the visitors into customers as per your expectations and then you can either remove them completely from your campaign locations or put a minimum bid for those locations. Always be location specific when you are a little low on bids and budget.
• You can observe those days in a week, on which your campaigns are not converting and can possibly lower down your bids for those particular days as well.
Q: How do you differentiate paid search programs of Google and Yahoo?
Answer: Differentiation between paid search programs of Google, MSN and Yahoo can be done with the advantages and disadvantages of the same.
Table of Contents
Google AdWords
Advantage – Google AdWords offers the most robust paid search campaign program. It can help you to get majority of paid search traffic as Google tops the list of search engine platforms.
Disadvantage – Because of its advantage, large number of marketers use Google AdWords for PPC Marketing which makes its cost per click more expensive than MSN and Yahoo.
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Advantage – Yahoo offers a lower pay per click cost compared to Google AdWords and it has a pretty decent PPC interface.
Disadvantage – The reporting features of Yahoo! Search Marketing lacks effectiveness. This is where Google AdWords steps up.
Choosing the right paid search program should be based on the objective, target and budget of your business.
@: How can you improve conversion rates?
Answer: An important element in any PPC Marketing campaign is the conversion rate. It enables you to measure how many consumers you can turn into your customers, which in turn earns you more money. There are many factors which can improve your conversion rate in PPC advertising. Establishing trust with your visitors, solving visitor’s problems, making firm recommendations, identifying the landing page goals, leading visitors to the right landing page, inserting your keywords on the landing page, optimizing the landing page and analyzing and finally evaluating the performance of your landing Page are some steps you can take to improve your conversion rate.
@: What is Google Adwords remarketing?
Answer: AdWords remarketing is a targeted marketing strategy which allows marketers to reach the people who previously visited their website but did not take any action or did not experience conversion. It is another way to match the right people with right Ad.
According to Google ” Remarketing is a tool that can drive ROI for all types of advertisers, regardless of the focus of your campaigns (brand-oriented, performance-driven, etc.) or your ad formats…you can then remarket to those users who reach your site by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Display Network.”
Q: How can you describe building keyword list?
Answer: Keyword list building is a skillful task. It is the vital element in PPC Marketing as keyword is the factor which majorly decides the success of your PPC Marketing effort. Choosing right and perfect keywords can get you maximum traffic and conversions and choosing the irrelevant or wrong ones can burn down your Ad campaign to ashes. Systematic steps should be taken to build keywords. They can be:
• Identifying your audience
• Reviewing your existing offerings
• Looking and observing your competitors
• Checking web analytics results carefully
• Expanding keywords using various tools
e.g. Google AdWords keyword Planner or any Keyword expansion site.
Q: What is geo –targeting? Describe a strategy on geo-targeting ads.
Answer: Geo-targeting is basically targeting your Ads to a certain or multiple location(s). There are various ways to target your campaign geographically on the basis of:
• City, state, country and region
• Designated market area (DMA)
• ZIP code
• Radius around a point.
You can mix and match it to a certain extent. Marketers can improve their ROI by being more creative in their targeting methodology. IP filter can be a great and simple way to target your Ads geographically. E.g. if you want to advertise for “PPC China” keyword only to users who are located in China, then an IP targeting methodology will only display the ads if their location (IP address) is associated with China.
Q: What is CPA bidding in AdWords?
Answer: Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bidding is a bidding method that enables you to tell AdWords the amount of money you are willing to pay for a conversion. It helps you in reaching to the customers who are likely to take action on your website. In short, it targets on maximizing conversions. There are 2 types of CPA bid types:
• Target CPA – It is an average amount you would be willing to pay for a conversion. The cost per conversion (CPC) should average to the Target CPA you set.
• Maximum CPA – It is a maximum amount you would be willing to pay for each conversion. Most of your bids will be below your maximum CPA when you use Conversion Optimizer.
Q: What is Google MCC?
Answer: Google MCC (My Client Center) is a very useful tool for marketing experts and third parties. It helps you to handle multiple Adwords accounts easily from a single location.
Its advantages are:
• View relevant information of all linked accounts in one single dashboard
• Track performance, find accounts, manage budgets
• Manage all accounts very efficiently using the alerts-summary page, which displays all alerts for linked accounts
• Generate reports across multiple client accounts
• Manage separate billing for each client.
