Marketing AI Skill

Ppc Paid Search

Manage pay-per-click advertising campaigns across Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and other search platforms including keyword strategy, ad copy creation, bidding optimization, and performance analysis. Use when creating search ad campaigns, optimizing P...

Paid Search & PPC Management

Maximize ROI from paid search advertising through strategic campaign management and optimization.

Workflow

1. Campaign Strategy & Planning

Campaign objective setting:

Objective definition (awareness, traffic, leads, sales, calls)
Budget allocation by campaign, ad group, and keyword
Geographic and demographic targeting
Device and network targeting strategy
Conversion goal definition and tracking setup

Account structure design:

Campaign organization by product, service, or objective
Ad group structure (STEA: Single Theme Ad Groups)
Keyword grouping strategy (tight thematic relevance)
Negative keyword list development
Landing page mapping

Keyword research for paid search:

Keyword discovery (Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush)
Match type strategy (exact, phrase, broad, broad match modifier)
Search volume and competition analysis
Cost-per-click estimation and budget planning
Commercial intent keyword prioritization

2. Ad Development & Creative Strategy

Ad copy development:

Responsive search ad (RSA) creation
Headline variation development (15 headlines per RSA)
Description optimization (150 characters, benefit-focused)
Call-to-action optimization
Ad personalization and dynamic keyword insertion

Ad extension strategy:

Sitelink extensions (key pages and offers)
Callout extensions (unique selling points)
Structured snippet extensions (product/service categories)
Call extensions (phone number, call tracking)
Location, review, and price extensions

Landing page alignment:

Ad-to-landing page relevance optimization
Message match and continuity
Landing page conversion optimization
Quality Score improvement strategy
A/B testing landing pages

3. Bidding & Budget Optimization

Bidding strategy selection:

Manual CPC (control, learning phase)
Target CPA (conversion cost optimization)
Target ROAS (revenue return optimization)
Maximize conversions/conversion value
Enhanced CPC (balanced automation)

Bid management and optimization:

Keyword-level bid adjustment
Ad schedule bid adjustment (dayparting)
Device bid adjustment
Location bid adjustment
Audience bid adjustment (remarketing, similar)

Budget management and pacing:

Daily and monthly budget setting
Budget pacing and spend monitoring
Budget reallocation between campaigns
Shared budget vs individual budget strategy
Seasonal and event budget adjustment

4. Campaign Optimization & Testing

Continuous optimization routine:

Search term analysis and negative keyword addition (weekly)
Keyword performance review and bid adjustment (weekly)
Ad performance testing and creative refresh (bi-weekly)
Landing page performance review (monthly)
Audience and demographic optimization (monthly)

Quality Score improvement:

Expected CTR improvement (ad relevance, ad extensions)
Ad relevance improvement (tight ad groups, keyword matching)
Landing page experience improvement (relevance, speed, mobile-friendly)
Quality Score monitoring and trending
QS impact on CPC and ad position analysis

A/B testing framework:

Ad copy testing (headlines, descriptions, CTAs)
Landing page testing (layout, copy, form, offer)
Bidding strategy testing
Audience targeting testing
Statistical significance and test duration

5. Performance Analysis & Reporting

KPI tracking and analysis:

Impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC
Conversions, conversion rate, CPA
Revenue, ROAS, return on ad spend
Impression share, absolute top impression share
Search lost impression share (budget vs rank)

Attribution and cross-channel analysis:

Attribution model selection and impact
Multi-touch attribution analysis
Assisted conversion analysis
Paid vs organic overlap analysis
Cross-channel contribution assessment

Reporting and presentation:

Weekly performance snapshot
Monthly performance report
Campaign optimization recommendations
Budget reallocation proposals
Strategic insights and opportunities

Templates & Frameworks

PPC Campaign Structure Template

PAID SEARCH CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE
===============================

ACCOUNT STRUCTURE:
  Account
    → Campaign: [Product/Service Line] — [Objective]
      → Ad Group: [Specific Feature/Use Case]
        → Keywords: [5-15 tightly themed keywords]
        → Ads: [2-3 Responsive Search Ads]
        → Negative Keywords: [Campaign-level and Ad Group-level]
        → Landing Page: [Dedicated, relevant URL]

CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION:
  Brand Campaign: [Brand keywords — high priority, exact match]
  Product A Campaign: [Product A keywords]
    → Ad Group: Product A — Feature X
    → Ad Group: Product A — Feature Y
    → Ad Group: Product A — Pricing
  Product B Campaign: [Product B keywords]
  Service Campaign: [Service keywords]
  Generic/Consideration Campaign: [Industry, category keywords]
  Competitor Campaign: [Competitor brand keywords — if strategy allows]
  Remarketing Campaign: [RLSA, dynamic remarketing]

MATCH TYPE STRATEGY:
  Brand keywords: Exact match
  High-intent commercial: Exact + Phrase
  Consideration/awareness: Broad match (with smart bidding + negatives)
  New keyword testing: Phrase match initially, expand if performing

NEGATIVE KEYWORD STRATEGY:
  Account-level: Irrelevant terms, free, download, jobs, review
  Campaign-level: Competing products/services, different intent
  Ad Group-level: Different features, different use cases
  Search term review: Weekly addition from search term report

BUDGET ALLOCATION (EXAMPLE):
  Brand: 20% (high conversion, defend presence)
  Product/Service: 50% (primary revenue driver)
  Generic/Consideration: 20% (top of funnel growth)
  Remarketing: 10% (conversion optimization)

PPC Weekly Optimization Checklist

WEEKLY PPC OPTIMIZATION CHECKLIST
==================================

SEARCH TERM ANALYSIS:
  [ ] Review search term report for all campaigns
  [ ] Add irrelevant terms as negative keywords
  [ ] Identify high-performing search terms for keyword promotion
  [ ] Check for wasted spend on irrelevant matches

KEYWORD PERFORMANCE:
  [ ] Review keywords with high spend, low conversion
  [ ] Pause or reduce bids on underperforming keywords
  [ ] Increase bids on high-ROAS keywords
  [ ] Check for keywords ready to promote (search term → keyword)
  [ ] Review keyword match type performance

AD PERFORMANCE:
  [ ] Review RSA performance (headline, description combinations)
  [ ] Pause underperforming ad variations
  [ ] Identify winning ad combinations for learning
  [ ] Check ad strength scores
  [ ] Refresh ads with low CTR (< industry average)

BID & BUDGET:
  [ ] Check budget pacing (on track for monthly target)
  [ ] Review bids for keywords approaching/exceeding target CPA
  [ ] Check ad schedule performance — adjust if needed
  [ ] Review device performance — adjust bids if needed
  [ ] Check location performance — adjust if needed

QUALITY SCORE:
  [ ] Check QS for keywords scoring < 5
  [ ] Identify QS improvement opportunities
  [ ] Review expected CTR, ad relevance, landing page experience

CONVERSION TRACKING:
  [ ] Verify conversion tracking is firing correctly
  [ ] Check for missing or duplicate conversions
  [ ] Review conversion value accuracy
  [ ] Validate attribution window consistency

REPORTING:
  [ ] Update weekly performance dashboard
  [ ] Document optimization actions taken
  [ ] Identify opportunities for next week
  [ ] Flag issues requiring strategic review

Integration Points

Google Ads: Primary search advertising platform
Microsoft Advertising: Bing and Yahoo search advertising
Conversion tracking (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4): Conversion measurement
CRM platforms: Lead quality and pipeline tracking
Analytics platforms (Google Analytics): Traffic and attribution analysis
Bid management tools (Optmyzr, WordStream, Skai): Automated optimization
Landing page platforms (Unbounce, Instapage): LP testing and optimization
Call tracking (CallRail, Invoca): Phone conversion attribution

Edge Cases

Low search volume markets: Broad match with smart bidding; related audience targeting; content marketing to build search demand; long-tail keyword expansion
Highly competitive keywords: Ad copy differentiation; landing page optimization; quality score improvement; long-tail alternative targeting; audience refinement
Brand protection campaigns: Exact match brand keywords; competitor monitoring; ad scheduling; search term analysis for brand mention capture
Multi-location local search: Location extension management; local keyword targeting; location-specific ad copy; landing page localization
E-commerce paid search: Shopping campaign management; dynamic product ads; product feed optimization; remarketing for abandoned carts

Output

Paid Search Dashboard

PAID SEARCH PERFORMANCE — April 2025
======================================

SPEND & RETURNS:
  Total ad spend: $47,200
  Total clicks: 18,420
  Avg CPC: $2.56 (↓ $0.12 from last month ✓)
  Total conversions: 2,340
  Conversion rate: 12.7% ✓
  CPA: $20.17 (↓ $1.80 from last month ✓)
  Revenue attributed: $187,400
  ROAS: 3.97x ✓

CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE:
  Brand: Spend $9,400 | Conv: 847 | CPA $11.10 | ROAS 6.2x ✓
  Product: Spend $23,600 | Conv: 1,023 | CPA $23.07 | ROAS 3.8x ✓
  Generic: Spend $9,400 | Conv: 342 | CPA $27.49 | ROAS 2.9x
  Remarketing: Spend $4,800 | Conv: 128 | CPA $37.50 | ROAS 4.1x

KEYWORD METRICS:
  Total keywords: 1,240
  Keywords generating conversions: 687 (55.4%)
  Top keyword: "[primary keyword]" — 234 conv, ROAS 5.1x
  New keywords added: 47
  Keywords paused: 23

QUALITY SCORE:
  Avg Quality Score: 7.2/10 ✓
  QS distribution: 8+ (42%), 6-7 (35%), <6 (23%)
  QS improvement (this month): +0.3 avg
  CPC reduction from QS: 18% vs last quarter

IMPRESSION SHARE:
  Total impression share: 67%
  Absolute top IS: 42%
  Search lost IS (budget): 12%
  Search lost IS (rank): 21%
  Opportunity: Increase budget by 15% to capture 8% more IS

AD PERFORMANCE:
  Avg CTR: 6.8% ✓
  Ad strength (RSA): Good (avg)
  Top performing headline: "Free Trial — [Benefit]"
  Extensions utilization: 94% ✓

MONTHLY OPTIMIZATION ACTIONS:
  Negative keywords added: 89
  Bid adjustments: 234
  Ads refreshed: 12
  Landing pages tested: 4
  Budget reallocations: 6

Trigger Phrases

"PPC", "paid search", "Google Ads", "adwords", "search advertising", "cost per click", "ad rank", "quality score", "bidding strategy", "paid search ROI", "ROAS", "ad copy", "keyword match", "search term", "conversion tracking"