SHOULD I TRY MY
HAND AT PPC?
By Fred J. Cohen
Founder and CEO, Amicus Creative Media
www.amicuscreative.com/nacba
H
ow hard can it be? We often hear
this from bankruptcy attorneys
who, in an effort to save money,
attempt to manage their own pay-perclick (PPC) campaigns. The result is
often an ineffective and expensive
campaign which can be a major drain
on one’s time and marketing budget.
Search Engine Marketing
Pay-per-click is a form of search
engine marketing (SEM). Unlike SEO
that seeks to increase the visibility of
a site by elevating it’s placement in
the organic search results, PPC is
a paid ad campaign. Ads, based on
geographic location and keywords, are
purchased through one of the major
search engines and they generally
appear on the top or side of the search
engine result pages in a designated
“sponsored results” section.
Setting Up a Campaign
Anyone can set up a Google Adwords
or Bing Ads account for free. Once your
account has been created, you can
begin running ads. To get a campaign
underway, you will need to identify
appropriate keywords, understand your
geographic target and how to reach it,
and set your budget and cost per click.
The cost of a click can vary greatly and
largely depends on your geographic
location and the keywords used (and of
course just how competitive both are).
In Miami, the keywords “bankruptcy
attorney”, could cost a lawyer as much
as $81 per click. In Washington D.C.,
the suggested bid is $35.00 (both
examples were obtained from data
provided by Google in December 2014).
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CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
While there are a ton of websites,
YouTube videos and tools that can
give you a basic understanding of
PPC management, there are so many
nuances and “tricks” that can help to
reduce cost and increase effectiveness
that most attorneys are not familiar
with that can lead to poorly designed
campaigns.
Consider the following:
Quality Score
A quality score measures the relevance
of the ads and landing pages that
are triggered by a set keyword. The
score ranges from 1-10 and based on
how high your number is, Google will
actually discount (or hike) the cost per
click (CPC). If you have a high quality
score it means that Google believes the
user will find relevant information once
they click on the ad (given the proximity
of subject matter to the search term)
so your CPC will be lowered. The
difference in CPC can be significant,
and a low quality score can easily cost
your firm hundreds, or even thousands,
of dollars each month.
Creating a higher quality score
can prove to be challenging. SEM
consultants, with experience in the legal
industry, can work with you to create
high-quality content and very niche ads
to ensure you get more relevant traffic
to your site and lower CPCs, giving you
more bang for your SEM buck.
Keyword Matching
When setting up a campaign, you have
the option to set how your keywords
Spring 2015
will be matched to the user’s search
phrase. If your matching strategy is
not properly configured, you may be
surprised to see your ad appears in
searches that do not in any way pertain
to your practice. For example, you may
set your keywords to be: bankruptcy
attorney NYC. Without limiting your ads
to exact matching, you may show up in
a search that was done by a reporter
looking for “Donald Trump’s bankruptcy
attorney in NYC.” In this case, you are
likely to waste a great deal of money on
leads that weren’t necessarily looking
for your services.
Getting Mixed Up in the Display
Network
By default all Adword campaigns are
a part of the Google Display Network
(GDN). This network consists of over
a million websites, apps and videos
where your ad can be displayed. While
it may seem like a great advertising
opportunity, it really isn’t well-suited
for legal professionals. You don’t get
control over where you ads will appear
and these placements generally don’t
result in much high-quality traffic for
attorneys. You can opt out of GDN but
you have to know exactly how to do it.
Ad Groups
Ad groups allow you place one or more
ads that target a shared set of keywords
into a single group. The groups can
help you to better organize your ads
and help you increase the relevancy of
your ads to targeted keywords and get
them in front of prospective clients who
really need your assistance. If you’re
new to PPC, ad groups can be rather
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