PPC and Organic Search are two completely different segment of traffic. The traffic which are being bought either CPC, CPA, CPM  etc. are classified in terms of PPC while those traffic which are being pouring as a result of search engine optimization or being referred via search engine are classified under organic search.

SEM professionals are always placed under a radar to a very generic question like -

• Does PPC takes away conversion from Organic Search?

• The answer to this question is:
  No, PPC does not take away conversion from Organic Search. It helps drive additional traffic to the website in the form of organic search. With the help of PPC and a significant improvement on the landing page via web-optimizer tool; an improvement could be made to the overall website.
  
  The improvement in the website and optimizing the page for the keywords is only the first step. Next step would be the SEO efforts like keyword analysis, keyword density analysis, keyword proximity analysis, link building, Social network awareness, Press release, Article publication etc. Finally, PPC activity is a must to uplift the quality of traffic. Once enough traffic is seen coming and the SEO effects comes into play the organic traffic received by the page is increased.
  
  It is seen that the PPC traffic can help us optimize the keywords which are to be targeted for SEO purpose. Not all the keywords which generates tons of clicks always convert. Hence to decide the keywords which are difficult to rank and it is worth testing the goal of the website using PPC. Once the myth is proved with the help of PPC it can next be passed to SEO team to optimize the keyword for Organic search.

It is seen that there is 6% to 8% increment in traffic while the both organic and PPC are running simultaneously. This stat might vary based on the size of the website and total traffic the site is receiving. Moreover also note seasonality and category of website would influence the the traffic numbers.  

AS per Google "Re-marketing is a feature of interest-based advertisement". Re-marketing in a layman terms could be explained as those visitor who visited your website are being again served with advertisement across various website. Re-marketing or call it Re-targeting it is highly targeted as the end users being targeted are not a new visitors but are visitors who once during their purchase cycle had visited the website. These users might have dropped off during their purchase cycle. Re-targeting these users will allow us to re-offer the inventory which he was interested or in other term Convert Repeat Visitors into Customers.


Having said that re-marketing is targeting the visitors who are not the new visitor but returning it is always very significant to classify these users. These users should be segmented properly. The users segmentation would be based upon the type of page and category the user was browsing. The granular the segmentation higher probability of conversion. The user could be re-targeted and thanks to re-marketing but the strategy of implementing the user categorization is vital. It is also important to consider that the visitor had left off the page because the product was not available to catch the interest a mechanism of serving those products which others were interested could lead towards conversion.

A general information on how re-marketing works:

• It is all about tracking:
• A JavaScript or Pixel Image is placed in the website. The code is activated every time the page loads. The data is transmitted via the code to the server which is responsible for offering remarketing ore re-targeting solution.
• It is all about getting to know your visitor: 
• Cookie is placed for every visitor who visits the website. The cookie has specific information at a granular level which is not only limited to the page the users visited but also the place where he dropped off.
  
• Follow visitor during his purchase cycle:
• The third party offering the solution is than capable of serving the visitor with the same product at a discounted price. Or serving alternative products with a highly targeted message as "Purchase now until the stock lasts - Last 3 items remaining".
• Providing sense of urgency and serving the item along with related product would help ease the visitor to make quick decision.
  

How can Remarketing influence Website Performance?
The answer to this question is very simple. The targeting and re-targeting visitor who are interested in your products in every step of purchase cycle could influence the visitor to purchase. There wouldn't be any company in this world who wouldn't want to appear in the search result or either in the form of MSE, PPC, CPC, CPA, CPM or even email marketing. The presence is utmost when the visitor is looking for you. It would be a crime against marketing if the presence is not marked especially when the user is looking for you or your product. Influence on the performance of the website would be seen as generally there is 2% visitor of the website converts while 98% visitors would abandon the website. To improve the performance a highly targeted campaign should be crafted to capture not only the visitor during the Pre-purchase but also Post-purchase. Based on the segmentation different kind of message is to be delivered.

View Through Conversion - Mostly when the campaign is running in CPM mode or if the Campaign is crafted for display advertisement, it is essential that there are two different metrics being reported. Actual conversion and View through Conversion.

Now, let us understand -  What is View Through Conversion?
Those people who are exposed via an advertisement which they actually saw during their research and purchase cycle. They might not actually click the advertisement but would later at certain period of their purchase cycle would commit their purchase via different advertisement or the same campaign. All those advertisement which they were exposed are in-fact view through conversion. And the advertisement  which they ad influence them to buy was actual conversion.

Advantage of tracking View Through Conversion -

• Justifying those advertisement which have brought traffic and played a minor role in conversion. This metrics would than help re-define the marketing campaign.
• Tracking visitor based on those people who had seen the ads and they who went forward to buy the product via different ad. These metrics wold help enhance the performance of the campaign.
• Higher click through rate doesn't actually means they are ot performing, they might be part of view through conversion (micro-conversion).

Last click attribution model has always been debated. In a natural buying cycle an end user would tend to research for the products over various networks. The user is than exposed to various campaign across Search Engines, Meta Search Engines, Content Network, Email Campaign, Re-marketing Campaign etc.

Now once the user is being exposed to various stages of product research till product purchase life cycle, he is exposed to different Campaign. The million dollar question would be Who should be credited for the Purchase made?

There are two different approach -

• Last click attribution method.
• Measure Micro Conversion.

 Usually in a natural buying cycle while research is being made often keywords search funnel could help track Keywords during buying cycle. Similar approach is to be used for tracking micro conversion. Tracking which campaign assisted in executing the conversion.

Advantage of Measuring Micro Conversion -

• Justice towards the campaign which is exposing the user during the purchase cycle. Mostly the probable consumer conducting research once exposed to the Ads would tend to return back and the probability of user returning via Brand Campaign is higher.
• Higher Click Trough Rate and Lower Conversion rate isn't an impression that Campaign is under performing.
• Not optimizing the Campaign based on the last click attribution method would lead towards increase in conversion.

How to Major effectiveness of Micro Conversion -
To measure the micro conversion a simple approach would be by measuring the impact of the traffic being send across in one particular domain via a channel should to be monitored.

For instance, several  Campaign are running across various channel like CPC, PPC, MSE, SMM etc. These should be all tracked and time stamp should be placed on the user which was first exposed to towards the campaign. Next there should also be a provision of stamping the user every-time he actually lands on the website. This will easily allow one to track the performance on the campaign which was actually responsible for the conversion. Hence the justice is given to the campaign and both micro-conversion and macro-conversion.

Practically it is ideal to attribute the campaign based on the micro-conversion and macro-conversion. A value could be assigned to the type of conversion. And based on the conversion the total value attributed by the conversion could be measured. Now, when everything looks good there is always a hurdle and this hurdle is known as View through Conversion. Let us discuss the View through Conversion and its importance in next blog.

CPC (Cost per Click), a metrics which revolves around driving visitor to the website and in return accruing costs. For every click there is a cost associated (if  the model revolves around Pay Per Click). Overtime if CPC starts increasing for a keyword  it could be due to poor quality score or there is tense competition in the market. Mostly during peak season the CPC tends to increase as every advertiser would become aggressive.

Value Per Click is a metrics which revolves around the ratio between goal or conversion and clicks. This metrics will allow us to measure the quality of the clicks. In theory if the number of clicks increase over the site the conversion should also increase. More clicks should result towards more conversion. If the clicks are increasing and conversion remains stable then the quality of click being bought is not good.


Increasing CPC would lead towards more clicks and these extra clicks should result into conversion. Quality of clicks should always be placed into radar and this could be done by measuring conversion rate. It is obvious that conversion rate goes down initially as new clicks bought are to be optimized. Once proper optimization over the keywords is done the conversion rate or value per click would become stable. A 2.00% conversion rate is always good.

PPC - Pay Per Click - Every Dollar spent for every visitors brought via SEM model. The basic concept in PPC revolves around keyword. The art of advertising via PPC is straight forwad. Get the keywords, associate with AdCopy and bind these as an Adgroup. These Adgroup should belong to its parent Campaign with proper location and language targeting. Initially a campaign must run in CPC mode.

There are different bidding strategy for PPC -

• CPC (Cost Per Click) Model
• Auto Bidding
• Manual Bidding
• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) Model.
• Target CPA
• Max CPA

The difference between CPC and CPA mode is that a campaign cannot opt into CPA mode until and unless it has 30 Conversion in last 30 days. CPC model is straight forward and for every search query where the keywords are eligible for an auction the ads would appear. A click over these ads would lead towards a cost resulting a visitor for the site.

It is mandatory to have the conversion tracking installed on the thank you page such that it could be measured by Google. Google Adword system starts learning the conversion under the environment they occurred and starts building intelligence. Once these CPC campaigns are eligible for migration to CPA an option button is available. The transformation from CPC to CPA occurs as per the value suggested by the Google Adwords at the campaign level. This suggested value is merely used for a smooth transition as they are used as a default value for the Adgroup. The keyword CPC is stored just in case the advertiser wish to switch back to CPC mode.

Target CPA is the indication of amount of money the advertiser is willing to pay per conversion, the target CPA is always respected and it would not incur over +-10% of the target CPA. While on the other end, Max CPA would work under the model where it is allowed to spend maximum amount indicated. Hence every other auction where there is eligibility for conversion in an auction the Ads would not be displayed once the max CPA has been achieved for the day.

The CPA is always respected and the ads are displayed considering various criteria such as origin of the visitor, time the ads is competing in an auction, browser setting etc. To improve the performance these PPC metrics should be measured constantly.

Which Model should we Chose?
CPA model is more or less a indication that the advertiser trust the Google Adwords system and let the adwords system decide when, where and which position Ad would be displayed. The advertiser has to completely rely on the system and there would be less maintenance on the advertisers end. There is no bidding required for keyword rather there is a need to update the CPA bid and review SQR (Search Query Result). The CPA is seen as Adgroup bidding  strategy.


Precaution when running in CPA:

• Ensure that the conversion tracking code is placed across all the pages as the CPA model relies on conversion.
• It is not a good practice to switch CPC to CPA and vice versa.
• Periodic update of the CPA bid is essential for the advertiser.

CPC model is directly associated over keywords bidding strategy where user controls the bid over all the keywords. The Ads would always participate in the auction provided that there is enough budget and the search query triggering the ads are eligible to participate. SQR, Keyword Bid management are sole responsibility of the advertiser would have to dedicate more effort as compared to CPA model.

Regardless it be CPC or CPA a constant monitoring over the traffic, conversion  along with its main metrics is a must. Benchmark data and understanding PPC metrics which drives performance are vital towards success of any Campaign.

Please read more about CPA bidding strategy.