Hi and welcome back to my series of blogs about digital marketing. This time in #wwudigimark, we will be discussing PPC and more specifically Google Ads, Bing Ads, and that one university in the Northwest of the Northwest with the really cool MBA program.

Google or Bing? Which One Should You Use?

Before there were Bing Ads there were Google Ads. Google Ads used to dominate the market for PPC ads but now it is in high competition with Bing Ads. Businesses are constantly trying to figure out which search engine they should pour their money into when advertising, and while both will most likely work, Google and Bing are also very different.

My personal go-to search engine is Google. I can’t tell you why, but it just seems to be the one I always click on. While this is one of the difference between Google and Bing, there are some qualities that Bing has that Google does not. One of the problems with using Google ads is that it is expensive. It is more expensive than advertising on Bing, but Google has more traffic come through it. If you are a larger business, it may be in your budget to use Google ads. If you are a small business, Bing might be more your speed, but don’t worry, using Bing doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to reach consumers that are in your target market.

Another difference between Google and Bing is the people that use the search engines. Google and Bing may host different demographics of people, so it is best to look and use whichever group of people you are more likely to serve. If you find that your target market is more accessible through Bing but you want to use Google “just like everyone else,” it is better to use Bing Ads because your conversion rate may be higher than when you use Google Ads.

 

Google Ad Campaigns

When creating campaigns for Google Ads, it is best to segment your campaigns so that they receive the most traffic possible. The campaigns should take into consideration keywords that are useful to your campaign as well as ad creation and landing page mapping. It should also appeal to the audience by paying close attention to the brand, products/services, and goal. Google allows you to select from different campaign options and you can narrow down your network so that you are segmenting to specific people.

 

Bing Ad Campaigns

Bing Ads allows you to reach a new group of high-quality customers and increase your return on advertising spend. Although Bing may not get as much traffic as Google, it is important to understand how to maximize using Bing ads so that you can get as many conversions as possible with the audience you reach. This can be done by:

• Keywords – bid on keywords and make them adjustable based on traffic volumes

• Location – specify location so that your ad is more targeted

• Language – one or all applicable languages for your campaigns

• Scheduling – pinpoint ads to specific times of day

• Device type – connect with customers on mobile device, tablet device or PC device

• Time of day and day of the week – target by time and use specific time zones

• Audience targeting – target demographically

• Shopping – target purchase intent with shopping campaigns for e-commerce

 

The Third Best in the West

Did you know Western is home to the third best MBA program in the West? I bet you didn’t actually know that if you just said to yourself “yes I did know that” (unless you are a Western faculty member (Mark/Ed) or MBA student).

Western’s MBA program has much to offer to students preparing them them for dynamic, changing, and interconnected business environments. The program is highly regarded, and is also AACSB Accredited which means that it is among the top 5% of business schools globally. So why doesn’t Western see more applications and interest to their program?

I personally believe that even with an amazing program, it is hard to compete when the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is only around 120 miles away. Bellingham being the beautiful place that it is, is a little far north for some people looking for that “big city” life, but it is also something that the program should capitalize on.

Western can use PPC to increase awareness and applications to their program. Some ways that they can do this is through the use of location, landing pages, and keywords.

 

Location

Bellingham, located thirty minutes from the border to Canada, and two hours north of Seattle is something that the program should capitalize on. When students are searching for highly accredited grad schools, they may be looking to re-locate to somewhere they have never been before, and beautiful Bellingham, WA may be the place for them. The culture of Bellingham allows for the perfect combination of young-adult/student life as well as the working-professional life. Capitalizing on the Bellingham bay and accessibility to working with clients would set Western apart from other university programs.

 

Expand Ad Text

Western should use PPC to increase awareness through the expand ad text. They should use the 180 characters in the two descriptions to highlight all of the features that sets Western’s MBA program apart from other school’s MBA programs in the state. This could highlight class size, the accelerated program, or other things that sets Western’s program apart. This should use keywords, but it would be better if they were important keywords that other programs did not use too heavily.

 

Keywords

Western should highlight their program using the correct keywords and also should highlight their accelerated program through the use of keywords. This would benefit Western because keywords are what draw an ad to being portrayed. Using words that accurately describe the program but would also set the program apart from others is vital in giving your ad and using PPC to your advantage.

 

Landing Pages

Western should also utilize the correct landing pages depending on what they are going to be targeting. They should ensure that their ad campaign brings the audience to the correct page to give them the information that they may be looking for. Relevant ads and landing pages allow for a high click-through rate gives a higher quality score. An increase in that score could lead your ad to becoming more successful when the campaign is being run.

 

Ad Extensions

Lastly, Western should use Ad extensions to utilize PPC to increase awareness. Using sitelinks would link customers directly to areas of the website. This is extremely useful when needing to bring potential applicants to specific parts of the website. The positive to ad extensions besides using sitelinks is the use of callout, location, call, price, and promotion extensions. These are all tools that you can use to be able more efficiently create their ads so that Western is shown more often with the ads.

 

Conclusion

PPC is a great way to advertise! It allows businesses to pay for their clicks and only when a person pays for their clicks. I hope that this blog taught you about how to effectively market to your target market that will give you the most conversion. Stay tuned for next time on my blog for #wwudigimark.