In short, the answer is that it depends on factors such as your company’s content output and platforms used, the product or service you are selling, and your overall marketing and business objectives.

In many instances, PPC and SEO can actually complement each other and work together to drive traffic in their own way, which we’ll explain later on.

This article will cover the key differences between PPC and SEO, what they are and why they’re important, as well as which, if not both, might be best for your business.

What is the difference between PPC and SEO?

PPC marketing (or pay-per-click) is an online advertising model, where the advertiser pays a fee every time someone clicks on their advert. The purpose of a PPC advert is usually to drive traffic to a website or landing page that is intended to persuade the user to make a purchase or another action.

Search engine advertising – or paid search – is one of the most popular forms of PPC. Businesses bid against each other for search engines to list their website when someone searches a relevant query. Each time a user clicks on the paid search listing, the business typically pays between $1-6 in the US, depending on the industry you’re in. 

SEO stands for search engine optimization, a process that is used to drive ‘organic’ traffic to a website from search engines like Google or Bing. Unlike PPC, you don’t pay for SEO traffic. Instead, businesses use SEO practices – such as optimizing the content on their website or increasing its speed – to rank higher on a search engine’s results page (SERP).

One of the key differences between PPC and SEO search listings is where they are positioned. PPC results – or paid ads – will often appear at the very top of a SERP. On most SERPs, however, a higher percentage of users click on organic results than paid listings.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but with the right organic content, you’ll generate more clicks than from a well-placed paid ad.

Getting your business to rank in organic search is no quick or easy task, and relies upon you successfully executing content and SEO strategies over time – plus a fair amount of patience. Competition for keywords can be tough – particularly for commercial search terms.

For example, you may want your business to rank when a user searches for a plumber in their local area, but it can take a while to outrank established competitors who already have a wealth of authoritative content.

Instead, it may be more effective to create content that targets less competitive search terms, while using PPC to bid on more competitive keywords, where your product or services can be seen more straight away.

Other types of PPC advertising

PPC ads aren’t exclusive to just search engines though. There are other forms of PPC ads to experiment with, depending on your audience and business type. These include:

• Display advertising: These are banner, image or text ads that show on other websites which link through to your website and product. They won’t necessarily generate as high a click-through rate (CTR) as paid search ads, but are useful for building brand awareness.
• Social media advertising: Social media platforms like Facebook are used by masses of potential customers. Advertising on these platforms can help increase awareness of your product or services, allowing you to target specific demographics and interests. Advertisers can also choose to pay per click (PPC) or per impression.
• Affiliate marketing: This is where third-party ‘affiliates’ create PPC ads promoting your products or services and place them across search engines, price comparison sites, targeted content sites and high-traffic websites. It uses a performance-based model or Cost per Action (CPA). This method needs ongoing management and expertise, though.
• Price comparison websites: These gather and display various products and offers from a number of providers in one place. The advantage is that you can access customers who are ready to buy a product or service like yours, though the disadvantage is that you’ll be up against competitors.

With PPC advertising, you can also do something called ‘retargeting,’ which uses cookies on a user’s browser to show them specific ads based on their previous online actions. For example, a user searching for plumbers in their local area could see display ads for various plumbing services.

Retargeting can be used as part of search and display advertising campaigns, as well as social media campaigns and email marketing.

What is SEO in marketing? 

SEO is a specialist practice used to increase the quantity and quality of visitors to your website by driving ‘organic’ website traffic from search engines.

SEO in marketing, therefore, requires shaping and optimizing content around what your target audience is searching for online. This means researching the topics they are interested in, the words they’re using, and the type of content they want to consume. 

It also means being able to deliver that content in a way that allows search engines to discover and catalog it – a process known as crawling and indexing. In developing organic SEO content as part of your marketing strategy, it’s therefore important to understand what both your audience and search engines might be looking for.

There are many pros to using an SEO-focused approach. These include:

• Generating free traffic: This is probably the main benefit of doing SEO, in the sense that you don’t pay a cost per click, and traffic that is generated is earned.
• Gain more visibility: When you appear in SERPs organically, it boosts both brand awareness and credibility.
• Building trust: Having your site show up in the search results for a particular topic or keyword builds trust with potential customers and your target audience.
• Improved click-through rate: You can generally expect to generate more clicks from a highly-placed organic listing than from a paid ad.
• Reputation: Once search engines recognize your brand as an authority within your industry or niche, it’s not as easy for PPC-focused competitors to simply buy their way in.
• Broadening topic scope: It’s easier to broaden the scope of your content by reoptimizing content or creating new, relevant organic content, instead of paying for all kinds of clicks on every service or product on your website.

SEO in marketing is a long game though and it can take a fair amount of time and effort to see results. While SEO-driven traffic is free, gaining that visibility will take time and money, and the quality of your content needs to be there in order to achieve it.

You need to think strategically about the kinds of keywords and search queries you’re targeting, too. If the SERPs already include highly authoritative websites like Amazon, eBay or Wikipedia, it may be very difficult to compete and gain the kind of visibility that you want for your business.

Additionally, you may need to budget for quality content assets and invest in a proper strategy for tactics like link building. These can be difficult to manage in-house, especially for smaller businesses, and may require expert support.

With all this in mind, it’s worth considering that PPC can pick up where SEO can’t, ensuring users will see your ads much more quickly, and allowing for laser-focused targeting so you can get in front of potential customers. For this reason, it’s beneficial to utilize both.

The pros and cons of PPC

PPC (pay-per-click) marketing, as mentioned, allows you to increase your traffic and gain better access to your audience by paying when someone clicks on your ad and goes onto your website.

With PPC, you can get results almost instantly, making it an ideal method for smaller businesses and start-ups. SEO is really more about playing the long game, since it takes time to populate your site with content and build brand authority naturally.

You can find out more about PPC advertising with our in-depth guide, but here are a few of the pros and cons to help you understand the difference between PPC and SEO, the factors involved, and which, if not both, might be more beneficial to your business.

PPC marketing has many pros or advantages. These include:

• Quicker results: Paid search marketing is undoubtedly a much quicker and more direct way of reaching your target audience than SEO.
• High position on page: The highest bidder sits at the top of the SERP, so users will always see those results first.
• Better ads for your business or service: With PPC ads, you have more control over the information and messaging you can include, like price, location, callouts and so on.
• Better targeting: PPC provides a laser-targeted way to get in front of potential customers, since ads can be targeted by search keywords, time of day, day of the week, geography, language, device and much more.
• More efficient testing: A PPC ad campaign can allow you to test and experiment with new products, landing pages, marketing messages and call-to-action buttons, helping determine where the best results can be found.
• Increased marketing intelligence: By using analytics software (like Google Analytics), with a PPC campaign, you can see which keywords convert and at what percentage and cost. These insights can then be used to inform SEO marketing and other advertising strategies to improve results all around.

There are, however, some cons to PPC, largely surrounding cost. If you’re targeting several countries or running large international campaigns, costs can soon increase dramatically. 

Additionally, PPC marketing requires constant investment to keep your ads running. Costs can also increase if you’re bidding against other advertisers.

Another potential drawback is that competitors can easily notice if you’re running ad campaigns, and can replicate your ideas and messaging. This is fairly common in advertising and somewhat goes with the territory.

It’s important to remember that PPC depends upon strategic thinking and skill when it comes to managing and monitoring your campaigns. Although it requires some budget to do PPC, search engines and other platforms reward advertisers who can create relevant, targeted PPC campaigns by charging them less for clicks.

This in turn results in higher profits for your business, so it’s worth doing it right. 

How PPC and SEO work together

While there are key differences between PPC and SEO, don’t think of it as PPC vs SEO. In fact, where possible, a strategy that incorporates both can bring about the best results. 

Both SEO and PPC drive traffic in their own ways, but used together, you can ensure all bases are covered when it comes to increasing your traffic and bolstering your messaging overall. So if you’re wondering: “does PPC help SEO?” the answer, for the most part, is yes.

As an example, the data derived from a PPC campaign – like which keywords convert best – can be used to create SEO and content strategies. You can then focus on these high-performing keywords, optimizing them for organic SEO.

Additionally, by looking into which pages perform best from paid referrals, those insights can be used to improve SEO content in the future. You could also test your paid content against the same organic content with a view to see which performs better, and then analyze why that might be.

Taking learnings from your existing SEO content can also be helpful. You can use organic content as a testing ground to see what works before you decide to take the plunge with ad spend.

For example, if a page converts well through organic search, but you’re struggling to outrank a competitor, you can pay for a sponsored listing and improve your brand’s visibility while still retaining the page’s organic listing. 

When using PPC and SEO strategies together, ensure that your brand messaging is aligned and your on-page techniques are up to scratch, giving your potential customers a positive experience of your brand.

Using a PPC tool can help your business execute its PPC and SEO strategies harmoniously. With a free Adzooma account for marketers, you can create, optimize and track your PPC ad campaigns, as well as spotting opportunities for improving and optimizing the content on your website.

You can also super-charge your campaign results by accessing insightful reports, strategic suggestions and rule-based automation features.

PPC vs. SEO – which should you choose for your business? 

Although a frequently asked question, it’s not possible to give an either/or answer without taking into account an individual business’s situation. Deciding whether PPC or SEO is a better investment for your brand depends upon your short and long-term business goals. With this in mind, a clear marketing strategy is needed before you opt for one or the other.

Consider if you need leads quickly. As a small, or new business without much content or brand authority, PPC can be a way to generate instant traffic.

Is competition high in organic search? If so, PPC can help bolster your visibility, getting your website to the top of the SERPs. If your brand is very product-driven, Google Shopping is a great feature that allows you to visually showcase your products in the SERPs.

Although PPC has a cost attached, the budget is much easier to control in the sense that it’s easier to track and prove ROI. With SEO, there’s a need for patience and creativity.

Our advice? If you can, opt for an integrated marketing strategy that combines both PPC and SEO, as when managed correctly, this will achieve the optimum outcome.

To reiterate, PPC is all about fast results and (more or less) guaranteed visitors at a cost. What’s not guaranteed is that you will convert into loyal customers. While SEO traffic is free and important in your longer-term marketing strategy, you’ll need to be patient in regards to the time involved.

A combination of both PPC and SEO marketing is arguably the best approach.

Looking to begin your PPC journey today? Sign up for a free account with Adzooma for full PPC management, strategic insights and expert optimization tips.

You can also use our SEO report tool in partnership with Hike SEO, helping you to create a bespoke SEO strategy, implement recommendations and track your progress with accurate reporting.

Every advertising platform, from printed newspapers to online networks, has their own specs and standards for their content.

They include technical, stylistic and editorial guidelines that all advertisers must adhere to so their adverts can be approved and published. Microsoft Ads is no exception.

Why are they so important?

The Global Microsoft Advertising Creative Acceptance Policy and other associated policies such as the Native Creative Acceptance Policy ensure that certain editorial standards are maintained and do not impact negatively on the Microsoft brand or lower the standard of user experience.

These policies govern all Microsoft properties, including:

• Bing
• MSN
• Outlook.com
• Skype
• Xbox
• Windows

The very nature of online advertising means that creative specifications can change rapidly. At any point, Microsoft can refuse to publish any content or make exceptions to these policies in certain circumstances.

Types of specs

MSN Display Network

In-Banner Interactive

In-Banner Interactives allow advertisers to showcase their creative and engaging assets such as games, videos and animations.

Dimensions: 300×250, 728×90, 300×600

IAB Billboard and Billboard Expand

• Maximum 30 seconds of animation.
• User must be allowed to hide the ad and reopen.
• The ad unit can be expanded on the page by dragging or clicking certain areas.

Dimensions: 970×250 (billboard)

Expanding Rich Media

This ad is a standard unit that expands to a larger size to show interactive or video content.

Dimensions: 300×250, 300×600,728×90

MSN Custom Header

Advertisers can use the MSN responsive design to create a display across all three-page sizes.

Dimensions: 1272×328, 970×250, 628×162

MSN Responsive Header + Skin

A luxury ad experience. Choose a single creative across all page widths or customize for each one.

• The banner and skin automatically match the width of the page.
• The banner does not have a close button.
• Ad is animation only, no video.

Dimensions: 1600×754, 1264×754, 1152×754, 942×754, 836×754

MSN Responsive Skin

Choose a single ad across all three-page widths or customize for each.

• Banner element is 120px high and snapped to match the size and width of the page.
• The banner does not have a close button.

Dimensions: 1600×754, 1264×754, 1152×754, 942×754, 836×754

Flip

• Standard 300×600 with 15 seconds of animation.
• On click, the panel will unfold up six panels of the same size.
• The advertiser can use separate content in the expanded area until the panel is closed by the user.

Dimensions: (Initial) 300 x 600 (Full) 1800 x 3600

IAB Filmstrip

• Allows for a storytelling sequence through a series of panels.
• The first panel can then be clicked on to move between the panels with a clear call to action to push the user onwards.
• Subsequent return visits to the site will move the film strip to the next panel in the sequence.

Dimensions: 300×600 (up to five panels)

For mobile and app ads

Mobile and Windows In-App Rich Media

Ads can be both expandable of static banner formats. Microsoft complies with the IAB and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines on Mobile Display Advertising.

MSN Mobile Browse Rich Media

On click, panels will expand to 320×416 of full size of the screen.

Standard

No Rich Media allowed. Standard animation only of text/image.

Dimensions: 300×50, 250×510, 250×250, 480×80

Video ads

Bannerstream, Linear Video, Linear VPaid, Outstream Video

There is numerous option for video advertising within the Microsoft Ads network. All videos must be delivered via the IAB Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)

On Outlook.com

In-banner Interactive

Ad units can feature a range of media from animation to video. Outlook will automatically size the add for the best placement. All sizes are determined based on the dimension of the browser being used.

Dimensions: 300×250 728×90 300×600 160×600 320×50

Microsoft Audience Network

This option allows you to embed your ads within publisher sites relevant to your products/services. Ad formats are relatively simple with URL, copy and image being loaded into Microsoft Ads.

Dimensions: 1200×628 (703×368 minimum)

Policies

Ad style policies

As you’d expect, the ad style policies for Microsoft are comprehensive. Once you’ve read through hand got the hang of them, you’ll see why. They are designed to stop poor writing, clickbait-style headlines and a general decline in ad quality. They promote clear, succinct and factual messaging.

• Accuracy
• Keyword relevancy
• General spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Unsubstantiated claims
• Repeated words/phrases
• Inappropriate or offensive language
• No unnecessary symbols or punctuation such as multiple exclamation marks of disguising words such as $ale.
• All ad landing pages must comply with Microsoft Advertising Policies too.

Ad content policies

Content policies are there to make the overall user experience a good one and prevent pages from becoming swamped with low quality, repetitive ads.

• Do not submit repetitive or multiple similar ads. They will be rejected.
• If you are running multiple ads, they must be distinct from each other with a unique look.
• You must use the language of the target market (e.g. English, Spanish), and the landing pages should also be in the same language.
• Words that are not in the native language can still be allowed if they are used in the target area too (e.g. cafe)

URLs and landing page policies

Microsoft’s ad policies also extend to the landing pages of the ads they display.

• Final URLs must be a working website. An ad cannot lead to file, email address or a page showing an error status.
• Ad within the same group must have the same top-level domain.
• The display and landing page URLs must match.
• URLs cannot contain diacritics, accents or other non-Latin or ASCII characters.
• Landing pages must be online and working
• Users must be directed to a single landing page that is the same each time
• All landing pages must belong to your or have the permission of the owner to link to them
• The landing page must allow users to return to the previous page by using the back button
• The landing page must not use intrusive pop-ups, additional windows of other features that prevent a user from leaving the site.

Conclusion

Advertising through the Microsoft Ads platform presents vast opportunities for brands. From well placed, standard image ads to full screen, sequenced, Rich Media, you are sure to find the right option for your brand and your budget.

Ad specifications are comprehensive, and the quality control aspects can make it challenging to be approved if you’re new to the platform. However, they are there to keep the user experience at a high level and build trust in the platform and its advertisers.

Conversion tracking is easy to carry out and can help you to get more out of your ads. Read on to discover how conversion tracking works and how it can benefit you.

What is conversion tracking?

Conversion tracking involves identifying which clicks turn into conversions. A “conversion” may not necessarily be a visitor making a direct purchase on your site – it could be any action that results in a lead or a healthy engagement. A few examples of actions that may be regarded as a conversion include:

• Purchasing a product
• Calling your number
• Signing up to your mailing list
• Adding an item to the shopping cart
• Playing a video
• Downloading your app

By setting conversion goals, you can focus on specific types of conversions. An ad campaign that meets these conversion goals can then be deemed a success.

Benefits of conversion tracking

Conversion tracking allows you to get a better return on investment (ROI) out of your ads (this is sometimes referred to as the ROAS or “return on ad spend”).

By knowing which campaigns, ad groups and keywords are successful, you can then pour your money into replicating and fine-tuning these, while no longer wasting money on campaigns that aren’t as successful.

If you’re tracking conversions for multiple ads, it could help you to determine which ads are working and which aren’t. You could be running two different video ads – one ad could be getting more clicks, but the other could be getting more conversions.

Without measuring conversions, you might wrongly assume that the ad getting more clicks is more successful.

If you have two campaigns for the same ad each leading to a different landing page, you could even compare data to see which landing page is generating the most conversions so that you can direct all your ads here. Alternatively, you could use this data to make edits to the landing page that isn’t generating conversions.

How to set up conversion tracking

Google now allows users to set up conversion tracking during the campaign creation process. To set up conversion tracking, you need to:

1. Create a conversion action in your Google Ads account
2. Set up a conversion tracking tag on your website

To create a conversion action, here’s what you do:

1. Log in to your Google Ads account
2. Click on the tool symbol icon. Under “Measurement”, click on “Conversions”
3. From here click on the plus (+) button, which will allow you to set up a conversion action
4. You can then start setting the parameters for your conversion action. This will then generate a tracking code that you can copy and paste into your webpage

Providing that you are able to access your website’s code, you can embed this tracking code yourself – this will generate a tracking tag on your website that then allows you to track conversions. If you don’t feel comfortable accessing your website’s code, you could try using Google Tag Manager.

In Microsoft Advertising, this process is pretty similar too.

1. Head to Conversion Tracking on your campaigns page
2. Under Conversion Tracking, click UET tag, enter a name and click Save
3. In the View UET Tag Tracking Code box click either Copy, Download or Email, then click Done
4. Add the UET code to your website

Not advertising on Microsoft yet? You can get $125 in free ad spend when you spend $25, thanks to our exclusive offer.

Then connect your account to Adzooma for free and manage both your Google and Microsoft campaigns from one screen.

What happens if my Conversion Tracking breaks?

This is something you really need to keep an eye on. We’ve obviously stressed the importance of conversion tracking already and if for whatever reason this breaks or goes down, the data you are recording will be inaccurate which could cause untold problems later down the line.

One way to always be on top of this is by connecting your Google and Microsoft ads to the Adzooma platform for free. The software checks and analyses your accounts 24/7 and in the ‘Opportunities‘ tab you will be alerted under ‘Best Practice’ if there is a problem with your conversion tracking like so:

If you then click Details, you will be taken to a page which will direct you on how to fix the problem and then job’s a good’n!

Types of conversion tracking

Website actions are the most common conversion type. These include online purchases, filled-out forms or mailing list sign-ups. It’s easy to create separate confirmation pages triggered by purchases of submitted forms that you can add a tracking code to in order to track these conversions.

Other types of conversions can also be tracked. These include:

1. Phone call conversion tracking

This involves determining how many ad clicks result in a phone call. There are two main ways to work out which callers are being directed to you via your ads.

One option is to make your number a hyperlink that mobile users can click – every time a user who has clicked on your ad also clicks on this hyperlink, you can keep a record of this conversion.

The other option is to set up a unique phone number and display this phone number on a webpage that can only be accessed via your ad (you could even display this phone number on the ad itself). You’ll then know that anyone who has called you on this number has done so by seeing or clicking on your ad.

2. Mobile app conversion tracking

This involves tracking people that click on your ad who then go on to download your app. On top of recording how many app downloads you get, you can also record how many users open the app after downloading it.

3. Offline conversion tracking

Sometimes a click on an ad may not lead directly to a conversion, but later down the line it could lead to a sale. You may be able to record this information simply by surveying all customers to ask them how they discovered you.

Alternatively, you can use GCLID parameters to track return visitors to your site who may have previously clicked on your ad.

4. Local conversion actions

You can also collect data from consumers based on their GPS location. This could allow you to record when a consumer clicks on your ad and when they then later walk into your store. This generally relies on someone clicking on an ad on their phone and sharing their location on their phone.

Security and privacy

Every web user leaves behind a digital trail that can be traced. This is how conversion tracking works – it takes a look at that trail after a consumer clicks on one of your ads.

However, some consumers may not want their trail of data collected in this way. For this reason, it is important to get the consent of every person that clicks on your ad by using a permission for consent pop-up on the landing page. It’s also important to disable the collection of remarketing data for users that do not give their consent.

How to analyse conversion tracking data

All conversion data can be viewed in the Campaigns tab in your Google and Microsoft ads account. You can use the columns tab to choose which types of conversion data you want to display.

The more data you are able to collect, the easier it will be to optimise your ad campaigns in order to make them more effective.

Change is inevitable and Google claims that people are changing the way they use search so marketers need to adapt or see their performance plummet. One example of a change that caused a shift in PPC strategy is the move from SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) to STAGs (Single Theme Ad Groups).

What are Single Theme Ad Groups?

As the name suggests, STAGs are ad groups containing keywords grouped together by a specific theme. They became more effective than SKAGs, or Single Keyword Ad Groups, as Google Ads changed its definition of close variants.

What happened to SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups)?

Single keyword ad groups (often referred to as “SKAGs”) are one of the areas that were most impacted by Google’s changes to close variants. Single keyword ad groups have one keyword per ad group. They tend to fall under one of the following brackets:

• Single ad group per campaign with a micro-budget or shared budgets
• All ad groups in one campaign with a giant budget
• Varied numbers of ad groups per campaign with budgets set in relation to the products or services that had been listed

This allowed marketers to feel more in control of their budgets and allowed them to improve their Quality Score and lower the CPC. However, budgets could easily become misallocated as all ads could easily end up placed into the same campaign.

What are close variants?

Close variants were introduced in 2014 to bypass spelling mistakes and pluralised keywords. This nullified the effectiveness of SKAGs as there wasn’t a need for them to cover specific typos or plural versions.

Then Google Ads included exact match and keyword match types which all but ended the reign of SKAGs for good. Implied matches became allowed, meaning that things like “cutting hair” would match with things like “trimming hair”. Where people used to invest in exact matches to target exact phrases, this was no longer an option.

It also began to become difficult to include all the negative keywords required to eliminate unnecessary traffic and reduce click costs that wouldn’t convert to sales. Google had placed a limit of 10,000 negatives for each search campaign and it would be difficult to list all negatives for implied matches as well as exact matches.

The solution to this was introduced with single theme ad groups or STAGs. These Google Ads groups focus on themes rather than syntax. It is now necessary for there to be three to five similar themed keywords per ad group.

How to structure a Single Theme Ad Group

There are a few different ways you can structure a STAG but here are two:

1. The first format is using the service or product category as the campaign. Here, audience and messaging will govern the ad group. Keyword research is also key.
2. Your second option is to use location or market as the campaign. These ad groups will revolve around products and services. A final option is to use profit probability as your campaign. Here, the ad groups will be corresponding products or services.

Benefits of STAGs

The main benefit of STAGs is that you can budget more effectively. Rather than having to allow a budget for every search term or variant possible, you can choose exactly where you want to place your budget, which allows for budgeting to be targeted around profitability.

Other benefits include:

• Better Quality Score – better ad groups lead to better CTRs, which improves your Quality Score.
• Better organisation – Having hundreds of SKAGs can be a nightmare to manage. But by grouping keywords into STAGs, it becomes easier to add, remove, and alter keywords.
• Better ad copy – Because of the specificity of STAGs, your ad copy will mirror this and increase your chances of clicks, which leads to the better Quality Score benefit

STAGs really are beneficial for ROAS, impression share and conversion rates, as opposed to simply playing into the hands of PPC professionals.

How to create STAGs

The process is simple. As an example, say we have a company that sells t-shirts.

1. Conduct keyword research and compile a list of keywords that fits with your product, service, or brand. Don’t think about pruning the list just yet.
2. Once you’ve got your list, now you can fine-tune it. Remove any overlapping terms and think about themes and sub-themes – the more specific, the better. We might consider themes such as “men’s t-shirts”, “women’s t-shirts”, “children’s t-shirts”, “unisex t-shirts”, and “vegan-friendly t-shirts”.
3. Now think about the keywords that would fit into those groups. You could add different colour variants or sleeve lengths (or maybe even have sleeve lengths as a theme/sub-theme).
4. Think about the ad copy you want to write for each variation. This can be done dynamically. Here are some examples for “children’s t-shirts”:

• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool yellow children’s t-shirts.”
• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool blue children’s t-shirts.”
• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool green children’s t-shirts.”

Alternatively, you could do it the other way around and centre the colour as a theme and use types as the variations, like so:

• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool yellow children’s t-shirts.”
• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool yellow men’s t-shirts.”
• “Ready for the summer? Check out our cool yellow vegan-friendly t-shirts.”

There are so many possibilities with STAGs, which can make management overwhelming. If you need a platform to help you organise and manage your ads and your copy, you can always try Adzooma.

With its use of machine learning to give effective suggestions from its Opportunity Engine, you can boost your impressions for each STAG, improve CTR, and, ultimately, increase sales. To find out more about how much time and money you could save with Adzooma, take a look at our Features and Pricing pages.

Conclusion

STAGs just make sense. They follow Google Ads recommendations of adding up to 20 keywords in an ad group and keep your keywords organised with hyper-focused themes. That, in turn, improve every aspect of your ads, from copy to click.

Making the shift from SKAGs to STAGs can be a little intimidating. After all, we all tend to like to stick to what we know. But when you work in any area of marketing, it’s important to keep moving forward with the times and to use the tools available to you to the best of your ability. This means being flexible and adapting. Embrace this opportunity to work with STAGs, which will help to significantly drive profits.

SKAGs aren’t totally obsolete but the benefits of STAGs vastly outweigh them.