In this section you will find a foundational outline to help you get your campaigns off the ground.  Regardless of where you are in the account life-cycle, the fundamentals of this outline will apply to your campaigns.

Account Structure

• Approach - For Retail Search, we recommend aligning your Paid Search Account with your Website or Inventory Taxonomy.  For example, use top level Website Categories as Campaigns and Website sub-categories as Ad Groups.
• Execution - For all built out accounts that need to retrofit, we recommend leveraging the Provider desktop-based tools to perform the Account Restructuring.  Tools such as these allow for quick and flexible editing and they allow users to choose when changes are posted which is a clear advantage against any web-based platform.

Keywords

• SKU:Keyword Ratio -  Our Search Services team uses a benchmark of between 3-6 keywords per SKU.  If you currently have 1000 products available for purchase on your website, we recommend having anywhere between 3000-6000 keywords on each Provider.  Our data shows that this level of product coverage will deliver placements to the majority of Search Engine users looking for specific products.
• Basic Keyword Types 
• Manufacturer Part Numbers + Brand
• ISBN
• Product ID + Brand
• Product Titles               
• Keyword Harvesting Tools (Listen to Webinar Recording for Tools for Keyword Discovery)
  • Provider Tools (Google's Search Based Keyword Tool, etc
  • ChannelAdvisor's Keyword Term Generator
  • Product Data Feed
  • Website

Bidding

• Make sure you are leveraging the Automated Bid Manager to control costs and manage to your profitability goals.  The first step to creating a comprehensive Bid Strategy is to first set up Umbrella Rules, or Default Rules for all Active Providers.  Read more about ChannelAdvisor Bid Rule best practices.

Ad Copy

•  Quality -  Our data shows that the biggest CTR gains from Ad Copy comes from improving poor Ad Copy to good Ad Copy.  The difference between good Ad Copy to great, amazingly targeted Ad Copy is marginal.  If you're Ad Copy already speaks to the keywords in the Adgroup, and clearly messages your Unique Value Proposition, your time would be better spent elsewhere. 
• Always have at least 3 ads running in each Adgroup and set your Campaign settings to optimize to push higher CTR's.
• Execution - Find more information on Ad Copy on this page

Landing Pages

The landing page is the website page users land on when they click your ad.

• Approach - Make sure all keywords are going to functioning pages that offer the product or service the keyword is targeting.