This is the 7^th post in the SEM Beginner Series, building off yesterday's post on Microsoft adCenter Editorial Guidelines. This series of posts is intended for new search engine marketing professionals that are looking for guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. Previous posts in this series discussed click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), ad copy, dynamic text, ad position and the differences between natural versus paid search.

What Is Relevancy and Why Is It Important?

Relevancy refers to how closely related your web site's landing pages are to the ads and keywords you associate them with in your search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns.  The more specific your ads and keywords are to the products and/or services detailed on the landing pages you point them to, the higher your relevancy will be.

Relevancy is important because it's a crucial factor in adCenter's editorial review process.  After you submit your campaigns, all of your ads, keywords and landing pages are all reviewed to ensure that when a user searches on keyword "Product X", the ad they're shown references "Product X" and the landing page they'd be brought to after clicking on that ad prominently displays information on "Product X".  The editorial review process ensures not only a more satisfactory user experience, but a better experience for adCenter advertisers as well; the higher your relevancy, the more likely a user is to visit your site and hopefully, make a purchase.

Relevancy and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Relevancy in and of itself is not a key performance indicator, but it can be one of the levers you should consider tweaking if you're noticing a low click-through rate (CTR) and/or low conversions.  A good rule of thumb is to be as specific as you possibly can when choosing landing pages, keywords and ad copy.  If you're selling digital cameras, it may be tempting to use that generalization as a keyphrase, ad title and to point those ads to your main digital cameras page, but doing so would put you at a disadvantage to any competitors who broke out their ads, keywords and landing pages with more specificity, such as brands, product names, etc.

Troubleshooting Tips

Now that you understand what relevancy is and how it affects your campaign performance, visit the below links for tips and tricks on how to improve your relevancy:

Landing Page Relevancy: Why It's Important

5 Tips For Improving Landing Page Relevancy

Optimizing Your Ads for Relevancy

Troubleshooting Low Click-Through Rate (CTR) in adCenter