| Criterion | Check |
|---|---|
| Canvas traceability | Keyword choices are justified by the hierarchy stage and intent type from the Week 2 canvas and Week 6 SEO audit |
| Match type logic | Exact match for the primary keyword; phrase match for related terms; broad match keywords carry an adequate negative list |
| Negative keyword completeness | At least 15 negative keywords are listed with rationale, organised by category, including competitor and job-seeker exclusions where relevant |
| RSA independence and character limits | Both RSA variants pass the independence test on every headline and state a character count within the limit; one variant is completely unpinned, and any pin in the other carries a stated reason |
| Landing page checklist | Relevance, speed, mobile experience, and CTA clarity are each checked, with a specific fix listed for any failing item |
| Quality Score assessment | Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience are each assessed as above, average, or below average with a one-sentence justification |
| CPA calculation | CPA target is calculated from a stated conversion value; CTR and conversion rate inputs are labelled [ASSUMPTION] with testing methods |
| Efficiency review plan | At least one efficiency metric threshold is stated; the action triggered by exceeding the threshold is specified |
| Assumption labelling | All non-evidence-based decisions are labelled [ASSUMPTION] with testing methods |
| Presentation | PDF is readable, all cells completed, citations present, correctly named |
Week 7 Independent Study and Submission
Self-learning PPC Skeleton Development
Production
1 Expand Sets
⏱ 60 min
Add long-tail and intent variants to your starter keyword set.
Production
2 Negatives List
⏱ 60 min
Categorise negatives by theme; add exclusions for competitors or job-seekers as needed.
Production
3 RSA Variants
⏱ 90 min
Create two RSAs with rationale; keep at least one set unpinned.
Production
4 Landing Page Checklist
⏱ 60 min
Check relevance, speed, mobile experience, and CTA clarity; list the fixes needed.
Assessment
5 Build & Submit
⏱ 90 min
Assemble the worksheet, upload it, and confirm receipt.
Your six hours of self-directed study turn the PPC skeleton from your tutorial into a submission a campaign manager could use to set up a live campaign.
Independent Study
Use the time deliberately: 60 minutes to expand your starter keyword set with long-tail and intent variants; 60 minutes to categorise your negative keywords by theme and add competitor or job-seeker exclusions where relevant; 90 minutes to build two full RSA variants with rationale, keeping at least one set unpinned; 60 minutes to check your landing page against a relevance, speed, mobile, and CTA checklist and list the fixes it needs; and 90 minutes to assemble the worksheet, upload it, and confirm receipt.
Your Week 7 submission should include:
- Campaign topic and scope, with a one-sentence explanation of why PPC complements the SEO strategy from Week 6.
- Campaign structure: campaign name, ad group name, and the rationale for the structure.
- Keyword list: your starter set expanded with long-tail and intent variants, at least eight terms total, match types assigned, and justification for each choice.
- Negative keyword list: at least 15 terms organised by category, with competitor and job-seeker exclusions added where relevant.
- Two complete RSA variants: each with 6 to 8 headlines (30 characters each, with the count stated, passing the independence test) and 4 descriptions (90 characters each), with a rationale for the difference between the two sets. Leave at least one variant completely unpinned, and state what you pinned in the other and why.
- Quality Score self-assessment: rate the expected ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR components as above average, average, or below average, with a one-sentence justification for each.
- Landing page checklist: relevance, speed, mobile experience, and CTA clarity each assessed, with the specific fix listed for any item that fails.
- CPA target calculation with stated CPC estimate, conversion rate assumption, and testing method.
- Weekly efficiency review plan: which metric to review first, which threshold would trigger an action, and what action.
- AI prompt log with at least two prompts, AI outputs used, evidence links, and student decisions.
- A 150-word reflection identifying the one PPC assumption that carries the highest financial risk and the evidence that would resolve it.
- A reference list in a consistent citation style, including at least one academic source. The position auction literature introduced in the chapter is the natural anchor for this week: Edelman, B., Ostrovsky, M., and Schwarz, M. (, 2007) and Varian, H. R. (, 2007) both explain why the auction weights quality alongside money, which is the mechanism your whole skeleton is built around. Cite the tools you used (Ubersuggest, the Ads Transparency Center) with access dates alongside them.
Formative Checklist
Review Questions
- Why does a higher Quality Score reduce the cost per click for the same ad position? What are the three components of Quality Score, and which one links most directly to the landing page?
- A campaign uses only broad match keywords with no negative keyword list. After two weeks, the search query report shows that 40 per cent of clicks came from queries containing “free” or “jobs”. What is the immediate action, and what system should have prevented this?
- What is the difference between a click-through rate problem and a conversion rate problem? If a campaign has a CTR of 6% but a conversion rate of 0.2%, what is the most likely root cause?
- A campaign team pins all eight headlines in both of its RSA variants, reasoning that this guarantees the ad always reads exactly as written. Explain what this costs them, and state the minimum change that would restore the benefit they have given up.
- A campaign team sets a CPA target based on the assumption that the conversion rate will be 4%. After two weeks, the actual conversion rate is 1.2%. Recalculate the CPA at the actual conversion rate and state the decision the team should make.
- Why should a landing page headline echo the primary ad headline? What happens to Quality Score and conversion rate when the landing page headline diverges from the ad headline?
- A campaign’s CTR sits above the category benchmark, but the CPA runs three times the target because the conversion rate is very low. What is the most likely cause, and what is the most efficient corrective action?
- A student is planning a PPC campaign for a restaurant in Malé and adds “best restaurant” as a broad match keyword. Identify three types of query that would trigger this keyword and belong on the negative list.
TipWeek 7 at a glance
The central theoretical contribution of this week is the auction mechanism: Quality Score decides ad position and the actual cost per click, over the maximum bid alone. This shifts the strategic question from “how much should we bid?” to “how can we improve the relevance of the ad and the landing page?” PPC and SEO share a keyword research foundation, and the most efficient campaigns run both channels together: paid search for immediate high-intent visibility, organic content for long-term compounding traffic. In Week 8 you move to social media, where the audience is available to encounter relevant content at a moment of lower deliberate intent, before it ever searches for it.
Key Takeaways
PPC complements SEO. SEO builds durable, compounding traffic that keeps running once the budget stops. PPC delivers immediate first-position visibility for high-intent queries at a cost that stays directly measurable and adjustable. The two strategies share a keyword research foundation: the same intent classification and long-tail analysis from Week 6 informs both the organic content strategy and the paid keyword list.
The PPC skeleton you built this week is a first-draft campaign structure. The keyword choices, match types, negative keywords, and RSA copy are documented decisions with evidence bases or clearly labelled assumptions. The CPA target is a hypothesis about the campaign’s efficiency, and the test plan states exactly what data would confirm or disconfirm it.
In Week 8, you move from search-intent acquisition to social media, where the audience encounters relevant content at a moment of lower deliberate intent, rather than searching for a specific answer. The positioning and hierarchy stage decisions from Week 2 remain the anchor, though the channel mechanics differ entirely.