There are lots of ways to learn PPC, but sometimes I like to listen to my music collection for inspiration instead. In fact, I always have my Spotify cued up for tunes at work. It’s all about reading in between the lines – I had no idea T. Swift was so knowledgeable about PPC!

In this post, I’ll share six PPC tips inspired by Taylor Swift lyrics.

#1: “I knew you (Automatic Bidding) were trouble when you walked in, so shame on me (for giving you a try)” – “I Knew You Were Trouble”

Putting your money on autopilot is never a good idea. It gives you less control over your account. Manual bidding is a better option for more granular control. Furthermore, a lot of people think that setting up auto bidding means they don’t have to pay as much attention to the account. Not true! AdWords users should regularly be logging into their accounts to make sure all is well! Infrequent logins correlated highly with low-performing, money-leaking accounts.

#2: “(PPC) will leave you breathless, or with a nasty scar.” – “Blank Space”

It’s true – PPC doesn’t work for everyone. Well, I take that back. It CAN work for everyone, but if not set up correctly – with great ads, the right keywords, competitive bids, etc… then PPC can crash and burn, leaving your bank account “with a nasty scar.” For those business owners who don’t have the time or the expertise for PPC – consider hiring an agency to manage your account for you. (I heard WordStream has a great AdWords account management team!)

#3: “I just wanna know you (quality score) better, know you (quality score) better, know you (quality score) better now.” – “Everything Has Changed”

Taylor, we want to know the Quality Score algorithm better too! It’s a mysterious mixture of landing page experience, ad relevance, and click-through rate … but maybe not that mysterious! Larry Kim has noted that it correlates very very closely to expected CTR, but Jess Armstrong adds that as CTR increases, it has less and less impact on your scores. Recently there was an AdWords glitch that possibly gave away the coveted algorithm. Any code crackers out there who can decode this?

#4: “I make the (PPC) moves up as I go, and that’s what they don’t know!” – “Shake It Off”

In PPC, it’s important to have a handle on best practices. But you can make big gains by being unpredictable. Find the trends before your competition does. Look for AdWords jackpots and write unicorn ads that don’t look like anything else on the page. Walk the less traveled path. Stop mucking around with button color and test something totally different, like a more compelling offer. There’s no one right answer to success. Think outside the box, and make the moves up as you go, as Taylor does.

#5: “As far as I’m concerned, your (Display Image Ad) is just another picture to burn.” – “Picture to Burn”

Your display ads have to be eye-catching if you want people to click on them. Did you know 2/3 of ads on the Display Network are just plain text ads? But text ads get lower click-through rates than image ads!

Use the Display Ad Builder to create compelling image ads, and create ads in all the available ad formats and sizes – you’ll get way more impressions that way!

#6: “And I go back to December (Conversion Rates)… It turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you, wishing I’d realized what I had when you were mine.” – “Back to December”

Yes, for e-commerce businesses, December and the rest of the holiday season were spectacular for performance, and we miss those strong conversion rates and revenue numbers. Try not to compare the rest of the year to the holiday selling season. Instead, focus on making your numbers better week over week. It’s also beneficial to compare your performance numbers to last year’s equivalent week to see improvement.