PPC
Advertising: A Click Can Be Good For Your Business
PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular advertising technique on
the Internet. Found on websites, advertising
networks, and especially on search engines, PPC advertising involves sponsored
links that are typically in the
form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search results, where an
advertiser pays a particular
amount to visitors who click on these links or banners and land on the
advertiser's web page.
The leaders in the pack right now is
Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing.
MSN AdCenter is quickly
becoming a solid contender.
In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding for a leading position
on search engine results and
listings. Advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are
relevant to their products or
services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the search results, the
more the people will find the ad
(and click on it) to go to their websites. Advertisers would then pay the
bidding price every time a visitor
clicks through the website or landing page.
Google Adwords will also reward an advertiser for targeting an ad to a proper
landing page. This can result in
a lower bid cost and elevate your ad. You can actually end up with a higher
ranking for a lower bid. Nice, huh?
PPC advertising is also known under the following names/variations:
- Pay per placement
- Pay per performance
- Pay per ranking
- Pay per position
- Cost per click (CPC)
PPC advertising is usually done with the following standard procedures:
1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.
2.
Creating a keyword list.
3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC search engine.
4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search result words or phrases.
5. Writing out an ad copy.
6. Setting up the 'landing pages' or 'squeeze pages' for your ads.
7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.
There are many benefits to Pay Per Click advertising, making it an effective way
of promoting a business
'online'. Some of them are listed below:
1. Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are implemented very quickly -
they can go 'online' within a
few minutes.
2. Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. PPC provides you with
quality or well-targeted traffic.
Visitors are narrowed down into 'qualified' people who are actually looking for
specific products and/or
services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a 'lead' (a
convert) and complete a transaction
(either by buying your product or subscribing to the service that you are
offering.
3. Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides additional traffic to your site,
aside from the natural or
"organic" search engines. Although PPC can be used for any perpose, pointing
traffic to your web site is not
the best way to use it. It's meant specifically to get the click and make the
sale. You want to achieve a good
return on your investment.
4. Track your investment. PPC advertising makes use of a tracking system that
will determine exactly who comes
to the website and what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on
your web site and the number of
pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable tools in
determining statistics such as
return on investment (ROI), acquisition cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates
(the percentage of visitors who
are converted into customers or leads).
Below are some important things to consider when planning on a pay per click
campaign:
1. Know your product. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you
have to offer (before anything
else). Of course, the best way to know your product is to purchase it for
yourself. It also provides your
customer with the knowledge that you know what you're talking about and are
being honest with them. That speaks
volumes about you!
2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with
it. This means keeping your
budget in mind, avoiding bidding wars if possible. Try to get the lowest
possible bids for each keyword. You
don't need to be the number one ad on the page.
3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right - a bid that is too high can exhaust
all of your money, while a bid
that is too low can make you lose that spot. As long as you're number 10 or
lower, you're on the first page.
That is all you're shooting for.
4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or
expenses. Know when to stop and
terminate your PPC program - if you spend more on advertising but have little or
no sales at all.
5.
Find the right keywords. Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do
some keyword research, either
by actually looking at existing search terms or with the use of keyword
suggestion tools, to know which terms
are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business.
Focus on specific keywords, not on
general ones. General ones can cost you dearly.
6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is one that which can persuade and move a
searcher. There are several
approaches to this:
- Discount offers
- Testimonials
- Celebrity/famous endorsers
- Money-back guarantees
- Free trials or sample offers
- Freebies
- Reverse psychology
- Major benefits ("Lose weight")
- Direct instructions ("Click here")
7. Maintain a professional-looking site. Your web content should be regularly
updated and checked for spelling
and grammatical errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website
should be simple - designed in
such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Include
contact details to create a good
impression among potential customers. Designing a landing page with no
navigation or distractions for your most
wanted response will always be your best bet. You goal is to make the sale.
Finally, learn all you can about the ins and outs of PPC
Advertising. Knowledge will pay off in spades. The best book I know
of the will tell you everything you need to know to build successful
campaigns in
The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords.
Another absolutely wonderful tool I
use to create and manage my campaigns, ad groups, etc is
SpeedPPC. It helps
me create huge campaigns in minutes rather than hours or days. This
is something I can't imagine being without, now that I have it!
Done properly, PPC advertising
can be an effective marketing tool that will
maximize the return on your
investment.
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