The Real Value of Pay Per Click Advertising

Posted January 2, 2010

If you want to increase traffic to your website and get on the top of the list of search engines, keyword optimization of your website might be insufficient. Many websites attribute their success by using the strategy of getting pay per click advertising and get to the first page of search results of the most popular search terms. Is using a Pay Per Click advertising strategy really that effective to get to the top of the search engine listing results?

Avinash Kaushik, author of "Web Analytics", states that Pay Per Click advertising methods weigh heavily as a marketing online tool.The author also noted the fact that Pay per click (PPC) advertising combined with search engine optimization (SEO) practice will bring about a very successful online marketing campaign and high click-through rates.

Pay per click advertising is a highly effective marketing tool needed especially if the keyword search is highly competitive. There are certain companies that have only a few competitors in keyword searches because of their micro-niched.Yet, most companies have to vie with heavy competition for the relevant, high-converting keywords, because they are in well-establish niches.

There are many people who are suffering from the mistaken concept that websites that have keyword optimized content will bring them to the front page of search engine results. Some popular keywords can generate voluminous results when searched, and this is one of the main reasons why some websites will be found in the bottom rank of search engine lists.

Using Pay per click advertising will take you out of the bottom ranks and land your website on the front page. Google and other major search engines categorize Pay Per Click results as 'sponsored listings'. Your targeted market types in your specified keywords and your website will either land on the first page of the search list, on the right side column of the page or on the top of the organic results.

The amount of your bid for your keywords will determine the position of your Pay Per Click. Let us say that you had bid a above average amount on a specific keyword that bring you to the top ranks of the search list, and those that have placed in a smaller amount will be found in the next few pages. The prime position gets awarded to the highest bid amount depending on the number of contenders for that spot.

Pay per click advertising methods can be a valuable component of your online marketing campaign, but it may take some time to fine-tune your strategy and attract the right type of traffic. You will need to conduct extensive research on what people are searching for when they purchase your products or services, consider alternative keywords and keyphrases that might lead people to your website, and review the overall cost per click using various tools available through the pay per click advertiser.

Choosing Google Adwords or any other Pay Per Click method will bring you many benefits and place you at an advantage over your other competitors. This can be started up with minimal expenditure and by choosing different keywords and ads that are relevant to the content of your site.

Marketing with Google Ad Words is a powerful technique that most online-businesses can use to attract more customers. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Ad Words - and there are many quality training resources available online are many quality training resources available online.

Essential Steps for Starting Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Posted November 24, 2009

More and more businesses are using pay per click advertising to promote their business online. Pay per click advertising with Google Adwords can bring lots of traffic to your website, aside from organic search results.

You may have to spend a considerable amount for PPC, but you can get a significant ROI, if you do things right. Here are 5 steps to help you launch your PPC campaign:

Step 1: Define your ad budget. Google adwords, and other PPC programs, allow its users to set a daily or maximum ad budget. This option is great for tracking your campaigns and allows you to spend at a level you're comfortable with. Do an initial test or survey your market first and set a low daily limit. On the contrary, you can put up several ads all at once in different markets, if you can afford it. You then retain the ones that produce results and drop the ones that do not work.

Step 2: Define how much risk you are comfortable with. Traditional marketing campaigns are inherently more risky than Pay per click programs, says Boris Mordkovich, author of "Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook". However, he cautions marketers that some search engines provide different returns on your investment. Popular search engines have a higher level of competition and may cost more; you need to define the level of competition and cost that you can afford.

Step 3: Select your keywords and key phrases. Most PPC programs provide their users with online tools for researching keywords. Invest in some time and effort in using keyword tools to ensure that you have an optimal list of keywords for your niche. Setup some split tests to see which keywords bring you the most results.

Step 4: Review your campaign's results. Most PPC platforms provide a convenient reporting tool that gives you the ability to adjust your campaign based on the data you gathered so far. Reports will usually include the number of clicks for each keyword, the time of day your ad was clicked, and the location of those who clicked your ads.

Step 5: Optimize your ads. When you have finished reviewing the reports, you can then pull the plug on low performing keywords and only run ads on keywords that brought in the most results. This list of keywords will allow you to focus more on creating and optimizing your ad copies.

The secret behind every successful Google Adwords campaign is through optimizing your campaigns by testing and tweaking. These five steps provide a basic blueprint that anyone can follow to create an effective Pay-per-click campaign.

Google Advertising is an important resource that most websites can use to find more customers. Writing quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Ad Words - and there are several quality training guides available online.

5 Tips for Writing Effective Google Adwords Ads

Posted October 23, 2009

Creating Google Adwords campaigns that generate results are often difficult, particularly when operating in a niche that is extremely competitive, and when utilizing keywords that are also being used by your competitors.What sets apart one copy from the other is semantics or the distinct manner in which you deliver information and draw interest from the viewers.  You can do this by writing and testing a variety of ads, but the good news is, a lot of the work has already been done for you!  Affiliate marketers already know the secrets and strategies for writing ads that actually convert customers and encourage hundreds, even thousands of clicks.

In his book The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords, Perry Marshall explains that the probability of your ad's viewers converting into prospects becomes possible only once they have identified with your ad's message.  Using the same tone, language and conversational style as the customer can drive up your click through rate and bring hundreds, if not thousands of highly interested prospects back to your site.

Here are just five ways you can begin writing compelling ads for your Google Ad words campaign:

1. Claim the impossible or unbelievable. Although it may sound unbelievable, individuals are always fascinated by exaggerated claims that captures their attention and are thus expected to click on your ad. Take the time to arouse their curiosity and offer outrageous claims immediately; and watch those clicks come on through!

2. Share a secret. People enjoy being ‘in the know’ because it helps them think they have the upper hand about a particular product or service. The more you offer useful information to your viewers, the more that you become a step closer to your desired results. It is essential employing this elaborate scheme when you establish a new product or service in the market.

3. Use the power of ellipses. A good way to solicit more clicks is to add three dots (also known as ellipses) at the body copy of your AdWords ad. This allows the reader to think about relevant information once they click your ad, prompting them to do so in order to find out more. Ellipses are useful in cases where your ad answers a question or recommends a solution to a problem since they create a certain level of curiosity from viewers, and makes their response rate higher.

4. Write each of your leading words in capital letters. Capitalizing your keywords (and ignoring placeholders such as ‘in’, ‘the’, ‘and’) can help you create a high-impact ad. Doing this facilitates reading and usually appeals to the audience more than the other similar ad campaigns in your market. Best of all, this helps you come up with a more polished version of your ad that can encourage readers to believe it.

5. Enhance your headline with powerful take-action words. ‘Free’ is perhaps the most powerful word in advertising because it provides an upfront incentive for anyone who clicks on the ad. These set of words also create increased click-throughs and allows 'hungry' leads to almost instantly click on your ads: 'Discover', 'Get', or 'Learn'.

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of PPC Campaigns

Posted October 16, 2009

Online marketing is now essential for businesses as the internet becomes more integrated in our daily lives. Pay per click advertising is one of the most effective form of online advertising today. PPC campaigns draw traffic from search engines by displaying ads relevant to what is being searched. When clicked, these ads take visitors to a sales page or landing page.

There are many pay per click publishers operating today, however Google Adwords is currently the most popular service and has the most market share. PPC is run in a fast-paced medium wherein information can be accessed instantaneously. This allows you to monitor your ads performance and quickly implement tweaks to increase their effectiveness.

Traffic metrics is the most basic way to measure the effectiveness of your ads. Monitoring your site's traffic will not only tell you how many people have visited your site, where they are in the world, and can also sometimes reveal how they arrived at your site.

Probably the most important data that you have to monitor are your conversion rates. A conversion rate is the ratio between the number of clicks on your ads and how many sales resulted from those clicks. Your conversion rates will determine the cost of how much it will cost you before generating a sale.

Joseph Thornton, author of the book, "The Online Advertising Playbook" explains that site registration, submitting contact information or requesting a download of a product or service are all forms of visitor interaction that could qualify as a 'conversion' when they are directly related to a PPC campaign.

Taking the analysis of conversion rates further, it would be better if you can measure which keywords are bringing in the most sales. If you have this information, you can then build your campaign around the keywords that sell the most.

Finally, determining the rankings of your advertising segment will help you determine which placement is the best for your particular niche or industry. Google Adwords rotates the ads in its sidebar column to ensure a fair advantage for all advertisers, but there are some spots that are considered 'Featured ads'. These spots may have more value for you in a very competitive market, and can make it easier for you to decide where and how to promote your PPC campaign and achieve the best possible results.

Marketing with Google Adwords is a powerful technique that most websites can use to find more sales. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the best skills to have when using Adwords - and there are several good training guides available online.

Using PPC Marketing With Your Branding Campaign

Posted September 24, 2009

The many advances in the Pay per click advertising industry over the past decade made it now possible to run a PPC branding campaign. Branding campaigns are really just a long-term method for a company to influence customers and PPC now allows companies to do branding as a highly focused and quantifiable effort.

Any business can put up effective promotions for branding using any PPC network. Author Boris Mordkovich, of the book "Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook" gives out some guidelines for managing a branding campaign using PPC marketing.

He encourages all PPC advertisers to monitor their branding campaign regularly and tweak the strategy as they go; varying the ads only slightly can have a significant impact on results, and this is a strategy that many successful PPC and Google Adwords advertisers use regularly in order to optimize their efforts. Some of the best ways to tap into this opportunity for your branding campaign involve:

1. Treat PPC advertising as separate from conventional ad campaigns. Pay per click campaigns are very different from conventional marketing. The goal is to get a response from customers but the information you get from PPC is different. Isolate your PPC campaign from your other marketing efforts to increase your efficiency and effectiveness in PPC advertising.

2. USP is not as effective in PPC. The approach in pay per click marketing involves researching for the keywords and keyphrases your customers use to search for the products and services in your industry. No one would click your ads if your USP statement was very far from the words your customers use.

3. Adjust your strategy regularly. The great thing about this advertising method is that you can get accurate metrics about your campaign almost in real-time. Take advantage of this by optimizing your ads regularly for more clicks and better results.

4. Develop the right landing page. Customers have very short attention span, especially in the internet. You don't want to send them to your homepage that just talks about your company in general. Consider developing a landing page that gives out detailed information about your ad's subject. This grabs the attention of your customers and makes it easier for you to obtain more accurate campaign metrics.

5. Be creative with headlines and ad copy. Don't be afraid to hire a copywriter to write your ads; the impact of just a few lines of text can be significant when you are selling in a highly competitive market, so take the time to develop some quality ads and monitor your results regularly to make changes when necessary.

Advertising with Google Adwords is a powerful technique that most websites can use to attract more customers. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Adwords - and there are several quality training resources available online.

Tips for Tracking Google Adwords Conversions

Posted September 9, 2009
The next step after you've selected your keywords and written a compelling ad is to track your conversions. Any Adwords campaign would not be successful if users do not have the tools for tracking conversions.

Google offers two valuable conversion tracking tools through the Adwords platform, but you may decide you want to simply rely on landing page hits or the number of sales generated from a particular link you used within the ad. Whatever the case may be, here are some tips for tracking conversions with Google Adwords:

If you're checkout process involves using a shopping cart or requires confirmation on the end of a buyer, you need to embed your conversion link using Javascript. JavaScript is required to send information back to the Google Adwords tracker.

This tool allows you to track the ads that clicked through and produced a complete conversion; bear in mind that this tool does not allow you to see the number of visitors to the site. Just place the few lines of code into your website, and then access your conversion tracking reports directly on the 'Campaign Summary' page in the Reports Center of Google Adwords.

Conversion tracking will only produce accurate results if you meet these two conditions: First is that you must be running approved Adwords ads on your site. The second condition is only your conversion page should contain the tracking code.

You can confirm that the code is working by doing a complete conversion yourself. Just remember not to click on your own ads as this is against Adword's TOS. Once a conversion is done, you will be able to see the click-through and conversion data within twenty-four hours.

You can still track your conversions if you are using a payment checkout system, like PayPal. PayPal and most other systems offer a conversion confirmation webpage wherein you can insert your Adwords tracking code. You will have a record of all conversions or sales once a customer successfully completes the checkout process.

The book "Google: The Missing Manual", written by J.D. Biersdorfer, Mathew McDonald, and Sarah Milstein, justifies the importance of knowing your total cost per conversion.

Your total cost-per-conversion shows you how much you are spending before generating a sale. This information is vital for determining if you're campaign is a success or not, and for optimizing your campaign. You can get this information by dividing the number of conversions in a given period with your total campaign cost for the same period.

Marketing with Google Ad Words is a powerful technique that most online-businesses can use to attract more customers. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the best skills to have when using Ad Words - and there are several good training resources available online are several good training resources available online.

Improve PPC Ad Campaigns With These Steps

Posted August 25, 2009
Maximizing your click through rate for Google Adwords and other PPC campaigns can take time and lots ot testing, but there are several ways to fast-track your way to better ad performance. One of the most well-known strategies for improving PPC ad campaigns is to run several variations of the ad and monitor results; changing only a few words and sentences can make a significant difference to the click-through rate, and you can then discard the low-performing ads instantly.

There are other strategies you can apply to optimize your PPC campaigns. Peter Kent, author of the book 'Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing for Dummies', reveals some strategies for creating successful, highly targeted campaigns and improving your Google Adword's quality score. Here are some of those strategies.

1. Utilize negative match keywords. Negative match keywords are used to sift through prospective visitors and run your ads only to those who are more likely to be interested in your website. Implementing negative keyword matching in Google Adwords is easy. Just indicate the words you do not want to include in your campaigns and Google will automatically omit your ads on search results with your negative words.

2. Modify your CPCs for major keywords. The Google Adwords program allows you to edit your keywords in several ways, and changing the CPC for a campaign may be an effective way to boost performance. All you need to do is click the 'Tools' option in the Campaign Management tab and make changes directly to the campaign. This gives you complete control over the ad and makes it much easier to fine-tune your efforts.

3. Review rejected ads and resubmit them. Google Adwords reviews all ads and either accept them to run in their network or reject them. You can find all rejected ads under the Campaign Management section. These ads can be edited and resubmitted any time. Review your ads often and don't hesitate to resubmit rejected ads after changing them a bit.

4. Run your ads on specific times. You can define when your ads will run for better results. This technique is called 'Dayparting' and you might want to do this to reach out to your audience when they are most receptive of your offer. To illustrate, say you are promoting restaurant coupons, it will beneficial for you to run ads a few hours before lunch or dinnertime than to run them the whole day.

5. Listen to your target market. You need to study your target market first before you hook them in with a compelling ad. Who is your target market? What are their interests and passions? Check out other ads that they are responding to and see how they are written. Listen to your target market by visiting their blogs and forums.

We mostly use trial and error for optimizing our pay-per-click marketing efforts but there are strategies you can implement to speed up the process. Get started on these strategies to start your way on generating high quality leads.

Advertising with a Pay Per Click Program is a powerful technique that most websites can use to attract more customers.Creating quality Google Ads is one of the best skills to have when using Pay Per Click Advertising - and there are several quality training resources available online.

Ways To Prevent Click Fraud With Google Adwords

Posted August 19, 2009
Click fraud poses a serious threat to PPC advertisers as well as to the credibility of PPC networks. As of 2008, researchers estimate $1.6 billion were lost to click fraud. It occurs when a competitor clicks on your ads to reduce your budget or when web robots or spiders to click on ads fraudulently.

Google and other PPC networks verify the existence of click frauds. They have not solved the problem as of the moment but are currently working to prevent it. As a PPC user, we can take some steps to protect our campaigns from click fraud while the networks are still finding ways to solve the problem entirely. Below are five measures you can implement in your Google Adwords campaigns:

1. Keep an eye on your click through rates. It is easy to review your click-through rates and conversions with Google. You can even print out a daily or weekly report to monitor any bizarre activity. You might also want to reconcile your click-through rates with your actual web site traffic report. Check for IP addresses and websites that access your site regularly.

2. Impose a daily ad budget. Select a sensible budget for your campaign that you can fund for at least a few months. Imposing a budget limits your exposure to click fraud and it makes it easier for you track your Adwords expenditures.

3. Lay down a daily click limit. Adwords managers would do well to setup a daily click limit, according to Bruce C. Brown, author of the book "The Complete Guide to Google Advertising". This allows you to track the number of clicks on your ads. Once the click limit has been reached, your ad will disappear from the Adwords network.

4. Limit your Ads to certain locations. Using the geographic location feature is one of the best methods for safeguarding your campaigns against fraudulent activities. Research where your target market is mostly based and focus on running your ads only in certain countries or regions. It would be a waste of money to run ads on regions you won't do business in.

5. Don't sign up with PPC programs that offer something for free. There are several PPC companies that offer free products, services of downloadable tools as an incentive for you to sign up. Be cautious about these, especially if it involves downloading something to your computer that 'monitors' your keyword campaign. However, getting a Google Adwords 'credit' when you sign up with a hosting company or domain name registrar is safe; as long as you're working directly with Google Adwords, you don't have to worry about fraudulent activities that would affect your budget.

If you think you've been a victim of click fraud, you will need to report the case directly to Google as soon as possible. Google has its own fraud protection team that can help to investigate a case and get your Adwords campaign back on track.

Marketing with Google Ad Words is a powerful technique that most online-businesses can use to attract more customers. Writing quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Ad Words - and there are many quality training resources available online are many quality training resources available online.

Build Google Adwords Campaigns Using Keyword Tools

Posted July 16, 2009
One of the most important elements of an effective Google Adwords campaign is selecting the right combination of keywords and keyphrases. There could be millions of keywords associated with your niche and playing a guessing game for the 'right' keywords can be costly. Google offers its own keyword selector tool to make the process of choosing keywords easier, but there's are a handful of other tools you can use to fine-tune your campaign.

Adwords experts follow a three-step method for keyword and keyphrase building. The first step is to use the most common and obvious terms and run them on a keyword tool to find out each keyword's search volume. The second step involves finding out relevant keywords and other appropriate terms being searched by your target markets. The last step focuses on optimizing a campaign by tweaking or removing keywords for better results.

If you're looking for ways to build an effective Adwords campaign, you'll need to choose the right keyword tool and then follow the three-step strategy outlined above. Howie Jacobson, author of the book 'Adwords for Dummies' explains that the most favorable keyword tools you can use for PPC campaigns are: Google's Keyword Selector Tool; Keyword Discovery; Word Tracker; and a basic Thesaurus.

You have free access to Google Keyword Selector Tool in your adwords account. This tool is great for searching synonyms and other relevant or appropriate keywords for your niche by entering your preliminary keywords into it. This tool can also make comparisons between keywords in terms of search volume, monthly trends, advertiser competition, and average cost per click.

Keyword Discovery tool has more features suited for experienced Adwords users and SEO specialists. Its main features include the ability to handle many lists of keywords, compare and analyze different data and easily convert data analyses into reports. It is a paid service though but it is a step above Google's free Adwords Keyword tool.

Word Tracker has a paid service and a free tool. The free keyword tool is quite useful for cross-referencing keyword data. It only provides very basic data such as the number of searches conducted within a month for a keyword or keyphrase. It is also important to note that the data this tool produces may have some discrepancy with Google's Keyword Selector tool.

Keyword tools are really effective at digging deep into a niche and getting long-tail keywords and other relevant keyterms. Keyword tools are convenient for comparing hundreds of keyword data side by side and even allow you to export all your work into an electronic spreadsheet or other soft document format to back-up and store your data locally.

Understanding what your target market is searching for will help you create compelling and high-impact Adwords ads which in turn can increase click-through rates. If you're just starting out, take advantage of the free tools available and print out or organize the results to build your baseline keyword list.

Advertising with Google Adwords is an effective technique that most websites can use to attract more sales.Creating quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Adwords - and there are several good training guides available online.

Write Effective Google Adwords Ads

Posted June 14, 2009

Google Adwords remains as the premier paid traffic source in the internet today, and any business can setup and run ads on the Adwords network within hours. Any adwords campaign needs compelling ads in order to be successful. There is a limitation on the number of text characters when advertising on adwords so make sure you select the right combination of words and statements to get your audience's attention and generate click-throughs.

Learning what to write in each line, and making sure you are using the right URL extensions are just some of the critical elements of a successful Google Adwords ad. If you're just starting a new Google Adwords campaign, here are some essential tips for writing that first ad:

1. Use the keyword in the headline. Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd, authors of the book "The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords" explain that more people click on ads when the headline includes the keyword or keyphrase that they were searching on. This means it is to your advantage to include the keyword or keyphrase in that very first line; weave these words into the headline to create an attention-grabbing headline that has the potential to generate more clicks.

2. Describe your benefit in the second line. Most readers will respond to an ad that clearly lists a key benefit near the beginning. Make sure you are listing your benefit on the second line, not your offer or a feature. Think about giving them what they want' before highlighting a feature or a special offer.

3. Use the third line for your feature or offer. When you've clearly stated the benefit, then it's time to introduce your special offer or a feature that supports the benefit. Keep it short and simple, and make sure this line does not overpower the second line.

4. Place your landing page URL in the last line. You can enter any URL you want on the last line and lead surfers to any page on the web. Many Adwords users make the mistake of assuming that they have to enter their website's homepage URL. You can setup a different landing page for each ad you run to encourage more clicks and even track your performance.

5. Test results with a similarly written ad. If you want more clicks from each campaign, consider running two very similar ads with slightly different wording. You can still use the same keywords and keyphrases, but tweaking these slightly and measuring for performance can help you generate more clicks on each ad run.

Don't be afraid to start your very first Google Adwords campaign. You'll soon be able to grasp the dynamics of a successful Adwords campaign with practice. Follow these guidelines and start running ads now.

Marketing with a Pay Per Click Program is an effective technique that most websites can use to find more customers. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the best skills to have when using Pay Per Click - and there are many quality training guides available online.

View older posts »

Powered by Viviti ~ Designed by NodeThirtyThree