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.

Regards,

Tony Thomas