What Is Pay-Per-Click?
When To Use It - And When Not To
Copyright © 2006 Robert Fuess
The only way to really guarantee top placement is to use pay-per-click advertising. (This is an advertising mechanism in which you pay for every click of a potential customer.) Most search engines offer this on a bidding basis, and if it generates more money than you spend on it, it can be sound business advise. In most cases, you would DO THIS LAST - after you optimize your web site and implement other promotional techniques. If you do an effective job with your website optimization and promotion, you may already come up top naturally and not have to use pay-per-click for several keywords. (This is expecially true for MSN or Yahoo.) Or if you choose to make a big (temporary) advertising campaign while you are optimizing (and have the money for this), then you may consider this.
Some keywords will cost more than others, depending on competition. Some will generate more paying customers than others. Do the math as you go along. Figure out the return on investment. This is seldom a one shot deal and often takes a few months of tweaking to get the optimum pay-per-click bid amount for the different keywords.
YOU WILL FIND SEO COMPANIES THAT GUARANTEE YOU TOP PLACEMENT FOR YOUR FAVORITE KEYWORDS. THIS IS HOW THEY DO IT. They use pay-per-click as part of the package and point to the pay-per-click listing, showing you your top placement. The natural links are normally much cheaper in the long run, since once you achieved a top ranking without pay-per-click you will have a steady stream of customers without having this kind of per-click fee.
Google is, of course, an exception. For the first year you will not likely rank for most of your desired keywords despite any valiant efforts on your part. During this period, I would encourage using Google's pay-per-click (AdWords). Although Google is the slowest to recognize your natural ranking - it will give the greatest return in the long run. While you do this - use the information they give you while you manage your pay-per-click keywords. See what is used most often - and what gives you the most sales (conversions). They have tools to help you with that.
ANY SEO FIRM that promises or guarantees top placement for competitive keywords is either selling you pay-per-click or is being boastful. Be wary with your money. You don't need an SEO expert to sign up for pay-per-click. You may use one to help you find the right keywords or perhaps to handle optimization techniques. If they are selling you a package, pay-per-click is often a justifiable part of it. However, don't let such a promise be a decision factor in selecting an SEO expert.
Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in making dynamic search engine optimized websites.
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6 Strategies To Get The Most Out of
Google AdWords Advertising
Paid advertising such as Google AdWords is a lucrative way to bring targeted traffic to your website fast. You just need to set up an account with a small activation fee of $5 and you can start bidding on keywords and gain ranking in the SERPs on the right side of the organic search engine listings instantly. Everytime someone clicks on your ad, you pay Google a few cents or dollars depending how much you are willing to pay as maximum cost per click(cpc) for your different keywords.
While it's easy to start advertising on Google AdWords, it's not easy as just creating an ad, get clicks and sales start pouring in. Always remember this so that you don't get deceived. Below are 6 strategies for you to get the most out of Google AdWords advertising.
(1) Getting Clicks
I've experienced it before and the problem most people are confronted with is to get sufficient amount of clicks that can convert into a sale for instance. The key to get clicks is to give people a compelling reason to check out your offer. You don't have enough room to write a long ad so your primary objective is to get people to click on your offer among all the rest. Some people might not even know you are selling something until they click and get to your site and they don't need to know that because your sales page is going to do the rest if it has attractive and powerful sales copy.
(2) Higher Bids
Next important thing is you need to bid high enough so that your ad appears among the top. I've found that you can still get a decent number of clicks even though you are on the second or third page of the search engine results for highly competitive terms. For less competitive, more targeted and cheaper keywords, you can appear on the first page, usually the most recommended. It's very important to test which keywords are most profitable for you in terms of clicks and conversions. If a keyword isn't getting clicks at all and you have bid high enough, most probably, your ad is not attractive in generating clicks. On the other hand, if you are getting many clicks and no conversion, your sales letter might not be doing its job properly. Perhaps, you need to tweak it. A sale for every 50 or 100 visitors is generally considered good on the Internet. That's a 2% conversion for every 50 visitors and a 1% conversion for every 100 visitors. Everything above that is very good.
(3) Creating Different AdGroups
To get the most out of Google AdWords, you need to create different AdGroups for each keyword and ensure that your keyword is highly targeted, hence improving your conversion. It's much work than just slapping one AdGroup, one ad and one maximum cost per click(cpc) for say 100 keywords. With different AdGroups, you can have different ads, different maximum cost per click(cpc). One of the main reason to create different AdGroups, is that you can add your targeted keyword phrase in your ad, be it the title or the description. It has been proven that people are most inclined to click on ads that contain the exact keywords they are looking for, so this is a good reason for you to create keyword-rich ads.
(4) Keyword Status
With Google AdWords, you no longer have disabled status keywords, on hold status keywords, trial status keywords and normal status keywords. You just have active or inactive keywords now. For inactive keywords, usually you will see a message like this "1 keyword(s) are currently inactive. These keywords are marked in the status column below. Improve their quality through optimization, delete them, or raise the keywords' maximum CPCs to the minimum bids indicated. (Raising the bids will activate the keywords.)"
Next to the inactive keyword, you will see something like "Inactive Increase quality or bid $1.00 to activate" or "Inactive Increase quality or bid $5.00 to activate" but it can also be other bid values. Usually, I just leave it inactive if it costs too much to activate and I delete it. This new method of keyword bidding evaluation is much more interesting than the previous method because most of the keywords are active and showing now, hence better advertising.
(5) Keyword Matching Options
If you are selling specific products, use exact match and phrase match for your keywords. With exact match, you just need to put square brackets between your keywords for eg [sports cars], hence your ad will only appear to people searching for that exact keyword phrase. Phrase match is a bit the same as exact match but double quotes are used instead of square brackets, for eg "sports cars". This keyword phrase with double quotes will only appear to people searching for that exact keyword phrase plus any other keyword combined with sports cars at the beginning for eg "red sports cars" but not "sports cars red". You also have negative keywords where you just put a minus sign in front of the keyword that you don't want your ad to appear for eg -free. All people who type the word "free" in their searches won't trigger your ads. The negative keywords applies mostly to phrase match and broad match which we are going to discuss.
The last one, the broad match, using keywords with nothing around it, is usually not recommended if you are selling specific products because you might not get very targeted visitors. For eg, if you use the keyword phrase "sports cars" as broad match, your ad might appear for people searching for "sports" or "cars".
(6) Google Search and Content Network
You can also use Google search network such as AOL, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, Earthlink, Compuserve amongst others to get your ads appear on them too as well as Google content network, which represents all the sites that have Google AdSense on them.(You can read more about adsense at http://www.zineguru.com/article54.htm and open an account at http://www.google.com/adsense.) To enable these options, you just need to put a tick in the checkbox next to your campaign number and click on "edit settings" at the top of the campaign list. Then you can put a tick in the checkboxes for search and content network.
In fact, all the AdWords publishers that have allowed their ads to be syndicated in the content network, will appear in the form of adsense ads on other webmasters' sites. If your ad is related to a specific topic, it can appear on some of them. If people click on the adsense ads, you pay Google according to your maximum cost per click(cpc), generally a bit less and Google pays a percentage to the webmaster. This is how it works. Generally, if you let your ads syndicated on the content network and if your ad is good and your bid, high enough, you can get interesting clicks. You might even be the only ad in the adsense space of the related site just because with the new Google AdSense rules, sometimes the highest paying ad can be the only one displayed even in a block usually comprised of 4 ads. Hence, it will fill the entire unit giving your ad more space and exposure. Less competing ads means more clicks for you.
How To Get Started With Google AdWords
If you want to get started with Google AdWords, sign up an account with them at http://www.google.com/adwords and conduct an extensive keyword research related to your business and start bidding on your keywords with your different AdGroups. You can use Yahoo! Search Marketing keyword research tool previously known as Overture at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion.
Due to the fact that your ad is new, you will have to start generating clicks and increasing its value because Google looks also at the click through rate(ctr) to help determine your positions. Your maximum cost per click(cpc) might not be the highest but if your ad is getting more clicks than your competitors, your position will shoot up. So a bit smart marketing if you want. You might try to put a higher bid initially and generate clicks and after awhile, lower your bids to a reasonable amount because your ad might still be in a decent position due to the click through rate(ctr). In addition, I advise you to have a daily budget above the recommended one to ensure that your ads are displayed everytime. If Google recommends say $5 daily budget, put it $10 or even $20. This does necessarily mean that you will spend that amount of money daily although you can. It's just a precaution to make sure that your ads are delivered well. You might not even meet the initial $5 if you are not getting clicks.
Conclusion
Google AdWords is a lot about testing and tracking which campaigns, AdGroups and keywords are working better for you and in the end, if you have a working campaign, stick to it and monitor it. Patience is important in pay per click advertising like AdWords. You might not see instant results but don't give up until you see some results be it a sale or an ad producing clicks. But be prepared to blow a few bucks because this is how you are going to learn ie by testing and tracking. Google AdWords is an additional source of valuable traffic and can't be ignored.
Good luck and happy advertising.
Jean Lam is the webmaster of Email Autoresponder which provides autoresponder review, article and courses to boost your marketing efforts.
Explosive Adwords Ad Copywriting
The most important thing to remember here is that this is the door by which visitors enter your site. You must entice them to open it. This is their first contact with you.
You haven't got much space so you have to make every word count.
Title max 25 characters,
2nd & 3rd line max 35,
display url 35,
destination url 1024
Try to avoid casual clicks, mention buy if appropriate. Stay clear of the number 1 spot this is inclined to attract casual clicks. Numbers 2,3,4,5 are the prime spots. Visitors clicking in this region have at least considered your ad before doing so.
Your ad should present the theme of your landing page. They should match as exactly as possible.
Use a call to action where possible -
Digital Camera
Save Now on a digital camera
Limited time offer
I cured my arthritis
Find out how
Buy my e-book Now
You can’t use click here.
Always keep in mind an old advertising rule - List benefits NOT features –
With so few words copywriting rules are very restricted for your ad but very important for your landing page.
This is where clarity, accuracy, targeting, and testing will pay off. You are not trying to persuade here, there isn’t space. Instead you are attempting to pre-qualify users with your ad by grabbing their interest and setting them up for what is to come next on your landing page.
You should also consider using a reassuring message that might cover their main objection – something like “free shipping”, new low price etc. or if you offer a product for sale when comparable products are free the mention of a price or the word ‘buy’ will filter out the people looking for a freebie and save you that click cost.
Focus your ad on your target prospect. Care for your customer he could buy from you again and again. Start by not patronizing him with your ad copy. Overly enthusiastic copy may be a turn off, but then again it depends on your target market. This approach may appeal to teenagers for example or time sensitive offers. A definite turn off on the other hand is overly familiar wording and hard sell.
What does work is an appeal to a persons self interest with the use of motivational words - The seven key copy drivers -- hot buttons -- which change human behavior, are: fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation, flattery.
Appeal to people’s self-interest further by using phrases such as:- Saving money, making money, winning at something, getting a deal, saving time, exclusivity, alleviating a health problem, beating the competition etc.
When it comes to ad performance based on the copy, track, track and track some more. The best tactic here is to write two ads per campaign and measure the performance of the two over a few days. Tweaking wording etc based on keyword performance and ROI.
Constantly review your ad copy based on performance.
Respect your prospect. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you click on that ad you’ve just written?
Overall remember when putting your ad together to double check everything, especially your target URL & spelling.
For even more insider information on Adwords Ad copywriting and many other Adwords secrets and tactics visit my Pay Per Click Software site for the free Adwords Mini Course.
Creating Your First Google AdWords Campaign
The very first thing to do before venturing into the Adwords™ arena is to brainstorm and come up with a list of as many keywords for your product as possible. This is definitely the most important step in the process. The larger your list of keywords, the better. One word keywords are acceptable but don’t rely on them exclusively. Be creative. If you sell custom dog houses, don’t use a single keyword like dog (doghouse might be OK) Use phrases like “custom dog houses” or “quality dog houses”.
Find Relevant Words with Little Competition. You’ll probably be able to think of 10 – 20 keyword phrases right off the top of your head but these are the same keywords that your competitors will think of. The more people that are bidding on a keyword, the more expensive it will be to obtain an ad on the first page.
Your goal is to find keywords that have relevance to your product but that have little competition. Google returns different results for singular and plural search terms. Also consider common possible misspellings of your keywords (is doghouse, above, the way it is normally spelled?).
Think Like Your Customer. In building your keyword list, you want to “get into your customer’s head”. What phrases might he be searching on? These phrases don’t necessarily have to exactly match your product. If you’re selling custom dog houses, your ideal customer might be searching on “gourmet dog food” in order to find a new entrée for Rover. Now, after seeing your ad pop up, he might very well decide to investigate getting Rover a new house to go with his new dinner! Be creative! How does your customer search for things online? Figure this out and you’re on your way to making sales!
One other thing to consider is that Google offers 4 different types of searches or matching options. Because this is an important concept to understand, you might want to go to https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/account.html to see exactly how Google defines these different matching options:
Broad Match - This is the default option. If you include general keyword or keyword phrases-such as tennis shoes-in your keyword list, your ads will appear when users search for tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms.
Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes.
Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets-such as [tennis shoes]-your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query.
Negative Keyword - If your keyword is tennis shoes and you add the negative keyword -red, your ad will not appear when a user searches on red tennis shoes.
Maximize the number of keyword phrases you’re bidding on. After you’re done brainstorming your keyword list, add the plural form to each and every singular keyword phrase (where it makes sense grammatically to do so).
Finally, include keywords in both quotes “dog house” and brackets [dog house] for all key phrases longer than one word. Use negative keywords where necessary. For example, if you’re selling dog house plans, it might make sense to include the negative keyword -free so that your ad won’t show up when someone searches for “free dog house plans”.
There are a number of good resources to help you in creating your keyword list including Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox
As you begin to use the Adwords™ ad creation form, you’ll notice one of the relatively minor annoyances to using Adwords™, which is that is that you are limited to 25 characters for the headline and 35 characters for lines 2 & 3 and 35 characters for the display url. You’ll realize quickly that when you’re creating ads, you’ll be focused on writing snappy text that will reach out and grab your customers, not on counting characters.
Since Google doesn’t let you know until you’ve used up all of the available characters for that line, things can get a bit frustrating. You have no advance notice that you’ve only got 3 characters left to use (and probably need 5!) and so you simply run out of space.
This is one of the reasons that we created Ad Word Assistant, software that counts characters as you type (among other things). Visit http://www.mannmadesoftware.com/adword_assistant.asp?adcode=ezinarticles to see all of the features and benefits of Ad Word Assistant.
Importance of Headline - The first line in the Adwords™ ad is the headline. You want to get people to click on your ad and visit your site and therefore the wording of your ad is critical. Your ad needs to grab someone’s attention and compel them to click on it. One user gets very good results by being a bit offbeat with his ads. His headlines make his ads stand out from the pack and so he gets good clickthroughs.
For example, if he were writing an ad for a golf related product, his headline wouldn’t read “Improve Your Golf Game” but rather something like “Does Your Golf Game Suck?” Now certainly that is offbeat, and some might say vulgar, but the point is, his ads are very effective.
Subsequent Lines - Lines 2 and 3 are more advertising lines, limited to 35 characters on each. You don’t have much “real estate” to use with your ad, so use your words effectively. Line 4 is the visible url for the ad, which must be part of the actual url that you send your visitors to, but doesn’t have to be the exact page.
Target Position #2 to #6 on First Page - Cost-Per-Click or CPC is the essence of what you’re paying to run your Adwords™ campaign. Your goal is to have the minimum CPC that you can while still placing your ad in an optimum position in the search results. “Optimum position” is being on the first page, not in the #1 position, but somewhere between #2 and #5 or #6, depending on the economics.
First page is important, if at all possible. The #1 spot is generally not desired because quite often people will come to a search results page and click on the first two ads just out of habit. Be the second one they click on rather than the first one they leave.
You’ll want to avoid paying “big bucks” for a click during the early stages of your Adwords™ career. Stick to the $.05 to $.10 keywords at first and see what kind of results you’re getting. If you cannot get on the first page with a large number of your keywords, there is probably something amiss.
There are many stories of people losing money with their Adwords™ campaigns and most of these stories can be traced back to paying too much for keywords. Find the obscure relevant keywords that your competitors have missed. Be an Adwords™ success story.
Reading a good eBook about AdWords would be the next logical step. I have reviewed a very good eBook on my website:
http://www.mannmadesoftware.com/adwords123.asp
Copyright © 2005 by MannMade Software, LLC All Rights Reserved
John W. Mann, "The Ad Tracking Mann" is the owner of MannMade Software, LLC a software development company specializing in software & eBooks for the online sales & marketing niche market.
Currently John is in the process of writing an eBook titled “The Definitive Guide to Ad Tracking & Split Testing” (due out Dec 2005) as well as developing what he refers to as “The Best Ad Tracking Software” called TBATS for short.
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