PPC ADVERTISING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS "CLICK"
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.
In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding for the
top or 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 (this
is why some people call it "keyword auctioning"). Advertisers
would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks
through the website.
PPC Advertising Resources... |
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' 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:
· Get launched immediately. PPC
advertisements are implemented very quickly - they can go
'online' within an hour after winning the bid and paying for it.
· Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. PPC
provides you with a quality or a 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.
· Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides additional
traffic to your site, aside from the natural or "organic" search
engines.
· 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 the 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).
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.
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.
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 online
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.
6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is 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.
Done properly, PPC advertising can be an effective
marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment. |
