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5 Secrets to Effective
Pay-Per-Click Advertising With so many
companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can you and
your products and services stand out?
Your ready answer would most likely be effective
marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming
carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the attention of a typical
website reader who spends no more than 30 seconds to read any given
article online? How can you garner sales online?
One marketing technique is to be listed in search
engines – but again, with thousands of companies offering the same
products and services as you, how can your scream for attention be heard?
One technique is pay per click advertising, or PPC.
You write out and place an advertisement in a search engine, list yourself
under keywords of your choosing, and bid on the placement of your ads.
This narrows your field to the people who are actively searching for your
products and services.
If someone finds the ad and clicks it, that person
goes to your website, and you pay the bid price. As a rule, the higher you
bid, the higher your ad goes in the list of search results for a certain
keyword, and the more people will go to your site.
PPC can be used to widen your reach, but it can be
very expensive, especially if people click your ad only out of curiosity,
or if you bid on more keywords than your budget can handle. However, PPC
can get you customers and increase your profits. If done well, it can earn
you money.
Here are five tips to get the most out of PPC.
Get Ten Specific Keywords. If you are a company
specializing in exercise equipment, don't select "exercise equipment" or
"gym" as your keywords. Chances are, there will be hundreds of thousands
of other bidders waiting to jump on those same keywords. Be specific. Try
"treadmill" or "stationary bike." Select a maximum of ten words, just to
test the waters and see how your potential customers respond.
If the first ten keywords succeed in getting you a
larger market, then research additional keywords which are not as
specific. However, if your first try yields less than satisfactory
results, then try another set of keywords if you can still afford it.
Write Your Ads but Write the Truth. Most ad writers
will broadcast their wares as being the be-all and cure all of all ills
and pains. If they do this, web users will click on their ads and storm
the site. This is well and good if the product or service will live up to
the ad's promise – but what if it doesn't? A customer clicks, you pay, but
the customer doesn't buy. You lose.
Write a succinct but accurate ad that doesn't sue
vague language. Avoid using words such as "free," "low cost," "extremely
effective," and "cheap." Tailor your ads to fit the keyword, and if you
can, include your prices on the ads. This way, you will get a buyer who is
ready and willing to purchase your product or service.
Budget Your Bid. It's tempting to go all out and set
your prices, especially if you think your product will sell. But what if
it won't? Set a monthly budget of about $100 for your bids, and bid just
right – bid too high and you will run out of money, bid too low and your
ads won't show up.
Even if you believe in your product, keep within bid
budget, and do not get into bidding wars, especially with another
advertiser who has a much larger budget than you. Don't waste your time
thinking about your bids. Instead, invest your time in designing what your
ad is linked to, which brings us to:
Make Your Site a Professional One. The standard
rules of web design apply. Check your web content for spelling and
grammatical errors. Update your web content regularly. Fix any broken
links and images. Design your website so that it will be easy to navigate
and load, so do not use Flash animation, as this will slow down your
buyers' browsers. Link your ads to the exact place on your site where your
product or service appears.
Know When to Stop. PPC ad campaigns can lead more
buyers to you, but take care to check profit against spending. If you have
already spent double your advertising budget, but have had little or no
sales, consider dropping your campaign. You can also measure your progress
in clicks. A total of 300 clicks is average for any ad. If your ad has
reached 300 clicks and you have made no sales yet, then terminate your PPC
project.
Equally as important as knowing when to stop is
knowing that all is not yet lost and you can still go on. Running a
web-based business means investing time, money, and effort, so keep your
PPC up and running as long as you are raking money in. PPC, after all, may
first mean pay-per-click, but, if you're successful, can soon mean
Profiting Perfectly in Cash. |