| Hello again Name and welcome to 'Why promoting your site through the search engines is critical and how to do it cheaply and effectively'. Part 2. Pay-per-click advertising. Get a free ebook and learn the tricks the experts use. See below for the free ebook. CONTENTS
--------------------------------------------------- 1. Return on investment - your pay-per-click (PPC) mantra Pay-per-click (PPC) is another way of attracting people to your site through the search engines. It allows you to bid for certain words or phrases. The size of your bid affects your ranking in the sponsored section of the pages. In Google, the PPC ads are those down the right margin. The great thing about PPC is that you only pay for the people who visit your site, not for people seeing an advertisement. And you can set a limit to the amount you're prepared to spend. The important thing to get right with PPC is your return on investment (ROI) analysis. You need to measure your conversion rate – the number of people who click on your ad divided by the number who buy or sign-up for your newsletter. You then calculate the cost per sale – provided the cost is lower than the value of the sale, you're in gross profit. Small increases in conversion rates can have a dramatic increase in profits. That's a subject for another lesson but conversion strategies are key to PPC profits. And to ensure you measure accurately, you need a system that identifies where every visitor comes from. If you've got an Incise site, we can provide you with an online tracking system. Otherwise, you'll need something like Adminder which you can review here . PPC can be an excellent way of giving a short term boost to your search engine rankings. It shouldn't replace the positions you achieve through optimisation but supplement them. To learn more about how to use PPC profitably I highly recommend this FREE e-book. You can download it here The main PPC engines are www.overture.co.uk and www.google.co.uk/adwords . But they're not the only ones and certainly not the cheapest. You'll get lots of traffic with both but you'll pay top dollar. See www.payperclicksearchengines.com for details of cheaper and geographically focused engines. 2. Getting started with Google Adwords The first step with Google Adwords is to identify a large number (preferably 300 or more) of low-cost but highly targeted keywords/ keyword phrases. Here are some free tools you can use to generate keywords and key phrases: Use Google's 'Keyword Matching' option to better target your ads. Unlike conventional PPC models, AdWords ads are ranked on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) X Click-Through Rate (CTR) formula. Keyword matching helps you achieve a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads and therefore, a higher ad ranking, without increasing the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of your campaign. For example, a phrase match keyword like "website designer" will show up for the search query "best website designer" but will not display for the search query "design a website". So, using the 'Phrase Match' option will minimize 'untargeted' impressions and result in Click-Through-Rate ( CTR) improvements. The two most important factors of a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign are the ads themselves and the amount you bid per click. Here's some tips on writing ads for Google. 3. Writing Your Ads for Google AdWords Writing good ad copy is part art, part science. You need to express a benefit that gets people to click on the ad. If your ad is the same as everyone else's, it won't do well. To determine your best ads, you need to test different approaches. Start by identifying your target market and keyword selections. If your company focuses on a The ads you write should include your main keywords in the title or near the start of the text. Get attention by using phrases and words that get people excited and curious like "Save on holidays," "Get cars cheaper," or "Join now for 15% discount,". But be truthful. If you advertise something that you don't offer, Google will ban your ad. Now start writing different ads – say three more. Test them and compare with the performance of the first ad. Over time you'll learn which ones pull and CONVERT best. It's essential to monitor both response and conversion to ensure you're attracting the right audience. 4. Getting your bids right with AdWords When you enter your maximum cost-per-click (CPC), Google will show the estimated average position for each keyword. However, with Google there's no way to see what the competition is paying so you won't know how much to pay to get a good top three position. It's probably best to start with a max CPC slightly higher than you would like to pay. This should ensure a higher ranking for your ad and improve your chances of getting clicks. If your ad does well, your rank will increase. Once you've got a good click through rate (CTR), you can reduce your max CPC to get the position you want. If you don't want to do PPC yourself, we can organise a PPC campaign for you at Incise. We identify the most cost-effective words and phrases to bid for, write the advertisements, place them and monitor the results. Call me on 01453 873638 or mail paullock@incisecomms.co.uk . That's it for now. In your next lesson we'll talk about FREE publicity and how you can get it. Cheers, Paul --------------------------------------------------- Protect your business from crashes, viruses and hackers. Incise subscribers save over 15%. Depositit is the leading online data back-up solution. Incise subscribers get nearly 20% off standard prices. Find out more here --------------------------------------------------- paullock@incisecomms.co.uk NOTES 1. Please forward this course to anyone you think might find it useful, whether they're considering starting an online business or already running one. To get the email, they can sign up in less than 10 seconds at http://www.incisecomms.co.uk 2. As a reader of my course, you're my most important critic and commentator. I welcome all reader feedback. Email me anytime at paullock@incisecomms.co.uk 3. If you really don't find the course useful, then reply to this email with the subject field 'unsubscribe'. I'd appreciate any feedback. 4. Lastly, I've taken every care to check the information and advice I give. However, I regret that I can't be responsible for any loss that you may suffer as a result of the advice or from any omission or inaccuracy. This disclaimer also applies to 3rd party links. © Paul Lock 2005. All rights reserved. No copying or extraction without permission from service@incisecomms.co.uk |