Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Basics of PPC Advertising

By Brian Basch

Pay per click advertising (PPC) is a fantastic way to send visitors to your website. PPC web advertisement campaigns are the new way to reach your target audience online. When used correctly, and there are tricks to the trade, PPC methods trigger sales and improve traffic to your site.

PPC advertising begins with the all-important keywords or phrases that closely relate to your product or service. However, it's not as simple as just using words that have worked for other products. Clever campaigners use quality keywords and combinations that send the right audience to their website and, most importantly of all, end with a sale. This is where Pay Per Click advertising can get a little tricky, but by putting in the extra effort you can reap the rewards. By targeting your audience, you aren't sending people to your site who will then just exit again.

To begin your campaign, you have to bid for Keywords. Desirable keywords can come at a high price, but it's not always the case of the most expensive keywords giving you the best results, so keep reading. The higher your bid, the higher you'll be ranked for a given keyword or phrase. Higher-ranked ads appear earlier on a search page and it's no secret that the first few ads get the most clicks. But remember it's not just about traffic to your site, as every visitor that comes to your site as a result of clicking on your ad costs you money. So, you need to think about what is going to convert those sales, too.

The amount you'll pay for your ads will depend on the search engine and the popularity of the keyword. Ads can range anywhere from a cent per click to over a dollar. To get the most out of your investment, track how your keywords are doing. Use tools to help you understand which words lead to clicks, and how many of those clicks lead to sales. Remember that you can replace a word that's not working properly, and that traffic which doesn't end in sales is actually losing you money.

You need to write your advertising correctly, making sure it's a genuine offer that has something in common with the keywords or phrases. A well-designed site that has a high quality scoring with Google is likely to get the best placement. You could choose to run the advertising for a certain period of time but some sites will allow you to run it every now and then and target times or specific days.

Consider you ads carefully, as failure to achieve a high placement, or failing to make your webpage attractive to visitors, are common reasons for failed PPC ad campaigns. So, be very certain that your landing page and your ad go well together. Ads should be relevant to the keywords you're using, as well as eye-catching.

Testing the effectiveness of your advertising is important. A change of one keyword will sometimes have an enormous change on the rate of people who are clicking and purchasing the product. You can test them and see which words work best and by doing so, you can write advertising variations for each new word.

PPC advertising is a great way to market your product and services and make a profit. A well designed and organized campaign means sales for small and middle-sized business owners is a definite possibility. Knowing who your potential customers are and doing the right advertising will lead you to success.

About the Author:

No comments: