Tips For Pay Per Click [PPC] Marketing
Author: Richard D S Hill
Author: Richard D S Hill
The two most successful techniques for enhancing your online
image are: search engine optimization, and pay per click
advertising campaigns.
Basically it's all about helping customers find your website
and business. A pay per click advertising campaign is easy to
start. You open an account and deposit some money as a starting
balance with the search engine company that you are advertising
with. You enter your site's URL, title and description and bid
on relevant keywords. A site selling wine might bid on keywords
such as "wine", "red wine", "wine club" etc.
When someone searches for "wine club" the details of your site
appear, in the form of a search result with the URL, title and
description you entered. If they then click on your listing,
your account is debited the amount you have bid on that
keyword.
Pay per click offers a high level of assurance that your
campaign is reaching the proper target. What makes them so
effective is that someone who has searched for your product is
already qualified when they come to your site, which is selling
the product or service they are looking for. Pay per click
campaigns, however, are not perfect. Without constant
monitoring, you sometimes risk incurring advertising costs that
can spiral out of control, focusing on terms that don't convert
well for your product or services or lose out during a bidding
war.
It is important that your keywords are relevant and link to the
page that contains information relating to that keyword. Bidding
on keywords can be expensive. An alternative strategy is to bid
on related keyword phrases which no-one else is bidding on. You
may then be #1 in the rankings, monopolizing the traffic for
those searches and only have to pay the minimum amount per
click through. Related keywords and phrases can include
synonyms, incorrect spellings, alternative words and phrases,
closely related words/phrases, and so on.
Then, perhaps most importantly of all, you need a 'landing
page': (a) specific page(s) created for visitors referred from
marketing campaigns to maximize conversion. Landing pages can
be a series of related pages within an existing site structure
or they can be a microsite, which is specifically setup for a
campaign, typically with its own campaign URL - an example is
Norwich Union's (faintly annoying?) www.quotemehappy.com
There are different types of landing pages that work best
depending on the campaign objectives – a landing page
integrated into the sites structure or a landing page
specifically created for the campaign.
Integrated pages may not work so well in terms of conversion.
Bespoke landing pages tend to produce higher conversion rates
but it requires more effort and maintenance. So you need to
work out whether the cost of producing this type of page is
offset by the potentially higher conversion rates and better
campaign results.
Some simple guidelines for effective PPC are keep ads and
landing pages relevant; provide enough detail for a decision;
capture the audience's imagination and their data as quickly as
possible; forget the guru's page length, graphics and menu
options type arguments and FIND OUT WHAT WORKS, as in all
direct marketing test, test, test.
About The Author: Richard Hill is a Director of
http://www.e-crm.co.uk , that specialises in CRM, direct and
internet marketing for SMEs. He is also non-executive Chairman
of Innovantage http://www.innovantage.co.uk a business
intelligence company.
image are: search engine optimization, and pay per click
advertising campaigns.
Basically it's all about helping customers find your website
and business. A pay per click advertising campaign is easy to
start. You open an account and deposit some money as a starting
balance with the search engine company that you are advertising
with. You enter your site's URL, title and description and bid
on relevant keywords. A site selling wine might bid on keywords
such as "wine", "red wine", "wine club" etc.
When someone searches for "wine club" the details of your site
appear, in the form of a search result with the URL, title and
description you entered. If they then click on your listing,
your account is debited the amount you have bid on that
keyword.
Pay per click offers a high level of assurance that your
campaign is reaching the proper target. What makes them so
effective is that someone who has searched for your product is
already qualified when they come to your site, which is selling
the product or service they are looking for. Pay per click
campaigns, however, are not perfect. Without constant
monitoring, you sometimes risk incurring advertising costs that
can spiral out of control, focusing on terms that don't convert
well for your product or services or lose out during a bidding
war.
It is important that your keywords are relevant and link to the
page that contains information relating to that keyword. Bidding
on keywords can be expensive. An alternative strategy is to bid
on related keyword phrases which no-one else is bidding on. You
may then be #1 in the rankings, monopolizing the traffic for
those searches and only have to pay the minimum amount per
click through. Related keywords and phrases can include
synonyms, incorrect spellings, alternative words and phrases,
closely related words/phrases, and so on.
Then, perhaps most importantly of all, you need a 'landing
page': (a) specific page(s) created for visitors referred from
marketing campaigns to maximize conversion. Landing pages can
be a series of related pages within an existing site structure
or they can be a microsite, which is specifically setup for a
campaign, typically with its own campaign URL - an example is
Norwich Union's (faintly annoying?) www.quotemehappy.com
There are different types of landing pages that work best
depending on the campaign objectives – a landing page
integrated into the sites structure or a landing page
specifically created for the campaign.
Integrated pages may not work so well in terms of conversion.
Bespoke landing pages tend to produce higher conversion rates
but it requires more effort and maintenance. So you need to
work out whether the cost of producing this type of page is
offset by the potentially higher conversion rates and better
campaign results.
Some simple guidelines for effective PPC are keep ads and
landing pages relevant; provide enough detail for a decision;
capture the audience's imagination and their data as quickly as
possible; forget the guru's page length, graphics and menu
options type arguments and FIND OUT WHAT WORKS, as in all
direct marketing test, test, test.
About The Author: Richard Hill is a Director of
http://www.e-crm.co.uk , that specialises in CRM, direct and
internet marketing for SMEs. He is also non-executive Chairman
of Innovantage http://www.innovantage.co.uk a business
intelligence company.
