Since 1999
If you have ultimately decided to give pay-per-click or PPC marketing a try, it is actually a very smart move. PPC is the most affordable advertising option available today especially for small and medium sized businesses. Before you actually start your PPC campaign, you must always bear in mind that one wrong move can cost you a lot of money. Here, for every click a user makes, you as an advertiser will have to pay.
Similar to other advertising forms, in a PPC campaign, you need to have a good strategy to get your money’s worth. To begin with, you must be very careful about bidding and keyword selection which are the two important facts that actually determine the fate of your PPC campaign. First analyze your budget as much as you can afford to start bidding for a keyword. High traffic keywords will cost higher per click. It means top rankings for popular words are too expensive. If you are new to PPC campaigns and have limited budget, it is advisable to target a large number of less popular keywords which are less expensive and you can also give you a considerable amount of traffic. This will be beneficial for your company in general.
Once you are through with keyword selection, try testing variations of ads, as you will find that different ads will yield different results. In your ad copies, use different elements such as ads with prices vs. ads without prices, catchy headlines, ads with buy-words like “try,” “get,” and ads with different offers. Be creative in writing ad copies and test all types of elements. The key factor is to actively test ads and watch for results. Next is the selection of right landing pages. Always use landing pages in your PPC campaigns that are appropriate to the product or service you are selling.
For instance, if you are selling “web design and development” services create a landing page that talks about this particular service only. Avoid using the home page as a PPC landing page, as it normally tends to be too broad and people don’t prefer to search around for the information they need. Conversions can happen if users can easily find the information they are looking for. Another important aspect of a PPC campaign is to never hesitate on creating a new PPC listing as you don’t need to make any payment unless someone clicks on your listing. There is no added cost for doing this.
Hence, give preference on targeting a large number of keywords. Lastly, one important thing to consider is to keep track of your keyword listings. This way you will know which keywords are sending you traffic and converting visitors into customers. Plus you also get an idea about the keywords that are not helping you in your business and that you must not target in the future. PPC advertising campaigns are much easier to manage if you set them up correctly from the beginning.
