Taking Advantage of Pay per Click Advertising

Pay per Click (PPC) advertising has been touted as a lower cost alternative to traditional promotional methods. By paying a set fee you bring qualified traffic to your website via key word searches on pay per click search engines. Its proving very attractive especially to those organisations with a limited marketing budget but there are issues that must be taken into account and research that needs to be done in order to implement a pay per click strategy that works.

Is pay per click appropriate
First and foremost with pay per click as with any other marketing strategy it is important to consider the characteristics, wants and needs of your customer. Consider how your typical client finds you, if it’s not via the Internet then a pay per click strategy may not be the right investment for you. Likewise, if you have invested money in search engine positioning and your company ranks highly in the unpaid for search section making it easy for your prospect to find you then you probably shouldn’t spend too much on PPC.

Choose the right keywords
A vital aspect of implementing a pay per click strategy is to determine the words or phrases that best describe your organisation. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and, if in doubt ask existing clients, partners and prospects what words they would use to search for your type of offering online. Once you have a list of the most appropriate terms, check out the Overture keyword selector tool to see how many searches are conducted for this or a related term in a given month. This will help you to determine the most suitable keywords to use in your campaign. If innumerable searches have been conducted on the phrase you have in mind, refine it to make it more specific. For example, if you search Overture for the keyword “Spa” you will find that 686,818 related searches were conducted in July 2005, so coming up with a phrase that better describes your offering such as “Health Spa Vancouver” will result in fewer results and a high click thru rate to sales because the audience is highly targeted. Once you have decided on the right keywords to use, update and reassess them regularly.

Which pay per click search engines
Don’t simply choose the first pay per click search engine that comes along – there are 659 of them to choose from. Do your research and find those that fit best or that are most likely to drive results. Ask your customers and colleagues which search engines they use. Each PPC search engine is different with some PPC search engines offering only paid for listings, some a combination of both paid for and non paid results and some with only unpaid listings.

Some of the most well known PPC search engines are Yahoo’s Search Marketing (formerly Overture), GoClick, Kanoodle and Google AdWords. For a complete and useful review of these, check out PayPerClickSearchEngine.com.

Try out the PPC search engines, if you find one slow or cumbersome then strike it of your list as prospects are impatient and likely to click elsewhere. Its best to chose pay per click search engines where you pay only when someone clicks on your URL and not when they appear on the search screen. Once you have signed up, it’s important to monitor the results in terms of click thru volume and conversions to sales. If one pay per click search engine isn’t working for you try another.

So what does all this cost?
Relatively little considering the cost of traditional lead generation tools but it is important to invest wisely or you could end up out of pocket. Pay per clicks typically cost between .10 and .20 cents per click but bids of up to and over $100 are accepted by the likes of Google for the most sought after terms. A useful resource is the Top PPC Bids Checker which allows you to check the top bids on your chosen keywords to ascertain how much you are likely to pay. Remember, the more specific the keyword the higher the likelihood that your target audience will find you and the less likely that many contenders will be biding for the right to appear first so the your costs will be lower. Always track sales to clicks to see if the investment in PPC advertising is worth it.

The benefits of pay per click can be huge
For one happy PPC customer, traffic has increased by 245% resulting in a revenue growth of 40% since they implemented their campaign. However, many companies have been caught up in bidding wars or have spent money unnecessarily bidding on key terms that are not specific enough. So when planning you Pay per Click strategy, be canny, take time to choose the search engine that’s right for your business, use specific key terms that ensure your prospects find you and make sure you don’t underestimate the costs or bid on something you can’t afford. Good Luck!

This article was provided by Mhairi from Out-Smarts