This is going to be short and sweet, if you have questions please leave them in the comments box below or find us on Facebook.

This is a Gold Nugget for those of you who are starting a Google pay-per-click advertising campaign or have been experimenting with little or no results.

There are two different networks that your business can use on the Google PPC platform. Those are the Search Network and the Display Network (formally know as the content network). Advertisers do not get an explanation of the differences between the two nor how they work. It is simply recommended that you advertise across the entire system.

Networks?

The Search Network is designed to attract customers who are more likely to be in the buying phase of there shopping process. It is intended to reach buyers at the precise moment they are looking for your product or service.

The Display Network is designed to brand your business and advertise to shoppers through out their shopping process. You have the ability to advertise to a broader market and push your message out on the internet

The network that fits your business goals may include one or the other or both. You can decide and run your campaign accordingly. For a more in depth explanation,visit Google Help.

The Gold Nugget

Run your advertising in the search network and/or in the content network but separate them out into different campaigns. For best results you do not want to run one campaign that is set up to run advertising on both networks at the same time. You can select which network(s) you want to advertise with under the “settings tab” of your campaign.

Separating strategies, data and conversions will allow you to manage your different types of PPC advertising more effectively, optimize them for better performance and improve return on investment.

Told you it was going to be short. If you have questions or a comment  leave it and we will respoond.

Some argue that such a thing as ‘Effective Advertising’ doesn’t even exist. Small business owners across middle Tennessee are struggling and seeking to find new ways to drive more customers into their business with out spending more money.  It is time to open up to the future, do more with your advertising budget and get advertising results you can track, optimize and improve.

Traditional Advertising Method Downfalls

Advertising such as phone books, newspapers and magazines aren’t working well anymore and are outdated to the point of extinction. How many times have you looked in the phone book lately? TV, radio and billboard advertising have always been expensive; however they do produce exposure to a very large market close to home.

Problem with these forms of local advertising is you have no idea how effective they are. All you get are “statistics” provided by the companies that do the advertising. They can not tell you how many people found your business much less who spent money with you.

Business owners need advertising that gives the ability to control who sees ads, when they see them and allows them to precisely track how many customers are received from the advertising budget. There is a solution right at your finger tips for more effective advertising!

Google Search Engine Marketing

Often time’s companies overlook the internet for an advertising means because they do not understand how the marketing process works. Some simply find it to complicated or lack the knowledge to attempt it. Implementing a targeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on the Google Adwords Platform is by far one of the most affordable means of advertising.

You control ad placement, click price, advertising budget, demographic, geography, age range, and times of day to run your ads. The list goes on and on but the point is this; your business could be advertising to only people who need your help and doing it at the exact moment they need it, while tracking results and improving your advertising every month.

Not convinced?

People who use the internet to find local business is growing at a staggering rate; Thirty-Four percent last year alone. Reports also show that local search on mobile devices grew over Fifty percent from 2008-2009. Now that’s pretty good and all but here is the Jackpot. The Google Search Engine reaches 80% of the world’s population of internet users Every Day! You can no longer ignore the fact that when people want something they choose to find it online from their computer or phone.

Using Internet Advertising is an effective way to promote your local business

to targeted customers, exactly when they are looking for your business,

from anywhere in the world at any time of the day!

For more information about starting your first website or for help increasing your exposure with Google Pay-Per-Click advertising contact us now for details.

We all know that billboard advertising works where you have large amounts of traffic. Where do you find an Ton of traffic? Strong consistent traffic is found on highways, interstates and the internet. Yes, the internet. Welcome to the world of Banner Advertising.

Harness The Power of the “Internet Super Highway”

Outdoor advertising and banner advertising both consist of placing a strategic marketing message in front of a massive amount of potential clients. We advertise our message to this “Traffic” hoping to attract some of the “people passing by” to come into our store or contact us for more information. Traffic on the road verses on a webpage is essentially the same. The more people whom travel a road or the more people that visit a webpage obviously determines how mush exposure we get for our ad.

So, how are they different?

Our first obvious difference is where our ad’s or billboards are located. We all know billboards are on the side of a particular road or highway. Banner advertisements consequently are located on the side, top or bottom of a webpage(s). You have seen them and have probably clicked on a few searching the internet  for your hearts desire.

Now let’s get into the BIG differences that you need to understand before investing your advertising budget into one or the other.

Read this  and you will know which billboard advertising method will work best for your business!

Market Exposure:

Billboards:

• Predefined locations on certain streets or highways. Depending on the location you choose, or can get, will dictate how much traffic you receive. You can obviously target more locations for increased exposure should you be comfortable with the expense of multiple billboards.

Banners:

• Full control to place an ad or multiple ads on any relevant webpage in a single city, state, country or All of the above! You can have ads showing up on an unlimited number relevant websites increasing your exposure to unlimited prospects and spreading your business reach.

Customer Targeting & Tracking:

Billboards:

• Considered minimal targeting. You have no control over the needs or desires of the people driving past your billboard. None the less, billboard advertising is great for branding your business in your hometown or the cities you obtain locations in. Tracking results can only come from asking every customer that comes to your business or website “How did you find us?”

Banners:

• You target your customers by advertising to them on webpage’s closely knit to your industry. If you sell automotive accessories you can place your advertising in front of only people who would have a need or want for floor mats or trailer hitches. Now you have a steady stream of “Targeted” Traffic. Tracking is set up to run automatically and accurately so you can eliminate wasteful spending and put your money where the sales are.

Cost:

Billboards:

• Average minimum for Cookeville, Tennessee is around $400 Bucks a month and does not include set up. Nashville, TN will run you significantly more averaging around $800 Plus dollars a month. Additional charges occur when you want to change your message. Higher monthly charges apply for upgraded digital billboards, however, your message and marketing can change repeatedly.

Banners:

• Average minimum for set up is under one thousand dollars. You choose how much $$$ you want to invest per month in ad spend, run as many ad’s as you like and choose from; Image Ad’s, Text Ad’s or even Video Ad’s. Only pay for the customer traffic that decides to click on your ad and visit your website.

How does banner advertising work?

Banner advertising consists of placing banner ads (boxed image ads) on relevant web pages across the internet. The major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo offer advertising on what they call the “content network.” Once you have set up an advertising account with your search engine of choice you would upload your image ad and tell the search engine to place your ad(s) beside content that is similar to what you are promoting.

For example purposes lets say you own a flower shop and want to promote your fabulous wedding bouquets. You set up and design a catchy image that tells customers that you are the florist of choice for wedding bouquets. When someone visits a popular wedding website, or any website where wedding bouquets are relevant, your ad will display somewhere on their page. This potential customer did not intentionally do a search for flowers but it is a given that any bride will insist on a gorgeous bouquet for her wedding. Therefore, when the searcher lands on this popular site there attention is taken from the site to your ad. They click it and visit ‘Your’ website to discuss buying their wedding bouquet from you.

Outdoor Billboard Advertising vs. Online Banner Advertising

Outdoor Billboard Advertising is…

• Great for localized branding by keeping your name out in the public eye.
• Good for consistent local exposure to customers who may need your services.

Banner advertising is…

• Capable of exposing your business across the globe.
• Targeted to reach your precise customer no matter where they live.
• Less expensive long term.

Outdoor Billboard Advertising has great results for many types of businesses and will always be a great means of advertising as long as people have cars. Banner advertising is pretty darn close to the same thing – well, except for the differences!

You know your business better than anyone and hopefully with this information you can decide what advertising method is best for your bottom line. The internet is changing the way people shop for products and services. Could you see increased business and revenue by expanding your reach on the “Internet Super Highway?”

P.S. - For more information on the cost comparison of search engine marketing vs. billboard advertising click here.

P.P.S. – If you enjoyed this information about billboard advertising on the internet with banners then why not share this with your business associates on Facebook or Twitter. Simply click the icon of your social site of choice below and thank you Much!

It’s been crazy here at Carbon Copy Consulting for the past few weeks. One of my highest priorities as been helping people create better landing pages for there online marketing and PPC campaigns. Below are 3 suggestions for creating an optimized landing page on your website.

So you have a website, you are sending traffic (customers) to that site but you are not seeing any response. Chances are, your landing page is the problem. Change your landing page (page a person “lands” on when they come to your site) and increase your response rate overnight.

It took me a long time to figure this out but once I did my business took off. Perry Marshall (great Google Adwords guru) once said, “People do not want to buy a drill; they want to make a hole.” It is all about giving the customer a solution to there problem.

Here are 3 suggestions for designing a landing page that will convert visitors into sales.

• Give customers what they searched for:

This is by far the biggest mistake I see business make on their website. When a customer decides to visit your website for more information, you need to provide them with the “right” information.

What do I mean by this? Let’s say for instance you sell backpacking equipment. When someone lands on your website they are expecting to find information about backpacking equipment. You should have a list of backpacks you sell and possible a selection of navigational buttons linking them to the specific item(s) they are looking to buy.

Most businesses send all traffic to their home page with an explanation of who they are, what they sell or a brief history of there company. Searchers simply Do Not Care about you or your business. What they care about is finding a solution to their problem or desire.

If you think about it, you are the exact same way. When you visit a website looking for information about a specific item or desire and you do not find it immediately; you hit the back button and continue to the next competitor hoping someone will provide you with a solution.

• Eliminate Distractions

Keep your landing page short, sweet and to the point. This is not the place to bombard customers with additional information or links. Do not overload it with tons of pictures, long videos or extensive explanations.

Tell customers that you have precisely what they are looking for, give a brief description of product or service offered, why it is the right solution for them and then give them a call to action. If you dump visitors into a barrage of information forcing them to hunt for information they will poke around briefly then leave.

You obviously want people to know who you are, what you do and why your business is the best choice for them. However this should not be the main focus. Once you have shown a visitor that you can solve their problem, they will search around your site to see exactly who they are dealing with.

• Have a Call to Action

Once your customer has been given the valuable information they were seeking you then present them a way to learn more, make a purchase or speak to a sales representative. This could be a phone number to call for more information, an opt-in form for email follow up, or a simply click to purchase button. Either way you need to convert the customer into a sale by giving them an opportunity to take action.

Here is an example of how it should flow:

• Opening Statement: Backpacking Equipment For All Applications
• Products Provided: Columbia, JanSport and Northface Equipment Available
• Why you: We Have the Largest Selection in Nashville
• Call to Action: Order now / Contact us / Request more information

Hopefully this helps you understand how and why an optimized landing page is imperative to your website’s success. Keep in mind that you may have one main landing page with links to other landing pages explaining individual products or services.

Brian McDaniel | Carbon Copy Consulting

“Trusted Resource for Free Online Marketing Education”

Here is an example of a Landing Page Design working well for one Nashville business.

Are you ready to take action and start converting more website visitors into sales? If so,  Click Here for more information about having a professionally designed landing page built for your website.

I’ve used Outdoor Advertising in the past to promote my business and to this day I have no idea how many customers I gained from it, if any.  What I am trying to say is, you can expand your reach, advertise to targeted customers and track your results for the same $400 bucks, or more, you will spend per month with billboard advertising?

I’m not saying Outdoor Advertising doesn’t work, because it does. The point I want to get across is that for the same money, or less, you could have customers finding and visiting your storefront or website from Nashville to Knoxville. In my opinion that beats targeting only the people that travel past a sign on a road.

Today I am going to give you a comparison between Billboard Outdoor Advertising and Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing (PPC Advertising). When we are through you will have a better understanding of both and will be able to make an educated decision about how to best spend your advertising dollars.

Let’s Compare the Pros and Cons

• Cost Per Month Comparison

Outdoor Advertising – Average cost is approximately $750 a month. Packages typically range in price from $400- $4000 per month. Average investment for 3 months of billboard advertising is $2250.00 / Yearly Cost – $9000 / Monthly Cost – $750

Pay Per Click Advertising – Average one time set up cost, $975 and includes first month optimization and management. Set up packages range in price from $600-$1400. Estimated monthly management cost is $285 per month there after.  Average monthly ad spent to pay for “cost per click” $250. Total investment for 3 months of PPC advertising equals $2295.00 / Yearly Cost – $7110 / Monthly Cost $595

The figures above were pulled from advertiser’s websites. Prices will vary per city and per campaign. Depending on who you know, you may get a discount for each. Bottom line, the cost of advertising with PPC will save you on average almost $2000 a year or $155 a month.

• Effective Reach of Advertising

Outdoor Advertising – Billboards will share your message with literally thousands of people per day. You ad is always showing, it runs 24/7. Billboards do not target specific customers but instead push your message out to the masses. Outdoor Advertising is limited to customers that travel through a certain part of town or pass you on the Interstate.

Pay Per Click Advertising – With PPC you are in control of where and when customers see your ad. Customers viewing your pay per click ad are looking for precisely what you sell and they are “Ready” to buy your goods and services. You only pay for clicks bringing targeted visitors and search engine marketing gets less expensive to operate the longer it runs. With PPC you target customers where they life and on what they use the most for information; their cell phone and computer.

• Pros

Outdoor Advertising – Always on, thousands of impressions everyday and targets specific road or interstate you do business on. With new digital boards you have the capability of changing ads on a daily basis for specific promotions or a wide variety of products or services. Outdoor advertising is also an excellent choice for branding your business name in the community. You can commit your advertising efforts short term or long term.

Pay Per Click Advertising - You control the time, days and locations your Ads appear. Notice I said Ads, plural! Leave it on all the time or run it only on the weekend. Run it only in Nashville or in every household and on every smart phone in Tennessee. Write as many ads as you want to promote any product or service. Advertise to customers at the precise time they are looking to buy what you have to offer. Although you can run PPC for a short time it is best suited for businesses that have long term goals and commitment. Search engine marketing is less expensive and saves you money. Last but certainly not least, you can accurately track conversions and return on investment with PPC Advertising.

• Cons

Outdoor Advertising – Small area of focus and no way to accurately track results or ROI.

Pay Per Click Advertising – Takes proper management for best results and requires an optimized website.

As you can see, both of these advertising methods are effective for promoting your small business. Now that you know how each one works and how much it will cost you, make an informed decision as to which direction is best suited for your business.

Learn more about pay per click advertising

Request a Free Quote & Consultation Today

Brian McDaniel | Carbon Copy Consulting

“Trusted Resource for Free Online Marketing Education”

By the Way: Help spread the word to your business associates and friends by sharing this post. Simply click on the Re-Tweet button up top or choose from other popular sites listed below. Much Appreciated!

P.S. Get the latest information, advice and strategies buy subscribing to the Carbon Copy Consulting Blog. Enter your first name and primary email address below and click submit. It’s that easy.

Today I bring you a very good reason to start paying for website traffic. If you have a company website, a social media business page or any other information about you or your business online that you want people to find, then you will want to have a look at this.

You will hear a gazillion stories about businesses making it big on the internet. However, the troubling thing is that there are many more examples of people and businesses that failed miserably when using the internet. Many will launch a business website in hopes of increasing business but only a handful will ever succeed.

What is the reason? Well, it takes good business sense, targeted education and outside help to succeed with online marketing. Most importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed, the determination to learn and the willingness to invest your time and money. Let me explain…

The Basics

Traffic! Plainly put, you must have visitors coming to your website. Without traffic, all your efforts and investments will go to waste. Every business needs customers to sell products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk-in customer. The more traffic you receive, the more people see what you have to offer and the more people buy your goods and services.

But like any typical storefront business, not everyone that comes in will buy, but the greater the number of customers that come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is known that the more people you talk to the more people you sell.

So, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit? Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes, that’s right, you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people you put your site in front of; the more people whom know about your site, the more people would of course go to your site: that’s common sense.

While there are many ways you can get online advertising for free, this does not generate the kind of targeted traffic it will take to make online advertising work. These paid advertisements include schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Search Engine

Search engines are the easiest and fastest medium for finding what a person needs or wants on the internet. Search engines are very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. Because of their popularity, they get many visits per day. It is easy to understand why so many small businesses would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to the millions of users who visit them each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your pay per click, banner or other sponsored ad pops up in the higher ranks of the search engine results, your business has a great chance of targeted customers visiting your website. Search engine optimization is a great long term way to advertise for free; however it takes time and money to make his happen.  Paid online advertising brings your business instant traffic, higher rankings, and can also be built upon in order to spread your reach and grow you business.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like a bad idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed a consistent traffic flow to your site. Paid search marketing is not for the weak of heart and is a long term strategy, but pays for itself much quicker than search engine optimization.

Cost of This Traffic

Now, here is the great thing. You control the monthly cost of your advertising by setting a budget. Usually, you will be charged according to the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged for the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment. We will talk about keyword optimization and research another day.

In conclusion, you have a plethora of different options for building your business online however if you are not driving traffic to your website then your chances of succeeding are slim to none. Paid search engine marketing is a great way to grow your business fast and begin making progress towards your long term goals.

Start driving traffic to your website by taking advantage of the most popular sites in the world; Search Engines like Google and Bing can bring you targeted customer traffic and sales literally overnight.

SEO goes hand in hand with paid search marketing for best results. The good news is, by advertising first, you will begin to understand your businesses “True Customer” better and can use that data to search engine optimize your site more effectively and in return save a lot of wasted time and money

Learn more about Pay Per Click Advertising by clicking here now.

Want to know more, submit a comment below. I look forward to assisting you by answering your questions.

Brian McDaniel | Carbon Copy Consulting

“Trusted Resource for Free Online Marketing Education”

By the way, help your business friends and associates by sharing this information with them. You can use the Re-Tweet button at the top of he page or pick from any of the sites listed below.  Appreciate Ya!

With these 4 simple fixes you will dramatically jump start your pay-per-click campaigns and increase your return on investment!

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising can be specifically targeted to your unique clients based on interest as well as geography. PPC is in many people’s opinions the best online advertising method available for small business. Unlike the more expensive forms of advertising (Television, Radio and Newspaper) you can create highly targeted traffic to your website literally overnight with PPC campaigns built and ran properly. Small business owners are getting more Bang for their buck with pay-per-click advertising.

With that information, it is important to remember that making money with PPC advertising is not as easy as it seems at first glance. When launching your businesses first campaign you may quickly realize how easily it is to spend hundreds, even Thousands of dollars in wasted efforts while learning how to navigate through the system and to market against your competitors.

Most Common PPC Advertising Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

• Sending searchers to your home page is a mistake for most small businesses.

When you set up an online advertising campaign with Google, Yahoo!, or Bing you make the decision on what page that potential  customer lands on after clicking on your ad. Running you business is much different online than it is at your physical store front. When a person clicks on your PPC ad they are searching for something highly specific. Instead of greeting them at the door and hoping they look around, take them to the exact product or service they searched for when they land on your website. You will want to create a landing page that is tightly focused to the keywords you are using for your PPC ad and have it free from distractions that may confuse your future client. Not only does this significantly increase customer satisfaction with your site, it also increases the chance that they will make a purchase from you.

• Writing Generic ad copy and wasting valuable real estate

With PPC ads you have very limited space to get your message out. Every single word counts and you better use it wisely. Using generic words like quality, superior and excellent are costing you money. While these statements are true to your business you need to target what your customer searched for. They most likely aren’t looking for your business details; they simply want to know how you can help solve their problem.

When you are writing an ad, you want to target specific keywords that a person searches for to find your business. Include the keyword in your headline and make the headline catchy and captivating. Your next line should tell the potential customer the biggest benefit you offer to them. Essentially, what makes you better than your competition? Line three should offer value of some kind. 100% guarantee or a 15% discount or possibly mention the great feature of your product or service that your competitors may not be able to compete with. Write Great ad copy and you will increase your clicks, positions and traffic flow very quickly.

• You have to secure high placement with your ads to score

All search engines use a different method for determining your ad’s position and impressions. Google for example use a combination of ad relevancy (how relevant your ad is to the keywords you bid on and the relevance of the landing page your visitors land on) and your bid price. You must bid appropriately and use tightly targeted keywords in you ads and landing pages to secure a top placement on the search engines. It is estimated that 85% of all traffic generated from PPC comes from the ads in the Top 3 positions of the page.

Plainly put, if you do not take the time to do some competitive analysis, awesome keyword research and effective bidding you will only have access to 15% of the traffic available to your industry.

• Continue to test and Optimize for lasting results

Once you have your landing page optimized, know the key words you want to target and are writing brilliant ad copy you begin fighting for that number one spot. When you get there do not get comfortable. Your competitors will notice a loss in profit when you take over and will work diligently to cut back in front of you.

One big mistake small businesses make is once they get a campaign working they stop and simply let there campaign run. BIG Mistake! To stay on top you will want to test other campaigns, add new keywords in an existing campaign and split test your ads. By optimizing you will also find keywords that aren’t working any more and are costing you money with no results. Edit and add, edit and add…

You will also want to continue to revise your ad copy, write new ads and run them in traffic. Keep the ad that’s working the best for you running but also try to write an ad that works better. Over time you will have a folder full of industry specific ads that make you money when used with various keywords, ad groups and landing pages.

Hope this has been helpful. Leave comments telling me about your PPC experience or where you may be having trouble! Good Luck!

The best information I have found, and still use, for pay-per-click advertising is the book; The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords, written by Perry Marshal. Before setting out on your own with PPC advertising I recommend you learn how to play the game by investing in this book. It’s only $49 bucks and well worth it.  There are many other resources available online for learning PPC advertising. Pick your poison!