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!
