Posts Tagged ‘PPC’
Easy Ways to Spend Less and Get More Out of Your Google Adwords Campaign
Optimizing your Google Adwords campaign is an ongoing process, but many people resort to a trial and error process that ends up costing them hundreds, even thousands of dollars from their marketing budget as they tweak and refine each ad campaign.
Google Adwords pioneers such as Perry Marshall, the author of The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords discusses this aspect of Google Adwords campaign management in great detail. He outlines specific steps and strategies for getting results as soon as you start your campaign, and offers suggestions on ways to refine your campaign as each day or week goes by.
You don’t have to throw your money away when you learn the tips and strategies that affiliate marketers and Adwords experts already know; you can actually end up spending less on your ads than competitors in your niche by picking specific keyword segments, monitoring your results and changing your ads regularly. Here are some essential tips for getting results with Google Adwords and spending as little money as possible during the process:
First, don’t pay for top spot placement. The first or top spot in the Google ‘Sponsored Searched’ results is typically seen as the one producing the most conversions from visitors, but this is a fallacy because in reality, the second and third spots usually get the higher conversion rates. The benefit of bidding for spots outside of the top spot is that you can pay a much lower price and still get plenty of exposure for your target market. This is because most visitors searching for an info usually scan down the list, thus, all ad placements receive an equal amount of attention and click-throughs.
Next, eliminate negative keywords from your list. It’s common to find that you get hundreds of clicks from a particular keyword or keyphrase, but with very low conversion rates. The presence of negative keyword in your ad campaign may affect the overall quality and quantity of your traffic, people may feel frustrated if they don’t see the info they are searching for.
Last, avoid bidding on keywords that are too general.Aiming for a very targeted traffic towards your site does not necessarily mean it’s fine to be wasting resources (such as time and money) by bidding on broad match keywords. Refer to the ‘advertiser competition’ results for those keywords; and if the bar is colored more than halfway, you may encounter difficulty bidding for a lesser price with the word. Instead, observe those that have low color indicator although this may require you to go through the list; remember, any keyword that is not highly competitive can also allow you to bid for a lower price. You can use the ‘exact match’ feature on the Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool to drill down your search.
You can utilize a variety of strategies to enhance your Google Adwords ad campaign so you can make the most of your advertising and to establish market reach. Apply any of these strategies or techniques as you optimize your Adwords program so you can start bidding on winning but low-priced keywords.
How to Write an Attention-Grabbing PPC Ad
Pay per click is perhaps the best advertising medium available for Internet-based businesses and for small businesses in general. It allows them to carefully cut the advertising fat by choosing exactly what they will pay for and what they won’t.
They not only get to select the keywords they want to bid on, but they only pay when someone actually clicks through one of those ads and is directed to their site. This is a far cry from paying for advertising on a billboard, which might generate a lot of “impressions,” but few actions.
Unfortunately, though, advertising through PPC programs, such as Google’s Adwords, is no piece of cake – despite what many gurus may tell you during a sales pitch. In fact, it may be extremely hard or even impossible to get a reasonable return on your investment in certain niches using pay per click advertising.
However, if you keep a few basic principles in mind, earning an excellent ROI on your PPC advertising investment is nearly guaranteed. So where do you start? Arguably, the most important part of creating a successful PPC advertising campaign is writing an ad that will increase your click through rate (CTR), so this is a good place to start.
Writing an ad that commands a high ROI can be broken down into the following steps:
Pick the right keywords for the ad. While this seems like it has nothing to do with writing the ad, it actually is the first and most important step. If you want your ad to have a high click through rate, it must be narrowly focused around a set of keyphrases that all have the same root keyword in common. This will allow you to repeat that root keyword 1-3 times throughout the ad. Whenever someone searches for one of those keywords and your ad pops up, the root will appear in bold, since it is part of the keyword they searched for. This will make it stick out clearly, drawing them to click on it.
Avoid fancy stuff in the headline. Here, all you want is a simple description of the product or service offered: “Grand Piano for Sale.” Also, remember to include that root keyword in the headline to make it stick out more. People need to immediately see whether or not your ad is relevant. And the best way to communicate that is to say exactly what you’re selling.
Communicate the best feature associated with your product on the first line of your ad (below the headline) or clarify exactly what is you are selling. For example, in the “grand piano” ad above, you could ad something like the following: “Choose Between 700 Grand Pianos” or “Pay Only $500 for Your Grand Piano.”
Last, in your second line, communicate a benefit associated with your product. Here, rather than saying something physical about your store or product, you will explain what the product can do for the person. The product might “Save You Hundreds” or “Teach You How to Make Millions.” Make sure it is compelling and relevant. Ask yourself (and possibly a friend) whether or not this is something that would make you take action.
And there you have it: a 4-step blueprint for creating an “attention-grabbing” PPC advertisement. Once you put your first ad up and allow it to rotate, you will then want to start testing competing ads.
The best way to do this is to alter one part of the ad at a time. For instance, start off by altering your headline until you get a better CTR. After that, work on your first line – and so on. After a few weeks of working out changes, you should have an effective, powerful ad.
I hope you got it,
Joe Golson
