Pay Per Click StrategiesBetter Search Engine Marketing / Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

Most of us don’t pay much attention to our pennies. When we’re checking our wallets for cash we don’t count pennies; when checking our bank statements, we focus on the dollars and not so much the cents.

But, did you know that you can use your pennies to beat the AdWords competition? It’s a huge, cost-saving search engine marketing strategy that can mean the difference between being the highest bidder for a particular keyword and losing the AdWords bidding war.

When marketers set up an AdWords campaign, most of the focus is on the even numbers, ie, $0.10, $0.20, $0.40, $1.00, $1.20, etc. Why? No one really knows, but one the fact is that if you focus your bids on odd numbers (eg, $0.11, $0.21, $0.41), you significantly increase your odds of winning the bid for a keyword without breaking your budget.

Here’s an example: Let’s take the keyword “marketing.” The average CPC or Cost-Per-Click is $3.88 (Google AdWords Keyword Research). If you bid just one cent above, you would be the winning bidder at $3.89.

Now take a moment to review the average cost per click on random keywords. You will quickly discover that more times than not, the majority of the bids are even numbers. While you may not have the budget to bid $3.00 on a keyword, know that this method applies to all keywords, in all of the AdWords programs.

If you’d like to learn about other winning AdWords strategies like this, join the AdWords experts at the upcoming PPC Summit Chicago or New York. They have the knowledge and experience to help make your AdWords campaign a success.

As every Pay-Per-Click campaign manager knows, there are many elements that make up a successful PPC campaign. Following are two mistakes many make. Unless and until you know better, you’ll probably make them too? What are they and how can you avoid them? Read on.

Keyword List: Your keyword list is the foundation of your PPC campaign. Many define it too broadly, which leads to less than targeted traffic. This raises cost and lowers profits, which cause many to think, “Pay Per Click doesn’t work well for our product/service.”

Many PPC campaign managers are so afraid of excluding prospects that they include unprofitable ones.

The lesson here: Hone your keyword list as tightly as you possibly can. No matter how much it goes against the grain, force yourself to remember that less traffic is a good thing – if it’s bringing in more targeted traffic.

Ad Group Sharing: Many PPC managers take a “set it and forget it” mentality to pay-per-click marketing. This is especially true when it comes to adgroups, as in, most campaign managers will only use one.

The lesson here: You can – and should – have many closely related ad groups. This allows you to test, retest and tweak ads; something we advocate for every PPC campaign.

You can never test an ad enough because customer wants, needs, methods of searching and a host of other factors are constantly changing. This is why testing, retesting and tweaking ads is the only surefire way to improve your pay-per-click campaign results.

Learn more about this and much more at the upcoming PPC Summit (April 22-23) in Chicago, register now and save $400!

You can have a killer AdWords ad, but still not be getting the conversion rates you want. It’s at this point that many pay-per-click advertisers start to shake their heads, wring their hands and tweak their ads. Don’t. Stop!

You’ve forgotten to do one thing. What is it? Take a look at your landing page. Remember, your AdWords ad and your landing page are like a married couple – it takes the two of them working in concert to be effective.

If you’re getting lots of clicks on your AdWords ad, but you’re not converting those clicks into sales, then your landing page may be the culprit. Following are some landing page areas to assess to increase your pay-per-click ad results.

Landing Page Areas to Assess to Increase Your AdWords Conversion Rates

Copywriting: Many times, PPC advertisers will spend hours and hours on the 130 words or so of an AdWords ad, but they spend practically no time on the few thousand words that can make up a landing page.

For example, does your landing page deliver on the promise of your AdWords ad? Does it boldly state the benefits? Does it differentiate your product/service from your competition? All of this needs to be present before customers will part with their hard-earned dollars.

Don’t Oversell: What we mean by this is, don’t try to sell a prospect on every product or service you offer. Remember, confused customers don’t buy. If you’ve gotten them to click through, deliver on the promise in the ad they clicked on.

Ease of Payment: Does your site make it easy for prospects to purchase? If not, change it. This is a simple fix.

Your landing page is every bit as important as your AdWords ad. The two work together to make the sale for you. So if your AdWords ad is doing its part, make sure that your landing page is also.

Learn more at the upcoming PPC Summits in Chicago (April 22 – 23) or New York (May 13-14)! Register now and save $400 at www.ppcsummit.com.

In the post, Pay Per Click Headlines: 3 Ways to Change It and Increase Your ROI, we discussed how what may seem like small little changes to your headline can produce big results. Continuing in this vein, we will discuss the most powerful words in the English language – and how you can use them in your body copy to increase your ROI.

In his book, How to Make Presentations that Teach and Transform, Garmston references a Yale study on words. He writes:

. . . the most powerful words in the English language are those “that affect us most directly.” They include you, easy, love, free, save, discover, health, success, proven, guaranteed, results and new. They are powerful because everyone is concerned about health, safety, relationships and security. 

Now that you know what the words are, how can you use them to increase your Pay Per Click ROI? Perhaps the best way to explain it is to tell you the best thing not to do. 

Don’t Try to Sell Every Benefit

This is one mistake many Pay Per Click marketers make. It’s ineffective because it can muddy your primary message. Remember, the goal of an AdWords ad is to get qualified prospects to click. State one or two benefits that you think will appeal to your target audience – and marry it with one of the above words. 

For example, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. An effective ad using two of the seven most “powerful words” might read something like: 

Valentine Roses: $18.95
Free Shipping If Order Recd by 2/13
Guaranteed, On-Time V-Day Delivery
www.xyzrosesite.com 

The benefits stated in this ad are “free shipping” and “guaranteed delivery.” These are two critical benefits that appeal to someone who really wants to send roses to their special someone on Valentine’s Day. 

Don’t delay, register now and get huge savings for upcoming PPC Summits in Chicago, New York and LA! 

Seven Do’s and Don’ts For Google Adwords Campaign Success:

#1 Make sure your unique selling proposition distinguishes your product or service from the competition - try to incorporate benefits into your ad.

#2 Conduct market research - understand the search habits of your target audience and analyze your audience demographics.

#3 Set budget limits for your campaign costs (daily, weekly or monthly) - don’t spend more than 10 percent of your average sales amount.

#4 Bid on keywords that your target audience uses - don’t make the mistake of bidding too high for popular terms. 

#5 Build extensive keyword lists – review where/how your target audience searches, analyze your website traffic and study your competition. Use online keyword generation tools to save time.

#6 Give viewers a reason to click on your ad – copy should include a ‘call to action’ and create a sense of urgency to move the viewer. Use your search terms in the headline and/or ad text and make sure to test multiple ad variations. Incorporate product/brand names, discounts and free trials into your ad message when possible.  

#7 Create optimized custom landing pages – make sure your ad copy is relevant to the keywords on the destination page. 

And remember to always monitor and analyze your ad results - check the conversions/click through rates of your ads and keywords often. 

It’s prime time to target holiday buyers and profit from the increased traffic and consumer spending. If you haven’t already built seasonal keywords into your Pay Per Click campaigns, there is still time! Read on to learn a few tips on applying holiday related keyword phrases to your PPC campaigns.

Here are a few PPCto help you reach holiday buyers: tips

1. Research the keywords that are searched most often during the holiday seasons. Check out Google’s Hot Trends tool to learn what people are searching for and review popular searches. Keep in mind timing, Christmas related searches start as early as September according to Google Trend data. Build popular seasonal keywords into your campaigns now!

2. Incorporate holiday related (seasonal) keywords into your campaign. Your keyword should match what your potential customers are searching for during the holiday. Here’s a Christmas example using holiday related keywords: Christmas toys, holiday toys, toy gifts, Santa Claus toys…

3. Research your competition and learn their ad copy strategies. Do a search on your keywords and review the ads that you are competing with. Also try using longer keyword phrases that your competition is not using.

4. Streamline your PPC campaign management and set up different campaigns for each season/holiday. When the season ends, you can turn the campaign off until the next year.

5. Be sure to analyze your seasonal keywords and campaign results to plan for higher ROI next year.

Make the most of your PPC advertising this holiday season!

PPC Summit LA Trainer David Szetela

PPC Summit LA 2008 Lunch Keynote

PPC Summit LA was a huge success on all levels according to event sponsors, speakers and 100+ internet marketers who attended the conference on Sept. 25 -26, 2008. We would like to thank all of the sponsors, speakers, and of course the attendees for making this conference a winner. PPC Summit LA sponsors include: Google, Business.com, Lyris, ContextWeb, Engine Ready, Adapt Technologies, Orange Soda, Web Host Industry Review, PR Web and Search Marketing Standard.

We are grateful for the expert speakers and trainers who shared profitable Pay Per Click campaign secrets for optimal results on Google and other search engines. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from 20+ sessions covering: improving quality score, keyword best practices, better website and landing pages, winning copywriting strategies, bid management and much more.