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

If you’ve ever wondered what your competition was doing, you can easily find out. Knowing specifics like who is bidding on what keywords and how much they are spending can help you boost your PPC campaign results.

SpyFu: The Pay Per Click Campaign Equalizer
Spying on your competition to better your PPC campaign is possible with SpyFu.com. This neat little tool allows you to see what your competitors are paying for specific keywords. Some say this tool straddles the black hat marketing fence, but you can use it in an ethical way, ie, to garner information that can give you a competitive edge.

How SpyFu Works
By typing in a keyword or a domain name, you can quickly determine the cost per click for a specific keyword or domain name, how many people are clicking on these keywords daily and even track the keyword’s ad history.

Let’s take the term “internet marketing.”
>The average cost per click is $0.96 to $13.20.
>The average clicks/day is 120-129.
>The cost per day is $97.33 – $1.71k.

If you move further down on the page, you can see that Google dominates this keyword with a daily ad budget of $45.43k – $112.81k. If you are just starting a pay per click campaign you can see that this would cost you a significant amount of money to compete with Google, so you can search for other keywords that fit your budget.

Using this PPC marketing tool can help you plan which keywords are out of your price range before you even set up your campaign, saving you the trouble of testing and tweaking keywords you can’t afford.

Now that’s internet marketing done smart!

It seems that everyone has their own method or tactics to get ranked higher in the search engines or to promote their products. But, the truth is, it all comes down to common sense. Pay Per Click advertisers — especially those new to the game — are prone to making mistakes that not only waste time, but a significant amount of money. 

Following are a few common mistakes many make when running Pay Per Click programs. Are you guilty of any of these? 

Using Untargeted Keywords

Avoid the keyword craze when setting up your campaign.  It’s not the quantity of keywords you choose, but the quality of them.  It is important that you use keywords specifically related to your niche, so that you attract targeted traffic.  More means less when it comes to untargeted keywords – as in – less money you can make.

Not Adding Keywords

When creating copy, it is critical that you include keywords in your title and within the body of your copy.  You want your ads to be direct and to the point, so your visitors will know exactly what they are getting without all the fluff. Remember, web surfers are primarily looking for information. Give it to them.

Directing Visitors to Your Homepage

Many online businesses don’t give a second thought to directing visitors to their home page.  If a visitor has read about an incredible product and they want to purchase it, direct them to that page on your site – not the generic home page. They may not take the time to try to locate the info for themselves.  

A few minor changes can go a long way to converting clicks – which is the goal of every pay per click campaign. Avoid these common mistakes to increase your profit potential.

Did you know the PPC Summit search engine marketing experts are coming to New York on May 13-14? Learn more here www.ppcsummit.com

Remember trying to solve the rubik’s cube? Getting all the colors to match was a feat only a few managed to achieve. Pay Per Click campaigns can be like this — finicky little creatures with the power to drive you mad. But, you don’t give up because the fun is in trying. Luckily, pay per click campaigns are simpler to solve than the rubik’s cube. Following is one straightforward way to maximize results.

Split Test Campaigns: A Magic PPC Bullet?

A key step in every successful pay-per-click campaign is optimization. But to know which elements of optimization works best, you have to test, test and retest. This is why split testing can be the magic PPC bullet.

What is split testing? It’s when you create two different versions of some parts of your PPC campaign, then run them against each other. For example, take the headline. Leaving everything else alone in the ad, you would change the headline, run the ads and see which one pulled in better results.

Split testing can even be done on elements within elements. Say you used the same headline but used different punctuation within that headline, eg:

>Mothers Day Flowers: $20

>Mothers Day Flowers – $20

Something as simple as punctuation can dramatically improve your click thru rates. Obviously, the ad with the highest click thru rate would be the winner of the split test.

Successful PPC campaign managers know that split testing is vital to their online marketing success. You can use it to improve landing page results, headlines, AdWords copy, etc.

In essence, you can split test your way to PPC campaign success.

Learn all of this and more at PPC Summit, register now and save $400!

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!

Marketing – any type of marketing – is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. As for Pay Per Click (PPC), one of the most common mistakes many online marketers make is failing to continuously and consistently tweak their campaigns.

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. 

We hope 2009 is off to a great start for you! In 2009 we look forward to bringing PPC Summit, the premier Search Engine Marketing educational conference, to Chicago: April 22-23, New York: June 16-17 and Los Angeles: Sept. 23-24. During two-days of comprehensive training, PPC Summit offers laser-focused educational sessions to help online advertisers increase their ROI and maximize their Pay Per Click marketing dollars.

Experts from Microsoft, Google, and others lead hands-on workshops, panel discussions, training sessions and more. Sessions cover keyword development, customer conversions, bidding strategies, web site analytics and tracking, quality score & site rank, search engine copywriting tactics, B2B & B2C ad techniques, web site & landing page development and deployment and more!

Here’s what past attendees are saying…“My sales are up 350% and cost-per-sale is down 48.3% after applying the PPC Summit expert strategies.” David Wagner, PPC Summit Los Angeles attendee.

PRE-REGISTER NOW and SAVE $400 for PPC Summit:
>Chicago: April 22-23
>New York: June 16-17
>Los Angeles: Sept. 23-24

For more info visit, www.ppcsummit.com or email marketing@ppcsummit.com
Just 160 seats available at each conference!

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.

PPC Summit LA Speaker and Trainer Mary Huffman

Pay Per Click (PPC) Summit Los Angeles brought together 100+ internet marketers at the Omni Hotel on Sept. 25 -26, 2008.

The conference provided many opportunities for internet marketers and online businesses to learn about the latest education, issues, strategies, technologies and network with industry experts. Nearly 150 participants learned how to create and manage profitable PPC campaigns on Google, Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing and more. The event delivered 20+ interactive sessions, a Meet The Experts networking reception and best selling SEO free book signing and giveaway. Attendees lined up to receive a signed copy of Tim Ash’s best selling Landing Page Optimization book and every attendee walked way with comprehensive manuals, information and tools to help them step up their internet marketing return on investment.