When most business stick their toes in the search engine marketing waters, one of the first things they hear about is search engine optimization (SEO), as it relates to content. Not a lot of talk revolves around images; but it should for, everything on your site (eg, videos, photos, etc.) can help it rank well in search engines. And, this is what search engine marketing is all about.

The first thing you should know is that search engine bots (ie, spiders) can only read (search) text. And this is why things like Flash should be kept to a minimum, or not used at all unless it’s really, really necessary to your industry (eg, you’re a web developer, animator, movie maker, etc.).

Following is a mini tutorial on how to name your site’s images so that it ranks higher in search results.

Name Images Using Keywords: For example, instead of naming a photo photo.jpg1, name it pay-per-marketing-tips.jpg (if PPC marketing is what your firm specializes in).

Use the “ALT” Tag in Your Coding: Piggybacking on the last point, add the ALT tag when you name images. This tag explains what an image file is. A completed coded image with this tag may look like this:
<img src=”images/pay-per-click-services.jpg”width=”250″ height=”135″
ALT=”ABC Firm pay per click marketing services”>

Text Surrounding Images: The text that immediately surrounds your site’s images is valuable real estate from an SEO standpoint. Hence, you should do things like put captions on all of them and use keyworded text (ie, SEO content) in this space.

If you do these three things, your images (just like your site’s content) will increase the effectiveness of your search engine marketing efforts.

While starting a pay per click (PPC) campaign can be as easy as logging in to AdWords (or similar services from Yahoo! or Microsoft), doing it right and maximizing your ROI requires you to pay more careful attention to the choices you make when launching a PPC campaign.  This article will take a look at several settings you’ll want to carefully choose when setting up your PPC campaigns.

 Advertising Networks – Google Search, Search Partners, and Content

Performance across Google’s various advertiser networks can vary dramatically.  Currently, you can choose to have your ads shown on Google’s search network, Google’s search partners (3^rd party sites that use Google to power their results), content pages across Google’s entire AdSense network, or content pages that you specifically choose.  (Note: Google is in the process of rebranding its Content network as Google Display Network).

Choosing your networks

Ad Performance Can Vary by Network

Costs and performance can vary widely across the different networks (example below).  Bids and thus cost per click (CPC) tend to be lower on the content network, as that network generates a far higher number of impressions and lower click through rates than the search networks.  However, looking at the example below, you can see that rates can vary dramatically even within the search networks (Google vs. search partners) and within the content network (if you’re choosing your own placements).

Example of Campaign Performance by Network

Choosing Advertising Networks

So how do you choose which networks to run your ads on?  There isn’t a simple answer – it depends on your goals, spend available, and the topic or keywords of the campaign you’re running.  If you’re unsure of how your campaign will perform, a possible strategy is to setup two campaigns with the same keywords and ads, with one running on the search networks and one on content.  Separating them this way will make it easier to compare data using AdWord’s reporting tools.  Once the campaigns have been running for a while, you can tweak them, adjust the networks they’re running on, or cancel them if need be.

In pay per click marketing, keywords are the foundation of every successful campaign. But, your competition uses the same Google AdWords tools you do to discover profitable keywords. However, you can still beat them at this game. How?

By using noncompetitive keywords. Here are two ways to dig up some good keywords your competition may have overlooked.

Use Google Trends: Google Trends displays keywords web surfers are looking for on a daily basis. And, it’s updated throughout the day. It even shows “how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.” [Source: About Google Trends]

This is an excellent tool for digging up profitable keywords your competition may be overlooking. And, the best part about it – as these are “hot topic” items, your ads will probably get a higher CTR – and a higher ROI as it’s highly targeted to exactly what surfers are searching for.

Use Keyword Subsets: If you’re in a highly competitive niche or you don’t have the ad budge to compete with the big guys, use less competitive keywords – but choose them wisely.

For example, “make money online” is a very competitive keyword phrase. Good luck getting any good placement with that one. But, there are other phrases similar to this that are less competitive – and less expensive. Finding a lot of these can really add up – in traffic and sales.

 Some subsets of “make money online” — which is highly competitive at 246,000 monthly searches – are the following:

• Make money online today: 1,600
• Need to make money: 1,300
• Making extra money: 1,300

While the traffic doesn’t compare to “make money online”, by using various subsets, it can really add up. And, not for nothing, the longer a keyword phrase is (long-tail keywords), the more motivated the searcher is to buy because they are looking for something specific.

Keep this in mind the next time you do keyword research for your Google AdWords pay per click campaign. Monitor your results. You may never want to use same keywords everyone else is bidding on again.

New Google AdWords pay per click marketers can waste a lot of money if they don’t know how to property set an ad budget. There’s an art to it. Here are two things to keep in mind that will keep you from wasting money with this online marketing method.

Set Limits:  Figure out how much you can afford to spend monthly, then break it down by day. This will prevent you from going over budget.

For example, if your monthly PPC budget is $500, then your daily limit is $16.66.

Set Dollar Limits on Keywords: As in, set a maximum of how much you’re willing to pay for a click on a certain keyword. To do this, use Google’s Keyword AdWord Tool to see what the average spend is for a certain keyword.

Using this info, bid higher if you want to obtain a higher listing on a page. Or, bid lower if you want to be in a lower position. Nothing is set in stone; you can change these at any time if you want. Check your campaigns often, and if your current bids aren’t giving you the results you want, then change them.

Google AdWords Pay Per Click Campaign: Setting Your Bid Tip

Strive for the Top Spot: Often, this is not the most profitable spot to be in. Oftentimes, the number three, four or five position will get you better results. The reason is, a lot of curiosity seekers may click on the top spot. But, those who are “ready to buy” mode will often click three, four or five ads to comparison shop.

So in essence, the person in the top spot is paying for a customer who’s going to click on lower-placed ads anyway.

Keeping these tips in mind will not only keep you from overspending, they will increase your Google AdWords campaign ROI as well.

Placement-targeted Google AdWords campaigns are best suited to Pay Per Click marketers who want more control over how their ad is presented across Google’s content network.

Following are ways to maximize your ROI when creating a placement-targeted campaign.

1. Use Text & Image Ads: Placement-targeted Google AdWords campaigns allow you to create both types of ads. The advantage in doing so is that you can run split tests to see how each one performs.

As placement-targeted campaigns are only shown on content sites, it allows end users to respond to an ad in a format that is most suitable for them. Hence, if you discover that one type of ad is performing better, then you can focus creating more of those.

2. Use Placement Tool Effectively: The placement tool gives you three specific ways to indentify sites you may want your ads to appear on. They are: List URLs, Describe Topics, and Select Demographics.

Of course, this should be used to select which content sites you want your ads to show up on. But, just as importantly, use this tool to exclude websites you don’t want your ads to show up on.

When you click on “Select Demographics”, the tool will return a list of sites based on the info you’ve keyed in, eg, target market age, gender, household income, etc.

Try to be as thorough as possible when filling in this category for your Google AdWords ads. The more concrete information you have about your prospects, the more accurately you will be able to select sites for your ads to appear on across the Google Content Network. 

As it’s the holiday season and we know a lot of merchants make a large chunk of their revenue this time of year. And, many new marketers are trying
pay per click advertising with Google AdWords and other search engines for the very first time.

These are the reasons that why we’ve tried to give you as many pay per click “holiday” marketing tips as possible. And, we’re not done yet!

Following are three more PPC marketing tips that can bring in the business. This week, we focus on the really simple little things that many may overlook.

1. Singular/Plural – It Matters: Include singular and plural versions of keyword/keyword phrases in your pay per click campaigns.

As web surfers are human beings, there are as many ways to search for a product/service as there are surfers. So, do the basics and cover your bases as much as possible. This is one way to do it. 

2. Capitalize: This is another tiny change that can make a big difference. By capitalizing each word in your pay per click ad, you make them stand out more.

3. Direct Link to Product Page: Don’t make visitors slog through page after page on your site to find the offer promised in your PPC ad. Deep link directly to it.

Especially as the season wears on, shoppers are harried, tired and frustrated – even when shopping online. And, they are bombarded by so many messages that if they can’t find what’s been promised in the ad, they’ll likely click away to find it – perhaps at your competitor’s site.

These are three quick, easy tips even a new pay per click marketer can do to increase holiday sales.

It’s the holiday season and a lot of first-time pay per click marketers are running campaigns. PPC marketing is an excellent way to capitalize on the busy holiday season. But, as with every revenue generating system, it pays to be careful–particularly this time of year. To that end, following are two things you can do to guard against click fraud this season.

Conduct Data Analysis: You get a wealth of campaign reports when you run pay per click campaigns. Take some time to go through them and do some data analysis.

Where are your clicks coming from? Are they converting? Does the referral source seem suspicious? Is your account being drained of dollars very quickly?

You don’t have to be an internet marketing guru to understand these reports. They are provided to help increase your ROI, so use them.

Set Affordable Ad Budgets: This is probably the simplest way to guard against click fraud, and is one of the things that make pay per click marketing so attractive.

Following is the key thing to remember when setting your PPC ad budget . . . set it to get the most exposure for your ads, without breaking the bank. This can be a tricky balance as you have to figure out the most profitable keywords and phrases to bid on that will: (i) bring in the most business; (ii) this time of year; (iii) via this medium (ie, the internet).

Confused by PPC Marketing: Get the Training You Need
And, this is why it’s important to know what you’re doing when use pay per click marketing. It pays to get pay per click marketing training to run successful holiday campaigns – indeed, year-round PPC campaigns – from the beginning. 

In our latest newsletter, we discussed how to Get the Biggest Bang for Your PPC Buck this Holiday Season. We want to to take another look at this topic and add a little bit more to it. The holiday season is so short and the economy is still struggling, so we’re staying on you a little bit so you can get the most out of it and start off the new year in good shape. 

Hire Help: one of the best things you can do right now is to hire help or outsource work. “But,” you may be thinking, “I can’t afford to hire help. My sales don’t support adding additional staff.”

We don’t mean hire staff to help with sales; we mean hire help so you can get sales. For example, if you haven’t done your “holiday” keyword research, then outsource it so you can get that Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Solstice campaign up and going!

Start Early: Do you notice that every year the holiday decorations, holiday TV ads and holiday radio announcements seem to come earlier every year? This is because merchants are extending their selling season.

After all, the sooner shoppers start thinking about the holidays, the sooner they start shopping. What have you done to extend your holiday sales season? Offer early bird holiday coupons on you landing pages, use holiday language in all of your pay per click ads, “decorate your website, blog, landing pages (ie, use holiday themes), etc.

As an online marketer, your holiday doesn’t have a definitive date; it’s not Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day or New Years Day. Your holiday has a “selling” season – and it’s right now. Are your pay per click campaigns reflecting that? If not, then check out the AdWords Advantage Online Summit - it’s a must-attend online training event to help pay per click advertisers increase AdWords results!

Recently, Google started sending pay per click marketers their account performance data via email. This information has always been available to PPC marketers, but you had to log into your account to get it.

The reason getting this information via email is so important is because it:
(i) reminds you to check on your pay per click campaigns; and (ii) allows you to take a few minutes to tweak what may not be working.

So if you see an email with the following subject line land in your inbox, take a break and see what it says, for one or two insights gleaned from these reports can significantly increase your ROI. AdWords Oct 2009 Account Performance. Customer ID: (Your Customer ID Number)?

This is for October 2009, obviously.
Following is one way to quickly use the info in your Google’s Account Performance Reports to increase your ROI.

The report is categorized into four sections, ie: Account Overview; Keywords with the Most Clicks; Ad with the Most Clicks; and Content Sites with the Most Clicks.

If you’re pressed for time and can’t analyze all the data, as keywords drive success in pay per click marketing, go directly to the “Keywords with the Most Clicks” section. Using the info there, you can make do two things:

I. Increase Organic Traffic: As you have a list of your high-performing keywords there, use this to create keyword-rich copy for your website. You’ll drive organic traffic, in addition to the traffic you’re paying for.

II. Tweak Poorer Performing Ads: Add these high-performing keywords to ads that aren’t performing as well as you thought.

If you get in the habit of checking your pay per click ads when your Google Account Performance Report lands in your inbox, you don’t have to worry about settling into a pattern many PPC marketers fall into, ie, “set it and forget it” marketing.

It’s not hard to make money with Google AdWords, but many fail to do so because they make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Keep it simple by doing the following:

Decide On Your Offer: Putting together a successful AdWords campaign starts NOT with keywords, but with your offer. Why? Because you have to be very clear about this before you move on to selecting your keywords.

For example, if you operated an online bookstore, do you want to send readers to the romance section, the science fiction section or the history section? “But,” you may be thinking, “I don’t care what they buy, as long as they buy something.”

We counter with, in order to get browsers to “buy something,” you have to first get them interested in “buying what interests them.” And, this is where you get specific.

Think of it like a local bookstore they may wander into. A reader may pop in to buy a specific book, but once there, they start to browse and come out with two, three or four things.

The bottom line here is – web surfers don’t care about making a purchase from you. What they do care about is getting that book that their friend, mother, aunt, etc. recommended.

If your specific pay per click ad landed them in your online store, you have a chance of making that sale.
Use Keywords Effectively: Once you have tightly focused your offer, now you can move on to doing effective keyword research. Here again, be specific. When choosing keywords remember, it’s not about how much traffic a keyword will bring, but how much “qualified” traffic it will bring.

Rock the Landing Page! Round out your campaign by having a clear, concise, professional landing page that gets prospects where they want to be. Don’t make them surf to find what your ad promised. Land them there directly.

If you do these three things, you will be well on your way to Google AdWords campaign success.

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About the Author
Want to out perform your Google AdWords competitors? Attend the AdWords Advantage Online Summit (Dec. 1-17) and learn how to fast-track your pay per click marketing profits. Register now and save 40% at http://www.AdWordsAdvantage.com.