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

B2B search engine marketing is all encompassing. It includes everything from pay per click (PPC) to search engine optimization (SEO). One of the fastest growing niches of B2B search marketing is social media. Sites like Twitter and Facebook sign up tens of thousands of new users per day and drive massive amounts of traffic to online businesses.

Hence, it’s essential to not only have a presence on a few of these sites, but to also pay attention to how your business is perceived via them.

Following is some insight into how to use social media sites – the right way – to brand your business.

B2B Search Marketing & Social Media: Don’t Sell, Inform
Have you ever known someone who talked about themselves incessantly? They never ask others, but are always divulging what they want, what they need, what they’re doing, who they met, etc.

Annoying, isn’t it?

People do the same thing in social media. For example, they always tweet their latest blog post or product/service offering, but never bother to retweet content from others.

While it’s perfectly fine to use social media to market your products and services, remember that most people look for information before purchasing. So share relevant information – pertinent to your niche — with them. This builds a relationship, which leads to sales.

Once you set up a social media account – whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. – stay active on a regular basis. Otherwise, you run the risk of making your business appear “flaky,” which is never a good thing in business.

Social media is an ideal B2B search marketing strategy to build a relationship with prospects. And when they’re ready to buy, your firm will be front and center.

To learn more valuable strategies on B2B search marketing and social media, join top B2B Marketers June 23 in San Francisco at the B2B Search Strategy Summit and “Discover the Top 7 Ways to Increase Your B2B Search Marketing Profits.” We look forward to see you there!

If you offer only one way to access information on your site, you could be losing customers. B2B marketing in a multi-media world means paying attention to how your prospects like to receive information – not how you like to offer it.

B2B Marketing: Something to Think About When It Comes to Multimedia

Have you ever visited a site and wanted to access some content, but it wasn’t in the right format for you? For example, let’s say a site offers a free report you’d really like to have, but it’s a video. What you want is a pdf file because you want to print it out and read it while you’re taking the train on your evening commute home.

B2B Search Marketing Tip: Diversify to Capture More

While multimedia formats have been around for years, many businesses are not up to speed when it comes to integrating these choices into their website offerings. This could be because many businesses still grapple with what it really means to do business online.

Many have just gotten around to grasping the basics of B2B search marketing. So thinking ahead of the curve is not a consideration at this point.

In order to effectively compete online though, it’s critical to stay in tune with what your customers want – even if it forces you to play catchup.

One easy way to increase your site’s traffic is to offer info in a variety of multimedia formats. By giving your site’s visitors options, you put them in control of how they receive and process information.

And that’s what B2B search marketing is all about – giving customers what they want – how they want it.

One of the easiest ways to stay front and center with your prospects is to blog.

Blogging is free, it’s easy to start and you can personalize your brand via this medium. For these reasons, it’s one of the most effective B2B search engine marketing weapons in your online advertising arsenal. But, it can be time consuming.

And if you’re a small business without a dedicated blogger on staff, it can eat up a lot of your time. However, it doesn’t have to. Following is one way to make sure you use this B2B search marketing weapon frequently and effectively, but also time consciously.

B2B Search Marketing: Contact Prospects Daily without Being a Nuisance

Have you ever belonged to any kind of mailing list where you got daily tips? This could be anything from a link to a useful industry website, to a link to a relevant news article, to a daily joke about your niche.

In today’s world, we’re all programmed to consume in small bites, ie: 15-second news bites, 30-second promo videos, 140-character Twitter tweets, etc.

Hence the groundwork for a blog that dispenses compact daily tips, tricks, ideas and/or jokes has already been laid. A blog like this is quick and easy to update, and it keeps your brand in front of customers.

And, this is really what B2B search engine marketing is all about – staying top of mind so that when customers need what you have to offer, you’re the first one they think of.

All B2B marketers know the importance of keywords to their online marketing initiatives. But, many make a common mistake when it comes to keyword usage. Following is what it is and how to fix it.

Are You Using Keywords That Are Important to You or Your Customers

There’s an idiomatic expression in marketing that goes, “What’s in it for me?” Marketers are supposed to answer this with their customer in mind. In other words, they should be using keywords that reflect what’s important to their customer, NOT what’s important to them – which is exactly what many do.

While many offline marketers have embraced this line of thinking, many online marketers haven’t. One reason may be that for many B2B marketers, they use applications, processes and marketing procedures that their customers don’t know anything about.

All a customer may know is that they land on a site, it has what they want – at the right price – so they purchase.

But what if your customer is not landing on your site, but your competitor’s site? Are you using the right keyword phrases – keyword phrases that likely prospects would use to find your site?

In B2B search marketing, one of the most difficult things to do is divorce yourself from high-tech processes and procedures and think like your customer. When your customer sits down to conduct a web search, what will they type in? It may be very different than the terminology reflected in your marketing that you “think” they’ll type in.

While B2B marketing reflects a 21st world, the foundation of what works is as old as marketing itself, ie, “What’s in it for me?” And, in this case “me” is your customer.

Did you know – The b2b Search Strategy Summit will bring 150 B2B senior level marketers together to hone their seach marketing skills and increase their campaign results on June 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Will you be there? Check it out at http://www.b2bSearchStrategy.com

Everyone has inherent traits that affect their job performance. Before you wonder if you’ve landed on the right blog (yes, this blog is about pay per click marketing), let’s explain how this can help – or hurt – your Google AdWords PPC marketing success.

For example, if you’re super competitive, you may have to do some ego checking at the door. Why? Because it can cause you to get into a bidding war – not because the keyword phrases are the absolute best ones for you to use – but because you want to command the top spot on Google.

This not only costs you time and money, it can cost you Pay Per Click sales as well. How? As stated in the post, Recession-Proof Your Pay Per Click Campaigns:

. . . research has proven that being number one isn’t necessarily the best spot to be in. . . . Because you get  a lot of curiosity seekers who’ll click on ads in this spot. An ad in the third, fourth or even the fifth spot can convert [even] better.

Luckily, Google’s Pay Per Click program makes it easy for you to control costs. If you do your part (eg, controlling inherent impulses that can lead to negative campaign results), Google does the rest by giving you tools like:

(i) the ability to set a daily ad budget so you never have to worry about overspending;
(ii) in-depth reports to track how your campaigns are going; and
(iii) and the ability to start, stop and/or change your ad campaigns at any given moment.

This is what makes pay per click marketing with Google an ideal choice for new and experienced online retailers.

To learn more about how to fast-track your AdWords success, attend the AdWords Advantage free preview webinar on March 2 to learn money-making tips from the experts!

AdWords or any other type of pay per click marketing, one of the best ways to increase your ROI is to learn how to write headlines that get clicked. You don’t only want headlines that get clicked through; you want headlines that get clicked and lead to sales (or gets the prospect to take some type of action, eg, subscribe, call, etc.).

Following is a simple formula used by successful SEO copywriters that you can use. Even if your writing skills are marginal, if you use this formula, you are practically guaranteed to increase your ROI (return on investment).

Marry a benefit with your main keyword phrase.

That’s it; it’s that simple. The benefit should be one that is unique to your brand AND one that your market research has shown is extremely important to your customers. This part is important because it’s easy to parrot your competitor’s ads, touting the same benefits they do. But, if your benefit is unique to your company/your brand, then it sets you apart.

You become “an industry leader,” or a “world apart.” For example, let’s say you sell ethnic candles – made from soy. You can tout the benefits of your ethnic soy candles, eg, how clean they burn, which makes them green” (eg, safe for the environment) and good for your health.

While there may be quite a few manufacturers of ethnic candles, you can set yourself apart by touting this unique benefit of your ethnic candles in every headline you write.

Your headline must “speak” to web surfers. And, if it speaks their language – and addresses the classic marketing idiom “what’s in it for me (WIIF),” you’ll be well on your way to Google AdWords pay per click marketing success. To learn more on how to fast-track your AdWords success, attend the AdWords Advantage free preview call to learn money-making tips from the experts!

A good argument can be made that landing pages should not sell. “But,” you may be thinking, “I’m spending a lot of money on Google AdWords to drive traffic to this page to make sales.” We know, we know. But, hear us out on this point.

Are You Wasting Money by Using Your Landing Page to Sell?

While Google AdWords is an excellent way to make immediate sales, is it the sale today you want, or a long-term relationship with prospects that lead to ongoing sales?

As anyone with even basic marketing experience knows, loyal customers who stick with you over the long haul are much more profitable. Why? Because you don’t have to “sell” them over and over again. They already know and trust your product/service. Hence, they are a better return on your investment.

Too many businesses make the mistake of taking the short view. And this is especially true in online marketing. They drive traffic to a landing page and immediately ask for the sale. And, while this may be great in certain situations, eg, holiday PPC campaigns, it misses the mark a lot of the time.

Pay Per Click Marketing Tip: How to Better Use Your Landing Page

“So,” you may be wondering, “what exactly should I use my landing page for?” The answer is simple, to forge a long-lasting relationship that can be worth thousands of dollars in the future sales. You can do this by educating prospects about your product or service.

For example, by offering a free booklet or free seminar on your landing page, you “hook” them first. While this is a longer route to a sale, it engages the prospect on a different level than other marketers whose main goal is to get the prospect to “Buy Now!”

And this is the real way to get a better ROI on your Google AdWords campaigns (or any other form of marketing).

Google uses a number of measures to determine how much a pay per click advertiser pays for one click. One of these ways is called a Quality Score. One way to improve your Quality Score – and pay less per click – is by properly using header tags.

Without spamming, you can use header tags to your advantage in upping your quality score. Following are some tips for doing just that.

Frequency: Some pay per click marketing experts say that you should only use one H1 tag per page (eg, on your landing page).

Sequence: Other Google AdWords pay per click marketers advise not breaking the sequence, the hierarchy of the header tag. For example, don’t use an H1 tag, followed by an H3 tag. Keep the correct sequence of H1, H2, and H3.

Keywords: Your keyword should always be included in your header tags. And again, it shouldn’t be meaningless, keyword stuffed copy. But, copy that actually helps search engines – hence, searchers – to know what a given page is all about.

In order to help with this, use Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool to help find related (secondary) keyword phrases. By using this free tool, you will not only uncover many related keywords, but you won’t have to worry about whether or not Google thinks they’re related. This tool ensures that they are in Google’s eyes.

These tips not only help you improve your Google Quality Score; they bring down your pay per click costs as well – all the while driving more targeted prospects to your site.

Search engine optimization is mercurial. Things are constantly changing, which means that internet marketers must change with it in order to get the best returns from their PPC campaigns, for example. Following are two recently announced changes by search engine giant and ad network Google that every pay per click marketer needs to be aware of.

Site Speed Matters: When a user clicks through from you Google AdSense ad, your landing page had better load quickly. Why? Because Google is considering using site speed as a ranking factor. 

While the company has come right out and said emphatically that it plans to do this, the fact that it’s even a part of the conversation means that at some point they probably will. Also, they’ve rolled out tools webmasters can use to speed up their pages. Learn more about this at Google’s Site Speed site.

Personalized Search: This has caused a big hullabaloo lately. What exactly is it? It means that when you conduct a Google search, it returns results that are tailored to what the search engine thinks is most desired by the individual user as opposed to a more general relevancy for the average person who may be searching the web.

To explain by way of example, let’s say you conduct a lot of searches for home décor tips and click on results from HGTV.com often. Accordingly, Google might rank HGTV.com higher on the results pages it returns the next time you do a search for home décor ideas – simply because it sees that you go to this site often.

Why is this important to you as an online marketer? Think about it this way: if web users are getting more personalized results, it can fragment your target market more. This makes it harder for you to reach larger numbers of prospects.

While you can’t change what ad networks like Google do, you can stay abreast of the changes and adapt your SEO and pay per click marketing strategies to continually maximize your return on investment.

If you’re in a highly competitive PPC marketing niche, eg, credit, weight loss, insurance, and have a very small budget, there are going to be some keywords that you are never going to rank for. So, how do you put together a competitive Google AdWords pay per click marketing campaign? Following is one way to do it.

Taking the Long Road to Google AdWords PPC Marketing Success
You’re going to have to niche it to success – and be patient while doing it. To explain by way of example, let’s take credit repair.

If you ran a credit repair agency and wanted to rank high for strong keywords in this niche, good luck unless you have gobs of money. Keywords like credit repair, credit repair services and credit score repair are in the $5 to $10 per click range.

But, there are quite a few phrases in this niche that go for 5 cents per click, ie:
* New Credit Repair (260 monthly searches)
* DIY Repair (260 monthly searches)
* Credit Repair Experts (110 monthly searches)
* Sample Credit Repair (210 monthly searches)
* Good Credit Repair (140 monthly searches)

These keywords account for almost 1,000 searches per month and they cost pennies compared to higher traffic keywords like the ones mentioned above, which bring anywhere from right at 2,000 to over 90,000 searches per phrase, per month.

You may be able to find 20, 30 or 40 phrases or more like the low-cost ones just above. Combine your bid on these with a good organic marketing campaign (eg, writing and distributing SEO articles via free article directories) and over time, you will start to get steady traffic and sales.

Depending on the pricing of your services, you may not need to get hundreds or thousands of clicks to see a noticeable difference in your bottom line.

Just because you’re in a super-competitive niche does not mean you can’t put together a profitable Google AdWords pay per click campaign. It just means you have to be patient and take a different approach. You can learn more AdWords success tips from the experts during the AdWords Advantage Online Summit http://www.AdWordsAdvantage.com coming in March.