Pay-per-click tips (first in a series)

Pay-per-click tips (first in a series)

Over coffee this morning, it hit me like a caffeine freight train that lot's of people are embarking upon pay per click ads (like: Google, Yahoo, MSN search etc) and are not achieving the kind of success they deserve. In fact, some folks are so paralyzed by the thought of 'paying for clicks' that they have never even tested the PPC waters.

After a few more java jive gulps, I decided to launch a multiple week tips post on the topic. In fact, over the next few weeks I plan to share what I consider the best tips for running a successful pay-per-click search engine campaign. I consider a 'successful' campaign one that generates blog or web page visitors well matched to your ad offer and visitors whose clicks don't cost you more money than you have in your bank account :-)

Unless you have very deep pockets, or you're completely nuts, or you have a solid money-making conversion rate, paying big bucks for clicks that don't pan out is business suicide .

So how might you structure your PPC campaign to assure results without losing your shirt? What follows here and over the next few weeks are my tried and true techniques that can perhaps put your pay per click campaign on solid footing.

Search engine campaign tips:

1. Remember that with PPC campaigns, you are not sending search visitors to a site, you are sending them to a web page (called: a destination or landing page). You must discover keywords and set-up ONE page at a time.
2. Remember that people search by typing in more than one word:
3. The 7 most used word phrases in search engines according to OneStat.com:
• 2 word phrases 32.58%
• 3 word phrase 25.61%
• 1 word phrases 19.02%
• 4 word phrases 12.83%
• 5 word phrases 5.64%
• 6 word phrases 2.32%
• 7 word phrases 0.98%
4. Start your "keyword discovery" process by visiting the destination page you intend to send your search engine visitors to. Put on the 'reading glasses' of a customer and look at your page through their eyes.
5. Ask yourself this: "What keywords might a person type in a search box where when they arrived at this destination page, they'd say 'BINGO' this is what I was looking for?" Find these keywords and you've discovered your best keywords.

Remember that if you run any PPC search engine ad campaign over a few weeks and you get no sales or sign-up results, the challenge is most likely NOT the traffic you're generating from your ad, rather it is your site, your landing page, your product, your service, your price or some factor other than your PPC visitor hits. The first thing I'd look at (if results are low ) is your landing page. I've seen many a site that look like a one eyed hooker with fish-net pantyhose. Go figure.

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Best of Luck with Home Interiors and Gifts !