Google, Yahoo, MSN search and Overture... Understanding pay per click advertising.

Google, Yahoo, MSN search and Overture... Understanding pay per click advertising.

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 a fortune.

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 like handing the impoverished street corner beggar your credit card.

Is it possible to launch a PPC ad campaign that drives quality traffic without causing a heart attack? What follows below and over my next several blog posts are my personal campaign tips designed to put your PPC project on a solid road to success.

Search engine campaign tips:

1. If your product or service is something that can be related to a locale, like a city, state or region you may be able to find some ripe tomatoes in phrases like: 'retirement homes in Florida', 'Mississippi flat rate phone service', 'herbal sunscreen for southwestern sun', 'indoor air filters for Los Angeles'.
2. Discover more keywords by narrowing down to extreme specifics. People can be VERY specific when they search. Use names of months and years like '2004 tax savings', 'May flowers', 'Christmas of 2005' or 'September back to school supplies'.
   
   Let's say you are marketing a broad line of herbal products... why not get a list of all herbs (there may be thousands) and use that list as a keyword list. Maybe your product doesn't contain every herb on the list, but people searching for any ONE herb specifically may be interested in others. Try specific model numbers, makes and designs if your products are sometimes referred to this way: 'Epson stylus CX6400', 'Apple G5', etc.
3. Add adjectives to your keywords like: big, purple, new, cheap, affordable, soft, aromatic, healthy, etc.

Don't forget 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 ( in examining your campaign for flaws ) is your landing page. I've seen many a site that look like a one eyed hooker with fish-net pantyhose. Go figure.

For additional help with your pay per click ad campaign check out the articles linked in my previous post.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Best of Luck with XanGo !