"Pay per Click" - Targeted traffic if you know what you're doing?

"Pay per Click" - Targeted traffic if you know what you're doing?

While contemplating the deep dark inner essence of my morning coffee, it hit me like a caffeine brick that lot's of people are running pay per click ads (like: Google, Overture, Yahoo, MSN search etc) and are not having the kind of results they might have expected. After several more java jive jolts, I decided to embark on a multi-week PPC tips post. What am I talking about? 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 pay per click campaign that produces results without causing a divorce? Maybe. What ensues here and over the upcoming weeks are my time tested strategies to put any pay per click campaign on a path toward affordable results.

Pay per click tips for this week:

1. When thinking up keywords, use examples of specific things your product is used for: 'clean floors', clean countertops', 'wash floors', 'mop floors', 'polish stove top', 'remove grime', 'shine appliances', 'disinfect bacteria', 'hide furniture flaws' etc.
2. Explore variations: 'soy milk', 'soymilk', 'soy-milk'
3. Add plurals: 'protein bar' and 'protein bars'
4. Use abbreviations and acronyms
5. Use US and UK spellings
6. Keyword phrases may be questions: 'how to repair bad credit', 'when should I diet', 'how do I lose weight', 'where are discount cosmetics', etc.

Keep in mind that if you run any PPC search engine ad campaign over a few weeks and you get nothing for sales or sign-up results, the problem 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 traffic . The first thing I'd look at ( if things aren't going satisfactory) 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.

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Best of Luck with Your website !