November 11th, 2008 
Diggin It Digital More and more advertisers have been using PPC advertising and it’s growing faster than any online advertising technique. From revenues of $2.6 billion in 2004 to an estimated $5.5 billion in 2009, cost per click may dramatically go up as well from $0.29 to $0.36.
PPC or Pay Per Click is a technique used in search engine marketing that requires you (the advertiser) to pay a fee every time someone clicks an ad on your website. Usually this placement is done through a bidding process. If you are a top bidder for your keywords/phrases, you will guarantee your number one spot on all search engines.
PPC – The Pros
1. You need not be a genius in computer and technology to be able to run this ad campaign.
2. Immediate results are seen after a few days.
3. No need to make a website conform to the SEO rules.
4. Nothing to lose even if you do not top the pages of different search engines.
5. You can make use any search engine available.
6. You can type in any keyword you like.
PPC – The Cons
1. Fixed payments every month to the search engine you choose.
2. Pay for each click received by your website. At times, visitors are just competitors or people playing pranks on search engines. This hassle wastes money you put in to this advertising.
3. Inability to pay for the fees next month would mean removal of your website on the paid listings.
4. PPC can only be used temporarily because it is difficult to handle in the long run.
5. PPC pricing can be costly for long periods of time and should be stopped after an ad campaign.
Some important things to consider when planning a pay per click campaign:
Know your product. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).
Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind and avoiding bidding wars if possible. Do not go overbidding because you will only lose your money and do not go so low that your ads will never get the chance to show up. Check your profit against your spending. If you see no progress then most likely you have to drop your ad campaign.
Bid just right. Know how to bid right – a bid that is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make you lose that spot.
Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your PPC program – if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.
Find the right keywords. In PPC advertising, what are important are the keywords and phrases. You have to select at least 10 “very specific” keywords that would give you the best traffic in the search.
Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do some keyword research, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.
Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher to click on your ad. Write the ad creatively but straightforward. Tell the truth about your product or service and do not lie. Good thing if your product or service will not disappoint those that are relying on your ad’s promise – but what if it did otherwise? Important too is the clarity of the ad. Do not use very vague languages.
Some ideas you may consider when writing your ads:
Discount offers
Testimonials
Celebrity/famous endorsers
Money-back guarantees
Free trials or sample offers
Freebies
Reverse psychology
Major benefits (”Lose weight”)
Direct instructions (”Click here”)
Maintain a professional-looking site.
Last but not least, your website or salespage is the final test when it comes to the sale.
The website should be simple – designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. Check for broken links or missing images.
The more relevant your landing pages are to the keyword that a visitor used to find your ad, click on it and reach your page, the better. Put yourself in your visitors shoes…
If you were searching for White Tennis Shoes in Google, then you saw an ad for White Tennis Shoes, you’d likely click on it right?
But when you click the ad and arrive at the website and the first thing you see is “Sporting Equipment, please pick a category…” then you’re going to click the back button pretty fast right? However, if you landed on the page and saw “White Tennis Shoes, please select your shoe size and press enter”, then you’ve got a potential sale on your hands. Simple right?
The truth is, you’ll have to put some in some work to create multiple landing pages for different keywords, but the payoff is the difference between making a mint online from the comfort of your own home vs going bankrupt and stressing yourself to death in the process.
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