Thursday, August 27, 2009

Don't Ever Be a PPC Victim!

Excuse my title but the only thing worse than not including Pay Per Click as part of your marketing arsenal is doing it all wrong. Setting up a campaign by yourself without research, paying big bucks for a so-called professional or blindly letting Google do it for you is throwing money away.

The vast majority of campaigns I see are really missing the point.

This is not intended to be an all-inclusive article about Pay Per Click. My goal is to make people think before blindly jumping into PPC without understanding a few tactics and doing some research. I will tell you a couple of things to consider and a few resources check out.

Keywords

In my examples here we will be working with and exclusive aircraft charter company. Three months ago I was contacted by a company that was spending $10,000 per month on Google PPC. The charter business has really been spanked by the economy lately. This client was like most. They wanted to reduce cost while improving performance. They actually wanted me to do SEO work for them but I was flabbergasted by their PPC campaign.

To do a little research I went to adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. This is Google's free keyword research tool. I always start my research here because this is the up-to-date information on what words viewers are using to search your given product or service. Google does its best to help you here however they may unintentionally mislead you elsewhere. I will explain later.

The owner was convinced that "private jets" was his most important keyword/phrase because of the number of searches. Now, here is one of my strategies. I always suggest using and action rather an object. By this I mean "private jet" is an object and "charter private jet" is an action. The person searching an action phrase is more likely to take action. He's a more likely buyer.

Think negative.

My client was really stuck on his "private jets" keyword so I had him do the following searches: "private jet crash", "private jet pictures" and "private jet jobs". Well, the light came on when he saw his company #1 for crashes, #3 for people looking to steel his pictures and he also found why every out of work pilot was calling him for jobs. And remember, he was paying for these people to find him.

Negative words are words added to the campaign's list that will block your ad from showing in search results. Simply adding a minus sign in front of a word will make it a negative word. I added the following to correct the issue above; -crash, -crashes, -pictures, -graphics, -jobs, - employment (This saves big money on your PPC campaign). Be creative and work as hard on your negative words as you do on your keywords.

Misleading Google advice

Here is a tactic Google will use to try to get your client to do business with them or to get you to pay additional money for their service. Let's say your keyword had 1.2 million impressions (views) and you received 850 clicks. Google will tell your client they are loosing big time because 1,999,200 people didn't click on their listing. While that is true, it is very misleading. It is like telling Bank of America that 1.2 million cars are driving by their billboard on the freeway and most are not calling to open an account. High impressions help build name recognition. You also don't want every viewer to click on the ad you are paying for. You only want the likely buyers.

I hope this gives you a few things to think about before jumping in. However I strongly suggest you do jump. It is much smarter to do some promotion than to just sit back and hope some business comes your way.

How to get High Ranking By using Lower Bid PPC

Currently Google's AdWords program has developed into the top choice and most important company for pay per click marketing and a clear number one pick for associate marketers, webmasters and small enterprise owners. My goal here is to easily show marketers how to bid lower but still get a higher listing than your competitors.

Yahoo also has an exceptional paid advertising platform and is unmistakably included with the best in marketing platforms that's accessible to start up advertisers. I very much urge for you to make use of all of them, if you can afford it. Even more so with current modifications made by Yahoo that let undersized online bussiness owners with a restricted financial plan the ability to hop right in and get on track by selling their product creation or service.

With that being said, now we're ready to concentrate on the Google AdWords platform and how it's possible for you to essentially bid lesser, but still get superior status than your fellow advertisers. Google has multiple networks that equal and go beyond Yahoo in addition they also demand a really insignificant amount of funds and time to get started. This is clearly something you just can't miss out on and will assist you enormously in your advertising campaign efforts.

The primary thing we want to figure out is to uncover the actual search terms consumers are using to discover your actual product or service. According to current research, consumers who are able to buy will type in three or more search terms. For illustration, "making money online". So search term research must be the leading place you're going to begin.

You will basically proceed to Yahoo or Google and exercise their search term suggestions resources for no cost. Merely type in the familiar term of your small business, which in this argument is "making money." Both Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions' and Google's AdWords suggestion tool will subsequently produce for you an inventory of exact and associated search terms that have been looked for all through the preceding 30 days.

The idea is, you'll have a rough impression on which keywords you must be bidding on. As soon as that is complete you'll want to keep in mind that your advertisement copy must also be inviting individuals to click through to your site. So what are the keys to paying a lower cost but still getting a superior position?

Well, to begin please remember that Google AdWords determines your listing on the search page based on two things: How much you offer or bid and how much your advertisement gets click throughs.

If you maintain a higher click through rate than your competitors' ad, Google AdWords will provide you a higher listing even though you disburse a smaller amount than your competition.

So how do you accomplish having the highest click through rate? Contrary to what folks believe, I would say to start out by bidding more at the launch of your advertisement campaign. Why, you might ask? Well, here's a little tip you can use from my own trail and error. At the outset of my campaigns, I would bid as low as I could. But I soon realized that nobody could notice me if my campaigns are thrown on the fourth pages, specifically for popular keywords.

So bid even more to get on the leading page. You don't have to be number one, only make certain buyers can notice you. At this experimental point you don't want to pick the contextual targeting option. Contextual targeting option is Google's trait that makes your campaigns seen on themed Google content sites.

Continue on tracking your advertisement campaign results and as soon as you obtain a top click through rate...Lower your bid. This way, you will obtain top listing but still pay less without compromising your place.

In the end, you should understand how to create appealing advertisement copy that causes folks to purchase. Basically, the point you want to be aware of in relation to writing ads is it's all about explaining a benefit.

For illustration, imagine that you promote a digital creation or a guide through PDF. In this instance you must point out the "instant delivery" to your customers' PC as a benefit. Your ad's headline must be the most enticing benefit you can think of.

I suggest, if workable to place the fee somewhere in your advertisement. The idea is you can guarantee that buyers that click through your advertisement are the people that are set to purchase. However, be cautious and establish your financial statement wisely. Inappropriate planning may possibly drain your bank account off in a minute.

How to Boost Up Your PPC Level

Several marketers are testing pay per click ads because of the superior traffic volume that can be produced & the capability to produce loads of visitors to their website. You have probably already learned for yourself that you can discover PPC methods in boat loads all over the web. Most of the major search engines hosts tons of searches every day, which means that most PPC ads are likely to uncover a few buyers merely with the number of people that are potential customers.

The down-to-earth method for testing this kind of approach is to compete for your main search term, especially if your online business isn't ranked high on the leading page of some of the major search engines. Remember, this is probably why you are testing PPC advertising to start with.

Using pay per click ads for your main search term is a terrific proposal, but there could be thousands of other marketers that are trying to get the very same search terms? It's not like you're the only person testing PPC and if you don't contain a particular strategy you may not get what you want from your hard work, regardless of the fact you are bidding and paying high prices for the most prevalent search terms!

Apparently, the majority of common search terms for a specified niche contain the biggest amount of advertisers bidding on them. How do you bid low while reducing your competition for the greatest results? Well, you want to focus your ads on niche search terms.

Niche search terms are words and keyword phrases that have something to do with your online business but they are normally lower in cost since they are highly specific and definite. For instance, if you had a online business that sold NBA fitted hats, as a substitute of bidding for "NBA hats" or "basketball hats" you will be a lot more exact by using a particular label like "LA Lakers basketball hat".

How about "New York Knicks team hat" or "Boston Celtic hat." These search terms are highly specific and might produce less visitors, but they are quality visitors. These visitors are very likely to be paying consumers than folks who click on a general term, since consumers who look for such common terms ordinarily are not eager and able to purchase. On the whole they're merely comparing for prices or doing a little research. Buying clicks on very common search terms is not smart and unprofitable.

When anyone searches for a "LA Lakers basketball hat" you instantly understand they are wanting for something highly particular and are most likely to purchase without hesitation. This lead has a very good chance of being a possible consumer. Not only are they a basketball fan but they are searching for their favorite team hat!

Locating the appropriate search terms are not tricky, you simply need to really toss around and think about what a potential consumer may type into Google to discover you. The more detailed, the better.

And you will furthermore learn that with such particular keywords the number of different marketers bidding on those exact search terms will be cut down to nearly zip, since your competitors are too occupied with bidding for common words! In addition search terms provide you with valuable visitors but furthermore you are the single selection they will have for these specific keywords!

Remember, it's my experience that competing for terms that are very common is a waste of money and energy. The answer to pay per click marketing is understanding when and how to use given keywords to increase your results. A thorough combination of having the right information and taking action will provide you the results you've been searching for.

Copy the exact PPC ad campaigns that have made as much as $94,113 in a single month. Why try to figure out a PPC strategy out on your own when you can access a proven system for success with pay per click advertising that you simply copy, paste and make money.

Writing PPC Ad Copy

For performance-based pay-per-click ad networks like Google AdWords, writing good ad copy is integral to your advertising campaigns success. On a performance-based ad network, a well written ads means a higher click-through rate which means that you will pay less per click and will gain a higher ad position. Now that you know how important your ad copy is to your PPC campaign's success, I will show you how to write good ad copy.

Adhere to the Benefits/Features Model

The Benefits/Features model is a very safe and reliable choice when is comes to generating effective ad copy. This model is quite self-explanatory. In it you state to the searcher both a benefit and a feature of the product or service that you are promoting. Some potential benefits could include a sale, free shipping, or large selection etc. Features are the features of the particular product or service that you are promoting like colors, sizes, or quality etc. Traditionally, ads that focus on benefits generally out-perform those focused on features.

Call to Action

You must also include a clear and motivating call to action. An example of a call to action is the phrase Shop Now!, or Buy Today!.

Ad copy also depends upon the nature of the product or service that you are promoting:

  • If you are promoting a product or service for a reason that is time sensitive, for instance to attract buyers, to promote a limited-time offer or drive traffic, it requires more aggressive ad copy that denotes a sense of urgency. An exclamation point works well in this case.
  • If your goal is to simply get people to visit your site or join a mailing list or download something, your ad should be less aggressive and more informative. You should give searchers a reason to visit your site like free download or hundreds of free articles.

 

About Google Adwords

Any internet marketer recognizes the importance of driving targeted traffic to a website in view that the success of a website doesn't depend on the site itself. Your website idea may be good, but without using the correct strategy to generate traffic to your website, you will not be attracting sufficient traffic in order to be successful in generating enough income in order for your site to be self sustained.

There are many ways that you can attract traffic to your websites. Examples of these methods include article marketing, forum marketing, search engine marketing and etc. One of the most effective tools that you can consider is Google AdWords.

So, what are the benefits of using Google AdWords? One of the major benefits is that your traffic volume is more stable compared to if you were to rely only on search engine traffic. Search engine traffic is more vulnerable, there is no doubt about it. You have to keep building quality back links to your website in order to maintain the search engine ranking positions of your website. Unlike search engine marketing, using Google AdWords ensures that you receive continuous streams of highly targeted traffic.

Other than the continuous streams of traffic, you are given the options where and when your ads are to be shown. For example, if you would like to attract more visitors to your website from country A, you are allowed to do so.

Though there are many advantages of using Google AdWords as a way to attract immediate traffic to your website, the learning curve of the system is quite deep and may cost you a lot of monies if you do not understand how the system works.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Secret of CLICK FRAUD revealed!

Has anyone else noticed a disturbing pattern in your pay-per-click advertising campaign, of the same IP addresses clicking on your ad, spending one or two seconds on your website and then leaving?

That's called click fraud and it's a major problem among all of the pay-per-click search engines.

Click fraud is a scheme that takes advantage of online advertising programs like those offered by Google, Yahoo/Overture, Findwhat and others. Unlike legitimate websites that attract human visitors to the site, fraudsters use software "hitbots" or employ boiler-rooms of low-wage employees from other countries to generate clicks on ads, and then collect commission from pay-per-click programs.

Believe it or not, Bradley actually tried to extort Google into paying $100,000 for click fraud software he created called "Google Clique."

Click fraud hurts advertisers by driving up the cost of each click because many online advertising programs adjust the price of each click based on the popularity of a particular keyword and the number of competing advertisers. Click fraud can quickly deplete your pay-per-click account and leave you with little or nothing to show for your expentiture.

If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members."

Ironically, I have not had a click fraud problem with Google.

You can reduce your risk of being victimized by click fraud, by regularly auditing your website’s log files and immediately reporting suspicious traffic to the pay-per-click companies. Easy.

When checking your log files, if you notice a lot of clicks from one IP address, you can trace its origin by visiting the American Registry of Internet Numbers. By feeding the IP address into their "Whois" search, they will tell you who has been assigned that IP address, and whether it's an actual IP or another business entity.

In conclusion, if you choose to use pay-per-click search engines to advertise, watch your log files closely and report improprieties immediately.

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