How to make PPC advertising work for your business
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is thought to be one of the most effective types of online marketing for small businesses on the internet today.
But what is PPC advertising?!
PPC is the standard way to get a business' website in a superior position on leading search engines. It’s effectively a marketing program that allows you to display adverts based on specific keywords searched for in search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing.
The PPC adverts are the boxes that appear above and to the right of search results in search engines.
PPC adverts tend to be text-only, however, recently Google has introduced graphical adverts as well. However, a standard text PPC advert contains a heading, a brief description and a URL, in order to entice customers.
Google Adwords, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Advertising are the three main PPC providers. However, with the impending merger of Yahoo and Microsoft, it’s believed that this will be reduced to two – Bing/Yahoo and Google.
How does PPC advertising work?
PPC is an arrangement between a web site host and an advertiser where advertisers pay the sponsoring search engine based on the number of click-through to their website.
With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.
How to use PPC advertising
The goal of PPC advertising is to get in front of searchers who are looking specifically for what you have to offer. This takes careful keyword research, strategic bidding and a persuasive ad.
As PPC advertising can be expensive, the advertiser needs to ensure that the advertisement is right.
A good ad will stand out from the crowd and drive the right kind of traffic to the web site. It describes the product or service being offered but leaves the reader wanting more information.
The choice of keywords and their strategic positioning within the ad is important to its success. Good use of keywords can lead to a lower cost per click and better positioning.
To get the best out of every penny spent on PPC campaigns, the advertiser must attempt to establish a relationship with those who do not even buy.
However, here are a few tips to boost conversion rate from any PPC campaign while also boosting subscriber numbers:
• The first thing to do is build a superior page to send the search traffic to, which is called a landing page.
• Contextual advertising brings too many curiosity clicks that kill return on investment. The purpose of the campaign is to find people who are actively looking for what you are offering. You can choose to opt-out of non-search traffic with both Google and Yahoo.
• To establish a good relationship and engage in a highly effective form of selling, offer people who are actively looking and who click through a free resource such as an ebook.
• Whatever your free offer, it must be delivered by an email or RSS autoresponder that allows you to stay in contact with the prospect.
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