Pay-per-click advertising offers businesses a way to advertise on the Internet that is relatively inexpensive, is cost effective, and can yield excellent results. Because an advertiser pays only when a user clicks on an advertisement, it costs nothing for a business to set up PPC advertising. This low initial cost enables small businesses to compete with companies that have significant amounts of capital to sink into their advertising budgets.
In order to obtain the best pay-per-click benefits, it is important for the advertisements to be built correctly. Unless a company takes care to do so, PPC marketing stands the risk of being ineffective, can prove to be costly, and might yield disappointing results.
As with all advertising, success depends on a variety of factors. It also needs constant attention and effective administration.
Here are steps to take when setting up pay-per-click advertising that will enable your business to stand a heightened chance of turning clicks into cash.
PPC marketing is based on a set of keywords that you choose. Anyone who enters those words in a search engine will see your advertisement in the search results, often on the first page. After reading a summary of what your company offers, a user will decide whether to click on the link to your business as displayed in the advertisement. Those who click on your advertisement will be directed to your website, where they will decide whether to buy your products or services. You will be charged a predetermined amount when someone clicks on your advertisement.
Clearly, it is important that you select the keywords carefully. Doing so is part science and part art, but with the use of a few techniques, you will be able to select those keywords that work best for your particular business.
A phrase that relates directly to the items that you sell, for example, is more likely to receive clicks that will more readily turn into sales. Reaching a wide range of people is not always the best way to go. For example, if you enter the phrase "office supplies" when you sell only paper, people looking for all kinds of office supplies, such as ink, computer hardware, and even desks will click on your advertisement. They will not find what they want on your site, but the click will cost you money.
At the same time, you should not select words that are so specific to one aspect of your business that few people will ever search for them.
As a guide to your selection of keywords, Google offers the opportunity for you to check which keywords occur most often in searches.
If you provide your services in just one suburb, you do not want to reach everyone needing your services in the entire United States. In such a case, it is essential that you mention in your keywords the geographical area that you serve.
If you serve, say, several suburbs in a city, it might be a good idea to set up separate advertisements for each suburb to gain the clicks of those people who are looking specifically for your service in each suburb. Similarly, if you serve several cities, build advertisements for each city and possibly each suburb, too.
As a guide, think which words you would use if you wanted to search for your service in your area.
Among the pay-per-click benefits are the quick and direct results that you receive. You know within a short time how many people have clicked on your advertisement. As a result, after a fairly short time, you will be able to determine whether more users are clicking on a particular set of keywords than another set. If that is the case, you should fine-tune your keyword selections. Keep those that receive the most clicks and set about reworking the others. You should always take care, however, that your reach might be too wide and you are receiving clicks that will never turn into sales.
If one set of keywords fails to attract any more than a few clicks, ditch it in favor of another set of keywords that might work better.
When you build your advertisements, you will likely be offered a variety of choices in the way your keywords are presented. For example, among the choices that you may be offered are a broad match, a phrase match, and an exact match. Go through these choices and concentrate on those that you feel will work best for your business.
Check whether long-tailed keywords—a group of words placed together to obtain more accurate results—will work better for you than a single word or two.
It might take some time to go through all the potential combinations that are out there, but the effort you put into it will be worthwhile in the long run.
You might also want to match clicks with sales. If you receive many clicks but hardly any sales, you may want to refine your keywords. Clearly, you are not reaching the right people.
Continually refine your searches until your sales start perking up.
Consider the people you are trying to reach with your pay-per-click advertising. Determine whether they are in a certain age group. Younger people might respond more readily to your ad if it is written in a certain way or if it contains certain keywords that are attractive to them.
Seniors might be looking for services that are expressed in a different way. Times have changed as they have aged, and the way they express themselves might not have changed with the times.
If you receive a lot of clicks and few sales, you do not want to have to pay a lot for all those people who have clicked on your ad but not bought anything from you.
If you set the daily limit too high, you might find that your PPC marketing campaign is running away with you. With many people clicking on your advertisement, but unexciting sales occurring as a result, you might want to cut back.
It’s better to start small. Should sales soar, you can then raise the daily limit.
If you find few pay-per-click benefits from your campaign, look deeper into the reason for the slow response. It could be your prices, your website might be unattractive, or your eCommerce is not working correctly.
Of course, if pay-per-click is not working for you, it’s best to abandon it before the costs become too high.
At Bright Vessel, we understand the importance of pay-per-click in your company's marketing strategy. Ask us how we can help you establish a commanding web presence by contacting us today.
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