Ever heard of the 90/10 pay per click rule? Basically it
says that 90% of PPC success is enjoyed by only the top 10%
of advertisers who know the inside methods to getting the
most from their PPC campaign. And oddly enough, it's
basically true. Especially when it comes to Google's
AdWords, which offers the most advanced methods to help
advertisers get their money's worth (and then some!)
Some people use pay per click (PPC) as their primary source
of search engine marketing while others use it as a way to
get steady supplemental targeted traffic. As an SEO
professional I've developed PPC campaigns for my clients so
they get targeted traffic while the organic optimization is
ramping up, which often takes weeks or months. Whatever the
reason, PPC is a good way for any online business owner to
get targeted traffic and a great way for those who know how
to use the system to their advantage. And that's exactly
what this article will do for you.
But before we dive in, just why is AdWords so valuable?
There are plenty of reasons but for starters...
1.) AdWords listings are seen by more than 80% of all
Internet users on millions of sites ranging from Google and
AOL to very specific niche locations it would otherwise
take forever to research and manage independent advertising
accounts with.
2.) Your ads can be targeted specifically by region or
language.
3. ) Ads that you can constantly update and test are a
great way to test what keywords are really best for
targeting in your organic SEO efforts, which can be very
time consuming and expensive.
Step 1: Get an AdWords Account
If you don't already have an AdWords account, it's easy
enough to sign up for at http://adwords.google.com. Once
you have your account you can begin creating ads and
finding the best keywords. Actually, you can use Google's
free AdWords keyword research tool even without an account
by visiting
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
Step 2: Develop a Killer Ad
Here are the things to know about ad development broken out
by Title and Body...
Ad Title:
1.) Use targeted keywords NOT your company name
2.) Mention a benefit, rather than a feature.
3.) Take advantage of the "Dynamic Titles" feature by
entering the following code in your title "{KeyWord: Your
Keyword}" (without quotes.) This allows you to use the
same ad body text with a dynamically generated title that
matches exactly what the searcher is looking for and makes
your and the most relevant it can be. By the way, this is
case sensitive; "{KeyWord: Your Keyword}" will make the
first letter of each word capitalized while "{keykord: your
keyword}" will make it all lower case.
Ad Body:
The body or text of your ad need only do two things; hook
'em and then reel 'em in. The hook is something that peaks
their interest such as "Increase your Profits with XYZ
software." While reeling them in involves what traditional
marketers refer to as a "call to action." This might be
"Download your Free 30 day Trial now."
Note: Do not over capitalize your ad. At best just
capitalize the words you feel are most important to the
viewer. It's OK to capitalize the first letter of each word
in the title but not the body.
Step 3: Maximize URL Usage
While we're on the subject of what the searcher sees in
your ad, we need to consider the URL. Google will let you
make the visible URL different than the actual URL leading
to the landing page where the visitor will end up after
clicking your ad. This is huge! Take advantage of it.
This feature will let you test multiple landing pages in
your ads to see what pages are converting sales best while
showing the visitor the "display" URL for your product.
Let's say the landing page being tested in this particular
ad is "...com/XYZ/purchase3.htm." When that ad gets clicked
you will soon see if "/purchase3.htm" is converting better
than "/purchase1.htm." But here's the magic... By using a
display URL of "...com/XYZ/" , and actually having the
product there as well, you are building your brand and
providing a visual queue for users to manually type in the
URL if for some reason your landing page is unavailable.
Step 4: Use Special Keyword Advantages
Obviously keywords are a very big factor in the success of
your campaign. Choosing the best keywords is extremely
important and using Google's "Keyword Matching Options" can
help take your great keywords one step further. Just click
the "Advanced option: match types" link when setting up
your ads and choose from the following...
1.) Broad Match: Is the default and will show your ad each
time all of the keywords in your keyword phrase are entered.
2.) Phrase Match: Looks for the order of words in your
keyword phrase and only shows your ad if the order matches.
Your ad will still show if your phrase is any part of the
search query, but only if the word order is the same.
3.) Exact Match: This is the most stringent and will only
present your ad if your exact keyword phrase, and ONLY your
exact keyword phrase, is used.
4.) Negative Match: This is a nice feature that will stop
your ad from showing if a word appears in the search query
that you don't want to get clicks for. The most common
example is "free" which would eliminate you paying for
clicks from people who just want a free version of what you
offer.
Step 5: Find and Use the Best Keywords
Now for the most important aspect of your pay per click
campaign; keyword selection. The more targeted keywords you
can find, the better. Google offers a great free keyword
tool as we discussed early on. Here are the qualities to
look for in your keywords:
1.) A good "Average Search Volume" rating (check out the
blue bars)
2.) A high search volume for the previous month (especially
true for seasonal topics)
3.) The lowest possible "Advertiser Competition" rating
4.) Look for common misspellings and use the "exact match"
feature to get plenty of low cost targeted traffic.
5.) Scroll down the page and find hidden gems that others
miss. There are a lot for those who look carefully enough.
Insider Tip: You can also collect hundreds of low volume
keywords, put them in a spreadsheet for easy upload and use
the "Dynamic Title" feature we discussed earlier to
generate hundreds of low cost highly targeted leads.
Professional Tip: SEO professionals typically use
specialized keyword selection and spy software because it
does weeks worth of work in a matter of hours. Keyword
Elite (http://www.KeywordEliteWeb.com) for example, can
generate thousands of valuable keywords in minutes and does
"ethical spying" that exposes the competition and makes
placement takeover easy.
That's all you need to know to join the top 10% of PPC
advertisers getting the most out of their campaigns with
minimal effort. Best of luck!
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Jason has been an SEO professional since 1999 and is
the founder of http://www.BestSEOcopywriting.com . He has
developed and managed PPC campaigns for both small
companies and corporate giants alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment