By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-06-15 16:13:56 | Word Count: 664
One of the most misunderstood forms of marketing on the Internet is pay per click advertising (PPC advertising or just PPC). People see the word “pay” and immediately assume “ripoff.” However, as a form of marketing that has proven over and over again with many companies its ability to bring results, the pay per click advertising model deserves a serious look for any business person worth his or her salt.
Only scams attempt to tell a legitimate business person that he or she can make money without making some sort of initial investment. For the initial investment, pay per click advertising has the potential to give a business one of its largest returns on investment of any form of advertising available.
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The success of a pay per click advertising is entirely dependent on the business person™s ability to interpret the incredibly accurate and detailed results of the search engine analytics.
The Initial Investment
A typical pay per click campaign requires a setup investment from US $1000 to US $5000 to begin correctly, with most of this investment going into the design of the final landing pages and setup of campaigns. Two elements essential to a successful landing page which will keep customers being “sticky” are 1. an attractive and organized visual design, and 2. adherence to a theme which connects with the focus of the pay per click campaign.
Although the physical design of the web site is hardly something to overlook, for the purposes of this article, we will focus on the second requirement of a landing page, as good web designers are easy to find and the visual aspect of the web design tends to be overplayed compared to the actual mechanics behind it.
Marketing to the correct long tail keywords and catchphrases are essentially important to a pay per click campaign. The phrases used in the pay per click ad should match the focus of the text of the landing page. To do this, one can easily begin with the free Google services which analyze keywords, showing how many people type in certain phrases, and how much they will cost. Your job is to pick the keyword and phrases which most accurately describe your business. The more nuanced and specific, the better.
Think of what a person would type into a search engine box if they were looking to solve a problem that your company could fix better than any of your competitors. Those are the keywords on which your pay per click campaign and landing page text should focus.
An initial investment is well spent that picks the correct keywords and phrases, as the pay per click campaign will soon become self sufficient if the right matches are found.
Tracking Your Success
As you compare ads on your pay per click ads, (and that is what the rest of the initial investment should be spent on, comparing the best 2 or 3 ads side by side), you will need to take note of the results. Google Analytics provides all of the data that you need in order to make a decision on a campaign, although there are many third parties who claim to be able to interpret the results of an analysis in a more precise way. There are also companies who claim to have better systems. However, for the small business on a budget, and with the proper analysis, Google Analytics should work out quite well.
Track your ROI with a focused effort. The end of the beginning of your pay per click campaign occurs when you have identified the ads and landing pages which give you the greatest ROI, and also identified why that is, so that you can continue to tweak ads in the future. Optimum7 is an expert in this area and we have helped many companies reach targeted ROI with PPC. Contact us today, we can help. Call us at (866) 882-8484
