Pay Per Click Advertising - The Advanced Course!

You basically bid for search term positioning. Each time someone clicks through to your site via a link, the search engine charges you the amount that you bid.

Bidding can start as low as a penny. You can bid for as many relevant keywords as you like.

Don't be surprised to see bids going as high as $5.00, or even higher. Money talks loudly in pay per click advertising. To get top positions, you either need to have, either...

This course will give you the SMARTS! It will show you a step-by-step approach to getting maximal bang for your pay per click advertising campaign. It's a bit heavy going at times. But hang on tight... it's worth it! :-)

How Do I Know How Much To Pay For My Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign?

Before forking out any money, always think of what you can get in return first. So ask yourself... if you pay a search engine X$ per click-through, how much profit can you get in return?

Suppose you are selling a digital product (i.e., zero incremental per-unit cost of production) at $50, and you have a 1% conversion ratio, i.e., you make one sale for every 100 visitors. So one visitor is worth $0.50 ($50/100), and that is the maximum amount you should bid for each keyword. We will call this your BID CAP.

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To find out your conversion ratio, check your Web site stats. If you're promoting an affiliate program, find out if such information is available from the affiliate stats page. Your conversion ratio is the best starting guide to determine your BID CAP. The CAP is just an estimate, and should be refined along the way.

How Do I Choose My Destination URL?

If you only sell one product, yes... it's obvious -- just direct visitors to the URL where you do your normal Web selling. Of course, I'm assuming you've made Web site that...

But if you sell many products, don't send every keyword search to your Home Page. Send each one to your most relevant product page.

If you have a large Web store with 500 SKUs, pick your most important 50. Create a special page for each of those to land visitors upon. It should contain solid content all about that product, From there, the visitor can click straight into the shopping cart. (Gradually expand this program for all of your products.)

If you can't get them to buy on their first visit, get them to buy on subsequent visits, or even get them to buy something else! But there is only ONE way for you to do this back-end selling -- you *must* first get their email addresses.

You do publish an e-zine, right? You must, must, must put up a subscription box to ask for your visitors' email addresses! Once they give you their email addresses, they are hooked to you, for life! (Or until they unsubscribe, of course.) You can then send them periodic mails and continue your gentle blend of sales pitch and content, week after week, month after month, and year after year.

Let's Get Down To
Keyword Selection and Bids

For the sake of simplicity, I'm using keywords, key phrases and search terms interchangeably with one another.

Most search engines have some sort of relevancy policy. Be careful to adhere to it.

It must be obvious that your site is about your search term, or has obvious links to it. Let's call this the "ABOUT" test...

If you bid for the keyword "panda," your page must be about pandas. Having a cute little picture of a panda on a page that discusses wild life does not make that page relevant to the keyword.

But it should be OK if you created a wonderful page all about pandas. This page would conclude by leading into your main site, and the NAVBAR would of course present full-site navigation choices.

Remember, all search engines are basically alike. They need to give relevant search results to attract users. Or surfers will stop using it.

So put yourself in the shoes of a reviewer. Take a hard look at your keyword, and your page. Are they consistent with each other? Does it pass the "ABOUT" test? Would YOU approve it if YOU were searching on that search phrase?

If you're new to pay per click advertising, I suggest that you start off with about 50 search terms as a TEST to make sure that you are doing everything correctly.

No point submitting thousands of keywords, only to have them rejected. Once your listing has been approved, usually within 3-5 business days, build up more search terms gradually. If you already have an account, you will quickly hear if any of your search terms fall short of their relevancy requirement.

First, open your word processor, text editor, spreadsheet, database or any thing where you can jot down notes. Done? Ok, let's get rolling!

This is the Suggestion Tool, and is extremely useful to our brainstorming exercise.

Suppose you are offering Web design services. Enter "web design" and click on the "go" arrow. This gives you a list of all searches that were done in the preceding month that contained or were related to "Web design", and also how many times each search term was requested.

425135 web design
286153 web site design
89194 web page design
74818 custom web design
28460 custom web site design
26669 web site design company
25162 ecommerce web site design
22320 web design company
21482 web site design chicago
20295 web site design los angeles
19041 houston texas web design
17944 real estate web design
14563 new york web design
10344 web design software
9397 professional web design
<SNIP>

Wow, you are in a highly competitive area! Tens of thousands of searches have been made. Can you imagine the kind of traffic you get if you occupy the top position for "web design"? But it doesn't come cheap...

Once you have the numbers for your keyword, determine the amount that the top bids are selling for at you pay per click advertiser.

If you looked carefully, you may be able to see if it's possible to get that top position for that keyword. Remember, our BID CAP is just a ballpark estimate. Be flexible. And be observant. 5 cents could improve your positions up to the first spot. If so... it's a steal!

Jot down the search term and your corresponding top bid price in your word processor (or text editor, spreadsheet, database, etc.).

Now let's look at the second relevant search term that our Suggestion Tool has generated -- "web site design." Now click on "web site design" and let the Suggestion Tool churn out our second list of related search terms.

286153 web site design
28460 free web site design
26669 web site design company
25162 ecommerce web site design
21482 web site design chicago
20295 web site design los angeles
8642 web site design michigan
7350 internet web site design
6319 real estate web site design
6131 professional web site design
6060 small business web site design
<SNIP>

This second list is slightly different from the first list that we've generated. It is more related to "web site design." Due to the similarity between "web design" and "web site design ," expect some duplication in both lists.

Repeat the same procedure. Do a search for "web site design" at your pay per click advertiser. This time you may get to sit at the 5th position with a bid that costs you 15 cents more than your BID CAP.

The point here is that popularity of a keyword can not be assumed to determine the bidding price or position. You will have to pay particular attention to each search result and the impact your bid will make.

Continue with the second search term of your second list -- "free web site design." Do you REALLY offer free design service? If you offer free trial design service or something like that, you qualify for this search term. Remember the relevancy guide that we discussed earlier? We don't want to trick the search engines, or your visitors. We only want targeted visitors.

As you continue down the list, bypass the search terms for specific locations, unless it really fits. Remember the relevancy test.

Our example took a snapshot of the search results at the time of this printing. But, here is the main point. Take the time to analyze the results, and look for those relevant terms that have good search results at a reasonable cost.

Bottom line --> Do your home work and be observant, and you'll get better deals. :-)

Just repeat the same procedure until you're done with the second list. Then, using the first list, generate the third list, and the forth list, and the...

Tough work? You bet! But you don't have to do it all in one go. Spread it out. Like I said, if you're just starting out, begin with just 50 search terms. Build up your list gradually.

A few more tips. If "web" is in your search term list, make sure you also include "website" and "web site" in the list. Similarly, include "e-mail" if you have "email," "ecommerce" if you have "e-commerce," and so on. Don't miss out on such related terms. They can greatly expand your list.

Some of the pay per click advertisers view these related terms as the same. Don't get too hung-up on this point... the search engines will help sort this all out for you.

How To Write A Good
Title and Description For Your Ads

You pay for every click-through. So word your title and description carefully -- weed out the "off-target" click. Here's how...

Unlike other search engines, your bid is the only thing that determines your search position. Does that mean you don't have to worry about working your keyword into the title or description? Well, although your search position will not be affected, your click-through rate will...

Including your keyword in your title and/or description actually increases your click-through rate, sometimes by as much as 50%. This is a fact, so we shall use it to our advantage.

Let's continue with our "web design" case. You are looking for people to sell your Web design service to.

Read the description and tell me honestly, are you keen to find out more? Absolutely! Why? Because it's a real teaser... But it only teases those looking for a Web designer. Perfect!

SIDEBAR

Getting a click-through from pay per click search engines is different from getting a click-through from other search engines. With other search engines, all you want is traffic, the more the merrier. All click-throughs are free.

But with these search engines, you only want targeted traffic, because you PAY for every single click-through. If you trick your visitors with your title and description, yeah, you get lots of traffic. But it's non-targeted traffic that does NOT buy. All you get is a big bill!

Also, make sure you have a Web site that really SELLS. Otherwise you're just wasting your click-throughs, and your money, and only make the search engines happier. :-(

Let’s say that you have bid five cents for “commercial lawyers.” You want to...

b) Repel people who are looking for commercial lawyers. They’re looking for a lawyer, not for ways to sell their legal services on the Web.

Of course, your Web site should have a "law theme." And the destination page should be about commercial law.

Submitting Your Bids

Ok, you have done all your homework -- keywords, bids, title, description, and a killer Web site that really SELLS.

Open your pay per click advertising account. You only need to begin with a deposit of $50 or less, which will be gradually depleted with every click-through.

Time To Blast Into Hyper-drive

The real key to success with pay-per-click advertising is to work the fringes. Brainstorm hundreds, even thousands, of lesser-searched-but-relevant keywords.

Phew! Don’t faint -- just do 10 per day. In a month, you’ll start to feel the build. This is a "the race goes to the tortoise" affair.

Maintaining Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Due to the dynamic Internet environment, you need to regularly update your listings to maintain a steady flow of traffic. As you get more traffic and sales stats, you may want to change your bid, title, description, and/or destination URL to better suit your needs.

If you do nothing, I'm afraid your traffic from searches may drop. As pay per click advertisements becomes more popular, their customer base will expand and higher bids will be made. This only pushes your listing position down. A lower position means less traffic.

Want to change a listing title and/or description WITHOUT increasing the bid? Make sure your change is a substantial improvement. Why?

Many pay-per-click search engines rank sites, for the same keyword bid, on a first-come first-served basis. A re-submission, for the same bid, will be considered a new submission. Once approved, it will be listed right at the end of all other sites of the same bid. Be careful on this!

Let's Rap Things Up!

This is probably still the most cost-effective advertising on the Web today. Take advantage of it while it lasts. The key for the "rest of us?" Work the fringes...

If you have never made it to the top placements in other search engines, you will certainly do so with the pay per click advertising.

As mentioned in our basic course, you only want to advertise with QUALITY advertisers. I consider Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing your BEST choices.

Get The MOST Out Of Pay Per Click Advertising... Take The Advanced Course!

You're in the "Web
Marketing Mini-Course"
section of our Web
site...

Think of any pay per click search engine as another advertising media. Use it wisely, and you'll turn your advertising dollars into handsome profits.

How Do I Know How Much To Pay For My Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign?

How Do I Choose My Destination URL?

Let's Get Down To
Keyword Selection and Bids

How To Write A Good
Title and Description For Your Ads

Submitting Your Bids

Time To Blast Into Hyper-drive

Maintaining Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Let's Rap Things Up!

You're in the "Web Marketing Mini-course" section of our Web site...

Get The MOST Out Of Pay Per Click Advertising... Take The Advanced Course!

You're in the "Web Marketing Mini-Course" section of our Web site...

Think of any pay per click search engine as another advertising media. Use it wisely, and you'll turn your advertising dollars into handsome profits.

How Do I Know How Much To Pay For My Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign?

How Do I Choose My Destination URL?

Let's Get Down To Keyword Selection and Bids

How To Write A Good Title and Description For Your Ads

Submitting Your Bids

Time To Blast Into Hyper-drive

Maintaining Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Let's Rap Things Up!

You're in the "Web Marketing Mini-course" section of our Web site...

You're in the "Web
Marketing Mini-Course"
section of our Web
site...

Let's Get Down To
Keyword Selection and Bids

How To Write A Good
Title and Description For Your Ads