Before starting a PPC campaign, the first thing to consider is budget. Are you financially capable of paying for ads? Determine how much you can, and are willing to pay, for each click. Some high traffic keywords can cost you as high as $100 or more. Be sure to set a budget and stick to it as it is easy to get carried away in bidding more than what your competitors are paying.
After confirming that you have the means to financially support pay per click advertisement and have set a budget for it, it is time to devise a strategy. Consider the other important factors that would dictate the success or failure of your campaign.
Profiling your customers is important in successful advertising. Each PPC Ad must target a specific customer so it is crucial for you as a marketer to know who your customers are, and where they are located. You must understand their needs and their buying behavior in order to create an ad that would be highly appealing to them.
In most cases, businesses would have competition. Other companies would most likely be carrying a similar product or offering the same service as yours so it would be wise to study the market. Know your competitors and be aware of their advertising strategies. What other people are selling may affect the demand for your product so it is advisable to stay on top of this by keeping track of your competitors’ products and marketing tactics.
Just like SEO, keywords are the gold mine of PPC. An extensive keyword research will provide you with information to come up with a list of winning keywords. Since you will be paying for each keyword you buy, it is essential that you bid only for specific keywords that are relevant for a particular ad.
Since each PPC ad you pay for will only have a bit of space to write on, your ad phrase has to be something that would attract attention and encourage click-throughs. Take time to thoroughly think of a catchy headline and an ad copy that entices users to click. Refrain from writing a salesy ad and remove all useless words. Make it straight to the point, attention grabbing and irresistible.
Keep your ad reach under control. It would be unwise to have ads all over the place since each click is money spent. If you only ship within Australia, it would be a waste to have people from New York clicking on your ads since they would not be able to buy your products. Keep your PPC geo targeted to ensure that they only appear to your target location giving you more relevant clicks.
Having ads on the different pay per click networks is another mistake many new marketers commit. Aside from geo targeting your ads, avoid the temptation to create a campaign on every search engine available. This tends to be confusing, time consuming, expensive and often times, unnecessary.
Avoid paying for useless clicks by filtering your target audience. Adding a negative keyword would filter out searchers for those particular words. By filtering out the words “accident”, “car”, “travel”, and “disability”, a company trying to sell life insurance would benefit by getting clicked on by people searching for what they are offering and not other types of insurance.
After creating a hyper-focused ad that would effectively generate clicks, ensure that you are leading the user to a well constructed landing page. As your PPC’s role is to entice clicks, it is your landing page’s sole purpose to convert each visitor. A dedicated landing page with a clear call to action is a must.
Before launching your campaign and going live, test your ad to be sure that a click actually goes to your landing page. It would be a waste of all your hard work and of money if your click points to the wrong URL.
