Setting up a PPC Campaign

    In order for search engine optimization efforts to be more fruitful and offer better results, Pay Per Click campaigns are a great way to go. Before you can start your own PPC campaign, careful strategizing and planning are needed.

    The process can be summarized into five stages: keyword selection, bidding strategies, advertising text, developing proper landing pages, and tracking. Each one will be discussed.

Keyword Selection

    It is already well understood on how important a role keywords play in the search engine optimization game. The great thing about this is that you are not limited to the number of keywords you want to use. As long as you know how to properly used them and integrate them in your site, you will surely reap the benefits.

    How can you select the keywords for your campaign? As said before, there are tools that you can use on the internet. Google AdWords and Overture from Yahoo Search Marketing are smart options.

    From the keywords you will be choosing, you are given price estimates as to how much you might be spending per click. Keep in mind that if you decide to choose hot search engine keywords, your cost per click can be as high as $5.00, or it may be more.

Bidding Strategies

    Now that you have narrowed down your selection of keywords to use in your PPC campaign, what do you do? You have to bid for those keywords so that your search engine will know that you are willing to pay to be added to their sponsored links.

    Sources suggest that you should bid for keywords that are not as expensive, but they have high rates of clicks from visitors. This is called a high click through rate, as used in many search engine optimization blogs and PPC service providers.

    To be able to determine how much you can afford to bid for keywords, you should first know how much profit you will be making per sale. Determine what percentage of the profits you are willing to spend for advertising.

    Also, you should have tools that will determine your conversion rate. As mentioned earlier, this is the rate at which your website visitors actually become buyers through the transactions they make. If conversion rates are high, then perhaps you can shell out a little extra for your PPC campaign.

    Your aim with your keyword bidding should be to get the top one to three sponsored listings in the search results pages. Take note that bidding for keywords needs to be done regularly. At times when you think that you’re not getting enough return of investment (ROI) for that selection of keywords, you can search for other options.

Advertising Text

    What is the text ad or the ad text which many advertisers keep in mind during PPC campaigns? Recalling the above example on “brown leather bags,” notice that there are three sponsored links that appeared on the right hand side of the Google results page.

    Each of these sponsored links has a link title and a short description of what is being sold, or what perks you can get from buying from their site. This short text description is called the advertising text, or ad text.

    Remember, how you write the few words or phrases to be shown in your ad text can make a big difference in convincing a Google user or Yahoo searcher to click on your link to get to your site.

    There is such as term as call to action, and you should always remember this when coming up with ideas for ad text. These terms make it clear for the would-be visitor as to what he can get from clicking your link. Examples of statements that clearly explain this in ad text: “Sign up now!”, “Get additional information”, “Get reservations fast.”

    Google provides a tool for webmaster called the Ad Text Ideas, which helps you by giving suggestions to the ad text you have written, based on parameters you enter yourself.

    You should also use catchy phrases like “get a 20% discount”, “best-selling”, “top-rated”, “best homemade”, and others. You can learn more on these examples through research.

    After you have done that, be sure you have at least two variations for your ad text. By using analytics tools, you will know which of your ad text variations is more effective. For example, “Get cleaner skin today” may be better than “Achieve the cleanest skin you can ever have.”

Developing proper landing pages

    What is a landing page? In search engine optimization, this is used to describe the first page that a visitor sees after clicking on a link listed in the search engine results page.

    In the case of PPC campaigns, the landing pages will be the web destination of visitors after they have clicked on your ad in the sponsored links portion of the page.

    A simple thing to remember here is to be consistent with what your ad text has said, and what your landing page will show. It is not a healthy practice to mislead potential buyers by enticing them with a “40% discount” as mentioned on the ad text, only to find out that there is nothing mentioned about it in the landing page.

    When a visitor arrives at your landing page, be sure everything will be clear to him or her. He should be able to navigate easily to the lists of products and prices, as well as be directed to the pages where he needs to sign up or register, if needed.

    If your landing page is not as effective as your ad text, your visitor will simply go back to his original search query. You have paid for that click the visitor made, but no transactions took place.

Tracking

    As a means of “sharpening the saw” or maintaining the good status of your Pay Per Click campaign, you should have an effective method of tracking your progress. At any time during your PPC campaign, you should be able to answer the question, “How well am I doing?”

    How can you do that? There are features of search engines, such as in the case of Yahoo or Google, where you can use analytics or trackers to monitor traffic and the success rates of your PPC ads.

    There are also private PPC companies that offer tracking as part of their services. The basic task of trackers is to find out if the keywords of choice have been faring well against the competition.

    The tracker helps the website owner know if he is getting returns of investment (ROI) in his PPC campaign. These reports should be provided to the webmaster on a regular basis. Some of the information included in tracking reports are number of visits, hits, conversion rates, and more.

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