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Pay per click is a generic term that describes web based advertising models that only charge an advertiser when a prospect clicks on the advertiser’s link.
Often called sponsored ads, pay per click has more than one name; another name that is used interchangeably is CPC or cost per click.
The cost per click normally depends on the type of platform like search, social networks or classifieds. Additionally, it depends on the demand for the keyword and advertising competition.
Google generates $17 billion annually from connecting advertisers with searchers, as you can see it’s really important component of e-commerce.
Step-by-Step Action Plan
1. Identify how your business’s audience would search for your business online. You do this by developing two sets of keywords, directly targeted (about 10) and long-tail. Long-tail are keywords that are slightly off center from your target keywords but still relevant to your business.
2. Once you identify what keywords you want to use, you then need to identify what pay per click platform you’d like to use, your options are below:
a. Search Engines (Better for conversions)
b. Social Networks (Better for branding)
c. Email (Good mix of branding and conversions)
d. Classifieds (Great for conversions)
3. So let’s assume that you chose Google to start your pay per click campaign. The steps you’d need to follow are below:
e. Setup an account at adwords.google.com
f. Click the “Campaigns” tab
g. Name your campaign and define your audience
h. Set your daily bidding price
i. Move to the next screen
j. Name your ad group
k. Create your ad
l. Input your keywords into the “Select Keywords” list
m. Define your default bids (these are your bids per click)
n. Click “Save Ad Group”
o. Select the newly created ad group under the “All online campaigns list”
p. Select the checkbox next to your new ad campaign
q. Look for the “Change Status” button slightly above the campaigns and click “Enable”
r. This will activate your ad campaign and your ads will start displaying shortly!
4. It’s one thing for your ads to be running, but how do you know if they are working? There are two tools that you can use to track the activity of the ads, they are below:
s. Conversion Tracking
t. Analytics
To access the conversion-tracking program, log into your Adwords account clicking on “Tools” then “Conversion Tracking”. There are detailed instructions to help you install this code into your website.
Accessing “Analytics” is almost the same process, but instead of clicking on “Tools” you’d click on “Google Analytics” and if you don’t already have it installed, there are detailed instructions to install that as well.
Demographics
Below, we have given you the demographics for the pay per click platforms not mentioned above:
Yahoo Search Marketing
MySpace Ads
Adknowledge Ad Network (Email PPC)
Backpage
Conversion Rate
Pay Per Click advertising typically converts at about 1-3%. Pay Per Click can be tricky for first timers but it’s not an insurmountable task to overcome in your marketing. PPC works best when you have the following in place:
- Targeted keywords
- Attention demanding headline
- Supporting copy
- URL containing keyword (i.e. www.rotorooter.com/plumber)
- A landing page containing a call to action
Top Pay Per Click Sites
Search Engine PPC
Social Network PPC
Classifieds PPC
Email PPC
Cost
Pay Per Click can be a bit expensive at times and we really don’t recommend building an entire marketing plan around it. We mainly use it for testing and it should never exceed more than 40% of your online marketing budget.
Click costs can vary based on the keywords selected and they can be as cheap as $0.20 – $12.00, it really just depends. On average, most small businesses can find targeted keywords for less than $1 per click. Additionally, there are 2 ways to drastically drop keyword costs:
- Advertise primarily in the Google content network
- Use geographical targeting to avoid mainstream competition
Top Pay Per Click Resources
Keyword Research
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Donnny,
Thx once again for this informative slide presentation.
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