What is Pay Per Click?
The term "pay per click," also known as PPC, is a lead generation service that allows you to advertise your business with text and display ads. Your cost is limited to number of web visitors that "click" your ads and go to your website. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the biggest PPC service providers.
There are a hundred other search engine providers, and these days, even Facebook overs PPC opportunities. Alturnities to the PPC model are Cost per Impression (CPI) where you pay a significantly lower fee whenever your ads are shown, and Pay Per Sale (PPA - the A is for Action) when you pay only for sales generated at your website. See Affilaite Marketing for more information on PPA opportunities.
The Benefits of PPC
PPC marketing allows you to create highly targeted ads focused on highly targeted potential customers, on the first page of search engines, based on the use of keywords. If someone is doing an Internet search using therm (keyword) "Diabetes Doctor in New York City" and you happen to be an endocrinologist with an office in New York City, that would be a great keyword phase to buy. The point is that you are matching your products and services to people using the Internet to find you in a highly targeted manner.
1. Sponsored Links are Paid Ads
2. Natural (SEO) Listings are Free
Paid ads will show on the top and right sides as "sponsored links."
Pay per click gets your company on page one on the search engines.
Natural listings are free. Pay per click can help you get more online exposure for keywords that are not at the top of the natural listings.
The Challenges of PPC
PPC advertising is a powerful marketing tool if it used by a skilled operator. The cost per click will vary significantly based on the amount of competition that exists for that term. We have long term clients running PPC campaigns from $.03 per click to $3.25 a click. Some clicks can be as high as $20, just for one click. As of this writing, our example of "Diabetic Doctor in New York City" is about $.20 a click. You can go through a lot of money if you don't understand what you are doing.
Enough Clicks
"Diabetic Doctor in New York City" has a low rate at just $.20 per click, but how many clicks will you get per day? Probably not that many. Not only do you have to be able to find affordable clicks, you have to generate enough traffic to have the clicks produce sales. The chances are good that Somewhere between $.20 and $1.00 per click you will find the right balance.
Budget for Clicks
The most important element in managing a PPC program is getting the most return for the least amount of money spent. If you were to set a daily budget of $10, and the average cost per click of all the keywords in your campaign was $.50, you can expect to get 20 clicks a day. The next question to be discovered is how many clicks do you need to generate a sale? Don't think every click that comes into your website will buy. The national average is between 1% and 65, which greatly varies by the type of product or service offered. If your website conversion rate is 2%, you will need 50 clicks to make a sale. At $.50 per click, a sale would cost $25. How much is your product or service? And does that cost fall in line with what a new customer is worth to you?
PPC Ad Designs
So far, we've just been looking at the strategic side of PPC advertising. Now comes the creative side. Here are the general guidelines to follow when writing a text ad:
- It includes the keyword or keyword phrase you are buying.
- Write the ad with enough "create interest" to get a click.
- However, don't be too vague to generate clicks from non-buyers.
- And do it all in a very limited number of words.
It is quite a skill to write these ads. In fact, we are always writing and editing ads to find the balance between Click through Rate (CTR) and conversion.
Pay Per Click Tips
Best of Breed practices for PPC advertising:
- Always use your brand.
- Avoid "vague" keywords.
- Use Negative Keywords.
- Write ads that solve problems.
- Use the keyword in your ad.
- Use the keyword on your landing page.
- Match inbound call center sales to pay per click campaigns.
- Know your ROI parameters.
- Use Budgets.
The Importance of PPC Ad Position
There is a saying in the Real Estate business that goes like this: "location, location, location." In the SEO and pay per click business, it is the right location.
Eyetools.com invented the ability to plug web users into their computers and record where they look when they look at a webpage. The heat map shows the ads in the top spots, both over the natural listings and in the right hand column. PPC ads in these "prime areas" areas will get the clicks.
Obviously, ads shown where they will generate the most clicks come a high premium. Not only will they generally cost more per click, they will bring what we call "tire kickers," meaning visitors that are shoppers but not buyers. There will be buyers in the group, but when you add the cost of the tire kickers, your return on investment drops significantly. We have found better ROI metrics by buying keywords outside of the heavily viewed areas of a search page. Yes, you get less clicks, but you do get better quality traffic at a lower price per click.
In Summary
We highly recommend PPC advertising as part of your overall marketing plan. We believe is starting small and local PPC campaigns until we can establish a business model that supports long term growth of your company. PPC can be very expensive and wasteful if not managed properly, but it is an important part of your overall marketing plan.
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Solution Web Designs
Online Marketing Success by Design
Pay Per Click Management
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