Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 8 of May , 2008 at 7:25 am
Having set up a web site you may now be wondering what is best: buying search engine optimization help or starting a pay-per-click campaign? When you consider the pro’s and con’s of each you will find the answer comes easily.
Search Engine Optimization
For a new web site, even with a professional search engine optimization program, you are not going to rank at number one for quite sometime. However, you will never rank in the top 50 (pages) unless you do undertake some form of search engine optimization program.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
PPC campaigns will generate traffic to your website.The more traffic you generate, the more your site will be seen and the better the possibility for natural links to your site - a big bonus when it comes to search engine optimization. Obviously, if your site is a commercial site then PPC will bring extra traffic targeted to your keywords and hopefully ready to open their wallets.
From the above two short descriptors, you are probably already trying to organize your first PPC campaign. Just wait a moment and reread them, particularly the last sentence in he search engine optimization brief.
The choice is no choice, ie, both. You need to undertake both campaigns if you want your web site to succeed. Search engine optimization will provide long term benefits that will generate organic visitors from the search engines. These are ‘free’ visitors, that is, you have not had to pay to get them onto your site.
PPC will get the traffic coming in and hopefully the income. Overtime, if your search engine optimization programs are successful, you find yourself spending less on PPC and generating more in the way of free clicks. PPC can then be used for special promotions.
Category: PPC, SEO
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 29 of March , 2008 at 6:34 am
The most popular form of advertising over the last decade has been Pay-Per-Click or PPC and has generally been dominated by Google through its Adsense program. Yahoo is a more recent player in the search engine advertising market place and while there are many other players trying to attract advertisers, Google still dominates.
Google’s click rate and subsequent revenue from PPC has fallen in recent months again raising the question as to whether or not search engine advertising is a viable form of advertising. This comes in the wake of the introduction of both audio and video as advertising vehicles together with a general downturn in consumer spending.
The jury is still out on these as viable long term replacements for the current forms of advertising. The reality is, most advertisers do not have budgets that would allow them to include either audio or video in their marketing plans. Audio and video will also have several obstacles to overcome before be able to really make an impact.
Pay per click does have its own obstacles that need addressing if it is to continue to dominate. These include click fraud and the low conversion rates with often high per click costs. PPC will always per popular as a traffic generation campaign where advertisers can find low keyword click costs.
Pay per action has been discussed as both an alternative to and as an addition to search engine advertising. Affiliate marketing has been around for many years as a form of pay per action, however the action has always been related to a sale. Pay per action now includes any activity designated by the advertiser including successful telephone calls, newsletter subscriptions and of course sales.
The biggest problem for advertisers when it comes to PPC and search engine advertising is that the balance falls heavily in favor of the publisher. Pay per action swings the pendulum the other way and heavily favors the advertiser. In the meantime the middle men are happily collecting their hefty commissions.
Therein lies the future of most forms of online advertising. What are the middle men, and at present that almost always means Google, going to promote tomorrow. Google have been playing around with Adsense quite a lot over the last 6-12 months and have now introduced video ads. If revenues in the PPC area continue to fall then Google will undoubtedly look to other areas to prop up its income from search engine advertising.
Neither publishers or advertisers seem satisfied with PPC althoug it remains as the major force in online advertising. PPC and search engine advertising will maintain this standing until advertising agencies such as Google can deliver reliable results driven advertising that satisfies both the advertiser and the publisher.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 19 of December , 2007 at 7:45 am
I tend to shrug off PPC in favor of good old-fashioned organic marketing whenever possible. I have a number of reasons for doing this:
- PPC produces a finite result - once your budget is expended, it is gone.
- Distinguishing buyers may avoid PPC ads - People that have been around the Internet block, may unconsciously screen out obvious advertising.
- PPC is not a guarantee of leads - PPC merely guarantees traffic not leads.
PPC has a definite place in web marketing, but I will always prefer what can be accomplished through the right balance of keywords and text. Great content can work wonders.
Where PPC has its place is when you are trying to give your sales a short term boost or when you are launching into a particularly large market. In such cases, PPC can give you the boost that you need to market your site effectively. PPC has a definite place in marketing, but you should never rely on PPC alone. Have great content to back it up.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 17 of December , 2007 at 2:00 pm
Search Engine Optimization, its all about getting people onto your website, right? The thing is that all the optimization in the world will not help you if you are releasing a website into a crowded market full of well established competitors. You want to get your site out there, you want it to be seen, but the fact is that SEO just does not cut it when you are getting started. You still need to optimize your site, but you will need a little bit more to drive the traffic through your gates. PPC offers you just that little bit extra. There are some that dismiss PPC as mere link buying, but so what, it gets you to the top of any search pile and it doesn’t cost all that much.
There may come a time that you don’t need PPC, but when you are starting out, it is one of the best ways to build up guaranteed traffic. If your site is well optimized, if it looks good and encourages website sales, then it will do the rest. It takes the effort out of traffic building and it works. If you are not satisfied with your sites traffic levels, then it could be time to Pay Per Click.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 5 of October , 2007 at 9:03 am
Search Engine Land recently asked the question, “Which Google Products Should a Small Business Use?” I liked their answer, but it seems incomplete. Here’s the list of services they suggest small business owners should use:
- Google Analytics
- Google Maps
- Local Business Center
- Google Base
- Google Website Optimizer
The list is incomplete because it leaves out the most important Google service of all: Google AdWords.
Of course, they may have left Google AdWords off the list on purpose. You can’t use Google Analytics unless you sign up for Google AdWords first. But just having a Google AdWords account doesn’t mean that you are using the product. Or maybe they left Google AdWords off the list because they believe that not every business owner can benefit from a pay-per-click campaign. That could be true. But most businesses, I believe, would do well to start a Google AdWords campaign to drive targeted traffic to their website.
Another use for Google AdWords is keyword research. If you run a business of any kind then you can use Google AdWords for your keyword research. It’s free so why wouldn’t you?
Suffice it to say, I’d add one more Google service to Search Engine Land’s list. Google AdWords.
Category: Internet Marketing, PPC, Search Engines
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 31 of August , 2007 at 6:44 pm
The Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog earlier today announced that it has made some changes to the Yahoo! Panama PPC model. I think some of these changes are quite interesting.
For instance, you can look at all of your pay-per-click ads, up to 20 ads, with one click. And you can also look at competitors’ ads so you can borrow their ideas. But the feature that I found most promising is the quality score update. Every 30 days, Yahoo! will review pay-per-click quality scores and if your quality score goes down they’ll send you an e-mail to let you know. Of course, you can check your Account Summary, but if you are near the end of the 30-day period and haven’t checked yet then they’ll notify you by e-mail. I think that’s a cool feature.
Finally, one new feature of the PPC model at Yahoo! is the ability to save and view up to 45 different reports. I like creating custom reports. 45 of them? Wow, that’s a feature I could go crazy for.
It looks like Yahoo! is making a serious effort to compete with Google.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 30 of August , 2007 at 8:37 am
If you plan on using pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to your website then you need to understand that each ad you write must be optimized for specific keywords. Not concepts. Keywords.
Google evaluates every ad and gives it a quality score. That quality score helps determine the rank that ad falls into when displayed on SERPs and in the content network. The quality score is determined, in part, by how well you have optimized your ad according to certain keywords. Perhaps the most important thing to understand is the keyword mix you have on your target page - the page you are driving traffic to.
PPC Ad Positioning Based On Keywords
It isn’t so much that the keywords that are on that page will be penalized if they don’t appear in the ad. Your ad might still run, but it won’t be displayed as high up on the page. You might have to increase your bid amount for those keywords if you want them to appear on the page. You might be better off discontinuing the ad from appearing on pages optimized for those keywords altogether.
For example, let’s say you sell fruit: apples, oranges, bananas, pears, kumquats. OK, we’ll throw in the figs for a nickel. Well, you can’t ship fruit through the U.S. mail, but it’s just an example, right? So you optimize your ad around the keyword fruit. You don’t have enough space in your ad to list every kind of fruit you offer so you leave those out. You could write a separate ad for each type of fruit. But let’s suppose your first ad uses the keyword “fruit.” Your ad will still run when a searcher queries “apple,” but your ad won’t appear as high on the page - unless you increase your bid for that keyword.
In highly competitive markets your ad may not run at all unless you bid a certain minimum. I saw this the other day. Ads for a certain keyword were inactivated until the advertiser agreed to pay $1.00 for those keywords, a full 70 cents above what he was willing to pay. And they were excellent keywords for his ad. Just keep this one thing in mind: Keywords are extremely important in pay-per-click advertising.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 26 of August , 2007 at 8:50 pm
With Google Pay-Per-Click, advertisers get the option of sticking with the search network or using the content network. The search network is simply having your ads placed on Google SERPs whenever the keywords in your ad campaign match a searchers search query. Pretty simple.
The content network is a little bit more complicated. Advertisers who are a part of the content network include those advertisers who have opted to allow Google AdSense ads on their websites. But the ads that appear on their websites will match the keywords that their web pages are optimized for. To add another element, you can choose certain sites for your ads to appear on and you can choose certain sites for your ads to not be featured on. The members of the content network also can elect to have certain ads not appear on their sites.
If it benefits a certain website owner to ban a competitor from having ads appear on his site then that website owner can ban the ads. So when you join the content network it is not predictable where your ads will appear. And results from the content network can be spurious as well. The content network will usually yield a lower CTR, but you could be reaching a more targeted end user as well. It’s really a mixed bag.
One danger to the content network is a competitor could easily use your PPC ads to wage an aggressive campaign to drive you out of the PPC market with something that has been called click fraud. Some advertisers will pay someone to make malicious clicks for the sole purpose of draining their competitors’ budgets. This is very difficult to detect. If you are in a highly competitive industry then the content network may not benefit you as much as the search network.
You may also not gain as much benefit from the content network if the items you sell are low-dollar items. If you are selling units that cost $3-$5 each then Google may be out of your budget anyway. Most PPC ads will cost you too much for you to get a reasonable return. If you do engage in PPC you’ll likely want to stick with the search network for the low-dollar items and leave the content network for the big players.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 10 of August , 2007 at 9:46 am
It looks like the blogosphere has found me. I’m flattered.
As they say, any publicity is good publicity. But some people aren’t real happy about me. You see, I’ve gone and broken the cardinal rule of PPC. I bid on other companies’ brand names. It’s not illegal as Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay has pointed out. Though some folks do question the ethics behind it.
(Source) It’s actually good strategy, but not really ethical.
The part that gets me - and it doesn’t make me mad, it just makes me laugh - is that some people are saying this practice makes me a bad marketer. If you can see the punch line in that statement then you can understand why I’m flattered at all of the attention. Here are a few lines from Lisa at Bruce Clay:
Not because it’s unethical or because it’s “bad” but because it does nothing to separate you from them, aka your competition.
You can make the argument that aligning yourself with respected companies gets you noticed, and yeah, that has obviously worked for Nick to some degree. But are they are going to remember you as being a search engine optimization company or are they going to only remember that you showed up next to Bruce Clay or RedBoots Consulting when they weren’t looking for you.
My fear is that by heading down the path where you piggyback off others success may make you more enemies than you gain clients. If you’re a good search marketer, why not get attention by showing off your skills?
Well, Lisa, I got you talking about me, didn’t I? Other people are talking me, aren’t they? I didn’t pay you or any of the other folks out there in the blogosphere to mention my name or link to my blog, did I? So I guess I’ll let the blogosphere decide on the effectiveness of my strategy. Fact is, I’m getting click throughs and, yes, closing sales. Who really cares if their competition is mad at them?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out to make enemies. I’m just building a business. I’m not trash talking my competition, I’m just using them, in a sense, to slingshot my way to success (though it isn’t my primary reason for using this strategy). In auto racing, it is common for trailing cars to drive behind the lead car in order to conserve power and energy against the force of the wind. Then, at an opportune moment, they can swing around the automobile in the lead and use the reserve power they’ve been storing to “slingshot” them into the lead. It’s a valid strategy and it works in business as well as in auto racing.
I am fully aware that the practice may not win friends in some circles. Nevertheless, I expect to be a competitor. I am building a brand and my method is effective in doing just that. I figure if I attract some business and people use my services, all I have to do to keep them as customers long term is provide a good service at a fair price. But to get there I have to get them to the door. If that means barking like a carny then my PPC ads serve a purpose. I hope that doesn’t create ill will, but if it does then at least my customers know that I can deliver the goods. And as for “showing off my skills,” I believe I already have.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: Online Publicity, PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 9 of August , 2007 at 9:28 am
(From Inside AdWords) We have, however, been working on an improvement to the top ad placement formula that will soon offer advertisers more control over achieving top placement while increasing the quality of our ad results for users.
That sounds promising, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to improve their chances of appearing at the top of the Google AdWords heap?
So what is Google’s solution to help achieve this for advertisers? It’s a change in how ads will be ranked. Instead of relying heavily on actual CPC, they are going to switch to using maximum CPC. Here’s the explanation:
Actual CPC is determined, in part, by the bidding behavior of the advertisers below you. This means that your ad’s chance of being promoted to a top spot could be constrained by a factor you cannot influence. By considering your ad’s maximum CPC, a value you set, you will have more control over achieving top ad placement.
In truth, it won’t play out like this. This is Orwellian double speak at heart. Google is in business to create more profit for its shareholders. If the board of directors says “sell more ads” or “make more revenue from the ads you do sell” then guess what? We’re going after the big bucks. And this is what this is all about. Google wants to improve its profits.
Nothing wrong with that except that changing the way it ranks PPC ads is going to fare better for Google’s profits than for its advertisers. Here’s why:
you will have more control over achieving top ad placement. - No you won’t. This is double-speak for “the highest bidder wins.” Who do you think will be the highest bidder? I’m guessing it will be those with deep pockets.
Google has, more and more, moved toward being a shill for corporate influence. Its search results reflect it, its business relationships reflect it, and now its advertising model will reflect it. By maintaining a focus on actual CPC versus maximum CPC, Google ensure a level of competitiveness between the big money players and the small guys - corporations with deep pockets and small business entrepreneurs. This has been the essence of the Internet’s character from the beginning and has continued to be the essence of what Internet marketing has been about all along. Create an atmosphere is sheer competitiveness based on crude, raw financials and you’ll get an online version of cut-throat Wall Street wizarding. And that’s what Google is playing to.
Is that bad? Some people might think not. But I’m betting this type of advertising model is going to lead to more and more expensive ads, people bidding for keywords based on CPC alone and eventually you’ll see a decline in quality of PPC ads while Google improves its profits. Or am I just being paranoid?
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 30 of July , 2007 at 2:26 pm
Did we really need a study to tell us PPC is most effective when the keywords match? Why else would they ask you to designate keywords?
But here it is anyway.
Here’s the interesting part:
(Pilgrim’s take) In one study that tested ads for Encyclopedia Brittannica, ad titles that contained both “Encylopedia” and “Brittannica” converted 2.5 times better than ad titles that contained only Brittanica.
Based on my own PPC campaigns I know this is true. The more targeted your ad the more effective it will be. This has always been an important advertising maxim. It’s even more important now that you can actually track your results. Not only can you track the effectiveness of your PPC ads, but you can track the effectiveness of each keyword in the ad and that is the winning number in this.
(Pilgrim’s take) This study quantified something that any sophisticated PPC advertiser probably already knows–you should try to match your ad titles as closely as possible to the search terms that you are buying. Be as specific as you can, using brand names if possible.
OK, let’s repeat ourselves. Match your keywords as closely as possible. Otherwise, you’ll get fewer click throughs. Be specific. No-brainer, huh?
A little less of a no-brainer, though:
(Pilgrim’s take) Using indirectly related keywords generated traffic but with a much lower click through rate and conversion rate.
Too many PPC advertisers expect great things from mediocre ads. If you have an unrelated keyword you might get a few click throughs. But most of your best click throughs will come from keywords in your PPC ads that match exactly the keywords search for at the search engine. That should go without saying, but not as many people think that way as should. If you are targeting people searching for pink bikinis, for crying out loud, make your PPC headline “Pink Bikinis,” then include that phrase again in one of the two lines of your ad. You’ll be much better for it, I promise.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 26 of July , 2007 at 1:26 pm
Funny story. Google banned this guy for buying links so instead of owning up and asking for absolution he decides he doesn’t need Google. So he starts buying sponsored ads - paying for links! I’m anxious to see how he does.
But it does bring up an interesting question that the pilgrims have offered an answer for:
Most of the comments on Naylor’s blog and people I have discussed this post with seem to be of the opinion that the client should bow down and ask for forgiveness. Organic Google traffic is needed too much to survive without it. I completely disagree.
Do website owners really need Google? Many people believe so. Organic SEO, as a matter of fact, does deliver more traffic to websites than any other source. In fact, about 80% of all traffic on any given website comes from organic search listings. Ahhh, but here’s the rub, about 80% of all traffic on most websites bounce in and bounce out without sticking around too long. But is it the same 80%? Not likely.
Where is the other 20% coming from? Click-throughs from other websites, directories, blogs, article marketing, banner ads, and sponsored listings on SERPs and other content network websites. Most of that 20% is targeted traffic. Just about every one of those sources delivers targeted traffic, which is more likely to buy or take the desired action simply because they were looking for your stuff. Well, maybe not quite 20%, but most of that 20% any way. The question is, can a website survive financially from that 20%?
I see no reason why not. Click-throughs from articles, blogs, and directories are free. If you don’t pay too much for other forms of advertising then it is feasible that you can earn a profit from the traffic you get from those sources and not need the organic traffic. The bottom line for any business is ROI. You want to earn more than you spend. The reason most of us like organic traffic is because it is free. And if you do it right then it is targeted traffic. But there’s the hitch: It is hard to do it right. That’s why the SEO industry is such a hot item right now.
I think, personally, if you hire an SEO firm to push your website up in the organic rankings that you will probably spend more in the long run than you will if you run a pay-per-click campaign. If that is the case then would the money you spend on SEO be better utilized on PPC? It bears some consideration, don’t you think?
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 23 of July , 2007 at 7:07 am
If you want a sure way to increase your rankings in the search engines, try something I like to call the triad of keywords. The triad of keywords is a simple concept and it works.
The first thing you do is load your relevant web page or landing page with the keyword you want ranked for. Don’t spam, but use the keyword a lot. Make it rich with your keyword. Secondly, take out a sponsored ad at one of your favorite search engines - preferably Google or Yahoo - and link the ad to that landing page. Now, here’s the kicker: That sponsored ad MUST use the same keyword you used on your landing page in both the headline and the body. For instance:
You build a landing page around the keyword “milk chocolate.” Your sponsored ad’s headline should contain “milk chocolate” in it. So should also the body. But you must also conform the ad to the search engine’s specifications, which means you are limited in your word count. Your ad might read as such:
Milk Chocolate (headline)
Milk chocolate not duds;
Melts when is supposed to.
With this ad you have the keyword phrase in both the headline and the body. This maximizes your inbound link (the headline) as anchor text and ads the variable of relevancy to the link. The surrounding text on both the ad and the landing page make the relevancy variable more valuable. If you had a link with the proper anchor text on a page about motor cars, for instance, and the land page was only secondarily about milk chocolate then that link would be less valuable. Surrounding text is just as important as the anchor text. Don’t forget that.
That brings me to the third piece of the triad. The search term itself. Sponsored ads are ranked in part by relevance. In other words. The above ad on milk chocolate will appear in its placement according to how relevant it is to the searchers query. If the searcher types in “milk chocolate” and that’s it then the ad should rank higher. On the other hand, if the searcher is looking for “milk chocolate” along with “peanuts” then the ad may rank lower since you say nothing about peanuts in your ad or on your landing page. You must keep this in mind when writing your landing pages and sponsored ads. When you build your landing page you’ve got to keep in mind how you will write the ad that points to that page. You are essentially targeting the landing page as well as the sponsored ad to a specific market segment. Use the proper keyword phrase in both elements of the triad and you should do well.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 10 of July , 2007 at 5:22 pm
(Source) Search page views are roughly 5% of page views on the web, which means non-search page views are roughly 95%. There is no quicker way of increasing one’s advertising reach on PPC than utilizing the content network. However, if it is not done correctly, it’s easy for ads to be “matched” to irrelevant items, and advertising dollars will be wasted by being shown next to non-relevant content.
I couldn’t agree more. Pay-per-click content networks can expand your message tremendously, but do it wrong and you’ll spend a lot of money with no return. But you’ll also be expanding the opportunities for click fraud so be careful. Here are a few tips to help you with your content network PPC optimization.
The Pay-Per-Click Content Network
The first thing you need to keep in mind when bidding on your PPC keywords is that content users and search users have different mindsets when it comes to clicking on ads. If you sell cheerleader pom-poms and you have pay-per-click ads on Google’s SERP for the keyword phrase “cheerleader pom-poms” you are more likely to get a more targeted traffic than you are on Mary Ellen’s blog post about her sister’s cheerleading outfit because Mary Ellen likely blogs about all sorts of topics and her readers are not reading her blog specifically to get information on cheerleading supplies.
On the other hand, if your ad appears on a website that sells cheerleading supplies then you are likely to reach a more targeted group of users who may be further along in the sales process for cheerleader pom-poms. Therefore, what you need to keep in mind is that the content network represents potential ad locations that are more diverse than the search network. That means the economics will be different.
PPC Content Network Keyword Matching
The second thing to keep in mind about pay-per-click content networks is how keyword matching is done. With search networks, the search engine reads the searchers query and tries to match it with a keyword in your pay-per-click account. If there is a match then you will appear at the appropriate place in the PPC order based on your bid and the relevance of the keyword. With content networks the matching is done at the ad group level. The search engine scans the keywords within your ad group and assigns them to a theme. Any website that matches that theme could feature your ad. This is important when designing your content network ad themes. You are much better off with a large number of themed ad groups, each one focused on a few closely related keywords, than you are with a few ad groups where each one consists of a lot of keywords.
Block Undesirable Content Network Websites
Another thing to keep in mind with PPC content networks is that you can block websites from displaying your ad. If you don’t get much traffic from a particular website then block it. Also, if you get a lot of traffic but the cost per conversion is high, block it.
Meauring Pay-Per-Click Cost Per Conversions
And that brings me to my final point: Don’t measure conversions. Measure cost per conversion instead because with the content network, remember, the economics are different. You’ll be advertising on websites that will deliver you traffic where the cost per click is low and websites where the cost per click is high. If you get a higher conversion rate on the website where your cost per click is high than you do on the one where your cost per click is low, but the cost per conversion is the same then those two websites are equal in terms of value to your campaign. Here’s an illustration to help you understand it better:
Go back to the cheerleading pom-poms ads. Your ad on Mary Ellen’s block may cost you .05 cents per click even though you bid $1 per click because the PPC company discounts certain ads based on the content of the website and the likelihood that it will deliver high value traffic to advertisers. Since you’re more likely to make solid conversions from the cheerleading supplies website your clicks will likely cost you what you bid.
Suppose you get 1,000 click from Mary Ellen’s blog. Those 1,000 clicks will cost you $50 and if you make one sale from that then it costs you $50 for that one conversion. On the other hand, if the cheerleading supplies website generates just 50 clicks in the same amount of time and you make one sale from that then the cost per conversion is the same between the two websites. Make one more sale from the cheerleading supplies website and your cost per conversion is twice that of Mary Ellen’s blog even though you got fewer clicks.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 7 of July , 2007 at 5:12 pm
Google has added a new feature to its AdWords tool:
Impression Share, a new AdWords metric, is similar to share of voice — it represents the percentage of times your ads were actually shown in relation to the total number of chances your ads could have been shown, based on your keyword and campaign settings.
But will this be a valuable tool to advertisers? I think it may be. But advertisers will have to be careful in how they use it.
If you want to know where you stand in relation to your competition for specific keywords then this could be a valuable tool. The feature also will tell you how many lost opportunities you had for the times that your ad was available. In other words, if you set your daily budget for $5 and you reach that budget by noon then you are missing opportunities that your ad could be viewed for the rest of the business day. What percentage of the time available did you miss out on opportunities? Would you like to know?
I suspect Google is offering this feature in hopes that pay-per-click advertisers will realize that they are setting their budgets too low and will start to spend more money based on the numbers they see. That’s where you’ll have to resist the temptation.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend more money if you find that your ad is being viewed only 30% of the times that it could possibly be shown to your target audience. But you’ll have to weigh the value of that other 70% and your daily budget - not to mention your ROI. If you find that the morning hours are more profitable for your pay-per-click campaign - say to the tune of 80% of your sales come from that 30% of the opportunities then it makes sense to just focus on that 30% and max out your budget early in the day. On the other hand ….
If you are missing out on valuable sales opportunities because your ads are not being shown 70% of the time that they could be, well, it just might be in your best interest to increase your budget - if, and here’s the big if, your ROI based on that increase makes it worth your while.
Bottom line: When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, opportunities are not important, how much money you make versus how much you spend is.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: PPC
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