Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is practically
indispensable for driving customers to sites.
Although people often say that they prefer to
look first at the natural results of their search requests, the evidence
suggests otherwise.
The most obvious evidence is that most
commercially important key words and phrases pull in lots more
revenue per click than they did initially. When Google started AdWords,
many commercially valuable key words and phrases could be had
for the minimum bid, a nickel. Today, 30 cents per click is not unusual for good
key words and highly competitive key words can be three times that and
more. People and
companies bid up key words because text ads work. They are a
highly cost-effective way to reach customers who are primed to
buy.
But, search engine text advertising isn't a
short term or one-time project. It's a trial and error process of discovering:
-
the most effective key words and phrases to
reach your intended audience
-
how to bid for less expensive, but still
highly productive, key words.
-
testing various sales messages to find
those most effective in getting customers to click.
-
adjusting sales messages for holiday and/or
seasonal promotions.
-
calculating which of the many ad networks:
Google AdWords, Overture, YahooAds, Yellowbook.com, etc. yields
the best bang for your advertising dollars.
Pay-Per-Click
Advertising programs, like Google's AdSense program, and similar
programs by Yahoo! and other search providers, enable web businesses to
advertise economically directly to their target audiences by placing
small text ads that appear on search engine sites, and their advertising networks of
independent sites.
Advertisers are
paying for advantageous, prominent positioning of their brief text ads
at the top of information return pages requested by searchers. They bid
for these placements by bidding for the associated key words and key
phrases and agree to pay the web site a confirmed "cost per click" each
time a web searcher clicks on their ad. The prices for all key words and
phrases are set by an internal market competition for the search terms
among all the potential advertisers. Sounds great, right?
Well, it isn't
quite that simple. Everyone seems to remember the part of this story
where all these clicks cost "a nickel a click." Well, unless you can use
really marginal, i.e., rarely searched, key words, they all cost much
more per click these days.
You can budget
how many clicks you purchase each day, so you don't blow a small
budget too quickly, but you do pay, in advance, for each time someone
clicks your ad, whether you make a sale, or get a newsletter subscriber,
or not. These click costs can add up quickly.
The selection of
the key words and phrases to purchase is not for the faint-hearted
either. You have to ask yourself "what key words would my Internet user
(who is that person? General public? Average web user? Geek?) be most
likely to use to try to find my product or service." This isn't always
obvious.
For example: any
wine sales web site will want to purchase clicks for "wine," "wine
sales," "wine store." Will some searchers looking for wine search for
"liquor" or "liquor store" or "package store" instead? What percentage
of searchers who search using liquor key words actually intend to buy
wine? You have to experiment over time to determine whether the key
words you purchase result in sales, and how many paid clicks, at what
price per click, will you have to buy to know that answer?
Pay-Per-Click Advertising Programs
PIA can run your Pay-Per-Click advertising program for you. We'll analyze your competitive situation vis-a-vis
other bidders for the obvious key words in your category. Sometimes, if
the bidding for specific obviously desirable key words is intense, you
may be better served by bidding for several less popular, but still
productive, key words that cost much less per click.
Using up to date
information and our search engine experience we'll craft the optimal
advertising program for your situation.
Ready to get
started? Order services
here. Or call
Dick Jones to discuss our services, or email
DickJones AT pia.net
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