Pay per click (PPC) campaigns are sometimes confusing. People also refer to it as cost per click (CPC), successful PPC campaigns involves keyword research and good tracking among other things.PPC can be expensive if there is a lot of competition for the keywords. When you’re paying for each click to your website, you want to make sure the research has been done. The following may help to explain the differences between the two types of PPC/CPC: flat rate & bid-based.

Flat Rate PPC

Flat Rate PPC is where the advertiser and publisher (search engine) agree upon a fixed amount that will be paid for each click. The publisher has a rate that determines the cost per click or CPC based on the competition of the term, meaning how many other people want to pay for that click too.

Terms such as “Austin, TX PPC” or “PPC Austin, TX” will have a cost based upon how many other websites are using those keyphrases to drive traffic to their sites. Another determination of cost is often related to the content on webpages, if you have content that attracts more valuable visitors it will cost more for that click-thru than content that attracts less valuable visitors. However, in many cases you can work with the publisher for lower rates, especially when you have a long term, high-value contract.

The flat-rate model is particularly common to price comparison websites like PriceGrabber, eBay and Kelkoo which typically publish rates for particular keywords and phrases. However, these too are negotiable and advertisers can pay more to get their sites to the top of the page.
Since these sites are compartmentalized into product or service categories they are highly targeted so you have a better chance of getting a customer from someone shopping on these sites because that consumer is farther along in the buying process, meaning they already know what they want and have come specifically to make a purchase.

Bid-based PPC

With Bid-based PPC, the advertiser signs a contract that allows them to compete against other advertisers in an advertising network such as Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter. Each advertiser sets the maximum amount that he or she is willing to pay in an auction for a given ad spot based on a keyword . The auction proceeds automatically by a visitor clicking on the ad spot that the search engine results page (SERP) displays.

All bids for the keyword that target the searcher’s geo-location, the day and time of the search, etc. are then compared and the winner determined. If there are multiple ad spots which there usually are there can be multiple winners whose positions on the page are determined by the amount each has bid. The ad with the highest bid generally shows up first, but again additional factors like ad quality often comes into play.

In addition to ad spots on SERPs, the major advertising networks have partnerships with 3rd party sites for contextual ads to be placed like the ads that show up on blogs. Those sites are 3rd party partners of the big search engines. Blogs, for instance, sign up to host ads on behalf of the ad network. These 3rd party websites are often referred to as a content networks and the ads on them as contextual ads because the ad spots are associated with keywords based on the context of the page.

Ads on the Google Display Network generally have a lower click thru rate (CTR) and a lower conversion rate (CR) than the straight search engine ads. But they can still be a good source of secondary income for the publisher and a cheaper source of advertising for you.

To maximize success and achieve scale, you can hire someone to manage your PPC campaigns for you or have the process fully automated by a bid management system. These systems are more commonly used by advertising agencies that offer PPC bid management as a service.

Which type will work for your business?

That depends on your budget. If you have more to spend on PPC, then you can target the more “ready to buy” consumer directly on the SERP with a flat-rate ad. If you are still testing keywords out or have less to spend on PPC than on other advertising channels, start out bidding on a few keyphrases and let the search engine syndicate them for you.

Or you can try your luck with a Google AdWords account.

Targeting is key as it is in other types of advertising.

Factors that often play into PPC campaigns include the target’s interest , search query intent, location, and the day and time they are browsing. Remember this is an ever-changing and constantly evolving industry, so don’t be afraid to experiment (after you’ve done some research).

Have some fun with it!

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The Difference Between Flat Rate And Bid-Based PPC Campaigns

PPC will be your greatest online marketing nemesis if you’re new to it and don’t prepare. It’s challenging to peruse spreadsheets of words, ads, and numbers and remember exactly what you’re looking at. Stop. Get an energy drink. Now take a step back – and think. Think about exactly what you’re looking at. Go row by row if you have to. Whatever helps you think about the keyword itself.

The keyword is the bread and butter of your PPC campaign.

Keywords are simply characters that users type into a search box when they’re looking for something. Keywords can be one word like “hotels”. Keywords can also be “longtail” multiple word phrases like “keeping austin weird, hotels”. Long tail keywords are longer three or four word phrases which are highly specific to your goods or services. These convert the most clicks to customers because they target a consumer who specifically knows what they want and is ready to buy. You gain access to keywords in the search engines by ‘bidding’ on specific keywords.

Keywords: The Most Important Part of PPC

The keyword is, perhaps, the most important component of your PPC account. It would be foolish then to waste your budget bidding on generic single keyword or double keyword phrases since these do not target the customer who is “late” in the buying cycle.

For example if you are a boutique hotel in Austin, TX it doesn’t make sense to just bid on “hotel” because you are going to be going up against the big guys like Expedia or Priceline. Instead hone in on a specific niche like your location and a special amenity that you offer that people will be searching for like “boutique hotel, Austin, Texas.” The competition will be less and the cost per click a lot less.

Getting Rid of Bad Keywords

This problem of non-relevant keywords is rampant in many PPC accounts. Sometimes it’s obvious like the “hotel texas”- sometimes it’s not. Here’s how it happens and how to fix it:

1) Remove Non-Relevant Keywords from Keyword Tools

Keyword tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool are great starters for PPC accounts. Like thesauruses, you can look at lists of words that are similar to your products or services – a very useful tool.

However, keyword tools should never be trusted implicitly. Keyword tools use computer-generated lists of words and sometimes they make mistakes. Unthinking PPC managers dump every keyword they can think of into their campaign and waste a ton of cash, receive non-relevant traffic or no traffic at all.. The worst of it is the non-relevant (no: worthless) traffic will never convert or turn into new business.

Fix this issue by reviewing your keyword list. Lists can get crazy- out- of- control- big quick. Focus on one or two groups at a time and communicate with everyone who is working on the account, adding or pausing keywords. Here’s the science: Review your phrases and decide: would someone needing my products or services type these words into a search box?? No? Get rid of them, or pause them in you AdWords Editor. You can always ask someone else who is a fresh set of eyes give you a second opinion later. Your advertising dollars are too precious not to be reviewing those ad groups well.

2) Test Your Keywords

Another, equally important way to sort out keywords in your account is to determine whether they turn into the desired action. Going back to the hotel example, when you bid on “hotel, Austin, TX” does that longtail phrase yield the desired result on your website? Does it turn into online leads or phone calls? Review your web analytics to see which words people are converting on-clicking through to your website on. Though the keyword may seem relevant to you, searchers may disagree.

You can determine the effectiveness of keywords by using good tracking. AdWords Conversion Tracking or call tracking can demonstrate the effectiveness of each keyword in your account.

Proper keyword management is the single most important thing you can do to effectively manage your PPC account. To do it effectively, you need to get educated on proper online tracking, or make sure your PPC manager is doing their job i.e. TRACKING. Just make sure you are aware of the keywords costing you money and why. Wasting PPC budget is no way to run a PPC account – and pursuing keywords that are bad is the way it goes wrong.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Are You Wasting Your PPC Budget On Bad Keywords?

What’s a job at the top of your field worth to you?

To unemployed advertising executive Alec Brownstein, it was worth around USD 6. That’s what Alec paid Google AdWords to get the attention of New York’s top advertising agencies and score himself two job offers.

Alec decided he wanted a job at one of New York’s top ad agencies. But to get an interview via the regular channels could take months. So he decided to bypass normal job application procedures and appeal to the egos of the Creative Directors instead.

How did he do it? He set up PPC ads using Dynamic Keyword Insertion that would appear whenever one of the Creative Directors Googled themselves, otherwise known as a *vanity search*. So a Google search for Gerry Graf, David Droga, Tony Granger, Ian Reichenthal or Scott Vitrone would trigger Alec’s ad to appear.

The ad read:

Hey [Director's Name]
Googling yourself is a lot of fun.
Hiring me is fun, too.

A click on the ad led to Alec’s site and contact details. According to Brownstein, nobody was bidding on the names, so he was able to achieve the top ad slots for around 10 cents per click.

The result? Alec scored interviews with 4 out of the 5 Creative Directors and job offers from both Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone of Y&R Advertising. He took one of the offers and now has a permament gig at Y&R New York.

Clever eh?

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Clever Use of AdWords Lands Man Top Advertising Job

For many affiliates, pay per click advertising is the seemingly untamed beast for making a killing or losing your entire month’s profits. We’ve all read the horror stories of people losing thousands overnight and if that didn’t put us off, trying to dabble ourselves and getting burned certainly did.

But did you know that there are millions of successful affiliates using PPC advertising as their license to print money. But how can so many people be killing it as an affiliate using PPC to get traffic where so many other mere mortals are getting stung left, right and center with huge ad costs and low sales ratio conversions?

Well, luckily it’s not as complicated as you might think and some fundamental yet simple changes can be applied to join the wealthy affiliates using PPC advertising. So let’s look at 4 crucial building blocks that you need to get right straight out of the gate…

1. Stop bidding on untargeted, broad keywords

It’s tempting to bid on keywords such as “home insurance” if you’re a home insurance affiliate in order to get some heavy traffic, but what will happen is you’ll crush your server, empty your wallet and get very poor conversion rates as a result. PPC advertising is all about tightly targeting your traffic. So, bidding on “home insurance company in the town of X” is far better and will get higher conversions providing your offer relates to the town being searched on.

2. Stop paying the same price for all match types

Match types are broad, exact and phrase. An exact match type means that the exact phrase you’re bidding on was typed into Google. Phrase means that the same words were used, but not necessarily in the same order of your keywords, and broad means that your keywords were used amongst other unknown keywords.

If you pay .15 per click on a broad keyword and .15 on an exact keyword, you’re wasting money. You should pay higher prices for exact keywords because they are more relevant to your ad and offer. Subsequently, you should pay far less for broad match type keywords because they could be totally off base and irrelevant for your offer, despite containing the keywords you’re bidding on.

3. Use the negative keywords list

There’s a feature in your campaigns to use a list of negative keywords. This is used to stop your ads being triggered for search terms that include particular keywords. An example would be the word “free”. By adding the negative keyword “free” to your ad group, you will stop freebie seekers from seeing your ads.

4. Hold in there, then test, track and monitor

When you first start out, you’ll be fumbling somewhat to see how things pan out. The big mistake is that people drop a campaign after getting a couple of hundred clicks and no sales. But the truth is, in many cases your sales might come in random batches. So, you might not make money for a few hundred clicks then the very next day you could get 4-5 sales at once. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The next thing is to test your ad copy by using Google Adwords’ built in split testing service for each ad group you have running. This will help you to improve your click through ratio for each group of keywords and therefore prompting Google to increase your Quality Score. The higher your Quality Score, the less you pay for clicks and the higher you are placed in the ad listings at the same time!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

4 crucial building blocks to stop Google Adwords destroying your wallet