Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Top 5 Pay-Per-Click Tips

By Catherine Seda, Internet & search marketing veteran

You can’t resist it.

Looking at your computer screen, you nervously type keywords relevant to your business into a search engine. A list of web sites appears. Oh no! You spot several competitors. But where’s your site? You frown. It’s not there.

By not being at the top of search engines, you’re probably losing at least an extra $5,000 to $25,000 a month in business.

You need search engine marketing.

Want a stampede of hot prospects NOW? Then start with pay-per-click (PPC). It’s the easy way to attract new customers within days…maybe even within 15 minutes.

For $5, you can open an account then start bidding on keywords through Google AdWords (http://adwords.google.com), MSN Live Search (http://advertising.msn.com), and Yahoo! Sponsored Search (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com).

In a few days—or maybe even within 15 minutes—your business can appear in a top position for as many keywords as you want. You only pay when search engine users click your ads.

Today, PPC is very competitive. So, is it still profitable? It sure is. That is, if you know the profit-protecting techniques. Otherwise, you could waste a lot of time and money.

Here are 5 PPC tips that’ll put more money in your pockets right away.

1. Choose the “Right” Keywords

The wrong keywords deliver clicks that don’t convert. Yikes. You don’t want traffic. You want SALES.

So…stay away from single-word keywords, for starters. Avoid broad, multiple-word keywords too. These get a lot of traffic; but few sales. With the wrong keywords, you could blow your budget in less than 24 hours. Ouch.

Start with highly-targeted keywords. For example, “gardening tools” is more targeted than “gardening.” Yet, “gardening tool kit” is even better. Provided you sell a kit, of course.

You’ll get fewer clicks from highly-targeted keywords, but more customers from those clicks. That means you’ll make a lot more money.

2. Don’t Bid on a #1 Position

I see this mistake over and over again. Don’t do it.

Do the highest positions get the most traffic? Yes. So, why am I telling you NOT to bid on a #1 position?

Because it’s almost never the most profitable position.

Remember, people comparison shop. I do. You probably do too. That means that if your ad is #1, shoppers will click it, visit your site and then hit the “Back” button to do more shopping. Now, they’re ready to buy from your competitor. Uh oh.

Here’s the simple solution: reduce your bid so that you’re not in a #1 spot.

This is a HUGE money-saving tip. Let your competitors over-spend on a #1 position. You now know to spend a lot less while getting their business.

3. Write Ads that Attract Buyers, Not Browsers

Anyone can get traffic from PPC. But do you really want a ton of traffic? Right, you want sales.

Yes, you’ve got to write ads that get clicked. Especially because generally speaking, Google and MSN (and soon Yahoo) rank ads based on the highest amount advertisers are wiling to spend, PLUS the highest click-through rate.

This model maximizes money for the search engines. But do they care if you get traffic but no sales? No.

So, be careful using “Free” or words that might attract browsers, not buyers. These words could skyrocket your sales. Or not. They will skyrocket your clicks so watch out.

It’s better to get fewer clicks if more of those people turn into leads or sales.

This copywriting tip will save you a fortune in clicks fees.

4. Make Your Landing Page Sell

Do not, I repeat, do not send PPC traffic to your home page.

With few exceptions, the home page is almost NEVER the most relevant landing page.

A “landing page” is the web page you send people to once they click your PPC ad.

Instead, send people directly to the page that matches their search. For example, a category page or product page. Ah…now you’ve gotten them one step closer to doing business with you.

Here’s a bonus landing page tip…test landing page designs.

Try using different words. Format your copy in another way. Use a new image. Even a small edit can make a huge impact to your bottom line.

In my new Search Marketing Mastery course, I show you two copywriting changes that made a PPC advertiser an extra $90,000 a month in sales. That’s a great incentive to test your landing pages, isn’t it?

5. Track Conversions, Not Clicks

Want to know which keywords make you money? Want to know which keywords waste your money?

There are winners and losers in your keyword list. By tracking conversions (leads or sales), by keyword, you’ll keep more money in your pockets!

The search engines offer free tracking tools. These tell you the number of conversions for each keyword.

And there many ad tracking tools that reveal how much money each keyword makes. By using this kind of tool, I discovered a client of mine was wasting $2,000 a month on one keyword. You bet we cut that keyword immediately. And the client saved $2,000.

And these are just a few profit-boosting tips.

If you’re new to PPC, use these tips to set-up a profitable campaign. If you’re already doing PPC, apply any of these techniques to squeeze higher profits from your campaigns.

Successful search marketing includes pay-per-click and search engine optimization (SEO). Be sure to use your best-performing keywords, ads and landing pages from PPC, to make your SEO campaigns more profitable too.

Catherine Seda is 10-year Internet & search marketing veteran, author of the best-selling book “Search Engine Advertising”, and columnist for Entrepreneur magazine. She teaches business professionals how to attract new customers, search engine spiders and the press SIMULTANEOUSLY. Entrepreneurs can increase their business by up to $100,000 in 30 days. Corporate marketers can increase their business by $1 million a month.

Ready to make an extra $5,000-$25,000 a month from PPC?

Find out how today at: www.SearchMarketingMastery.com

Posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Internet, Marketing, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.