Sweat the PPC Details!

May 8th, 2008 Bernie

Pay per Click Advertising, aka, SEM, PPC. 

PPC results are displayed along the top and right side.  The results are paid results.  

Target audience for this podcast is for marketers who are spending $1,000 to $10,000 per month in paid search advertising.

Measuring for conversions, not clicks.
Paid search is not the answer to all Internet marketing goals.
Paid search not good for Brand promotion unless you have a big budget.
Paid search is all about lead generation or direct sales on the Internet.
Know the difference between Search and Content networks.

Search network is primary Google and select other search engines fed by Google, e.g., Business.com.

Content networks are comprised of any website which chooses to display Google ads.
Results can vary greatly between Search and Content networks.
Be selective in the use of keywords.
Mix it up between competitive keywords and long tail keywords.
Do your research to identify long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords increase your probability of winning in paid search marketing.

Use Campaigns to distinguish themes.
E.g., product families
Break down campaigns by using ad groups to distinguish products within a campaign.
E.g., individual products
Set up a limited number of ads in each ad group.
3 to 5 ads per group.

Set up a reasonable number of keywords per ad.
Make sure they are relevant to the ad group or you’ll compete with other ad groups.
Test keyword variations: broad, phrase and exact.
Don’t display all your keywords as broad keyword variation.
You can use broad version, phrase version and exact version of keywords.  Test each version to see which variation can produce the lowest cost conversions.

Use dedicated landing pages!!!  Good landing pages can make a PPC campaign.
Generate dynamic landing pages with headlines that match the ad.
Design landing pages which are,
Uncluttered
Supported with a strong headline
Has a strong call to action
Use graphics sparingly (don’t distract)

Track conversions
Tracking impressions and click through rates don’t mean anything.  Track conversions.
Use conversion tracking (Adwords) to measure results.
Test, measure, revise and repeat.
Test variables which are measurable.

Geo target if appropriate.  Display your ads in the geographic regions that you want to sell to.

Stretch your budget using the ad scheduler.
Review results often, print reports, study them, get input from others.

Sweat the PPC details for improved conversions.
 

Tags: , conversions, Google, keywords, landing pages, pay per click advertising, PPC, SEM

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SEO: The Perfect Storm

March 30th, 2008 Bernie

I often talk with marketers about the difference between SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click advertising).   I remind myself that, unlike me and my team at Find and Convert (and others in our business), most marketers don’t spend their days thinking about Internet marketing strategies as we do.

So, when we look at the difference between SEO and PPC, it goes beyond the costs.  After all, most marketers understand that PPC can cost a lot more than SEO.  But, for so many marketers PPC (also known as SEM) is the path of least resistance. 

Many marketers believe they can measure results from PPC easier than from SEO strategies.  But, let’s examine some of the facts.

We spend a lot of our time producing reports for clients.  These reports summarize (usually in painstaking detail) many statistics.  For the sake of this blog post I’ll hone in on the most telling stats which really point to the advantages of SEO over PPC. 

Time and again we see that visitors to our client’s websites which come from organic searches spend more time on the website, visit more pages and have lower bounce rates than paid search traffic.  The first two stats mentioned here should be self evident.  A bounce rate refers to someone who visits a web page on your site and does not visit another page, essentially “bouncing” off your site.

Moreover, when we provide reports on our PPC plans for clients, we track the cost of conversion (the desired action for the client).  Such conversion costs are tracked for the ads and for the keywords.  The most telling conversion cost is for the keywords we track.  This metric really tells us the cost to produce a lead for the most desirable keywords.

All too often we see marketers show the most interest in the most competitive keywords.  They wind up paying dearly for these keywords simply because they are competitive.

In SEO strategies, we are able to (with a lot of hard work) build optimization strategies for select keywords which are less competitive (long tail keywords).  For example, we work hard for a client to rank on page one for “project accounting software.”  But, the software client we represent has a product that runs only on Oracle.  So, when someone searches for “oracle project accounting software,” we hit a home run in ranking and in a qualified website visitor.

So, the message in this post is to think long term with SEO strategies.  Do the hard work which will require ongoing care and feeding, but can have long lasting and cost effective sales results through organic search traffic.  And, don’t be afraid to target lower searched, less competitive and long-tail keywords. 

I’ve always said I’d rather be found by the 10 people who are a perfect fit, than targeting 1000 people who may be a fit but are harder to reach and therefore a higher risk search strategy. 

Tags: long tail keywords, pay per click advertising, PPC, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO strategies

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