Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Five Easy Steps to Killer Pay Per Click Advertising

By Darren Barkett

Yahoo, MSN, and Google, with the invention of their pay per click advertising model, also called PPC, have created simple and effective online advertising opportunities. These easy to use systems of advertising have encouraged so many business owners of different sizes to unleash thousands of dollars into online advertising campaigns. But, as often happens online, these PPC advertisers often don't understand just how to create effective PPC campaigns that generate more sales for their companies.

Many tricks exist that you can use to create massively effective PPC advertising campaigns. The five tips listed below will help you be more effective with your online pay per click advertising.

5. Website URL in your ads. Google used to let you put whatever you wanted into your display URL, otherwise known as your website address. Now, you have to use your legitimate URL for your website in your PPC ads. Google won't even allow you to use a redirect from one URL to your website! This means that what you use for your display website name is all the more important. Capitalize the first letter of each keyword in your URL. It stands out better that way. For instance, my website, www.creative-emarketingsolutions.com, looks like www.Creative-eMarketingSolutions.com in my PPC advertisements. Don't neglect this important element in your ad.

4. Keywords in your first line of the ad. You only get four lines for your entire ad, and one of them is your display URL. The first line of your ad needs to grab the browser's attention. It needs to set your ad apart from the dozens of other ads out there. It needs to tell the potential costumer, "Hey, I've got exactly what you're searching for."

3. Benefits vs. Features. The second line of the PPC ad needs to explain the important benefit of your services or products. The next line should explain an important feature of the services or products you offer. How is that different? A feature is why that customer should purchase your services or products. A benefit is how your potential customer's situation will get better because of your services or product line.

2. Keywords. The keywords you select will determine how much you pay for your clicks, so pay attention. Well researched keywords will draw targeted traffic that is ready to buy. Poor keywords will cost you money. Use Google's free keyword tool to uncover the best keywords for your products or services- the ones that are searched for often but have little competition.

1. Place your ads in even rotation. Make sure you create at least two different PPC ads that run simultaneously. By doing this, you are able to test different marketing messages to determine which ads convert into sales better than others. Don't let Google decide which ad is performing best. Check your campaign settings to make sure they show evenly over time.

Testing out different elements of your ad can help you increase your click through rate or CTR. Sometimes switching one word can make all the difference. Different first lines of your ads convert into clicks differently than others. You can try switching your display URL to see which works best. By having more than one ad running in competition, you can determine what works best. Then, create another ad and run that in competition to continually improve your CTR over time.

These simple five tricks will help you do much better in the competitive pay per click advertising world. If you ever need help creating your own PPC campaigns, just ask our professional staff at www.Creative-eMarketingSolutions.com. We've helped hundreds of businesses of all different sizes succeed for years in pay per click advertising, and we'd very much love to help you!

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