A Complete Guide to Pay Per Click for Small Business – Part Two

Converting Clicks into Sales

Pay per click advertising is one of the most affordable forms of online advertising. At its core, it’s all about generating leads and potential customers that will hopefully turn into buyers once they find out you have the product or service they need.

However, it doesn’t end there. It’s important to understand that while PPC advertising generates leads, there has to be a follow-up system in place. It is important for users to find relevant information on the website they are directed to after they click on your ad.

This step is often neglected and while you may get lots of clicks on your ads you won’t see very many conversions if consumers don’t find the information they are looking for when they get to your website. Keep in mind that users are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that provided them with the information they want right away.

Qualifying Traffic

As we mentioned earlier a big benefit of using PPC advertising is that it provides qualified traffic to your website. When users click on an ad, they are in search of a particular product or service. The more focused your campaign is better because it helps eliminate unnecessary clicks from non-prospective buyers.

A bidding process is used to establish the price of a specific keyword. In general, the budget for PPC advertising varies depending on the number of keywords used. These prices can skyrocket in just minutes as more and more sites bid for the same keyword thus causing the prices to jack up.

PPC ads are placed alongside search engine results that they are relevant to. The highest bids for a specific keyword or phrase gets top billing on the search engine results page. Getting top placement provides greater odds for an ad to get clicked on by a qualified searcher.

Campaign Management

Proper management of a PPC campaigns can result in big profits, without it you can end up wasting a fortune on ads that don’t produce results. Managing your campaign involves three basic components:

• constant monitoring

• response analysis

• refinement

It is essential to track and test every aspect of your campaign to monitor the productivity of each PPC ad you place. This gives you the ability to modify or turn off any PPC ads that aren’t performing well.

The cost of PPC advertising is dictated by the clicks made on a particular ad. The number of clicks made on an ad is subtracted from the initial amount paid by you to a search engine company. To minimize cost and maximize your return on investment (ROI), you must monitor your campaign carefully.

Now that you understand PPC better you will no doubt want to get started on your PPC campaign but just before you do we there are just a couple more points you need to know before you dive in and start placing ads.

Do Your Research Before You Dive In

When it comes to using PPC advertising for your business, there are many websites, books, and videos available to teach you how to make the most return on your investment (ROI). These guides are a resource that can be invaluable to your business. They can save you a great deal of time.

Once you know what you are doing, you will want to research the available PPC programs to find the best one to advertise with, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. There are also smaller engines that are worth looking into as well. They have less influence. However, many people choose to use them because they are able to get effective traffic for much lower prices. Most often, this can be a few cents per click.

If you are not careful and don’t do the appropriate research, you could find yourself spending entirely too much money and not getting the traffic and sales in return. It pays to educate yourself especially when it comes to paid advertising.

While reputable PPC programs have built-in tracking and analytics, you may also want to look into outside ad tracking services as your campaigns grow. They give you very specific statistics on clicks that are generated by your campaigns. There are many available so be sure to do your research before you invest. However, the most popular and effective one is actually free.

Google Analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics

When it comes to running an effective campaign there are several things that should be tracked. For instance, you can use exact keyword tracking to see exactly which keywords are doing well and which ones are performing badly. This knowledge can mean a big difference when it comes to seeing a profit.

Proper tracking can provide a clear picture of all your ad campaigns including custom income and expense tracking. You will be able to track clicks and landing page conversions. With proper conversion tracking in place, you will be able to track your sales and calculate your ROI.

By using website tracking tools and their reports, you can accurately track which ads and keywords result in sales. This will help you to determine and eliminate poorly performing advertising campaigns. It also tells which ad campaigns you should focus your energy and resources on too further perfect their performance.

As we mentioned earlier it’s a good idea to start out with a small investment until you learn the process and are comfortable tracking your campaign.