ppc tutorial an introduction to PPC
Catherine Dunn is one of our senior affiliate managers here at affiliateprogramadvice.com
Catherine manages the redsave and LoveHoney affiliate programs, lovehoney via affiliatefuture.co.uk and Redsave via PaidOnResults.com and Tradedoubler.co.uk
Recently Catherine put together
an introduction – tutorial about how to get started in Paid Search (PPC)
If you’ve ever thought about setting up a ppc advertising campaign, then this is the tutorial for you!
Advantages of ppc
Basically ppc advertising is a quick way to generate traffic through the search engines. Most large companies use ppc, but small sites can make good use of it too! It’s much quicker than organic seo which can take weeks or months to bring results and it can be more reliable too. It’s quite possible to spend lots of time doing organic seo, and still find yourself doing badly in the search engine rankings – as unfortunately, there are no guarantees with organic seo. That contrasts with ppc where you can get what you pay for (depending on your budget of course!). If you’re setting up a new website, it can be a great idea to use ppc at the beginning to bring traffic to your site, whilst you’re waiting for your organic seo to kick in!
It can also be a good idea to check out whether your competitors are using google adwords, as it might give you a few ideas on how to run your ppc campaign!
Disadvantages of ppc
Well the main disadvantage is that you have to pay! Unfortunately it’s also becoming a more costly form of advertising as more and more websites are signing up for it which obviously puts up prices per click. But that still doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from it!
Of course ppc doesn’t always work – it’s not always going to be possible for every website to buy clicks at a price that’s low enough for them to be profitable. And you could be running a google adwords campaign and suddenly find your ppc costs rising to a level that’s no longer profitable for you.
Google Adwords
We thought we’d take a look at a google adwords campaign. Mainly because they’ve made it easy to get your campaign up and running in a fairly short space of time. Also because they’ve kept it simple so that you can keep full control of your ppc budget. And undeniably they’re the major player in the ppc market today!
Probably the major difference between google adwords and other ppc systems is that with google it’s not necessarily the top bid that gets the top position. They also take into account your click through rate (the frequency with which people have clicked on your ad in the past). So basically it’s the most relevant ads that rise to the top! And that means if you’ve made your ad highly relevant for a specific keyword, it could potentially rise above an ad that someone else has paid more for! And what better incentive to make sure your ads are always keyword relevant?!
Advantages of using google adwords
It’s quick and easy to set up – you can set up a campaign within a few hours and watch it drive traffic to your site! It allows you to target your audience geographically and also by time zone. You’ll see quick results too as opposed to organic seo which can take weeks or even months before you see a result (and there’s nothing guaranteed with seo!). Also, traffic can fluctuate and even disappear with organic search engine traffic, so google adwords can be a more consistent source of traffic. Although there’s arguably a need for both!
You can also turn your google adwords campaign on or off as required which gives you more flexibility and means you can run your ads when you want to.
Google adwords also has a terrific reporting system; you can use conversion tracking and google analytics to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. Plus you’ll also find these tools useful for testing a campaign that you might want to follow up with organic seo! In fact google adwords can provide you with an excellent source of information about the type, number and profitability of searches which you can then use for organic seo purposes!
How much will it cost you
Basically you select your cost per click (or CPC) and only pay for the clicks you have received (at the price you have set). You can choose a maximum CPC from £0.01 to £100. When you set your daily budget, keep in mind that costs can mount up! But as there’s no minimum budget required, you can spend as much or as little as you want! If you’re concerned about costs rising, then you’ll be relieved to know you can set a daily budget for your google adwords campaign. Once that’s been reached your ads are switched off for the rest of the day to stop you incurring further costs. So it’s a great way to control your budget.
Setting up your google adwords account
You’ll find a step by step guide at https://adwords.google.com/select/steps.html together with plenty of help at https://adwords.google.com/support/. And we’d also recommend the google adwords blog at http://adwords.blogspot.com/ which is full of useful info!
THINGS TO REMEMBER!
Don’t forget, if you only focus on ppc and ignore organic seo, then you are going to miss a large part of the market, as many searchers prefer organic search to sponsored ads. So there’s a very good argument to use both!
Copy is king!
But most of all, don’t forget that copy is king! Your ppc ad won’t be successful unless it’s well written, and focused on what you are trying to achieve, and includes those all important keywords! Otherwise there’s no point bothering! And that’s also true with organic seo!
So make sure you make your ad relevant and ensure you’ve picked your keywords carefully and that they’re specific to your site or product so that you get the most cost-effective results from your ad. And you can use the keyword tool to help you find keywords.
Don’t forget MSN and Overture they have a keyword tool
Good luck!
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