{"id":344,"date":"2008-04-11T17:01:24","date_gmt":"2008-04-11T22:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/2008\/04\/11\/ppc-tutorial-getting-started-by-catherine-dunn\/"},"modified":"2009-11-25T23:38:54","modified_gmt":"2009-11-26T04:38:54","slug":"344","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/2008\/04\/11\/344\/","title":{"rendered":"ppc tutorial an introduction to PPC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Dunn is one of our senior affiliate managers here at affiliateprogramadvice.com
\nCatherine manages the redsave<\/a> and LoveHoney<\/a> affiliate programs, lovehoney via affiliatefuture.co.uk<\/a> and Redsave via PaidOnResults.com<\/a> and Tradedoubler.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently Catherine put together
\nan introduction – tutorial about how to get started in Paid Search (PPC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever thought about setting up a ppc advertising campaign, then this is the tutorial for you!<\/p>\n

Advantages of ppc<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The Monster Squad dvd<\/a><\/form>\n

\nBasically 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\u2019s much quicker than organic seo which can take weeks or months to bring results and it can be more reliable too. It\u2019s quite possible to spend lots of time doing organic seo, and still find yourself doing badly in the search engine rankings \u2013 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\u2019re 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\u2019re waiting for your organic seo to kick in!<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

Disadvantages of ppc<\/strong>
\nWell the main disadvantage is that you have to pay! Unfortunately it\u2019s 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\u2019t mean you can\u2019t benefit from it!<\/p>\n

Of course ppc doesn\u2019t always work – it\u2019s not always going to be possible for every website to buy clicks at a price that\u2019s 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\u2019s no longer profitable for you.<\/p>\n

Google Adwords<\/strong>
\nWe thought we\u2019d take a look at a google adwords campaign. Mainly because they\u2019ve made it easy to get your campaign up and running in a fairly short space of time. Also because they\u2019ve kept it simple so that you can keep full control of your ppc budget. And undeniably they\u2019re the major player in the ppc market today!<\/p>\n

Probably the major difference between google adwords and other ppc systems is that with google it\u2019s 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\u2019s the most relevant ads that rise to the top! And that means if you\u2019ve 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?!<\/p>\n

Advantages of using google adwords<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s 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\u2019ll see quick results too as opposed to organic seo which can take weeks or even months before you see a result (and there\u2019s 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\u2019s arguably a need for both!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll 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!<\/p>\n

How much will it cost you<\/strong>
\nBasically 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 \u00a30.01 to \u00a3100. When you set your daily budget, keep in mind that costs can mount up! But as there\u2019s no minimum budget required, you can spend as much or as little as you want! If you\u2019re concerned about costs rising, then you\u2019ll be relieved to know you can set a daily budget for your google adwords campaign. Once that\u2019s been reached your ads are switched off for the rest of the day to stop you incurring further costs. So it\u2019s a great way to control your budget.<\/p>\n

Setting up your google adwords account<\/strong>
\nYou\u2019ll 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\u2019d also recommend the google adwords blog at http:\/\/adwords.blogspot.com\/ which is full of useful info!<\/p>\n

THINGS TO REMEMBER!<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t 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\u2019s a very good argument to use both!<\/p>\n

Copy is king!<\/strong>
\nBut most of all, don\u2019t forget that copy is king! Your ppc ad won\u2019t be successful unless it\u2019s well written, and focused on what you are trying to achieve, and includes those all important keywords! Otherwise there\u2019s no point bothering! And that\u2019s also true with organic seo!<\/p>\n

So make sure you make your ad relevant and ensure you\u2019ve picked your keywords carefully and that they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget MSN<\/a> and Overture<\/a> they have a keyword tool<\/a><\/p>\n

Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ve ever thought about setting up a ppc […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[290,288,289,291],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1774,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}