Understanding PPC Campaign, And How It Can Help Your Online BusinessUnderstanding PPC Campaign, And How It Can Help Your Online Business
PPC or 'Pay Per Click' is a great way to generate traffic to your website immediately. When you visit a search engine and type in a keyword, you are directed to the results page. On the left you will see the organic results – there are usually 10 of them in a page. And on top of these organic listings and on the right side, you will find some sponsored listings. These are the PPC advertisements for the keyword. PPC search engines that are most popular include Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter.The Essentials Of PPC
As the name suggests, PPC or Pay Per Click means that you have to pay for each click that you receive. It is essential to understand that there is a difference between an advertisement getting displayed and clicked. In other words, for a keyword you will not need to pay anything just for a display – you have to pay only when there is an actual click.So a PPC display is different than a newspaper insertion or a television advertisement. When you are advertising on television or a newspaper, you have to pay on viewership or readership. But in PPC, only when the call to action is fulfilled (a click in this case), do you pay. So it can be said that your PPC campaign is a step ahead, and gives you better return on investment.
How much do you need to pay in PPC? This is rather complicated as it depends on a lot of factors. Firstly, the popularity of the keyword matters. So if you must display your advertisement for a highly competitive keyword such as 'how to make money', 'flight bookings', 'weight loss supplements', 'buy books online' and others like this, you have to pay a higher cost per click (CPC). On the other hand for keywords that are less popular or competitive, the cost will be less. The CPC can be as low as .05 cents or as high as $5.00 or even more. The CPC will also depend on the position you seek for your advertisement. If you want your advertisement to be displayed higher, you will have to spend more for a click.
But it is often not that simple. For example in PPC search engines like Google, if your advertisement generates more clicks than others, Google might give you a higher position, even though you are actually spending less money per click than your competitors for the keyword. Google also has a way of finding out how your landing page is converting. If you have a good conversion rate, then too, your advertisement will be placed higher.
How To Start Your PPC Campaign?
- Budget. Before anything, you must decide on a budget – this is known as 'Daily Budget'. Your budget can be as high or low as you please. Of course the higher your budget, the more traffic you will get. You must also decide the geographical area that you want to target. For example if you select USA and Canada, your advertisements will be displayed only in these countries.
- Select your keywords. There is a keyword tool in Google that you can use. Make a list of your probable keywords – Google will offer you synonym suggestions and alternatives. The tool will inform you about the search volume, advertiser competition and the expected per click cost for each keyword. Finalize your keyword list based on traffic, advertisement position and cost.
- Write your advertisement copy. It is good to club together similar keywords into groups and have separate copies for them. You can test different advertisement copies or landing pages – for this, you have to write 2 different copies (or more) for the keywords in a particular group.
