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When tailoring your ads to a specific audience, be also sure that you direct your visitors to a page on your website where it's easy for them to buy these items.
• Use less popular PPC search engines Overture and Google AdWords are clearly
PPC market leaders. However you can still benefit from less popular ones such as:
- FindWhat http://www.findwhat.com - Espotting http://www.espotting.com, (biggest PPC engine in UK and European market) - 7search.com http://www.7search.com - Kanoodle.com http://www.kanoodle.com - Enhance Interactive http://www.enhance.com - Sprinks http://www.sprinks.com
Bids on these less popular PPC search engines are much cheaper and you can purchase your listings for as little as one cent per visitor. Even though you may not get same exposure as you would get with Overture and Google, you still generate a decent amount of traffic. And while you only pay for actual clicks to your website, you never waste your money.
• Choose best position for your advertisement
To be listed first on search results is not always a smart move. It certainly helps to attract lots of visitors, but may cost you lots of money at same time. People usually visit first 5 top listings before making a final decision about their purchase. Therefore, it is more profitable to have lower ranking for highly competitive keywords.
3. Managing PPC Advertising Campaign
You have designed a killer selling ad copy, chosen highly targeted keywords, calculated maximum you can afford to bid on each of search terms and determined which spot on search results you wish to secure. Yet, there is no guarantee that your ad always remains on your desired position.
The key to managing desired position is to adjust your bids correctly in accordance to PPC market conditions. It’s like monitoring shares on share market -- to get best deal you need to constantly watch prices and react immediately to any change.
The main factor influencing price of bids and your position are your competitors. Let’s make few examples of bidding strategies you can consider using in your PPC campaign: assuming, your maximum cost per click is $1.00 and your goal is to secure position #3 at most effective cost. (a) Maintain Target Position
Your aim is to target position #3 however your ad appears on position #10. Knowing that current holder of position #3 pays $0.51 per click you can improve your position and take over his place by bidding $0.52. This strategy sometimes tends to drive up keyword prices so be aware you don’t cross limit of spending $1.00 per click.
(b) Remove Bid Gaps
Overture defines bid gap as “the difference between amount you are currently paying for a click and minimum you could be paying to still remain above your next highest competitor in search results.”
For example: You pay $0.70 per click and your next highest competitor pays $0.60 per click. You can pay just $0.61 per click and still be placed above your competitor. By closing this bid gap you save $0.09 per click which in 1,000 clicks is saving of $90!
(c) Control your Maximum Cost per Click
As mentioned earlier in this article, calculation of your maximum bid cost (cost per click) requires you to collect a list of statistics about your website. Based on our assumption, you are willing to pay maximum of $1.00 per click. Therefore you should not pursue any positions where bids are over your $1.00 limit. Wait till price falls under $1.00 to prevent any possible losses.
To get most accurate bidding results without having to baby-sit your advertising campaign, I would recommend relying on one of automated bid management software available on market today. In general, those tools constantly check your bids and adjust them accordingly to maintain your desired position so that you don’t have to be alert 24/7.
The more sophisticated tools allow you to set your daily budget to prevent spending more than it is efficient for your business. Below I have listed main features you should be looking for when choosing bid management software for your campaign:
- The ability to create and identify targeted keywords and phrases that convert leads in sales. - The ability to set maximum amount your want to bid. - The ability to fix bid gaps so you don’t pay more money than is necessary - The ability to set your desired position. - ability to compile comprehensive reports on your keywords, bidding cost, bid position and current bid for each keywords. - The ability to monitor competitor’s activity by checking competitors ranking and current bids.
If you would like to download a demo version of bid management software, there is one available for free at website http://www.keywordbidmaximizer.com/bidmaximizer. It will help you to better understand whole process of designing and maintaining PPC campaigns so you always manage to cost-effectively allocate your budgets and increase your revenue.
Paid Search Advertising presents an excellent opportunity to immediately address your offers to proper online audience. Focus on identifying highly targeted keywords that convert for your website. Calculate your bids so your sales justify cost. This way you will maximize your return on investment and ensure your website’s success with PPC advertising.
Ivana Giardi is Marketing Director at Apex Pacific, developer of smart internet marketing solutions to help companies increase sales and profitability online. If you would like to learn more about Paid Search Advertising, visit Apex Pacific at www.apexpacific.com or email Ivana at marketing@apexpacific.com.
