If you've just launched your first website, you'll soon realize that there aren't many realistic ways to drive traffic to your site other than through pay-per-click advertising. It's nearly impossible for a new website to just climb to the top of the rankings on the search engines or to use cheap email marketing to drive tons of traffic to the site at little or no cost.
So, you're probably going to resort to the dreaded, mostly costly form of advertising on the internet: Pay-Per-Click (also referred to as PPC). If you've never used it before or don't know what it is, perform a search on any search engine and you'll notice that at the top or to the side of the search results you'll see a section called "sponsored links." These are websites that are paying a certain amount per click to be listed there.
PPC can be very expensive depending upon what keyword you want to receive clicks for, but there are ways to budget your money wisely so you can maximize the effectiveness of your PPC marketing campaign without having a ton of money to spend. Some of the companies at the top of the sponsored links section might be bidding up to $20 per click for certain keywords. Insurance companies such as Geico and Progressive often bid up to $25 per click for the keyword "auto insurance."
However, for most keywords, you can bid relatively low and still get a lot of clicks. Each PPC service has a traffic calculator that tells you how many clicks you will receive given a certain bid price and daily budget. So, if you want to spend $0.50 per click, you can put that bid into their traffic calculator and it will tell you how many clicks you can expect to receive at $0.50 per click and how much that will cost per day. The traffic calculator will also tell you what your position will be (the higher your bid price, the higher your position will be within the sponsored links section for that keyword).
There are several PPC programs that you can use to receive traffic. There's Google Adwords (spans several engines, including Jeeves, AOL, and Google), Overture (Yahoo and other engines), Miva, and many others. They're all reliable, and they'll all deliver traffic to your website.
The most important part of PPC advertising is knowing what keywords or phrases to bid on. You have to remember that most people using a search engine are only looking for information, and are not seeking to buy a product or service. So, if you're using PPC to get traffic to your website in order to sell something, make sure you bid on a keyword that will bring you customers who are looking to make a purchase and are not there just to glean information. For example, if you're selling Vitamin A on your website, and you bid on the keyword "Vitamin A," you're going to receive a lot of traffic from people who visit your website merely to read what's there, because they're probably just looking for information about Vitamin A and don't want to buy it. Instead, you should bid on the phrase "Buy Vitamin A." In this manner, you will only receive qualified traffic from people that are looking to buy vitamin A, which will increase your sales and allow you to get more bang for your marketing buck.
PPC advertising is the most effective form of advertising on the internet, so you should use it when launching your new internet business. Just make sure that you bid within your budget and use specific keywords or phrases so that you'll receive qualified traffic, and you'll be fine.
A Look at Adwords And Premium Advertising On Google
If you do a search at Google, you'll notice that not only do you get a list of all the sites that return your keyword, you also get a list of other relevant ads on the right of the page and at the top of the listing. These are part of Google's Adwords and Premium Advertising programs.
Advertising like this can certainly be an important part of your marketing plan. Well developed ads with clever wording can prompt an immediate response from the reader to visit your site. Google and Overture are currently making a lot of money with this kind of advertising-and if they're making money, you can be sure their advertisers are too.
Buying an AdWord on Google is a little complicated but it can be very cost-effective. In effect, Google has combined the Pay-per-Click system with their own relevancy calculations. You'll need to select a keyword-or an 'AdWord' in Googlespeak-and write a short description. But you'll also have to choose how much you wish to pay, and the price won't guarantee you a position.
Advertisers enter a maximum bid per click and this is multiplied by the click-through rate (the percentage of users who click on the ad). That's the score Google use to allocate position.
So for example, if you were prepared to pay a dollar per click, and one user in a hundred who saw your advert clicked on it, you would get a rank number of ($)1 x 1% = 0.01.
Let's say that gives you top position. You might then get even more users and a higher click-through rate of 2%. That higher rate would reduce your price to 50 cents (0.01 divided by 2%).
All very nice, and it's always fun to pay less than you've said you can afford, but how it works is less important than the fact that it does. All you have to do is figure out how much you're prepared to pay for each click, how much you can afford to pay each month, and write a great description.
And once again, it's the description that's key.
Like the PPC's, your description has to persuade users that you're relevant; it doesn't have to play to the search engine's software. By all means repeat the keyword, but also make sure you have good, call-to-action copy like "Grab a great deal on DVD's today!" or "Buy now, while stocks last!" Remember, the more clicks you get, the more sales you'll make-and the less you'll pay.
Always place the AdWord in the most appropriate category and track the responses you receive from it. Be proactive in redefining your strategy if you receive minimal response. You'll probably have to play with the wording and the keyword selection to get the results you want.
Premium Advertising
This is the Platinum Card of Google advertising. For at least $5,000 you can be one of two advertisers to top a category. Very effective, very prestigious-and very expensive. $5,000 is the minimum bid. Something to think about-if you think you can make the money back.
Advertising like this can certainly be an important part of your marketing plan. Well developed ads with clever wording can prompt an immediate response from the reader to visit your site. Google and Overture are currently making a lot of money with this kind of advertising-and if they're making money, you can be sure their advertisers are too.
Buying an AdWord on Google is a little complicated but it can be very cost-effective. In effect, Google has combined the Pay-per-Click system with their own relevancy calculations. You'll need to select a keyword-or an 'AdWord' in Googlespeak-and write a short description. But you'll also have to choose how much you wish to pay, and the price won't guarantee you a position.
Advertisers enter a maximum bid per click and this is multiplied by the click-through rate (the percentage of users who click on the ad). That's the score Google use to allocate position.
So for example, if you were prepared to pay a dollar per click, and one user in a hundred who saw your advert clicked on it, you would get a rank number of ($)1 x 1% = 0.01.
Let's say that gives you top position. You might then get even more users and a higher click-through rate of 2%. That higher rate would reduce your price to 50 cents (0.01 divided by 2%).
All very nice, and it's always fun to pay less than you've said you can afford, but how it works is less important than the fact that it does. All you have to do is figure out how much you're prepared to pay for each click, how much you can afford to pay each month, and write a great description.
And once again, it's the description that's key.
Like the PPC's, your description has to persuade users that you're relevant; it doesn't have to play to the search engine's software. By all means repeat the keyword, but also make sure you have good, call-to-action copy like "Grab a great deal on DVD's today!" or "Buy now, while stocks last!" Remember, the more clicks you get, the more sales you'll make-and the less you'll pay.
Always place the AdWord in the most appropriate category and track the responses you receive from it. Be proactive in redefining your strategy if you receive minimal response. You'll probably have to play with the wording and the keyword selection to get the results you want.
Premium Advertising
This is the Platinum Card of Google advertising. For at least $5,000 you can be one of two advertisers to top a category. Very effective, very prestigious-and very expensive. $5,000 is the minimum bid. Something to think about-if you think you can make the money back.
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