How To Get Started Immediately With Pay Per Click — PPC Marketing
Search Engine PPC Marketing
Search engine pay per click is the highest quality traffic you can get because, the words people are typing into search engines are currently on their mind and, they’re usually looking to purchase. This is why keywords are so important and the bidding for keywords on Google Adwords has gone up. It is recommended you start with Bing and not Google; just compare Adwords CPC > Bing CPC (cost-per-click).
When placing pay per click ads the curiosity factor plays a huge role. What can spark the curiosity of your prospect while they are looking for search engine results? How can you appeal to your prospect more than your competition? There is a creative thought process necessary here. Also, your mindset towards PPC Marketing is crucial. When planning PPC campaigns, think about your campaigns in terms of ROI — return on investment. (I.e.) Low cost per click = low cost per lead.
In this article I will go over the following:
1. Research & keywords
2. Writing ads
3. Budgeting
4. Tracking
5. Uploading to ad network
6. Optimization
Know My Customer’s Keywords
If you own a small business chances are you already know who your customer avatar is. The rule of thumb here is: know thy customer. How old/young are they? Are they mostly male or female? What are their 3 pain points? What is their passion? What is their why? What is their desired income result/lifestyle? What hobbies do they have? What is their daily lifestyle? What are their biggest fears/regrets? You get the idea.
It’s about getting into their emotions. Yahoo Answers is a great resource to find answers to most of these questions. All of this information translates into keywords; you just have to know how to do it. You can also use Google Search and start by looking for top moneymaking companies and see what keywords they are ranking for.
When brainstorming for keywords there are several resources available. Like Google Autocomplete, it’s basically a keyword multiplier. You start typing anything into Google Search and it already starts giving you more long tail keywords. Not to mention the keyword variations it provides at the bottom of your search results. Also, don’t forget negative keywords, words you don’t want your ad to appear for like, free for example.
A really great tool is Keyword Snatcher ($47 one time fee). This tool allows you to generate 10,000 long tail keywords in just 10 minutes, a very powerful tool that turns hours of research into just a few minutes. Some free tools are: Soovle, Übersuggest and, Keywordtool.io. Soovle allows you to search in seven (7) different search engines simultaneously and, instantly provides results as you type. Übersuggest adds each letter of the alphabet after every term you type to give you more keywords and, allows you to export to a spreadsheet. Keywordtool.io does kind of the same thing but also adds a letter to the beginning of your term as well as the plus sign (+) variable before and after your term. With this tool you can search in Google, Bing, YouTube and even the App Store.
Writing ads for PPC marketing
Copywriting calls for a completely different article, which I have linked to here. I will address some important factors when writing ads for ppc marketing. The highest SEO ranking factor in 2014 was click-through-rate (CTR) so, we want to be writing our ads for maximum CTR. Click-through-rate is basically clicks divided by impressions. You want to be attracting the right customer with your ad copy therefore, increasing the opt-in rate. Ads are more important than the keywords; ads are a filter, an open invitation. Ask a question with your ad to attract the right buyer. When asking a question it calls more attention to the viewer. You want to capture their attention, qualify them with a question.
You want to consider the top 5 keywords (according to your niche) versus bidding (usually $1–2) and compare impressions vs. clicks. Not good to have small amount of highly competitive keywords, need around 100–200. Start with 10,000 then extract 100–200 of the best ones. For example, if your bid is 0.15 and you have 50,000 impressions with a bigger pool of keywords that equals 500 clicks for $75 (500 people viewed). Keyword snatcher can make a night and day difference here (VIP).
Demographics in targeting. (I.e.) Attn: Stay at home moms. Call to action (CTA): “Sign Up Here”, you’re pre-selling them for the next page…”enter your email on the next page…” we’re qualifying leads here. You don’t want to be incongruent with your ad copy, if you promise something in your copy then you must deliver on the next page.
Personalize your ads: “You deserve a better job”, “You deserve a break!” etc.… Lead your prospect in with ad copy, (i.e.) “Free money saving tips”… “Enter your email for free newsletter.” Some use negative ad copy: “Weight-loss scams?” “Watch this 6 minute video before you buy any weight-loss program.” I really don’t recommend using negative ad copy but it’s worth testing. Again, if you promise something in an ad, deliver!
Using numbers in your ads — “2,314 successful students”… “Looking for…” “The top 10 ways to leverage the top-tier business model.” “Looking for higher traffic conversions?” Using prices in your ads can be effective: “Only $97”. About ad copy mindset, if you know your avatar is a mom, then use that in the ads. You really want to genuinely get into the heads of your customers. Also, try tying in keywords with demographics. Always keep your eye out for good ads.
Use location targeting. For example, if your company has an upcoming live event in a specific area and you want to make sure it’s a full house, then use location targeting. Target your ads to people who live in or near that area and who are interested in the theme of your event.
15 free eBooks on copywriting.
Budgeting
You want see how to get the best possible CPC (cost per click). You don’t really need $100/daily budget, its not necessary, depends on where you are with your business. Don’t spend way too much if you’re just testing. Check your keywords for quality. Also, don’t spend too little to test: $20 for 80 clicks and 2 leads is not enough data. Don’t give up. You’re basically buying data. Maybe your budget can only be $5–10/day max, which is $300/month. That’s okay. Test the waters! Focus on optimizing your ads, landing pages, opt-in rate and follow-up. This will depend on your marketing/funnel. $1 per lead is a good goal. Stick with it. Remember, targeted leads.
Not everything is going to work. It’s all about testing and tracking. (Resource: MEC Labs). Depends on your market, each strategy varies. Always be testing out different things. You need to know what works, what doesn’t and where your money is invested. This is how you scale up. Watch this great video about the truth about traffic.
Uploading everything to the ad network
Using Excel spreadsheets: CSV files. Can be very helpful because you’ll have all of your ads all in one file, keywords in another. Up to 10,000 keywords per “ad group”. Example: Campaign -> different ad groups -> different keywords. Use the tools available: Bing Ads and Google Adwords editor.
A few things to make note of:
- Headlines are limited to 25 characters total.
- Description limited to 35 characters total.
- Display URL needs to be whatever website they land on.
A common error in ppc marketing ad copy is using trademark names, do not use trademark names, do your research if in doubt. Remove keywords with trademarks. Start with bids around 0.20–0.25 cents. This will yield a daily budget of $5–10.
Testing and tracking
Testing and optimization is about finding what works and then proving that it works even further. Don’t solely rely on Google Analytics. Here’s a great resource: Visual website optimizer (wordpress plugin).
Other resources:
CPV labs (need your own server)
First things you should always test when doing PPC marketing are the headline and call to action (CTA); split test-for 200–300 leads minimum. Split-test the CTA button color/size, button text: submit, register, continue etc. Subtle changes can make BIG differences. -Adding hyphens, “www”. Test “trigger points” like the time of day (i.e.) school kids/moms: “Kids at school?”
Keyword optimization
Again mindset: not worth sorting through 10,000 keywords. Just throw all 10,000 keywords in there, delete error keywords. Then remove keywords that are not getting leads but are getting traffic. “Pulling out” is known as pulling out high-traffic keywords and seeing if they’ll work elsewhere. See what offers might work with this or that keyword. Sometimes it can be about finding the right offer. (I.e.) High-traffic keyword is converting but is not profitable. Pull it out and do some further testing. Create another campaign or ad group. Scaling your campaigns to $2.50–3.50, which are average bids. It’s all about finding the best campaign combinations or configurations. Continuous traffic growth: add at least 1 more ad group per week (remove evil keywords). Do more research about your market. Come up with base keywords then put them into the keyword multiplier.
Google Adwords
All of the above applies to here. When moving from Bing to Adwords the ad groups are structured entirely different (free resource: Wordstream keyword grouper). You have to use less keywords, around 2–3 keywords to a maximum of 50–100. Google hates straight opt-in pages and the home-based business niche. They want us to provide services and value overall. I recently wrote a post on Google SEO ranking factors.
Google gives preference to secure pages (https/SSL). The PayPal button is auto SSL. Use Site Review Link in Adwords back office to see what gets approved, contact Google to make changes. Again not allowed to use trademark names in the ad. Resources: Google Display Planner, sypfu.com, similarweb.com and there many more out there.
Facebook PPC Marketing
The web as we know today has become the social-web. I have written a previous article on How to increase Facebook engagement. Facebook ppc marketing is a whole different beast. Think about why people go on Facebook? Not really to buy, to socialize and see what their friends are doing. So, you have to approach it from that perspective. A Facebook ad is an interruption for the viewer, on Google an ad is just part of the searching experience, usually people are already looking to buy when using search engines. So, we have to be more creative when using Facebook ads.
They’ve also gotten stricter lately. Promoting webinars works great on Facebook, they’re free people love free webinars. All of the copy writing tips above apply here. Using ads in the “News Feed” will get you more results but always split-test your location of the ad on the page. Also, focus on extremely specific groups of people by interests or behaviors never mix the two. Check out Facebook ads expert Michelle Pescosolido.
Video PPC Marketing
Searchmetrics 2015 Study: Universal Search Integrations
Video marketing has become very popular and, now live video marketing is available. Everyone should be doing a little bit of video; the extent to which you do this depends on your brand, the message you want to communicate and what your primary methods of lead generation are.
Google prefers video in the search rankings, especially YouTube videos. The above screenshot is from the Searchmetrics study 2015 and shows that Google’s Universal Search Integrations included 55% videos. On that note you can find a video on ppc marketing here. The product listing ads (PLAs) have also grown in importance from last year but Google is controlling the results to show more of their own products. So, you better get going with the optimization of your YouTube and Google + accounts. Subscribe to my channel.
Summary
- Start with Bing or Yahoo and then move on to Google Adwords.
- Do your research and find the best keywords for your niche/product.
- Write your ads for maximum conversion.
- Set your budget before starting.
- Use your own tracking and monitor it carefully.
- Upload using spreadsheets to keep things organized.
- Most importantly, test and optimize everything. Be sure before putting in too much money.
Join my email list for ongoing marketing tips and value: http//onelfri.com
