Search engines have now surpassed the "Big Three" (print, radio & television) as the primary media of marketing for numerous businesses. More and more companies have discovered that there is a significant portion of their market online. Pay-per-click campaigns (PPC) augment lead inflow by posting the company's ad on relevant search result pages of major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN; even content sites like ABC, PGA and ESPN have come to join the party through new-comer Quigo Technologies.
At first sight, pay-per-click campaigns can be misleading. Pay-per-click sounds easy enough to understand. You pay for every click. Companies compete with one another through a bidding process. Whoever bids the most, gets the highest rank and consequently more clicks, more traffic and theoretically more leads.
It also seems easy enough to implement too. Prerequisites include:
* Research a list of relevant keywords
* Write appropriate marketing copy (ad texts range from 70 to 180 characters depending on which platform you use). These will be associated to certain keywords
* Assign relevant landing pages or where you want to direct traffic from your ads
* Develop tracking mechanisms to determine conversions and campaign effectiveness
When you get those in place, the rest is just a matter of registering with your choice of PPC system:
* Uploading - getting your info up
* Bidding - determining how much money you are willing to pay for each click on each keyword
* Paying the vendor - PPC systems usually have an initial set-up fee that is consumable
* Budgeting - assigning specific daily budgets and caps on different ad groups
Then you're done... or so it seems
The real challenge with pay-per-click is that for you to truly understand its twists and turns, a hands-on approach cannot be avoided. Although a common set of guidelines is available practically everywhere online like blogs and forums, there will always be several unique qualities of each campaign - like for example, a particular keyword set, ad text or promotional offer, even the company's business model and competitor tactics will affect overall PPC performance.
* Keyword sets - these will vary according to your specific brand, what types of products you carry and in what variations
* Ad text - depending on your unique selling points or USP's, your marketing copy is strongest when it separates you from your competitors
* Promotional offers - from personal experience, promotional offers on ad texts can be a very effective come-on for prospects looking for a good deal
* Business model - the way your business operates will affect how you run your marketing campaigns on a grand scale; it will determine whether search engine optimization (SEO) or PPC was to take priority, among others
* Competitors - it would be wise to set campaigns that respond to your competitor's marketing techniques; this will allow you to capitalize on what you can provide that they can't or what sets you apart from everyone else
Letting your PPC campaign run on its own will cost you thousands of dollars. Constant re-innovation from your end to keep your campaign updated with selling patterns and changing market influences will pay off in the long run.
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