PPC Advertising - 5 Top Tips

PPC advertising (short for pay per click) can be a minefield for the new user, but it also has the potential to earn you a lot of money indeed.

The purpose of PPC ads, and you probably recognize these as Google Adsense boxes on websites and search engine search results, is to drive traffic to a website. If you join a pay per click company like Google Adwords, it is your ad that will appear on these pages.

If you have a website and want to earn a little extra money, they you agree to have other people's ads appear by joining Adsense. You earn each time someone clicks on the ad, which takes them to the advertisers' sites.

With Adwords however, it is you, the advertiser, who pays every time someone clicks on your ad. Essentially, you are paying for traffic to come to your website. If you have a great ad, and a great landing page, and a great product - then your PPC ad will convert to big, big dollars.

But there are three parts to that "If", and they are all equally important. So to give you a headstart on making money through PPC, take on board the following.

Know Your Market

What is your target market? Don't ever assume that your product is going to be perfect for everyone - it won't. And acknowledging this early will save you a lot of heartache. You need to understand who comprises your market, and you need to be sure that they have need of your product. Research.

Refine Your Market

Once you have determined who makes up your potential buyers, refine it even further. For example, if you sell XYZ Widget, ensure you target buyers, not just lookers. You might refine your target to "Female XYZ Widgets" or "Dog Owner XYZ Widgets" if your research has shown that your product will sell best to females, or dog owners.

Keywords - Know the Language

Choosing the keywords for your pay per click ad has got to be the single most important component. If you don't get this right, you can kiss your money goodbye. You absolutely MUST use keywords that your target market will use when they are searching for whatever it is you are selling. There might be very specific language that these people use for say, their hobby or sport. Knowing the words they will enter into a search engine to find what they are looking for, and consequently where your ads will appear, is worth gold.

Understand the Process

It is vital that you understand the tweaking that can be done when setting up your PPC advertising campaign. Do you want your ads to appear in certain countries only, at certain times only etc? What do you want to set your daily budget at - so important, because not doing this properly could see you building up bills beyond your means or intention. Likewise, how much do you want to spend per keyword. This will affect the placement of your ad.

Get Some Decent PPC Training

I can't stress this enough. Taking lessons from one who actually knows the ropes, and who is able to convey what they have learned, will save you time and money. PPC advertising is being used to great effect by many people - so go out and find one who has documented the whole process in a user-friendly way. A good training program should cost you less that $50 - a very wise investment.