Ten Secrets for Pay Per Click Success

Have you been frustrated by the performance of your pay per click campaigns? Here are ten tips to consider to get real results – cutting down unnecessary costs and still reaching your target audience.

1. Consider ALL popular search engines. Yes, Google is by far the most popular in the UK but because of this it is the most competitive. Yahoo and MSN still have their share of UK internet users and are less competitive. Give these a try too.
2. Consider regional advertising rather than national for Google. If you have a product that will appeal to specific regions of the country or if you have a very limited budget then select only one town or county. Your cost per click will be much lower.
3. Include the relevant keywords in your ads. Make sure your ads closely match what the searcher is looking for by creating targeted ad groups. Yes, Google looks at the amount you are willing to pay for top placement, but it also looks at quality. An advertiser can pay less and still get to the top position just because their ad more closely matches what the searcher is looking for.
4. Analyse. Analyse. Closely monitor pay per click campaigns using the free reporting tools available within Google Adsense, MSN, and Yahoo. Also consider an analytics package such as Google Analytics so that you can track which campaigns are generating sales.
5. Choose keywords carefully. Consider choosing the less competitive keyword phrases that really describe your product. There are plenty of free keyword tools out there so take advantage of them.
6. Use appropriate landing pages, rather than the home page. You want to give the potential customer the product or service they want immediately, rather than make them search around your website.
7. Use the advanced tools provided by Google including phrase match, exact match, and negative keywords to eliminate unnecessary clicks. There are excellent online tutorials available if you are unfamiliar with these tools.
8. Have a unique selling point? Display it in your listing to ensure that you stand out over your competitors. Give your customers a reason to click on your ad instead of the others. However, be careful about lying or making grandiose statements, as customers won’t buy if you make promises you can’t keep.
9. Tweak. Tweak. Tweak. Analyse your reports and try some the following:
   1. change the ads that aren’t performing
   2. Remove keywords that are generating traffic, but not sales.
   3. Try a few new keywords.
   4. Ensure that you keep a record of any changes and their impact
10. Focus your campaign. If you have hundreds of products concentrate your pay per click marketing on just a few products rather than adopting a blanket approach. A small campaign is much easier to manage at the start.