Top 10 Pay Per Click Mistakes

The Terrible 10 Of Pay Per Click Advertising

by Josh Prizer

While it is easy to get started in pay per click advertising, it's even easier to make very costly mistakes. Building a pay per click campaign the correct way means paying attention to detail and continual oversight and management. I've compiled a list of 10 typical mistakes that are found in PPC advertising campaigns.

Big, Bulky and Broad Ad Groups for Your Keywords

It's important to target your ad to be as relevant as possible. Don't group all your keywords into one or two ad groups. Break them out. Keep them tight. This gives you more control over ad variables so that you can be as relevant as possible.

Ignoring Negative Keywords

Negative keywords reduce unwanted impressions, and more importantly, unwanted click throughs. However, with increasing priority given to "quality scores" and click through rates in the PPC engines, it's key to trim the fat from your keyword campaigns. If your company sells "widget management software" then be sure that you have keywords like "-serial" or "-free" assigned as negative keywords (unless, of course, you offer it for free in some manner). You can find good negative keywords in your log files or when you build your lists.

Not Doing Enough Testing

Split-testing your ads is critical. Even the smallest of changes can boost results. In addition to testing your ad copy's "call to action" or value statements, every ad has multiple variables to test. The titles, the two lines of copy, and display url all can be optimized. If you don't have time for hands-on testing, a good professional pay per click management company can run daily split testing for you. You'd be surprised how well this can pay off.

Not Precisely Tracking Results

It's not enough to know that you spend $6,000 dollars a month and get back $12,000 in profit. Your bottom-line numbers need to be precise. The PPC engines will give your click through rates, but you need to know your ROI or costs per action in detail. Tracking results can help you to spend only $5,000 a month to get you that same $12,000 in profit.

Not Tracking Results to the Keyword Level

Proper and exact analytics or using an experienced pay per click management company is essential to get the data you need. If you have keywords that are not performing and leaking your account on a daily basis, you are throwing money away. Getting results to the keyword level allows you to adjust bids for maximum effect. If you have one keyword with a $1.34 earnings per click and another at 37 cents, this is key information that allows you to maximize profits. Lower one bid if you are above your "EPC" and raise another to eek out more profits from that sweet-spot keyword. Don't waste money on a daily basis.

Too Generic of Keywords

Negative keywords may not be enough to keep you from trouble on too generic a keyword. While these generic keywords are often more highly searched and can even be among your best...they can also be riddled with bad traffic. Users who perform a search on a generic keyword may often be at a very early stage in the purchase process. Are you able to turn an effective profit on them? Once again, this is yet another reason why you need keyword-level traffic. It's especially vital on a generic keyword.

Ignoring the Many Long-Tail Keywords

This follows the above item on generic keywords. Building a list and individual ads for the long-tail keywords can be a major time-sucker. It can also be profitable if the task is performed correctly. Those earnings per click will likely vary widely from a generic keyword like "mp3 player," "sony mp3 player" and "sony 2GB S610 walkman video mp3 player." One consumer is doing research, the other knows what they want and is most likely looking to purchase.

Not Monitoring Search and Content Networks Separately

If you don't want to get burned by click fraud or poor traffic, you need to make sure your content network campaigns and your search network campaigns are separated and monitored. If you don't know what this means, chances are you are likely losing money. Ideally, you would have separate campaigns for each, along with precision analytics to know exactly what keyword from which source is converting for you in the content network.

Not Geo-Targeting a Local Business

If you draw most of your business from a local area, the big three PPC engines allow you to geo-target your keywords to that area. This will bring the local market to your doorstep on non-local keyword phrases. This can be hugely profitable.

Not Monitoring Your Campaigns With Frequency

Okay, so you don't do daily split testing even though you should. Maybe you don't continually monitor your earnings per click at the keyword level, even though you should. Still, a lot of PPC advertisers don't even frequently check into their accounts. Google, Yahoo and MSN are increasingly slapping keywords with the "Inactive for Search" status to get you to improve your quality. They may be slowly picking off your keywords -- and your profits -- one by one and you aren't even aware of it.

Making mistakes like the Terrible 10 of PPC Advertising are common, but correcting them can have a huge impact on your bottom line. If you can manage your pay per click ads at a high level or if you can hire them out to a professional pay per click management company...the results for your increased precision and effort will pay off.

Josh Prizer is a Senior Account Executive and (http://www.zerocompany.com/experts.htm) search engine marketing consultant for Zero Company Performance Marketing, one of the premier (http://www.zerocompany.com) pay per click companies worldwide. Visit their site to discover more about how to improve your pay per click ad campaigns and performance.

The Value Of PPC And Search Marketing To A Company

This article recently caught my eye. Many of us "experienced" Search Marketers take for granted that PPC is an effective method of marketing. It's important to realize that to those outside the industry, Search Marketing isn't always so obvious.

What have been your experiences with companies in other industries? Do you have customers that had no notion of what PPC is or could do for them? Let me know your experiences; just write it up below.

SEO Company's Value For Any PPC Ad Campaign

by Greg Pierce

All businessmen understand that dedication, hard work and a successful marketing plan are ingredients to be successful. This success includes an effective direct advertising, both online and offline. This is a form of targeted marketing which is also known as PPC or Pay Per Click advertising. Today, this form of advertising online has become one of the biggest source of advertisements online.

It's no secret that traditional advertising is quickly losing out to online marketing dollars. PPC advertising is a fast, effective way to get your product or service noticed on the Internet. Another bonus is the real-time results these ads can deliver. You might be thinking, I've created an ad before, so what's so difficult about PPC advertising?

Well, if you've ever embarked on pay per click ads on your own, you already know the challenges. From targeting the ideal keywords and managing your budget to working to keep your pay per click ads in line with your initial marketing goals, the entire Pay Per Click program can be quite extensive, not to mention time-consuming. One uneducated bid for your PPC ad can cost you sometimes hundreds more than your competitors.

Doing PPC campaign will require you to be knowledgeable about keyword relevance. You need to use keywords that can give you a higher ranking in search engines. You may use other applications online but they can be very complicated and not to mention not budget friendly. If you really want to safeguard your interest as an investor, then make sure your ads are placed logically, well written and effctive.

That's why it's a smart decision to let an SEO Company manage your Pay Per Click program. Many reputable SEO experts or an SEO company can take you through the pay per click management process and handle all of your pay per click advertising for you each week.

Not only can an SEO company manage your PPC ads, but it can also create a PPC strategy for your product or service that can equate to more conversions, which leads to more sales. Now, that's a sound marketing strategy!

Because PPC advertising requires a lot of time and dedication, you need to hire an (http://www.seoarbiter.com) affordable seo company that can devote itself to your campaign and actually make it work. There are many (http://www.seoarbiter.com) SEO companies in St Louis to do this so you need to make good in your choice of which people to hire.

Advertising Merchandise For Making Your Business In Demand

While we talk a lot about Pay Per Click marketing, we don't often talk about the reasons. For the most part, it's pretty obvious, however that may be taking some things for granted.

I recently came across this article that may help spark some interest in advertising your business online if you aren't already.

Of course it's reprinted with permission. I'd love your feedback regarding what you are targeting with PPC, whether you've thought in terms of simply advertising your business, etc.

Advertising Merchandise For Making Your Business In Demand

by Sarah Kendra Callister

People who have done some fund-raising happenings in the past know how difficult it is to get individuals and entities to donate money for a worthy cause. In recent years, more organizations have realized the potential of capitalizing on promotional merchandise in their campaigns.

Clients were more attracted to carrying another brand that supports a charity; this is according to a survey a few years ago. Indeed, there's nothing compared to the feeling of purchasing and knowing the stuff your purchased contributes to a fund that helps a cause or a special group in need.

Integrating branding products in your fund-raising won't make your project an instant hit, but taking these guidelines into consideration will help your campaign:

Offer unique advertising items. Consumers are more likely to purchase if they know your product cannot be comfortably purchased somewhere else. You might want to consider offering special-edition or numbered advertising personalized merchandise.

Lay out your goal. How much money needs to be raised? How much time do you need to meet your goal? Aside from the sale of marketing custom imprinted merchandise, what else can you do to augment your funds? Your ambition must be reasonable and manageable.

Do the math. Calculate how much your group will profit from the sale of these advertising custom promotional merchandise and note whether it will suit your goal.

Educate. Explain to your clientele in simple, concise terms how buying your advertising custom personalized merchandise helps your campaign. This knowledge will spread on to others, so you want to make sure those who hear about it will understand and assuredly support your cause.

Thank your clients. If you're organizing a donations-only affair, take the time to send out little advertising merchandise to say thank-you and show acknowledgment to individuals and entities that supported your cause.

Sarah Kendra Callister is a logo promotional items consultant on (http://www.printedbracelets.com/) promotional printed bracelets & (http://www.printedpad.com/) promotional printed padfolios. Look for topics by Sarah Kendra Callister on how you can market your products. 

A Terrific PPC Success Checklist!

It's easy to 'lose your shirt' with Pay-Per-Click, however most who do, lose it rather quickly and bail out. Much more insidious is having marginal success, when it could be turned into substantial success.

A lot of it hinges on optimizing campaigns, keywords, adgroups, etc. Unfortunately, there is a lot to consider and keep track of. Too much.

A while back, I came across a terrific "checklist" from PPC wizard Ben Hart. He put together a list of things to remember and consider. This can take your drab or lackluster Adwords campaigns and turn them into real winners.

Do yourself a favor and print this out, and keep it close by when you create new campaigns, and while looking over and optimizing what you already have!

__ Turn off most of Google’s default settings.

__ Start by having your ads show only on Google. Turn off Content Network and Search Network to start.

__ Start with Exact Match for keyword searches. Turn off Broad Match and Phrase Match to start.

__ Make sure your geographic and language settings are correctly set.

__ Pick keywords and phrases your likely buyers are typing into search engines. Put yourself in their place. What is are they looking for?

__ Start by bidding low – perhaps 10 cents a click. If traffic is too light, ramp up slowly – a nickel at a time.

__ Don’t worry about being ranked #1 on the first page for your keyword. That might require you overpaying for clicks. For competitive keyword categories, a rank around #5 has delivered the best ROI for me.

__ For super-competitive keyword categories, I don’t mind if my ad is on page two of the Google list. Searches who get to page two and deeper tend to be more qualified as leads.

__ Do not take clickers on your ad to the home page of your website. Take them to a landing page specifically designed for your ad. Your landing page should be a continuation of you ad.

__ Include your main keywords in the headline of both your ad and landing page.

__ Determine the primary goal of your ad and landing page. What is your “Most Wanted Response”? Is it to make a sale or collect a lead?

__ Do everything in your creative power to capture the names and email addresses of visitors to your site by offering something of value free ( such as an eBook or “white paper” on the subject of their keyword search).

__ Build rapport and cultivate relationships by continuing to send your opt-in subscribers a valuable ezine that’s on the subject of their keyword search that brought them to your site in the first place.

__ Are you ready to do business when your ad campaign is on? Do you have a merchant account, a shopping cart, a way to take payments?

__ Does the headline of your ad stress the main benefit to the read of clicking on your ad?

__ Don’t make your ads about you. Make your ads about what your prospective customer is looking for.

__ Don’t use technical jargon in your ads. What the heck is a “gigabyte”? Instead, follow the lead of Apple’s great ad for its iPod: “1,000 Songs In Your Pocket.” What’s the main benefit to your reader of what you are offering?

__ Don’t try to buy your way to the top of Google’s search engine for an off-the-mark ad that’s getting few clicks. Write a great ad, that gets lots of clicks – targeted clicks from people who are looking for what you are selling.

__ Specific problems require equally specific solutions. Offer specific solutions in your ad copy and on your landing pages. “Improve Your Golf Score” is not nearly as strong as “Cure Your Slice in Five Swings.”

__ Understand who your customer is and what she’s looking for. Then provide it.

__ Every search and every click represents someone with a need. Can you fill that need?


__ Have more than one product to offer that’s on the subject of the keyword searches that brought visitors to your site. Have a steady stream of follow-up products and upgrade products. It’s tough to build a business on just one product.

__ Make an extensive list of keywords and phrases that you believe your customers are typing into search engines to find the main product or service you are selling.

__ Put all your keywords and keyword combinations on a Excel spreadsheet so that you can move them around easily and group families of keywords and phrases together.

__ Take families of underperforming keywords and create separate ads and landing pages specifically tailored for those families of keywords. This can result in you having many ads and landing pages, each with its small family of keywords.

__ If your landing page is intended for “lead generation”, is the free ebook, “white paper” or other free gift you are offering of high enough value to your visitor that she will want to fill out your sign-up form to get it.

__ Is your free offer that’s designed to get leads to fill out your form exactly in line with the AdWords ad that brought them to your site? (It must not be off the mark, even a little).

__ Have an email marketing system (such as Aweber.com or iContact.com) set up before you launch your AdWords campaign so that you can capture leads and follow-up with email.

__ Use powerful keyword research tools to help you brainstorm your keywords, such as Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com

__ Don’t forget to include Negative Keywords – words that disqualify your ad from being shown where certain words are typed into an engine. A good negative keyword might be “free” if you don’t want clickers who are looking just for “free” stuff.

__ Always split-test two ads at a time. “Test” is the most important principle in marketing.

__ Use Google Conversion Tracker to track conversions on your landing page.

__ Use Google Analytics to track visitor behavior on your site.

__ Test landing pages to see which ones are doing the best job of converting visitors into leads and then into buyers.

__Offer one and only one thing with your pay-per-click ad. If you sell more than one product, create different ads, one for each product . . . with each ad leading to a “landing page” also deigned to sell that one product.

__ If your ad is working well, turn on Search Network and see how that goes.

__ If your ad works on Search Network, test Content Network.

__ Start by setting bids low for Content Network. You can set separate bids of Content Network and Search Network.

__ Use the PPSeer.com tracking tool to see how individual sites on the Content Network are performing for you.

__ Tell Google not to run ads on sites that are delivering a lot of clicks, but few sales.

__ If your ads are running on the Ad Sense Content Network, understand how to use Demographic and Site Targeting.

__ Don’t use Google Budget Optimizer (unless you want Google managing your finances and making your marketing decisions).

__ If you are a local business, set up three kinds of ads – one configured for local business, one configured nationally but that uses names of local area towns and cities with keywords describing your service, and one in Google’s Local Business Center so that your local business appears with an enhanced interactive listing on Google Maps.

__ Don’t ignore the pay-per-click ad programs other search engines and many directories offer. offer. Yahoo Search Marketing is the #2 PPC program – and well worth using.

__ Use Google AdWords to conduct super cheap, quick and accurate market research for all your advertising and marketing campaigns (whether offline or online).

One Opinion About Clickbank

One Pay Per Click marketer's opinion about Clickbank:

If you were to search affiliate marketing on google you are sure to come across the name clickbank more than once. Maybe when it first started it was a good idea and I'm sure there are a few making a tidy profit from it, but if you ask me it should be banned.

You can not search google anymore without page after page of affiliates trying to sell you some sort of money making venture or a system to whiten your teeth. Clickbank is the source of a lot of annoying ads floating around the web now, and most of them are full of lies.

If you are one of the people that believe the sales stories, you no the sort of thing, "I looked for years before I found this system, but as soon as I did, I was rich." then I'm telling you now, it is all lies, any ebook that was ever published on the subject will tell you to write whatever will sell the product, taking away any real advertisers credibility to sell good products of their own.

Clickbank has made the market so difficult for any new Internet marketer to even get their foot in the door, as they have filled up the net with rubbish, giving any potential costumer for a real marketer the sense they have seen it all before and a feeling of doubt before they have even started to read the page.

All I am saying is there should be some sort of quality control or a limit on how many products a marketer can promote, this would at least give any legitimate marketer a chance to start.

All that said, there are probably more Internet marketers using Clickbank for their PPC efforts than anything else.

The chief benefits of clickbank is the huge number of products, and the speed & ease that affiliates get paid.

Clickbank may not be the best affiliate marketing network, but it's one of the largest and proven over time.

Keyword "Profitability"

Anyone doing PPC for more than a day knows that keyword research is one of the fundamentals of the game. Focusing on the “wrong” keywords will cost you money, lower your CTR (Click-Through Rate), and bring down the Quality Score of your whole campaign.

Knowing which keywords are profitable and which aren't mean the difference between making money, and losing money, plain and simple.

A new post on Improve Your Internet Marketing talks about an easy way to 'test' the viability of your keywords - before spending your money on 'bad' clicks!

According to the post, one of the ‘tried & true’ methods for testing keyword profitability is to ’spy’ on PPC ads. The rational is that anyone advertising on a given keyword consistently is probably making money. After all, no one is going to pay indefinitely for PPC ads on a keyword that isn’t making them money, right?

While this technique is quite effective, it is extremely time-consuming. In order for your data to be meaningful, you have to track ads over time, usually at least 2 weeks to a month.

This technique uses Spyfu (http://www.spyfu.com) to 'leapfrog' the time you would have to wait using traditional ad-spying programs.

I've used this method myself, and I can tell you it not only saves time, but it works! But don't take my word for it... :)

SpeedPPC - Astounding PPC Results, and EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT!

I know I've mentioned this many times, but if you're serious about Pay Per Click, you simply MUST consider SpeedPPC - and with an EXCLUSIVE $100 DISCOUNT!

In it's newest version, SpeedPPC Version 3, you can now apply it's magic across more search engines, automate ad building, integrate vendor datafeeds, and so much more.

It’s actually a suite of tools, all based on ultra-smart methodologies.

Relevancy and Quality Score are the keys to SpeedPPC - they are vital for your campaigns’ success. That means tight-knit relationships between your keywords, ads and landing pages.

The application is simple to use. Simple to get results. If there was one piece of software that reduced the most amount of work and still created the best returns, SpeedPPC is it.

If you are doing Pay Per Click, your cost, return, and ultimate success is dependent on creating ads triggered by the right keywords, and paying the least possible CPC for those keywords. The primary factor determining what you will pay for clicks is your Quality Score. For PPC ads, your Quality Score is determined by the relevancy and relationship between your keyword, ad, domain, and landing page. SpeedPPC is the first and only system that creates a perfectly optimized coupling between all these elements, giving you the lowest possible CPC.

Pay Per Click Strategies For Internet Marketers

PPC strategies abound. A quick perusal of Internet Marketing products will turn up hundreds if not thousands of ebooks, programs, courses, and the like, designed to help you become more effective in your Pay Per Click efforts.

I recently wrote a series of articles for Associate Programs excellent PPC website, payperclicksearchengines.com

One of the strategies I wrote about is the idea of using "self-qualifying" headlines. I wrote up a real-life case study.

In this case study, I talked about a campaign I ran that was getting great click-through rates (CTR's), but lousy conversions.

I decided to use a "self-qualifying" headline: I put the price right in the headline of the ad!

The result was far fewer clicks, but the clicks I did get were much, much higher quality. In fact, I boosted my conversions by 880%!

You can use "self-qualifying" headlines for any product-pitch ad. Try it, you'll find your overall conversion ratio go through the roof!

UPDATE

You can now purchase "The Ultimate IM Toolchest", the last Internet Marketing product you will EVER need - and it's only $27!!

What is Pay Per Click Marketing & How Does it Work?

Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing is a method of bringing visitors to your website by using an advertisement that you only pay for when someone clicks through to visit your site. Pay Per Click marketing is the most direct marketing strategy ever invented and places you in the list where you want to be.

How Does Pay Per Click Marketing Work?

1. You create your own page title, description of the page and links that you would like to be viewed in the search results.

2. Enter the keywords and phrases that will make your listing appear.

3. Enter the amount you are willing to pay for every click on the keyword that directs to your site.

4. The amount you set on a keyword is compared to other bidder's for the same keyword. The results are then returned and the highest bid appears first.

This is how Pay Per Click Marketing works!

PPCRiches - Best Pay Per Click Marketing Program

PPCRiches - the perfect program to achieve "Great" Quality Scores with lowest possible minimum bids.

It works by creating perfectly-optimized silo sites - the kind Google likes - and matching it to your keywords and ads. Most importantly, it finds thousands of keywords instantly, and achieves the greatest PPC goal, lowest minimum bids.

The PPCRiches process starts with you entering your primary keywords. It then goes out to it's 1 million plus article directory, selecting narrowly targeted articles for each keyword, and assembling them into a silo site. It creates individual Landing Pages and generates Destination URL's that integrate keywords to the Landing Page, and uploading the whole thing.

Try PPCRiches out for yourself with a 7-day free trial. The results are amazing!

Great Research Tool for Pay Per Click Marketing

KeywordSpy
Price: $89/month

When it comes to Pay Per Click Marketing, keyword research is considered to be the most important tool. In Pay Per Click Advertising, a keyword is what determines whether you are going to make or lose money. When running a PPC ad, you will need to know if you are using keywords that are profitable.

This is where the KeywordSpy comes in. This program will give you back relevant keywords from it's 1 billion word database, and will show you the current ads running for a given keyword. When you click on the ad, it shows you the keyword that the ad is using. All I can say is, WOW!

This unique, valuable, easy to use program will have you raking in the $$ in no time, and will make keyword research so much easier.

Traffic for Site Flipping

Site-flipping, or buying & selling sites for profit, has become "all the rage". Unfortunately, many people mistakenly believe 'any' site will sell, or have unrealistic expectations of what they will get for their sites.

One of the most important factors in successfully flipping a site is traffic. Without it, you won't get much for your site.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a great way to generate quick, strong traffic to a site for flipping. Even though this is "conditional" traffic - meaning when you stop advertising, your traffic slows - it is acceptable for flipping, as long as it is stated clearly.

If you are monetizing your site through product sales or membership fees, there is nothing wrong with using PPC to generate your sales and traffic.

Even if you are monetizing though advertising, such as Adsense, this will work, as long as you can show a profit.

There's an interesting article, part 1 of a series, on our favorite blog "Improve Your Internet Marketing" that goes into site-flipping.

Take a look (and bookmark it so you can read the whole series): Secrets to Website Flipping.

Using LSI to find "money" keywords

In Pay Per Click, the single most important component is your keywords. Using Google's LSI, you can now find those "money" LSI keywords quickly and easily.

Briefly, LSI works by looking at which words and phrases tend to appear in close proximity to the ’seed’ keyword most frequently. In the example above, LSI says that “affordable weight loss” is almost as relevant to “weight loss” as “weight loss tips” is.

Here is a simple way to find all of the keywords and phrases that are ‘most’ relevant to a given keyword: Google’s “allintitle:” search operator. The words and phrases surrounding your seed keyword are Google's LSI!

You can read an in-depth step-by-step guide at my favorite Pay Per Click marketing blog.

SpeedPPC Version 3 delivers!

SpeedPPC, that amazing pay-per-click tool, recently released Version 3. As a long-time SPPC user, I have to say they have made a powerful tool even better.

Improvements include enhanced YSM (Yahoo Search Marketing) support, better interface, support for nearly a dozen additional search engines, and a raft of new features.

If you do anything with PPC, you simply MUST take a look at SpeedPPC. Of all the tools in our arsenal, particularly for Affiliate Marketing, this is the one most responsible for improving our ROI.

Run, don't walk, and take a look at what SpeedPPC can do for you!

Interview with SpeedPPC inventor Jay Stockwell

SpeedPPC, the incredible Pay Per Click tool for creating high tightly-focused, high Quality Score campaigns, is getting ready to release their new Version 3 on April 8.

I recently came across a very interesting and revealing interview with Jay Stockwell, the guy who developed the software. Of course, the interview is on my favorite blog, Improve Your Internet Marketing.

In addition to many interesting features, Jay reveals that the idea for SpeedPPC came to him in a bar!

Definately an interview worth reading, and as a bonus, their link to SpeedPPC offers a $100 discount on the new V3 software!

New version of SpeedPPC coming April 8

SpeedPPC, easily the most valuable PPC (Pay-Per-Click) tool I own, is coming out with a new version on April 8th! If you use Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM), Microsoft Adcenter, or any other search marketing venue, you owe it to yourself to check it out!

You can see a preview of the features of SpeedPPC v3 on my favorite affiliate marketing blog, Improve Your Internet Marketing.

They also have a review of the base (original) software, and a $100 discount.