A Brief Interlude with Google Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Online Success Requires Balance

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Maximizing profits from your company’s Google PPC campaign is not as hard as you may think. In fact, Google goes out of its way to provide its advertisers with all the tools necessary for a lucrative operation. These tools are all available from the Google AdWords official site, and they include a Keyword Tool and the Placement Performance Report, among others.

Google pay-per-click is among the most popular and well-respected of all the search engine-sponsored online marketing programs, and for good reason. Its activation fee is only $5 USD, with a minimum cost-per-click of $.01, and a minimum starting payment of $10 USD, which means you can start advertising your website on Google’s vast search, content, and partner networks for a mere $10.

SEO and your business

Not only are costs reasonable, but you have complete control of how that money is used. With Google pay-per-click, you set the budget, and you choose how much you are willing to spend per day and per click for each ad. Therefore, you’ll never have to worry about overspending on useless advertising; not only can you see where each cent is being spent, you can also tell which ads are underperforming, and decide how best to address those ads that are not bringing high quality traffic to your site.

As aforementioned, Google PPC users have access to excellent tools through the AdWords website, and one function of these is the ability to assess how well your ads are performing. Linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics will allow you to track nearly every statistic you can imagine that relates to your pay-per-click campaign, including conversion rates, bounce rates, and clickthrough rates (CTR).

Using your AdWords account intelligently is key to competing with your rivals. Here are some tips to help you better utilise PPC advertising to convert site visitors and turn a larger profit:

  • Use the negative keyword tool in AdWords to weed out search terms you don’t want bringing up your ads. For example, if you only sell printer cartridges, you may not want your ads to come up if someone is searching for printers; chances are someone looking for a printer will not buy anything from your site, and that will be a total waste of the money spent on a click.
  • Make sure to identify regional settings if your services are only available to a specific geographical area. For example, if your website is advertising locksmith services in Italy, you probably don’t want people from China clicking on your ads; their clicks will cost you money, but most likely won’t lead to any profit.
  • Employ long tail, or more specific, keywords and phrases whenever possible. For example, rather than using “coffee” as a keyword, use “Columbian gourmet coffee.” More specific keywords will likely have less competition, which means they will probably have a lower cost-per-click (CPC), and you will have a better chance of having a higher Ad Rank.
  • Use your keywords in the ad copy; they will appear in bold lettering, which will draw the searcher’s eye to your ad.

These are just a few tips to help you capitalize on your AdWords account. Don’t delay improving your PPC campaign; you might be wasting money or even passing up the possibility of much higher revenue.

Posted on October 19, 2009

What is your organic cost per click? Are your competitors paying more than you for clicks? Is your website performing at 100%?