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04.30.09 Pay Per Click Practices To Avoid  By
Eric Leuenberger Pay per click advertising has the ability to not only increase traffic to your site, but also increase the knowledge you have of your market. It can very quickly put money in your pocket or very quickly take it out. Opening up a paid search account, adding a method of payment, and letting traffic flow only takes a few minutes. After that, the most common problem is simply not knowing where to go from there. Here are eight mistakes that most often turn what could be an otherwise successful campaign into a pure nightmare. 1. Using large non-targeted broad keyword lists. Large lists of non targeted keywords generally attract non targeted visitors. Rather than focusing on these massive lists (sometimes referred to as keyword dumps) you should focus on smaller more targeted lists. In addition, refrain from using "broad match" keyword types without any offsetting negative keywords. The use of alternative match options will likely yield less traffic, but that traffic should be more qualified. 2. Paying too much attention to your CTR and not enough on your Conversion Rate. CTR (or Click Through Rate) means nothing if that traffic does not produce actions (sales in the case of ecommerce sites). Focusing on CTR only as an indicator of paid search success will only end up costing you money in the end (thus the "pay per click" concept.) Instead pay more attention to your paid search Conversion Rate to get a better idea of whether you are moving in the right direction or not.
3. Not looking at your Value per Visitor in relation to your Avg. CPC. Your Value per Visitor represents the amount of revenue you earn for each visitor that arrives at your website through a paid search click. Your Avg. CPC (Average Cost per Click) is the amount you spend on average to get one visitor to your site. Comparing the two tells you whether you are making money or not. If your Avg. CPC is less than your Value per Visitor then you are making money. The further the two numbers are apart, the more money you are making. It goes without saying that if your Avg. CPC is more than your Value per Visitor then you are losing money. 4. Using only one Ad Group for multiple sets of non-related keywords. Setting up only one Ad Group and loading it with multiple sets of non-related keywords does a number of bad things. It restricts your ability to more accurately target your visitors based on ad copy. It can cause your quality score to suffer. It costs you more money and also can cost you ad position. I'll sum it up as follows: using one ad group will often result in non-targeted traffic at a higher cost with a lower ad position in the results. This is on way to succeed at paid search. 5. Using only one ad copy variation per ad group. I see it often. Website owners running paid search and only using one ad to generate traffic. To be successful and find out what really converts, you should use at least two different variations of ad copy per ad group - and that's only a gauge. Three to four different ad variations is even better. Running different ads against each other across one ad group helps you learn what triggers your market to act and furthermore what triggers them to buy. It enables you to test what works and what doesn't so you can zero in on higher conversion rates. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Eric Leuenberger is an ecommerce conversion expert and author of a leading Ecommerce Optimization blog. He coaches ecommerce store owners how to increase their website sales using effective online paid search advertising, targeted marketing strategies, website sales strategies, and industry best practices. Contact him today to increase your sales! |
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