Pay-per-click advertising is one way to garner more fans for your business thru the Internet. But, PPC management may require a large budget, even for small businesses. If you want to start a PPC campaign, but you don’t have a large budget to work with, here are some tips from PracticalEcommerce.com.
1. Filter out unnecessary traffic by utilizing ‘negative’ keywords. For example, you sell previously owned electronics. If a potential customer types in the word ‘(gadget) problems’, your ad may show up and cost you an avoidable penny. Both Yahoo! and Google offer help on this matter.
2. Using long tail keywords such as ‘buy’ and ‘get’ may lead to real buyers – as opposed to canvassers and posers. After all, PPC management is about profit for your business.
3. Organize your keywords according to what they are describing. If you’re selling two very different products such as, laptops and flowers, it would be very confusing to the customers to get linked to dandelions if they are looking for a new notebook.
4. PPC management would be much easier if it was free. Since that is not the case, free tools such as the Microsoft AdCenter Desktop and Google AdWords Editor – both interfaces are user friendly too!
5. Keep in mind that leading search engines, such as Bing and Google, come up with different results for content and search distribution. You can customize your settings to better improve your chances.
Here are the most ideal settings to get the most out of your pay-per-click campaign:
Google (Campaign Level):
• Targeting: United States only
• Language: English
• Network & Devices: Google Search; Desktop and laptop computers
• Bidding: Manual bidding – Max CPC
• Position preference: Off
• Delivery method: Standard
• Ad rotation: Optimize
Yahoo! (Account Level):
• Sponsored Search: On
• Content Match: Off
• Match Type: Advanced
• Blocked Continents: Check off all
• Campaign Level Targeting: Block 0-18, Select U.S. only
Bing (Campaign Level):
• Tracking conversions: Checked
• Target by Location: United States
So there you are—some practical tips to better manage your PPC campaign. Hopefully these tips can generate more profit from minimal effort.
Source: Pay-per-click Advertising: Seven Pointers for Smaller Campaigns
OCTOBER 27, 2009 • BY GREG LAPTEVSKY
