The True Value of Pay Per Click

Internet businesses today sometimes seem to be divided into two worlds: Those who PPC, and those who don't. Many of those who PPC religiously spend thousands of dollars each month to maintain the top listings for their keywords, while those who don't PPC have either never considered it, or consider it outrageously expensive when you can get search engine listings for free.

There is a middle ground, however, which might make the most sense for the most businesses. It is possible to do some PPC, on a more modest level and with a more modest budget, and still see a good return on your investment. In fact, sometimes selecting less pricey but still relevant keywords can really improve your ROI. For those who rely solely on good search engine listings, especially with the recent turbulence regarding Google rankings, they might find that their traffic is very hard to come by.

So who should PPC?:

1. Businesses in highly competitive internet fields. If you are in mortgage, insurance, debt consolidation or any other highly competitive keyword, you are competing with too many other websites to have any guarantee of good rankings. Pick one or two terms, and invest a reasonable sum in them. Go for more targeted terms and less specific. For example, "mortgage" might cost a small fortune, but if you only do reverse mortgages, or balloon mortgages, you might be able to get a top 3 listing for much less.

2. Seasonal businesses. Do you get the majority of your business during a limited peak time of year? Then consider a short-term PPC to bump your traffic during that period. Good examples might be gift retailers (target for the holiday season), travel agents (target for Christmas and Spring Break).

3. New businesses. It can take up to 2 or 3 months for a new listing to get picked up by the automated search engines, and new sites typically don't rank all that well. Jump-start your new internet business by doing a targeted, short-term PPC campaign to get your site noticed and bookmarked!

Tips for proper PPC:

1. Choose your terms wisely. As noted above, you might pay through the nose for a term that won't give you as high of a conversion rate. Pick targeted terms, and not only will you probably pay less, but you'll probably get more out of it.

2. Monitor your account! Pay attention to what the bids are for your terms, check your listings regularly (I suggest daily), and make sure you haven't been outbid, or that you haven't run out of money and lost your listing.

3. Review your listings. At least once a month you should sit down and go over how much you spent on each term, how much response you got from each one, and what the conversion was. Eliminate terms that aren't giving you good business, and try a few different ones to maximize your ROI.

4. Try not to rely only on PPC. You might get in the habit of spending $10,000.00 per month for your prime listings, but some careful SEO work and other types of marketing might enable you to halve that figure without losing any business. Don't neglect your other options.

SharpNET Solutions: Search Engine Marketing

Comments

[Donnie Svederus]

Nice information on PPC(Pay Per Click), from my past experience in PPC it has been awefully expensive and confusing. Your tips on PPC have gave me a better understanding on how to use PPC, and its good to know that you don't have to soley depend on PPC. Lately I have been trying to move away from PPC and focusing more on SEO. I'll definetly have to read your other posts on SEO tips. Thanks for the information.