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Tips
for pay-per-click bidding
September 2003
As you may know, Overture was recently
bought by Yahoo! Due to the publicity
generated by the deal, now is a
good time to review some tips for
bidding in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
on Overture and Google AdWords.
How does a pay-per-click search
engine work?
With a PPC search engine, you
bid a certain amount for your chosen
keyphrase. Whenever someone searches
for that keyphrase, and clicks on
your website's link under it in
the search result, you pay the bid
amount (or less, depending on your
competition). Generally, the higher
you bid, the higher your placement
is in the search results.
Overture
Overture was the biggest PPC search
engine before Google AdWords came
along. Now they are both fighting
for the top spot, leaving the rest
of the pack in their wake. Overture
works on a strict auction model:
the higher you bid, the higher your
position is. Overture's results
are included in the sponsored results
at the top of Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos,
HotBot, and others. They claim to
reach over 80% of all Internet users.
Google AdWords
Google's AdWords program started
in February 2002, and quickly became
Overture's only serious competitor.
Google's system is different from
Overture's in that the bidding is
only one part of the ranking equation.
The other part is the click-through
rate (how often people click on
your ad). Google AdWords are found
on AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, Teoma,
Earthlink, and, of course, Google.
Google states that their AdWords
appear 200 million times a day.
I figure that they also reach about
70% of all Internet users.
Other PPC search engines:
There are hundreds of PPC search
engines out there, but you really
only need to advertise with the
top two. If you want to see some
lists, you can go to www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com
Pay-per-click tips
Here are some tips for running
a PPC campaign:
- The #1 rank is not always
the best. In fact, you can
usually get a better return on
investment (ROI) by being the
second or third result in a search.
The reason is that people will
often click on the first result
without thinking. They then realize
that the site does not offer what
they want, and they will come
back and think (and read the description)
before clicking on the second
or third results. I mention only
the second and third results because
usually, only the top three results
get published (Yahoo, MSN, and
many more). Often the second and
third results are much less expensive
than the number one spot.
- Bid on as many relevant,
highly specific, low cost keyphrases
as you can afford. A keyphrase
with only one or two keywords
will usually cost much more than
one with three or four words.
Longer keyphrases also tend to
be more targeted (for example,
shiny blue widgets, instead of
just plain old widgets). Thus,
with longer keyphrases, you get
lower costs and a higher return
on investment. If you bid on enough
of these targeted keyphrases,
you can usually generate enough
traffic to match what you would
receive for a single-word keyphrase.
To summarize, bidding on shiny
blue widgets, pre-owned utility
widgets, and zebra-stripped widgets,
will cumulatively generate the
same amount traffic as just bidding
on widgets, but with a higher
ROI because they cost less per
click.
- Include your keyphrases in
your title and descriptions.
Think hard about your description
because generally, the best description
gets the most traffic (not always
the highest ranking result).
- Use objective, not subjective
language in your descriptions.
Subjective descriptions will state
how great the website is. Objective
descriptions are ones that list
the benefits of a website, or
mention what the surfer can expect
to find. Try to point out what
is unique about your website.
- Create highly relevant landing
pages for your PPC campaign.
These landing pages (where the
PPC link goes) are what will convert
a surfer into a buyer. You have
already paid for the surfer to
see this page, so use your resources
to make it into a good conversion
page. Also, keep separate, track
of buyers that arrive via your
PPC campaign, and buyers that
arrive via other means. That way,
you can track your ROI, and figure
out how much you should spend
on the PPC engines.
Other helpful resources:
Shawn Campbell
Shawn
Campbell is the co-founder and
Chief Search Engine Optimizer at
Red
Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
www.redcarpetweb.com
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