As I mentioned in the first article, Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits? Part 1, Pay-per-click is a fantastic way to drive web traffic to your site from the major search engines. It can also deplete your marketing budget just a couple of days if not done properly. In this article we will talk about the importance of Ad Copy, Landing Pages and Tracking.
4. Ad Copy
Just a couple thoughts on writing ads. When you write your ads put the following in your "headline" box: {keyword: "your main keyword}. This will put your keyword phrase into the headline. This is very important for a lot of reasons that we will get into at another time. Your ad should be specific enough to attract only your ideal client (someone who is looking for exactly what you have to offer). Your ad contained at least one of your "unique selling propositions". This can be very challenging because of the space limitations. Rule of thumb, find out what your competitors are doing and do something different. For example, if everyone is offering free shipping, use one of your other unique selling propositions.
5. Landing Pages
You need to put a lot of thought to your landing pages. Your landing page has to do one thing that is answer the questions are up that the searcher had in mind when he typed in his key words. The searcher type in his search terms because he has a problem, needs a solution and is in some kind of "pain". You have about two seconds to convince him that you understand what he is going through and what he needs. It does not matter if you are selling hammers, insurance or investment products. The last thing a searcher wants to see is that you can jump higher, run faster and do it better than the competition. He just doesn't care. Besides, 99% of the websites that he visited probably stated that they do that. You must show him that you have the answers to his needs. Do not just send him to your home page unless your home page can accomplish the above. Once you connect with your searcher you must have a call to action. It can be a "buy now", "for more information contact us", "contact us for a free evaluation" or "consultation". You must be very specific and clear about your next steps. Have your phone number or contact us button on every page.
6. Tracking
Finally, track everything. Paid search is not an exact science. It takes time to set up and optimized your campaigns to get the results that you are looking for. You must monitor your campaigns at the least weekly in order to catch market changes. Unless you have a time of venture capital money laying around, paid search is not something you turn on and forget about. Google, Yahoo and MSN have free tracking tools that work great.
Pay-per-click is a great marketing tool, if used correctly. It can also, as stated earlier, suck your marketing budget dry in a heartbeat. It is a lot cheaper to find someone who knows what they are doing and does this day in and day out to help you than it is to lose thousands of dollars trying to figure it out yourself.
Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, Clickadvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information: Paid Search: one-way ticket to the poor farm or great profits
No comments:
Post a Comment