Pay-Per-Click Advertising
How to Avoid a Costly Mistake
With Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaigns
There are plenty of companies that just want to
sell you “clicks”, or hits, to your your
website. But beware! You're website may not be
ready to “close the deal”.
First, here's a very basic primer on how search
marketing works for those who are still in the
dark about how users find businesses on the
Internet.
When a user performs a search online to find a
company that sells, say, blue widgets they would
logically use keywords that are relevant to such
products. In this case, the user might use the
keywords “blue widgets”, “blue widget”, “blue
widget dealer”, or “blue widget dealer atlanta”
(assuming you wanted to find a dealer in
Atlanta, GA). If your business happens to sell
blue widgets then a listing for your business'
website should appear on the first page of a
search engine results page, or “SERP”, in order
to have any chance of being noticed by a
potential customer.
The trick is getting this all-important first
page listing (or SERP #1) – an accomplishment
that is becoming increasingly competitive and
usually requires the help of a skilled search
engine marketer to achieve on a consistent
basis.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
What many businesses still don't know is that
they can actually “bid” on relevant keywords
that are associated with the products or
services that they offer. A winning bid will get
a small ad that includes the business' website
address listed on the first page of a search
results screen. This system of bidding on
keywords is called pay-per-click advertising
because the bidder (the owner of the website) is
only charged for the first page listing when
someone actually clicks on the website listing.
The primary PPC advertising campaign programs
are offered by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. A slick,
easy way to get a first page ranking for your
website, don't you think?
But Here's Where You Can Make a Costly Mistake
with PPC Advertising
Suppose you sell blue widgets in Atlanta, GA and
Google's current bid price for the keyword “blue
widgets dealer” is $12.50. Your bid would be at
least $12.55 to insure that you get a listing on
SERP #1 (Search Engine Results Page #1) when a
user performs a search using the keyword “blue
widgets dealer”. Now, when the user clicks on
your PPC ad and lands on your website Google
charges you $12.55 for that click-through.
Once a user clicks on your paid PPC ad it's up
to your website to carry the ball across the
goal line and generate a “conversion” – whatever
you define that to be. A conversion might be:
-
An online sale of a blue widget (if your provide
ecommerce on the website)
-
A phone call to your business to place an order
for a blue widget
-
A phone call to your Sales Dept. to get more
information about your blue widgets
-
An email requesting more information.
-
A download of a report or guide on “How to
Purchase the Right Blue Widget” (or some other
helpful guide, report, or electronic brochure.
In order to justify the expense of a PPC
campaign you have to have clear evidence of
measurable conversions on the site. If the
website is poorly designed and fails to convert
enough visitors to pay for the cost of a SERP #1
ranking then the advertising expense has been
wasted.
A Common Website Mistake When Using PPC Advertising
One common mistake when using PPC advertising is
when the campaign sends all of the click-throughs
to the website's home page. In many cases this a
costly mistake for three reasons.
Home Page Not Specific
Enough
First, suppose
you sell:
- blue widgets
- red widgets
- green widgets
- portable widgets
- waterproof widgets
- widget carrying cases
- large widgets
- miniature widgets
- designer widgets
- Miley Cyrus signature widgets
- widget display cases
- replaceable batteries for widgets
The home page is probably going to mention all
of these items – making that page the least
specific page on the entire site. Users who are
looking specifically for “blue widgets” will be
forced to hunt through the website for that
information. This is a bad way to start a
relationship with the customer and causes
conversions to fall – especially if users get
the least bit frustrated with poorly-designed
navigation on the website.
Google Charges More for Low Relevance
The second reason why it's a costly mistake to
direct PPC traffic to a site's home page is
because the search engines prefer to send users
to the most relevant pages possible. Google, in
particular, is very focused on this and will
charge PPC advertisers top dollar for clicks
when their Google ads send users to pages that
rank low in relevance to the search
keyword(s).
Harder to Track Campaign Performance
A third reason why it's costly to direct all PPC
traffic to a site's home page is because it
becomes much harder to track the performance of
specific ads in the PPC campaign relative to the
page that users land on. When all PPC ads
click-through to the same page on the website,
regardless of the keyword used in the search, it
becomes almost impossible to determine what
elements on the website might need to be changed
to improve the conversion rate. In short,
there's no way to test what is working and what
isn't working at the website.
How to Avoid Making This Costly Mistake With PPC Advertising
PPC advertisers should avoid sending paid click-throughs
to their website's home page. Instead, highly
optimized landing pages should be built that
focus on specific keywords or keyword groups in
the PPC campaign. When users click on a PPC ad
that mentions “blue widgets” the click-through
link should take them to a landing page that
discusses blue widgets specifically. An ad that
mentions “waterproof widgets” should
click-through to a page that discusses only that
type of widget, and so forth.
The result: Conversions go up because the
advertiser is delivering exactly the information
for which the users (customers) are asking. In
addition, Google is more likely to give
advertisers a break on the price they pay for
the actual click-through because that company
likes it when advertisers deliver
highly-relevant information to users. In fact,
it is not uncommon for one advertiser to spend
many times more for a click-through for the same
keyword as another advertiser who sends click-throughs
to a highly-optimized, highly-relevant landing
page.
Conclusion
We encourage our clients to avoid contracting
with “click resellers” who are only interested
in promising X number of clicks for X amount of
money. Clicks do not necessary translate into
sales, or conversions – particularly when the
website lacks the proper design elements that
make it easy for online visitors to convert. A
carefully designed and managed PPC advertising
strategy – coupled with a plan for landing page
optimization – will ensure that the client gets
the most out of their online advertising
investment.
Related Articles:
How to Avoid a Costly Mistake With Pay-Per Click Advertising Campaigns
|
