Whether you're looking to do Paid Search Advertising yourself or to hire someone to do that for you - you should know what makes a Pay Per Click campaign successful - or you will end up suffering. Paid search advertising may look deceptively easy to do. Countless times small business owners decide (and correctly so) that PPC is going to do wonders for their business and 'dive' right into it...
Unfortunately most of them don't really educate themselves enough on what to do and how to do it, and then they end up spending a helluva lot of money, with little to no results. Next they declare that Paid Search Marketing doesn't work and then they're out!
Alternatively, the small business owner hires an overpaid, over-promising PPC management firm, and lets them do whatever they like - not knowing what to be aware of in order to make sure he's getting the best possible results for the best price...
Well - despite the doom and gloom scenarios above, I'm here to tell you that PPC works for most businesses!
It works very well, and can be one of the best, quickest, most cost effective and best tracked medium of advertising/promotion there ever was... Sure, there are other ways you can market your business, but if you know how to, and if you want almost immediate results that are fully tracked - then PPC can't be beaten.
OK, let's get to the top 10 essentials of Pay Per Click marketing:
1. Know your market place
It's as obvious as daylight, but people still go into PPC without doing their research. Bear in mind that you may know your market place offline, but when you consider the internet - it may be a whole different environment. So make sure you look into it - even if you have to pay for professional research - it will be worth your while.
If you're letting an agency manage your paid search, then make sure you ask them about your market - make sure they have done their homework thoroughly.
2. Know your target audience
Again an obvious one - and yet again people don't do this step properly. Don't just list out a bunch of demographics about your prospective customers. Get into character - engineer 'real-life' people profiles (avatars), describing everything about them.
Creating about 3 customer avatars for your business, will help you understand your customers, and thus you'll be able to anticipate how they behave. Knowing how they are likely to behave, will allow you to setup a VERY effective PPC campaign process, that will guarantee you success.
Remember - your customer just wants to feel understood, then if your product/service is good - they will buy.
3. Know what you want your visitor to do
In other words decide - do you want a prospect visiting your site to:
call you to make an appointment?
email you with more info about themselves, before setting up a consultation?
click on the "Buy Now" button on your landing page?
sign up to your membership site?
sign up to your free newsletter?
download a free report?
The clearer you are about what you want visitors to do, the easier it will be to entice them to do just that. If you don't tell your prospects what it is they need to do to progress this visit to something that is of benefit to them, they will click away, most likely to never be seen again...
4. Know how they look for you & your product - i.e. understand searcher intent
This one's not so obvious. Only very good paid search marketers know that keywords have different intent behind them. In other words, if a searcher on Google types in "running shoes" they are highly likely to be doing some preliminary research on what types of running shoes there are.
If the same searcher typed in "running shoes reviews" - then they are likely to be still researching - but they now know that they will buy - when they find the shoe that appeals to them.
A prospect with 'buying' intent, however, will likely type in "buy asics gel kayano running shoes" or "asics gel kayano stockists". You get the idea...
5. Start small - grow big later
This simply means that it is better to find the most suitable keyword phrases for your business, and run with that small group first. This will allow you to test the 'waters' and it will help you keep control of your budget.
Later on, when you know what works and what doesn't you can add other phrases to your heart's content.
6. Split test your ads
It is amazing how many people don't take advantage of this feature on Google AdWords. Split - testing will give you a constant way of improving on your ads. Your ad is the 'window' to your sales... so you cannot afford not to be constantly trying to make it better converting than before.
7. Use landing pages (LP)
Landing pages are powerful when using them correctly. They allow you complete control of what your visitor experiences. I always recommend that if you are only wanting one result from your prospect you should use LPs. But if your resources and knowledge are limited, then at least make sure you are leading the searcher to the most search-relevant page you have on your site.
8. Track everything
This says it all - even if you don't know how to, or with what - find someone that can help you. Outsource this job, or simply head over to Google and read all there is on their Analytics service. In some cases this is perfectly sufficient.
9. Listen to your stats
Once you have your tracking working, make sure you look at your stats to see the results. I recommend you look at them once a day in the beginning - depending on the size of your campaign, the amount of traffic your keywords are getting, and the amount of money you've budgeted to spend.
Once your campaign is working and making you profit, you can start looking at it less often, but at least once a week. Also make sure to optimize it regularly on the basis of your stats.
10. Learn consistently and constantly
Learn from your successes, your failures, your competitors' successes and their failures too... I have a document template that I use for all my campaigns called - Lessons Learned. It's only through experience that you will be able to progress and optimize any paid search campaign.
Well - hopefully you'll find the above list of PPC essentials very useful. Of course there are a lot of other important points to consider, like daily budget, competitive research, and return on investment requirements, but the above 10 will be able to start you off in a very strong way.
Bear in mind that whether you're managing your own PPC campaigns, or you're hiring a professional to do it - you can use the list above to make sure you're getting the best out of your campaigns.
About the Author
Anita Chaperon is an experienced Paid Search Marketing professional who's managed multi - national campaigns with large budgets for a variety of small and medium businesses. For more information on how to make paid search work for your business, visit OnTargt.com.
BACK TO WEBSITE PROMOTION AND SEO HOMEPAGE:
Check out: The Chronicles of Barack Obama, Credit Repair va, repair credit, f&i, Credit Repiar Blog, F&I Manager Blog
Showing posts with label PPC Campaigns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PPC Campaigns. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
9 Hot Tips to Increase Site Conversions
By Gary Klingsheim (c) 2009
"Site conversion" is a very dry and unexciting way of saying "how to get more profíts from the same amount of website traffic." Isn't that a more upbeat way of expressing it? Who doesn't want to get more profíts from the same number of visitors?
Increasing your conversion rate is a straightforward, even dramatic way of positively impacting your bottom line. It really cannot be emphasized too much that any improvement at all in your conversion rate means additional revenue that is total profít.
Remember this fact when you are told that the way to "make more money" is to invest in more traffic-generating schemes (and dreams, at times). Before you start spending more money to generate additional traffic, you need to do as much as you can with the traffic you are already getting. If you keep the horse ahead of the cart in your planning, you will have an efficient, stable, measurable conversion rate from which you can extrapolate x amount of additional profit from y amount of new-traffic generation.
The following tips are not in any particular order (except for Number 1), and can be modified and reordered to suit your particular situation. Take ownership of the change and improvement, and make sure everyone involved understands the importance of maximizing every revenue source, beginning with the existing ones!
1: Before you can repair or improve something, you have to have a good way of measuring where you are, what you're doing, where you're going, etc. You can sign up for a free Google Analytics account and use other low- and no-cost tools to develop your "analytics" and "metrics" - essentially fancy words that tell you how you're doing with numbers.
2: Create landing pages that are both keyword- and campaign-specific. Try separating any related pay-per-click keywords into smaller and tighter groups, and then create the landing pages for each of those new subgroups. Conversions will almost certainly be better if keywords, advertising approaches and landing pages are thematically related and tightly integrated.
3: Test different headlines and copy writing. This might be the most effective way of quickly showing improvements. Therefore, you need to write compelling copy or find someone else who can do it for you. There is plenty of free advice about this (much of it worth every penny you pay for it), but the importance of copywriting as it affects site conversions cannot possibly be overstated. This is key.
4: It is very important to test your pricing, as it really does make a huge difference in conversions. If your goal is to maximize customer value, then the highest converting price may not actually be the optimal one. In other words, if you raise your price by 50% and only see a 10% reduction in conversions, you will more than compensate for the drop. Going the other direction, if you lower the price 15% and this doubles or triples your ratio, your gain compensates for your price reduction. Test your prices, and test them in both directions.
5: Website load time has become an oft-overlooked item in this age of "broadband everywhere." Load time is critically important in reducing your "bounce rate" on landing pages. There are various online services that will measure your load speed (websiteoptimization.com), and when you know what it is, you can reduce it by compressing images, removing redundant items, optimizing your style sheets (CSS) and HTML code, and so on. The referenced website will also give you advice on other ways to improve your site's load speed.
6: Clearly identify the sales path(s) and discard any points of resistance, or bottlenecks. Even if you have just a single product, there may be a number of different "paths" that lead to a sale. Perhaps you have a landing page to acquire visitor contact data, which then takes them to a sales page, thence to an order page, and so on. Check your metrics and analytics carefully and you should start seeing patterns in how your visitors navigate your site. If you can see when, where and how visitors are leaving the site, you can delete unnecessary steps, enhance the sales copy or the "call to action," insert a few testimonials, emphasize your warranty or something else to capture that business. Do everything you can to keep the sales process simple and straightforward. The less confusing it is, the less resistance visitors will display.
7: Let your praises come from others' lips. Sometimes talking about oneself can sound egotistical, and it has been clearly proven that third-party testimonials boost conversions. In marketing it is called "social proof" when you bring in statements and assessments from others to buttress your message. If you add testimonials - short blurbs, highlighted quotes, letters - to your various landing pages, sales pages and even shopping cart pages, you will almost invariably notice an improvement in your conversion rate.
8: You need to understand the mind of your market, and your customer's experience with your website. Place an order on the site yourself as you step into the mind of a first-time visitor. Identify the hang-ups, inefficiencies and confusing or missing components that hinder your conversions. In concert with step #6 above, you want to identify why you are not converting, so that you can make the necessary improvements, whatever they may be, to improve your ratio.
9: Some people believe passionately in the power of media on landing, sales and order pages to raise conversions considerably. Others are not convinced, and there is not much hard data from controlled studies to consult. You should consider testing this idea yourself. You should try pages both with and without automatic play engaged. The idea is to lower buyer resistance, and if media helps, all the better. Music, motion graphics and video do add life and personality to your website, but there is a "sweet spot" (balancing point) and the fact remains that different age and cultural groups respond differently to the media. You need to make changes here in the context of your site's demographics. You wouldn't put rock music on your page of ladies' perfumes, probably - unless you have a 20-something demographic and it's a signature fragrance from U2 or some other chart-topping band.
Aren't most of these lists called the "top 10" this or that? You can count this tip as a bonus, then: Keep track of everything you do! Nothing "goes without saying" anymore, so you are hereby reminded that all your hard work can go for naught if you do not keep good records of what changes you are making, when, where, why and how. Chart your progress, review it regularly and don't be afraid to make continuing refinements as you move along your strategic path.
Finally, as a "super bonus tip" - use some kind of sales accelerator, "offer intensifier" or other method to move people faster through the sales process. It could be a special "one time" or "limited time" offer, a limíted quantity offer or even a "special event" promotíon. Research what's going on at other sites in your industry and others, and stay abreast of what seems to be working. Add your creativity to the mix, tailor things to your company's situation and you should start seeing increased conversion rates in short order.
Good Stuff!!!
About The Author:
Moonrise Productions is a custom web design company specializing in custom web development and design. Whether you need web application development or social network design - contact us and we'll get it done right.
BACK TO WEBSITE PROMOTION AND SEO HOMEPAGE:
Check out: The Chronicles of Barack Obama, Credit Repair va, repair credit, f&i, Credit Repiar Blog, F&I Manager Blog
"Site conversion" is a very dry and unexciting way of saying "how to get more profíts from the same amount of website traffic." Isn't that a more upbeat way of expressing it? Who doesn't want to get more profíts from the same number of visitors?
Increasing your conversion rate is a straightforward, even dramatic way of positively impacting your bottom line. It really cannot be emphasized too much that any improvement at all in your conversion rate means additional revenue that is total profít.
Remember this fact when you are told that the way to "make more money" is to invest in more traffic-generating schemes (and dreams, at times). Before you start spending more money to generate additional traffic, you need to do as much as you can with the traffic you are already getting. If you keep the horse ahead of the cart in your planning, you will have an efficient, stable, measurable conversion rate from which you can extrapolate x amount of additional profit from y amount of new-traffic generation.
The following tips are not in any particular order (except for Number 1), and can be modified and reordered to suit your particular situation. Take ownership of the change and improvement, and make sure everyone involved understands the importance of maximizing every revenue source, beginning with the existing ones!
1: Before you can repair or improve something, you have to have a good way of measuring where you are, what you're doing, where you're going, etc. You can sign up for a free Google Analytics account and use other low- and no-cost tools to develop your "analytics" and "metrics" - essentially fancy words that tell you how you're doing with numbers.
2: Create landing pages that are both keyword- and campaign-specific. Try separating any related pay-per-click keywords into smaller and tighter groups, and then create the landing pages for each of those new subgroups. Conversions will almost certainly be better if keywords, advertising approaches and landing pages are thematically related and tightly integrated.
3: Test different headlines and copy writing. This might be the most effective way of quickly showing improvements. Therefore, you need to write compelling copy or find someone else who can do it for you. There is plenty of free advice about this (much of it worth every penny you pay for it), but the importance of copywriting as it affects site conversions cannot possibly be overstated. This is key.
4: It is very important to test your pricing, as it really does make a huge difference in conversions. If your goal is to maximize customer value, then the highest converting price may not actually be the optimal one. In other words, if you raise your price by 50% and only see a 10% reduction in conversions, you will more than compensate for the drop. Going the other direction, if you lower the price 15% and this doubles or triples your ratio, your gain compensates for your price reduction. Test your prices, and test them in both directions.
5: Website load time has become an oft-overlooked item in this age of "broadband everywhere." Load time is critically important in reducing your "bounce rate" on landing pages. There are various online services that will measure your load speed (websiteoptimization.com), and when you know what it is, you can reduce it by compressing images, removing redundant items, optimizing your style sheets (CSS) and HTML code, and so on. The referenced website will also give you advice on other ways to improve your site's load speed.
6: Clearly identify the sales path(s) and discard any points of resistance, or bottlenecks. Even if you have just a single product, there may be a number of different "paths" that lead to a sale. Perhaps you have a landing page to acquire visitor contact data, which then takes them to a sales page, thence to an order page, and so on. Check your metrics and analytics carefully and you should start seeing patterns in how your visitors navigate your site. If you can see when, where and how visitors are leaving the site, you can delete unnecessary steps, enhance the sales copy or the "call to action," insert a few testimonials, emphasize your warranty or something else to capture that business. Do everything you can to keep the sales process simple and straightforward. The less confusing it is, the less resistance visitors will display.
7: Let your praises come from others' lips. Sometimes talking about oneself can sound egotistical, and it has been clearly proven that third-party testimonials boost conversions. In marketing it is called "social proof" when you bring in statements and assessments from others to buttress your message. If you add testimonials - short blurbs, highlighted quotes, letters - to your various landing pages, sales pages and even shopping cart pages, you will almost invariably notice an improvement in your conversion rate.
8: You need to understand the mind of your market, and your customer's experience with your website. Place an order on the site yourself as you step into the mind of a first-time visitor. Identify the hang-ups, inefficiencies and confusing or missing components that hinder your conversions. In concert with step #6 above, you want to identify why you are not converting, so that you can make the necessary improvements, whatever they may be, to improve your ratio.
9: Some people believe passionately in the power of media on landing, sales and order pages to raise conversions considerably. Others are not convinced, and there is not much hard data from controlled studies to consult. You should consider testing this idea yourself. You should try pages both with and without automatic play engaged. The idea is to lower buyer resistance, and if media helps, all the better. Music, motion graphics and video do add life and personality to your website, but there is a "sweet spot" (balancing point) and the fact remains that different age and cultural groups respond differently to the media. You need to make changes here in the context of your site's demographics. You wouldn't put rock music on your page of ladies' perfumes, probably - unless you have a 20-something demographic and it's a signature fragrance from U2 or some other chart-topping band.
Aren't most of these lists called the "top 10" this or that? You can count this tip as a bonus, then: Keep track of everything you do! Nothing "goes without saying" anymore, so you are hereby reminded that all your hard work can go for naught if you do not keep good records of what changes you are making, when, where, why and how. Chart your progress, review it regularly and don't be afraid to make continuing refinements as you move along your strategic path.
Finally, as a "super bonus tip" - use some kind of sales accelerator, "offer intensifier" or other method to move people faster through the sales process. It could be a special "one time" or "limited time" offer, a limíted quantity offer or even a "special event" promotíon. Research what's going on at other sites in your industry and others, and stay abreast of what seems to be working. Add your creativity to the mix, tailor things to your company's situation and you should start seeing increased conversion rates in short order.
Good Stuff!!!
About The Author:
Moonrise Productions is a custom web design company specializing in custom web development and design. Whether you need web application development or social network design - contact us and we'll get it done right.
BACK TO WEBSITE PROMOTION AND SEO HOMEPAGE:
Check out: The Chronicles of Barack Obama, Credit Repair va, repair credit, f&i, Credit Repiar Blog, F&I Manager Blog
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Landing Pages for PPC Campaigns
Excellent advice from Bruce Clay.
With a PPC campaign, content or Web design changes are not necessary, although in order to create really effective Pay Per Click Internet advertising, you might want to make some changes.
In fact, a Web site is not even really needed. A Web page that answers the searchers query and points them in the right direction for more information is all that is really required.
Compelling content that gives visitors what they are looking for and converts them into buyers or leads is what you really need.
Your PPC Campaing landing pages should load fast. This means you shouldn’t clutter them with heavy images and unnecessary information.
Don’t let your visitors wait too long because they are likely to get frustrated and go somewhere else. And all this after you paid for them to click to your site.
Create Compelling Content:
For the most part, visitors tend to scan websites, looking for the information or offer they saw in your ad. It’s best to leave out extraneous content that does not fit into your ad's objectives. A cluttered website can be confusing so it’s important to organize relevant information in a clear and concise format. Use a clear and compelling call to action to lead your visitor to your offer.
Use Easy to Follow Navigation:
Make it easy for your visitors to find what they are looking for. They are there to accomplish a task, be entertained, learn something or take advantage of an offer. Make it easy for them to do what they and you want them to do. A user-friendly website is an efficient website that maximizes productivity and minimizes frustrations. It values the visitor providing them with a positive & rewarding experience.
Follow Some Simple Usability Rules:
Consider what your visitors experience might be after they click on your ad. For example, if your target market is baby boomers or senior citizens, they most likely will have difficulty reading smaller text, so create landing pages with larger, easy to read fonts. If your demographics are mostly women, use language that appeals to women. Be sure your page loads quickly and there is a compelling and prominent call to action.
Track Conversions:
If your Web site is not a product driven e-commerce Web site, you might also consider using a short form for your visitors to fill out requesting more information or to obtain a free product or sample. You can then use this form to track conversions at least at the PPC campaign level. If it is product driven, and they can purchase directly from your Web site, be sure to put some form of metrics in place for tracking conversions.
BACK THE WEBSITE PROMOTION AND SEO HOMEPAGE:
LEARN HOW TO:
Improve Search Engine Rankings link building pricing PPC Setup Seo Services Seo Specialist Service Web Solution & Internet Marketing Search engine optimization Better Rankings Web Marketing Advice SEO: Search Engine Optimization Google Adwords Management Search Engine Optimization And Link Building
With a PPC campaign, content or Web design changes are not necessary, although in order to create really effective Pay Per Click Internet advertising, you might want to make some changes.
In fact, a Web site is not even really needed. A Web page that answers the searchers query and points them in the right direction for more information is all that is really required.
Compelling content that gives visitors what they are looking for and converts them into buyers or leads is what you really need.
Your PPC Campaing landing pages should load fast. This means you shouldn’t clutter them with heavy images and unnecessary information.
Don’t let your visitors wait too long because they are likely to get frustrated and go somewhere else. And all this after you paid for them to click to your site.
Create Compelling Content:
For the most part, visitors tend to scan websites, looking for the information or offer they saw in your ad. It’s best to leave out extraneous content that does not fit into your ad's objectives. A cluttered website can be confusing so it’s important to organize relevant information in a clear and concise format. Use a clear and compelling call to action to lead your visitor to your offer.
Use Easy to Follow Navigation:
Make it easy for your visitors to find what they are looking for. They are there to accomplish a task, be entertained, learn something or take advantage of an offer. Make it easy for them to do what they and you want them to do. A user-friendly website is an efficient website that maximizes productivity and minimizes frustrations. It values the visitor providing them with a positive & rewarding experience.
Follow Some Simple Usability Rules:
Consider what your visitors experience might be after they click on your ad. For example, if your target market is baby boomers or senior citizens, they most likely will have difficulty reading smaller text, so create landing pages with larger, easy to read fonts. If your demographics are mostly women, use language that appeals to women. Be sure your page loads quickly and there is a compelling and prominent call to action.
Track Conversions:
If your Web site is not a product driven e-commerce Web site, you might also consider using a short form for your visitors to fill out requesting more information or to obtain a free product or sample. You can then use this form to track conversions at least at the PPC campaign level. If it is product driven, and they can purchase directly from your Web site, be sure to put some form of metrics in place for tracking conversions.
BACK THE WEBSITE PROMOTION AND SEO HOMEPAGE:
LEARN HOW TO:
Improve Search Engine Rankings link building pricing PPC Setup Seo Services Seo Specialist Service Web Solution & Internet Marketing Search engine optimization Better Rankings Web Marketing Advice SEO: Search Engine Optimization Google Adwords Management Search Engine Optimization And Link Building
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