A common misconception exists that pay-per-click PPC advertising costs significantly more than search engine optimization (SEO). But that need not be the case if you implement low cost PPC advertising techniques. As opposed to SEO, which requires long-term and sustained efforts, the impact of PPC is immediate, but you will also need to shoulder the cost up-front. There’s no need to bust your budget, however, if you follow a few simple tips:
If you have no experience in PPC marketing, it might be best to hire an agency. Look at the agency's pricing models, reviews, and the competence of its staff prior to hiring. These considerations usually dictate the amount the PPC companies charge.
Do it yourself if you have a very tight budget. A number of PPC tools are available for free these days. It has never been easier to start your own PPC advertising campaign. If you choose this option, be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time in learning.
Choose localized advertising. If you choose a certain geographic target where your ads will be displayed, it stretches the value of every dollar. You will be advertising to a highly targeted market rather than a random searcher who happens to type your keywords.
1. Filling The Need
You can debate the exact amount of white space you should have in ads and the perfect percentage of keyword density for SEO until you are blue in the face, but if your product or service is not perceived as filling an urgent and essential need, then you cannot complain about poor advertising effectiveness. Don’t just sell the features and tell prospects how your product or service works. Make sure you are promoting the real benefits for your prospective customers, the ones that are most important to them. For example, a toll free number is not just a way for your customers to reach you by phone or only a critical part of your branding. Toll free numbers have not only been proven to improve advertising effectiveness in terms of response rates but also through double digit increases in closing ratios and actual revenues.
2. Personalization
Both individual and corporate consumers are becoming more demanding than ever about the products and services they choose to acquire. They want to be made to feel special and that you care about their needs, and they often will only jump on those offerings that appear to be made just for them. This case is true whether it is a new smartphone, a marketing program, or a mobile app. So consider how you can improve advertising effectiveness or add options to your products that will give that personalized "created just for me" feel. You can also achieve this customer connection by improving on tracking and the flow of your system that will present visitors to your mobile and web presence with exactly what they are looking for and need. Or perhaps you should be creating multiple mini-sites complete with their own branding and vanity numbers to target specific niches in your industry.
3. Integration
In several ways, integration applies to increased advertising effectiveness. First, consumers and prospects are surrounded by so many channels these days that it is essential to keep in front of them wherever they are in order to keep your hold on your market share. No longer are consumers just bombarded by billboards, telemarketers, and TV ads. They are now permanently plugged into the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites whether it is on the computer at work, in their cars, or via their smartphones at every other moment of the day and night. Make sure you are in front of them wherever you can be as often as you can, keeping your service fresh in their minds and making it easy for them to acquire your products and services. However, integration is now also playing an extremely important role in the form of Facebook "likes." Getting your products and business "liked" means being able to tap into the sphere of influence and social network that each of your customers has with an extremely powerful word of mouth referral, so make sure to integrate social media with the rest of your business every step of the way.
4. Make It A "No Brainer" To Do Business With You Online
One major factor that has many business owners stumped at just how poorly their online advertising is performing is that they fail to recognize just how different it is doing business via the Internet than face to face. In the past, your sales team may have done great moving high end products with almost no effort at all. However, in many cases you cannot expect to charge the same premiums to complete strangers who are finding you on the web for the first time without making a solid effort to demonstrate your credibility through strong branding. You will also find your advertising effectiveness dramatically improves by offering trials or other incentives to get prospects to realize just how great your company is. Make it impossible for them to say no!
1. Improve Your Product Funnel
Instead of relying on your various social media marketing profiles as totally independent avenues, strive to build a better funnel that pulls all of your online marketing together, allowing each level to do its job while improving your ROI and conversion ratios. Tie together your social media marketing pages, blog, website, and email marketing campaigns to capture more prospects, close deals, and maximize the potential profit from each one.
2. Include Your Vanity Number
Differentiate yourself from all of the small unprofessional fish out there and make sure to include your toll free vanity number on all of your social media marketing fan pages as well, and of course, on your blog and your communications with prospects. A catchy vanity number alone may be the closing factor you have been missing to make prospects take the action you want.
3. Work Smarter Not Harder
It can sometimes seem overwhelming to produce enough content to keep all of your social media marketing channels updated or to expand into more to improve SEO and attract more traffic. However, if you create high quality original content that can be repurposed for your various forms of social media marketing, you can still reap the rewards of a bigger presence on the web while maximizing your budget. For example, commission quality articles that can then be turned into blogs, Tweets, YouTube videos, and social media marketing posts.
4. Explore Group Buying Opportunities
Group buying is about to explode in a big way. It is already the only way many people shop online in China for everything from diapers to houses. Social media marketing giant Facebook has just rolled out its own experiment in group buying for members. Mercedes Benz even discovered its power by using group buying to move over 200 cars in a few hours. So why not explore the potential for your company to benefit from group power whether it is moving your own products or acquiring the things your organization needs?
5. Creating Mobile Apps Or Social Media Games
It is no secret that social media marketing games have emerged as one of the biggest moneymakers in the last couple of years with a monstrous return on investment. Mobile marketing is also an exploding trend that opens the door to thousands and millions of new prospects. So why not explore the opportunity for capitalizing on these trends ahead of your direct competitors?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is otherwise known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Basically, this advertising method involves paying a certain amount to appear on the search engine results page. Unlike SEO, this strategy provides quick results. When implemented properly, it is possible to generate thousands of click-throughs within a short timeframe.
Early in your PPC efforts, it is important to recognize that success in PPC advertising lies in your effective choice of keywords and ad copy. The key to determining a response rate is to start small and to experiment. Identify the ads as well as ad groups that provide the best results; eliminate those that generate poor response rates. This analysis will help you to maximize the return on your investment. Another important consideration in PPC advertising is the “Quality Score.” Once you become more familiar with this advertising method, you’re bound to hear this term over and over again because quality score will determine whether your ad will be displayed prominently on the search engine results page (SERP).
Remember that in PPC advertising, not everything comes down to money. The business model used by search engines relies on delivering relevant results to searchers. So while sites like Google would definitely love your ad money, their long-term feasibility depends on their ability to display quality advertising. If you intend to become successful in PPC advertising, improving your quality score should be your focus.
Even at first glance, it becomes obvious that you can make money online in a number of different ways. As with anything else, however, some tactics are easier and better than others. If you are interested in making money over the Internet quickly, then look at the two ways outlined below to get started:
Marketing online has definitely established itself as the most cost effective and efficient way to advertise and gain new clients; however, it is often the small things that companies overlook or rush through that can have the biggest impact on the success of marketing online. If overlooked, these three essential elements can seriously affect the success of any Internet marketing campaign.
While creativity can be important when it comes to choosing a winning web domain name, a lot more thought should go into choosing one than just the first name that pops into your head. So what should you be considering when it comes to checking domain availability?
