Alternative tips to research keyword effectively in PPC online campaigns
Search marketers often get into the habit of thinking that the best tactic for Search Engine Marketing is to be exposed to as many searchers as possible, since we only pay per click. This strategy may work well for SEO, but it is not effective for pay per click (PPC) advertising.
Google Adwords and Microsoft AdCenter have rewarded advertisers for relevance for a number of years. With the new Panama platform and doing away with a “bid only” positioning system, Yahoo is now doing the same. Even though you only pay for each click received, your campaign can still be hurt by showing up for searches that are not relevant to your product or service.
One simple campaign tactic to make sure your ad is more likely to be displayed for only relevant results is to use “negative” keywords (called “excluded” keywords by Yahoo). Negative keywords keep your ads from displaying when that keyword is included in the search.
Aside from eliminating clicks from searches that do not coincide with what you are offering, how does this improve your campaign results? It is all about relevance! All three of the major search engines (Google, MSN and Yahoo) reward PPC campaigns for having higher relevance, and one of the key factors in the relevance score is the Click through Rate (CTR). As your relevance increases, your cost per click (CPC) decreases for the same position.
How does your Click through Rate increase? It is a matter of simple math. CTR is determined by dividing Clicks by Impressions. By not appearing in results that are not relevant to what you offer, you are lowering your impressions while still maintaining your Clicks. Therefore, your CTR increases even while your number of clicks remains constant.
By using negative keywords to eliminate over 2 million impressions, the example campaign listed above was able to increase the CTR by 75% with only a negligible loss of clicks (and those were unlikely to be relevant clicks anyway). Given the increasing importance the search engines are placing on relevance, this could translate into significant savings in costs per click or increase your position in the results without having to raise your bids.
Where to Find Negative Keywords?
Finding negative keywords is easier than you think, and if you plan ahead, it can be part of your typical keyword research. When doing keyword research, using tools such as Wordtracker or the Google Suggestion Tool, you are typically looking for keywords that are relevant to your product or service. To find negative keywords, you should also be looking for terms that are not relevant to what you offer. If I were to create a PPC campaign for a classic car dealer, I would use many of these keywords in my campaign. However, there are also a few words for which I am sure I do not want my ads to show, including: insurance, values, show and parts.
So, as part of my normal keyword research, I have already identified negative keywords that could eliminate almost 17% of impressions that would be very unlikely to result in a relevant lead or sale. If you have a campaign that is already running, you can take the same approach to finding negative keywords.
Summary
Applying negative keywords can be a very effective tactic to improve the results of any PPC campaign. When used correctly, negative keywords can increase your click through rate, reduce your cost per click, and bring only the most relevant traffic to your site. That is why using negative keywords is positive for your PPC campaign.
Starting an on
The Top 5 Steps to Consider When Starting Your Online Business
Step 1: The Idea
For all the obvious reasons, having the right product or service is crucial. First, determine if there is a need for what you are selling. Then figure out how you are going to sell it. Developing a business plan which lays out your personal step-by-step guide to how you’re going to make a profit (and committing this to writing) helps answer the questions of what and how you’re going to sell. Assuming your idea still makes sense to you, start setting up your business.
Step 2: Legal Mumbo Jumbo
-Consider incorporating your business for legal protection. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Limited_liability_company)
-Make sure you are not infringing on any patents or trademarks, and that you register your own intellectual property if necessary. Make sure everything you are doing is legal before embarking on your business plan. Speak to a qualified attorney to clarify details.
Step 3: Getting online
Select a domain name / web host / website designer
A domain name is what online viewers type in to find your business: www.example.com A domain name is usually included with a web hosting service. A web host is a company that stores your website and makes sure customers can access it securely. A good review of the best web hosting providers can be found here: www.thetopwebhosting.com. A few of the reviewed web hosting providers also include free advertising credits in their service. A good website designer is also necessary to develop an impressionable online presence for your business. Www.stripesweb.com is a boutique web designer well suited for small-mid size business requirements.
Marketing:
No business is complete without a marketing plan. A good place to start with online advertising is Google AdWords (www.adwords.com), Yahoo! Search Marketing (searchmarketing.yahoo.com), and Microsoft adCenter (https://adcenter.microsoft.co m/)
You can also advertise for free with online postings like Craigslist.org
Depending on the theme of your service or products, you can begin writing a blog that incorporates your marketing.
If you are selling a quality product or service and treating your customers right, you will be building a successful online business. Customer service is very important for an online business, so make sure to have contact information and respond to customer questions promptly.
Step 5: Accounting and Taxes
Keep a track of all your expenses from day one. Every penny counts. By tracking your expenditures accurately, you make sure to know your profits exactly and not overpay on taxes.
Final words: The key to success is to be very good at the product/service that you pick, make sure it is economically viable before investing money, and have passion for what you do. Best of luck in your online venture!
Advanced Pay Per Click “PPC” Keyword Strategies
PPC campaigns can become expensive very quickly if you are not targeting online “Buyers”. Many businesses that are utilizing PPC Advertising are making the mistake of bidding at a high cost per click while targeting more of the “Window Shoppers” of the Internet and not focusing enough on Sales Conversions.
All the big PPC Services such as Google Adwords, Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing and many others suggest to their customers that a “conversion” can be a download, or a sign up, or a registration, etc. What they really mean by this is that a conversion is when someone clicks on your PPC Ad, goes to your website, fills out a form or whatever and increases the PPC services revenues.
But what you want to do is increase your revenues isn’t it? Don’t focus on writing PPC Ads that get lot’s of people to click on it but instead focus on your target market, create PPC Ads targeted specifically to them, then create Landing Pages that will convert them into buying customers.
This process all begins with the Keywords you decide to bid on and use. The keywords you decide to use will determine how much you are going to pay per click and will also determine how you will create your PPC Ads and Landing Pages.
Here are just a few of the proven keyword strategies that we have used at WebXSuccess that have helped our clients focus their PPC Campaigns and reduced their average Cost Per Click over 75%.
Target Niche Keywords that have fewer Competitors:
You will find that on Google AdWords you will be able to Bid for certain keywords for only a $0.04 CPC which will have very few competitors or none at all. Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Search still have a minimum bid of $0.10 per click though.
You can research Niche Keywords by using keywords that are unique to your:
• Brand – Company’s can restrict the use of their Brand Name.
• Trademark – Company’s can restrict the use of their Trademark.
• Industry – Certain keywords are used by your customers to describe your industry.
• Products – Include the names of your products.
• Services – Include the name of your services.
• Geography – Include your City and or State with your Keywords.
Niche Keywords won’t increase your websites traffic as much as the more commonly used keywords but using them will increase your Campaigns overall Click Through Rate (CTR) with highly targeted traffic and lower your average CPC.
Target “Action†Keywords:
Action Keywords are keywords that Buyers commonly use when they are making their buying decision and do a search online. For example when a person is looking for a new 42†Plasma TV they will commonly type include Action Keywords such as “buy plasma tv†or “sale on plasma tvâ€.
Common Action Keywords which you should add to your Keywords List include:
• Buy Widgets
• Purchase Widgets
• Order Widgets
• Order Widgets now
• Sale on Widgets
• Widgets On sale
• Discount Widgets
• Discounted Widgets
• Buy discounted Widgets
• Save Widgets
Just replace Widgets with the name of your Products and Services. By including Action Keywords to your PPC Campaign you will target more consumers who are actively looking to purchase your products and services which will greatly increase your Sales Conversions and Revenues.
Bid Exact Matches and avoid Broad and Phrase Matches:
PPC Services give people the option to define keywords by Exact Match, Broad Match, Phrase Match, and Negative Match. Here is an explanation and example of each:
• Exact Matches: By placing these [] brackets around specific keywords it will ensure that your Ads are only shown when a user types in that Exact Same Keyword. By bidding only on Exact Matches you will eliminate many of the “window shoppers†of the Internet and directly target Buyers. This will reduce your overall Click Through Rate but it will increase the amount of highly target traffic to your site, reduce your Ad Spend, while increasing your Sales Conversions and Revenues. Example: [keyword] = Exact Match.
• Broad Matches: When you just type in a plain old keyword without using [brackets] or “quotes†your Ads will be shown to anyone who types in a general phrase which has keywords that are related to yours. Most of your PPC Accounts will be set at Broad Match by Default so you will have to change it to Exact Match. Example: keyword = Broad Match.
• Phrase Matches: Your ad appears when people type in a keyword phrase which includes your keywords. Example: “keyword†= Phrase Match.
• Negative Match: You will be able to add –Negative Keywords into your Ad Groups Keywords Lists which you should do as soon as you can. If you were advertising a DVD sale, for example, you wouldn’t want your ad displayed for searches related to “rental†or “burningâ€, because neither term is inline with the focus of your campaign. Using these terms as negative keywords will stop your ads from being shown for searches that include them. Reducing ad impressions for irrelevant searches will improve your overall CTR and strengthen both the relevancy and performance of your keyword list. This will help you achieve a higher quality score, lower your cost per acquisition and increase your ROI. Negative Keywords include words like “freeâ€, “free trialâ€, “free downloadâ€, “crackâ€, etc. Make a long list of all the Negative Keywords you can think of and add these into your Keyword Lists for each of your PPC Accounts Ad Groups you have set up. Example: -keyword = Negative Match.
You can consider doubling or tripling the keywords by creating Exact, Broad, and Phrase Matches for every keyword. Then, after reviewing their performance, gradually eliminate Broad and Phrase Matches that result in lower conversion rates.
When to use each Match Type:
At the risk of oversimplifying things, the following rules of thumb can be applied with great success.
• Broad Match: Used to increase the supply of ad impressions or increase the number of times your ad is shown. The fewer words used, and therefore the broader the match, the greater the supply of ad impressions that you’ll attract (we’ll get into other strategies for broad match use later in this document)
• Phrase Match & Exact Match: These are most effectively used as measurement tools, and ways to test whether specific terms crafted in specific ways – actually result in an increased CTR….these are very effective tools for campaign refinement once the basics have been established.
• Negative Match: Is used to cull or eliminated poorly targeted customers who may be searching for unrelated topics.
Despite these strategies for increasing impressions, the overriding factor to be analysed in order to achieve success is the conversion rate of different keywords. A broad matched keyword which converts poorly may chew up all of your ad budget and deliver few resulting conversions. For this reason, a balance must always be struck between gaining enough displays of your ad, but focusing on the ads and keywords which are delivering results (conversions) at the lowest cost.
Tip: When you make your Keywords List save a copy as a text file using Microsoft Notepad this way you can simply “Cut and Paste†you Keywords into your different PPC Accounts. This will save you a lot of time and ensure that you have included all of the best keywords in each account!
Evaluating Search Terms:
Use a balance of four criteria to evaluate all potential search terms for your PPC Keyword Lists:
• Relevance: Relevance is not just making sure that a search term applies directly to your product or service but, more specifically, that it is unlikely to apply to any other product or service.
• Popularity: Popularity is simply the relative usage of one search term over another. People searching for a product may often be more likely to use certain words than others in their search request, e.g. ‘buy’ and ‘purchase’ may mean the same thing but people are generally much more likely to use the word ‘buy’ than ‘purchase’ when searching.
• Performance: Performance is something you will have to determine for yourself by tracking your customers from initial Click through to the sale. You will often find that while some search terms will generate more visitors, others will actually generate more sales. This is because many people will simply be researching a potential purchase while those who are ready to buy will use slightly different search terms.
• Cost: In a competitive market, you may often find that the top bid for a search term is far higher than your own margins allow. In general, you can attain far better value by choosing more specific search terms.
Group Best Performing Keywords:
If you are working with very large keyword lists for each Ad group ten you must break them up into smaller, more targeted groups. To help you organize your keywords, AdWords Editor offers a tool called the Keyword Grouper. The Keyword Grouper will organize your keywords based on common themes found in your list.
Low Cost Online Keyword Search Service:
The best overall Online Keyword Research Tool is WordTracker. My staff and I have been using WordTracker for over 7 years now because WordTracker is very inexpensive and will save you time because their service makes it very easy to quickly research highly Relevant and Popular keywords on different Search Engines and Online Directories all in one place.
Sign up for their Free Trial at http://www.WordTracker.com because with this service you will be able to:
• Based on over 300 million keywords and phrases that people used in the previous 90 days.
• Searches Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, and other major PPC Search Engines.
• Use their competitive analysis tool enables you to find those “best keywords”.
• Optimize your PPC Ads by using the most popular keywords.
• Improve your Pay Per Click search campaigns.
• Find niche opportunities and exploit them before your competitors.
• Generate thousands of keyword suggestions.
Try their Free Keyword Suggestion Tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com.
WordTracker.com Prices: 1 Week $30.00 / 1 Month $59.00 / 1 Year $299.00
Download WordTrackers “Free Keyword Research Guide†that explains how to select keywords and use WordTrackers features at http://www.WordTracker.com.
You can learn many more PPC Strategies such as this in the Pay Per Click Advertising Management- Advanced “PPC” Strategies book by clicking here and going to www.webxsuccess.com
The Evolution Of Ppc Marketing And Where It Is Going From Here – Part 1
The only central player that remained undeterred was the PPC launched by GoTo.com, subsequently renamed Overture.com and purchased in 2003 by Yahoo! Now it is known as the Yahoo! Search Marketing service.Ask Jeeves, now cleanly Ask.com, followed with their PPC Service in 2005 called Ask Sponsored Listings and MSN.com, followed in 2006 with Microsoft AdCenter. Other large PPC services providers and Search Engines are Miva/FindWhat.com and 7Search.com.
Yahoo! launched its contextual advertising service, YPN or the Yahoo! Publisher Network, in 2005 (and now it is even better) and Microsoft has launched its contextual advertising service based on their new AdCenter PPC Service in 2006.PPC advertising services nowadays are offed almost exclusively by large and unique providers. PPC plays almost no role in direct referral marketing between individual websites. Affiliate Marketing is king and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
What PPC Advertising Companies Can Do
You surely have heard of the term PPC. In fact it is one of the most revolutionized ways of getting on with an online advertisement. PPC advertising companies are simply all around the internet world providing the realm for the businesses that direly need to be popularized. For a much comprehensive view of what PPC advertising companies are, it is important to know of its in-depth background.
As defined by most online websites, the PPC or pay per click is one advertising strategy that is used by the web, search engines, and other promotion networks. The PPC advertising companies appear to be the text ads which are situated near the overall result of the search.
Hence, the very term itself explains that once a visitor clicks on that placed advertisement, the advertiser on the other hand is charged a small fee. Other variants of the PPC advertising company include those that are known as the pay for ranking or pay for placement. The other term for PPC is the CPC or Cost Per Click.
The rate of the PPC advertising company depends entirely on the terms and conditions of the search engine. The minimum rate is at US$0.01. If the search engine is already a famous one, the cost heaped by the PPC advertising company is relatively higher.
By nature, the PPC advertising company allows many of today’s marketers to place their ads for their services or products which in turn will be accessible via the use of the search engines. The search engines will direct the visitor to the links when the keywords or key phrases match with those placed in the ad. There lies an agreement between the advertiser and the PPC advertising company that a particular amount will be paid every time the search engine is used by a visitor. The spot order of those in the ads will be dependent on the rate stipulated by the merchant and the PPC advertising company.
This concept has paved way for the transformation of the advertising scheme in the internet. More so, as had been inspired from the PPC advertising companies, Yahoo Search Marketing, Google Adwords, and Microsoft Adcenter came to exist. In today’s current online marketing trend, Google occupies the first spot when it comes to the popularity of the PPC advertising companies.
In fact, at the very start of the method, Google allowed the Adwords to directly send the visitors to the site of the advertisers themselves. But in the first phase of the year 2005, the policy was altered. So now you have to first link with Google as the landing page before you will be led to the sales page of the actual company.
If you have the dream of earning income online, you may want to become an affiliate. The PPC advertising companies can then become your refuge. As an affiliate connected with PPC advertising companies, you will have to clearly identify the firm that you wish to promote, the keywords or key phrases which are likely to be used by the visitors, and be able to build a landing page for you to obtain the clicks that come from the search engines.
The PPC advertising companies will provide the advertiser with the detailed reports regarding the clicks that the ads have received. The PPC advertising companies are among the most desirable modes of going about with any income earning scheme.
Tips For Starting Your New Home Business
When begining your new home business, you need to draw up plans to help you get started. Without such plans you will go nowhere, or you will go in around in circles achieving little. So in order to start your business off on the right track, you should come up with a suitable business plan, a marketing plan and a home life plan.
Your business plan is a vital item that will be needed when applying for loans, hiring good employees, for any business affiliates, and your personal goal setting. You need to have information such as the name of your business and what the mission statement for your business is. Which product or service do you offer, and who is it being targeted at? Who is your ideal customer base? How much will it cost to produce your products, and how much can you sell them for? What do you hope your end profit will be? These are key pieces of information which are needed, particularly if you require start up funds. These may be money provided by a bank loan or a business partner who is willing to become a financial backer of your venture. It is important to create a binder or portfolio for your business plan, and make copies accessible for times when they may be required.
Part of your business plan should include a marketing plan, or advertising campaign. How do you plan to provide the general public with information about your business, product or service? Will it be by renting a billboard, running newspaper advertisements, magazine ads, television, radio and so on? Will you have a good website, or be running Internet ads such as those sponsored by Google Adsense or Microsoft Adcenter? How much will each advertisement media cost? Have you put in place the funding for these advertising efforts, or will you need to source outside funds? Once again, this shows any outside parties that you have done the necessary research to enable you to plan how to reach the consumer public for optimum sales. You may also want to include the percentages or charts that show success achieved by similar advertising campaigns, and how well your marketing choices will relate to your new business.
Lastly, a home plan is for the benefit of both you and your family during the period when your business is taking shape. You will need to be realistic and realise that any business does not become an over night success. Time, money and effort are required before you will start to see a solid flow of income flowing through your home business. Be aware of your household budget each week and month, and make sure that you have at a very minimum three months savings in reserve to cater for household expenses, including food, utilities, gas, hygiene items etc. This enables you to use other sources of money in your business without encountering monetary stress in your home life.
Often it will be sensible to keep a part time position with your current employer, or somewhere else. Of course, if your spouse works at present this may not be needed. The precise plan for your household may well differ depending on the specific needs of your family. As ever, the key is preparation when it comes to making a success of your business start up, as it is in setting up a successful home life. Once these are in place, you are set up for a smooth transition from an regular job to your new home based career.
Choosing A Search Marketing Company
In the world of Internet marketing and sales, the key to being successful is being seen. A major way to get your site seen is through the use of a search marketing company specializing in this type of campaign management.
Search engine marketing, or SEM as it is known colloquially, has a proven track record of success. It deals exclusively with increasing the visibility of websites in search engine results pages, or SERP’s.
Search engine marketing methods are defined as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid placement and paid inclusion.
Some Internet professionals simplify SEM as the purchase of paid listings. This is different from SEO, which has a goal of increasing results from free search listings. SEO is the practice of increasing traffic to a website through keywords and characteristics of the site. A site’s coding, presentation or structure can all be factors.
By far, SEM has a wider acceptance among major Internet businesses as well as the casual affiliate/network/Internet marketer. In 2006, advertisers in North America alone spent an estimated 9.4 billion dollars on search engine marketing. Since 1992, this market has seen a whopping increase in sales volume of 750% with 62% of that coming within the last year.
These figures are global and not tied to any single national economy.
You have probably heard of the major SEM vendors. Names like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter are synonymous with SEM and related Internet services.
As a matter of fact, SEM has been outgrowing advertising in traditional ways since 2006. It is evident from these statistics that SEM is the preferred method of getting your website seen.
That said, there is a lot to learn about SEM and it can be overwhelming, even for a seasoned professional. The integral things you need to grasp about search engine marketing are:
· Keywords and search terms
· Search Engine Optimization
· Search engine submission
· Link popularity
· Paid inclusion
Yes, there is a lot to digest in there. There are companies on the net that can help you through the process of getting your site ranked in the search engines. These companies are specialists in the areas mentioned above and can get your website ranked and placed near the top of the SERP’s.
They will work with you on the keywords and terms’, showing you what is needed as well as what to avoid.
When it comes to SEO, you will want the assistance of a professional. SEO coaches can help you tailor your site and make it findable on any search engine. These pros will also assist you in getting your site submitted, listed and ranked faster and easier than you would on your own.
Link popularity refers to how often your link(s) is/are clicked and followed through. This is a major factor in determining your placement in the search results.
If you don’t want to wait for search engines to index your site on their own, you can pay them to index it faster. This is called “paid inclusion†as mentioned above.
Online Traffic Alternatives That Won’t Leave You Broke
As an advertiser you’re probably tired of playing the bidding wars by being forced into paying top dollar for good keywords. This tends to be particularly true when advertising in highly competitive markets and lucrative keywords and worse yet constantly having to deal with click fraud and junk traffic that hardly converts or is barely profitable.
The good news as an advertiser is that there are lots of new players in the pay-per-click and traffic generations arenas with large and diverse enough networks of sites that can deliver a good steady amount of traffic to your sites and sales page. Here is a quick look at some of the alternatives:
The richest man in the world, Bill Gates entered head first into the traffic business with the launch of the Microsoft adCenter. Although adCenter is quickly becoming popular among former AdWords and Yahoo users and driving up prices you may still be able to place ads in some markets with good results and not have to worry about running out of traffic which can occur with some of the smaller advertising networks.
NeoEdge Networks is a rather interesting advertising solution that places your ads into online games. There are three options for placing your ad including before and after a game and in between levels. They can deliver a good amount of traffic however your product should be marketed towards and look appealing for online gamers.
A lesser known traffic network is GoClick. Using GoClick you can get incredibly cheap clicks often for pennies. However one issue is the quality of traffic can be a problem as the ads are served on game sites or other sites that may not be at all related to your keywords. That said if you are promoting a mass appeal product at a wide audience GoClick can certainly provide results.
StumbleUpon has come onto the scene in force as both a traffic provider and a social bookmarking type of site. StumbleUpon is different than other networks in that people install a toolbar on their computer and then can click on it to be directed to an advertiser’s page. This type of traffic is much more targeted based on the toolbar users’ past website viewing preferences, yet at only five cents per click and the ability to give hundreds of visitors it is possible to turn a profit using StumbleUpon even selling diverse kinds of products and services.
You should always keep in mind that when first starting out to limit the amount or never buy any kind of traffic for a brand new sales page or an untested affiliate promotion… You can end up blowing a lot of dough by doing this if you’re not careful or lack experience using online advertising.
For new sales pages or affiliate promotions you can use other forms of free traffic generation like article marketing, forums, blogs or social bookmarking sites to test the waters and see how well the offer converts into sales. Once the offer has been tested, the sales page tweaked and converting well then delve into the PPC arena.
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