I had a customer call me the other week about how to generate more sales via their Website. I advised them there was more than one way to skin a cat and that they should look at a couple of options, one being Pay Per Click.
“Really why pay per click?” they exclaimed. “What a waste of time and money, what’s this going to do for our business? The Internet is free and people use it for free, we have a website and a growing business why should we pay for traffic?”
Well the answer to this question wasn’t so simple in its real context so I began by explaining how it works. It’s like being in a retail shop. On a main street you pay more for a location that has a high traffic flow and people can easily see your merchandise, which increases your potential for generating sales. Chasing even more sales? Then you put an advert in the paper or a commercial on the radio and increase market awareness of your presence, thereby increasing sales potential.
Your website is your store front, except that unlike paying a lease in a good location, the life of your business Website starts off the same as everyone else, in a bad location with very little or no traffic at all. And with the Internet being enormous in its own right, how in the world will people find you?
The answer to that is where we will be starting today’s lesson. There are many different methods for generating traffic to your Website. Search Engines, Business Directories, Email Marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), Pay Per Click, Link Building and Referrals to mention just a few and all of them have merit. To simply things, some of these can be placed under the same banner of “Internet Marketing”. Thinking and learning about these entire Internet marketing tools can make your head spin. Just like the majority of us out there we just want to run a successful business and make some money. Welcome to the real world where there is no pleasure without pain. If you don’t take advantage of and learn about the technologies at hand, your competitors already have the edge over you.
Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.
Preface:
This article is specifically directed to businesses that already have a Website. For more information on creating a FREE website using our SiteBuilder tools or custom Websites please follow the respective links.
This is not a step-by-step guide to buying Google AdWords. Our aim is to help in understanding the basic features, provide a general overview of some of the key functions, explain key phrases used in terminology and to share a smarter way of using the system.
Search Engines
When starting out with your Website you will find that it is still a little fresh and even if properly designed will still need a little bit of a helping hand from some targeted marketing directed specifically at your potential customers. The best place to start is with Google as they are the biggest of the search engine behemoths and are the default search engine of choice. A good marketing strategy for your business is not to try and attract a large amount of untargeted traffic as this can be expensive and you really aren’t looking for ‘tyre kickers’.
Having your website submitted to a search engine is a great FREE way to start getting listed on the Internet. See our article on SES (Search Engine Submissions) and our SEO product pages for help with getting started with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Google AdWords - Pay Per Click
Adwords Pay Per Click helps when just starting out as it can take some time to be recognised by the Search Engines and every time you make a change to your website it will take time for these changes to filter through and reflect in search engine results pages (SERP’S). Setting up a Google Adwords Account is very easy and these days Google even throws in a free $60 credit for just setting up an account so that you can test it out for yourself.
AdWords allows you to have complete control over your spend which is extremely important when taking your first steps into Internet marketing. As with any type of paid advertising you can spend big and have very few results. By planning and thinking through the main points below, you can quickly and inexpensively put together an effective marketing campaign to start driving targeted traffic to your site.
How Dose AdWords Work?
Google AdWords is an advertising tool designed by Google for businesses to be able to place paid advertisements in front of target searches by using specific key words that are used in your potential customers’ searches.
i.e. If you are looking for “Web Hosting” you would put these key words into Googles search engine. Once this is done the potential customer will receive a listing of the most popular websites that use those key words from your search criteria.
Pay Per Click advertising is displayed in the first three to four results that you see at the top of each search page query. Usually all of these will have a differentiating background from the remaining results and the words sponsored links in the top right hand corner. You will also see in a column to the right of the results are another sponsored links section displaying an additional ten paid advertisers.
When selecting any of these similar looking results you are redirected to the advertisers pages. Once the redirection has occurred the advertiser is then charged for the redirection, hence Pay Per Click.
Each redirection or “Click” is based on a pre-determined cost value placed on the key words used. Each of these keywords is then placed into what can best be described as an auction style scenario i.e. “Web Hosting” can be a key word or key phrase. The advertiser will set a bid for the use of these key words against other advertisers and the higher the bid the higher up in the search results page you will be. Again, the preset cost of these Clicks is entirely your decision.
What Are Key Words?
Key Words can be individual words or a short run of 2 - 5 words linked together to create a key phrase.
Example:
Single Key Word: email
Key word phrase: email marketing Sydney
Key words are what potential customers use in their searches on the Internet. For example I want to do a search for “email marketing software“. These are three words that are linked together for a key phrase. When placed into Google or other search engines they will generate a list of preferred results. The same works for Pay Per Click and you are charged based on the popularity of your key words.
You can also use a Key Word Generator. This one is provided by Google to search for appropriate key words to use in your marketing campaigns. From this list you can see how many people have actually used them for their searches in the past 12 months allowing you to find the best key words for your products and services. NB: Remember when using this tool make sure that you change the localised settings to your country zone or you will be receiving information that is not relevant to your target market or country.
What is a targeted campaign?
A targeted campaign must include all of the key factors listed below to be successful. Take for example Velocity Host, we sell a range of products and services, however trying to sell all of them at the same time with a single advertisement could drive a large amount of traffic to our Website. However at the same time driving all of this traffic will cost per Click and depending on the costing of these key words could end up being very expensive.
Breaking up your campaign into groups (”Targeted Campaign“) will allow you to monitor the success of your advertising for a range of products and services. For example one of our products is “Email Marketing” so we would create a campaign just for Email Marketing. We can create a series of advertisements using the tools provided that are all based on a few key words.
Example:
Key Words for our Email Marketing Campaign will be:
“Email Marketing” 18,100 Hits/ Year 1,508 Hits/ Month
Cost per click $5
This target is still very broad and is great if you have a big advertising budget.
The reason why we have chosen these key words is because they represent the largest amount of searches in Australia made for Email Marketing. But that’s not where we stop. These words can also have a very high bidding rate and you could still be charged very heavily for just using those phrases in your marketing campaign. So what we would then do is reduce the audience to be a more targeted group, which will also reduce the amount of hits per year but will centralise and target your advertisements.
Example:
“Email Marketing Sydney” 140 Hits per year 11 Hits/ Month
Cost per click $3.50
This is called localising your criteria to a geographical area. With an average of 11 hits per month (data provided by Google Key Word Generator) this should only cost around $38.50 ($3.50 x 11 hits) as long as there are not too many people competing for the same key words as you are using. If there are you may wish to increase your cost per click to ensure you remain at the top of the page.
There are also other factors to consider as not every click guarantees a successful sale. This is why having an effective, aesthetic and easily navigated website is vital to ensure your business is well presented and captures the directed customers’ attention. Generally most potential customers decide if they like your website (and subsequently your business & services) within the first 10 seconds. Losing them due to poor website design & content has sent the Pay Per Click cost begging.
Setting Campaign Budgets
AdWords allow you to set daily and monthly budgets depending on how you initially set up your account. Budget limits are set so spending can be controlled however once these budgets have been reached the advert will be dropped from it’s respective position currently being held on Google. Your advertising position depends on the amount that you are prepared to spend per key word. This will determine the placement and top dollar will always guarantee a first place position on the front page. This can be monitored within the campaign itself and Google will tell you if your advert will be placed on the front page or if the bid is too low moved to the second page of advertising.
Summary
We have covered a basic introduction to Google AdWords with an overview of how to place a smartly targeted campaign to save money for your business. Future articles will cover setting up Google Analytics to monitor the success of your campaigns, monitor traffic to your website and how to use these statistics to help your business surge forward via the internet.
Gerardo Altman
Solutions Consultant
Velocity Host.
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