Using Pay-Per-Click Advertising Successfully
October 8th, 2005
I’ll not fake any optimism about the pay-per-click channel of internet marketing as an effective tool for small businesses. In the last two months, my optimism bubble burst. Here’s why: Marketing effectively by pay-per-click via Overture (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) or Adwords takes more work than is readily apparent on the face of things.
A few months ago, I launched pay-per-click campaigns for several clients with the goal of increasing sales conversions. While the campaigns did increase Web site traffic, they have showed only a tangential relationship to sales conversions.
What was my mistake? I launched campaigns for clients instead of continuing to tweak their Web site designs because their budgets did not allow for continued design services.
How can I increase the effectiveness of pay-per-click campaigns? I think it requires a paradigm shift. I have learned by trial and error that pay-per-click advertising requires a complete campaign design and strategy that includes the following elements:
- Relevant keywords
- Well-written ads with a compelling offer
- Landing pages that expand on the offer with a clear call to action
When all these elements are in clear focus, this form of advertising has a chance at being cost-effective. However, each campaign will require a launch period of continual revision before the campaign can run itself. All of this means that pay-per-click is not a low-cost advertising alternative.
Are there low-cost advertising alternatives online? Only three that I know of:
- Free Directory Listings
- Direct Email (once your Web site is set up to collect opt-in email addresses)
- and Word of Mouth
Thanks to Mat Greenfield of Faster Marketing for an article in Practical eCommerce this month in which he carefully dissects the pay-per-click advertising process.
Entry Filed under: Internet Marketing
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1 Comment
1. webdesign | October 11th, 2005 at 11:12 pm
I totally agree on that. Unless you have a very high budget where you can just bid on the major terms, you are stuck trying to find the ones that are being overlooked by the big bidders. You basically have to search for the best deals on all the little offbeat terms and that takes a ton of time. Clients seem to wonder what is so hard about running a campaign, but it is a lot more effective and cheaper than doing it yourself.