PPC Advertising That Works

1st July 2009

Pay-per-click ads are those sponsored links that show up when you perform a web search in Google, Yahoo and other search engines. The goal of PPC advertising is to quickly and effectively reach your target market which takes careful keyword research, strategic bidding and compelling ad copy. And the key to PPC advertising lies in choosing keywords that people are searching for, whilst spending the least amount of money doing it.

Too often, however, people get it wrong. They make the mistake of sending their target traffic to the home page of their website rather than attempting to build a relationship with the ultimate goal of making a sale. If you’re selling products or services, it makes sense to make sales and build your fan club at the same time.

Here are 5 easy tips on how to boost your conversion rates from a PPC campaign whilst at the same time, boosting your subscriber numbers:

1. The first thing to do is build highly specific page to send the search traffic to, which is called a landing page. Depending on the variety of key words that you are bidding on, you may even build several landing pages that each narrowly address the specific needs of that searcher.
2. Getting involved in contextual advertising programs on publisher sites are a waste of your time and will yield too many “curiosity clicks” that can kill your return on investment. You want people who are actively looking for what you are offering.
3. The landing page does not sell your product or service. Rather, you will offer a quality free resource, such as an e-book or another type of tutorial that is directly related to what you are selling. By teaching people about your product or service, you’re not only engaging in a highly effective form of selling, but you’re also establishing a relationship.
4. In order to stay in contact with the prospect, it is essential that your free offer must be delivered by an email or RSS autoresponder.
5. You should inform your prospects in the most appealing way possible that in addition to the free resource that you are offering, they will also receive your email newsletter / blog updates.