People still ask the question “why all the fuss about Pay Per Click advertising?” Isn’t it a fact that PPC is just a black hole for your hard earned cash? Aren’t you just leaving yourself open to massive click fraud? Isn’t PPC a nightmare to run and manage? Or… is it the best type of paid advertising that money can buy?
Well, there’s and awful lot more to pay per click advertising and most of it is GOOD!
I’ve Built My New Website So Where Are The Visitors?
There’s really no point in setting up a new website and then sitting there hoping someone might stop by, it’ll be some time before anyone in the World Wide Web will even know you exist. This is where Adwords excels – the results can be immediate.
There’s no doubt, if you go diving head-first into Google’s Adwords with little or no knowledge of how to set up and run a campaign, you can easily get your fingers burnt. That said, there are many appealing reasons why PPC should be considered as part of your complete advertising portfolio:
- Once you open your Google account and set up your campaign the search engine results are almost instant (unlike organic, free search engine rankings)
- Only pay when a click is made by a potential buyer/client
- Laser targeted ads focusing on just the right customer for your business
- Incredible tracking facilities to continually improve results
- Advanced and free keyword research tools provided by Google from within the campaign user interface
- Accurate daily budgeting
- Great testing possibilities for new products including geographical catchment areas and even product names
- Click fraud protection
- Great brand awareness
- Can be great a great complement to a successful SEO campaign
SEO Principles For PPC
Many of the solid and worthy principles that apply to organic search engine optimisation can now be applied to your PPC campaign with great effect. Google has definitely blurred the lines in an attempt to tidy things up and rid the PPC search results of junk websites, and in doing so they now expect the following:
- Relevant landing pages (the pages that people land on after clicking)
- Good, valuable, honest website content
- Well written relevant ads
- Proper multi-page websites
If these quality guidelines are not adhered to Google will quickly lower your quality score and up your click price. This can mean things get very difficult and expensive so it goes without saying that it makes obvious sense to do what Google says!
So to summarise, Google’s Adwords pay per click advertising really has masses to offer if run in the correct way. If it’s not run in the right way, things can get very costly indeed. If you have no idea what a ‘split tested ad’ or a ‘negative broadmatch keyword’ is, you may need to do some serious studying on the subject first or employ the assistance of a professional PPC firm. Many charge by the hour and can be quite reasonable.
About the Author
The author is based in Surrey, England and works in the website design industry. He successfully uses the services of SearchWatch.co.uk, a PPC Management UK and SEO Services UK company for all his search engine marketing needs.