How to Use PPC Advertising to Transform Your Business
As a blogger, you want to get traffic fast and without much effort. If you have to spend dozens of hours on tedious tasks, you’re going to lose interest; and move on to something more exciting. And this is exactly why PPC advertising can transform your business: it’s easy to setup, it’s effective, it’s fast, and if used correctly, it can generate more traffic than all of your other campaigns combined.
When it comes to PPC advertising, you have a number of different options (although some are certainly better than others). The main benefit of PPC advertising is that you can carefully target your traffic sources. Not only can you narrow down your sources according to the keywords they search for, but you can also geo-target them if you believe it would be beneficial.
AdWords is probably the easiest and cheapest way to generate a lot of traffic. If you do decide to use AdWords, I personally suggest that use the following four steps to setup and manage your campaigns:
Step #1: Select Multiple Groups of Similar Keywords. Before you create any campaigns with AdWords, you should start by creating groups of similar keywords that can be used in a single campaign. As a rule of thumb, each keyword in a group should share the same base keyword. Initially, the benefit to grouping keywords won’t be obvious; however, you will see why it works well in the following steps.
Step #2: Sketch Out Individual Campaigns for Each Group. After you have finished creating the relevant keyword groups, your next task should be to sketch out individual campaigns for each of these groups. While some would suggest that you immediately begin one campaign; and then move to the next, I suggest that you don’t.
I personally suggest that you begin by taking your list of keywords and then searching for them on Google. This should pull up the top ads related to your keyword group. Look at these ads and try to extract a common thread. For instance, do they have similar opening lines? And do they have similar calls to action? And what type of information do they include in the ad?
Work through each ad group, one-by-one, looking up keywords in the group and then writing this information down on paper or in a document on your computer. Once you have collected this information, you should begin sketching out ads for each group (not just one). Read your ads multiple times aloud; and ask yourself if they would entice you to click.
When it comes to writing ads, there are a couple of simple guidelines to keep in mind. The first is to include the base keyword for the campaign’s keyword group in the headline and possibly in the body of the ad. Since the ad will be pulled up when people search for that base keyword, the parts of your ad that contain it will be bolded, making it stick out to viewers.
The next tip is to avoid full sentences. Remove articles like it, the, and a. Additionally, use the little space you have to highlight at least two benefits or features of the product, as well as the price (if it is low).
Another important tip is to include the keyword in the displayed URL. Since you aren’t actually sending clickers to that URL, you can write down any subdomain that you want. And if it contains the keyword they searched for, it will be bolded in the results, making it more likely that they will click on your ad.
As a final tip, keep your benefits and features out of the headline. Instead, succinctly summarize your product like this: “Learn Spanish in 5 Days.” Or include a bold statement related to your product: “Don’t Ever Pay for Shoes Again.”
Step #3: Begin Running Your First Ad. Once you have sketched out all of your ads (not just one), you can begin running them. Start with the one you believe is most promising. After you have tweaked it, split tested it, and have determined that it works, move on to the next campaign.
Step #4: Continuously Manage and Improve Your Ads. As a procrastinator, your instincts tell you to set things; and then forget about them. And when it comes to Google AdWords, this is all too easy to do. However, in this case, it is very important that you do not take this approach. Ignoring your ads could lead to serious losses; or unrealized potential.
I personally suggest that you check on your ads at least three times a week to monitor revenue, click-through rates, and other vital statistics. Additionally, I suggest that you use some type of tracking method to determine which campaigns are sending visitors who buy and which are not. For this, you may simply want to create an identical subdomain for each campaign, so that you can keep track of visitor’s actions carefully.