Archive for the ‘Pay-per-click’ Category

Clicks to Cash (Part 2)

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

One of the more powerful aspects of pay-per-click advertising is the ability to control which ad copy and headline is displayed in response to a prospects search. This is also one of the most neglected. Paid search marketing gives us the incredible power to target customers at the exact time of need, while they are actively looking. Taking the time to understand the searcher’s intent and grouping keywords in to tight groups specifically focused on that intent can increase the number of qualified visitors, lower your cost per click and greatly increase your profits. It can be a tedious task unless you keep the end in mind-more profitable sales.

I was working with an auto dealer who was determined to market his way through these tough times and asked for some help in evaluating his current Google AdWords ad campaign. What we found was fairly typical in the campaigns of those new to paid search. (more…)

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Spring Brings Major Changes in Search

Friday, June 26th, 2009

The last few weeks have brought significant changes to the search landscape that could have huge implications on ones current search engine marketing strategy .

Microsoft’s Bing.com is out of beta and initial stats show interest was high and in alignment with Microsoft’s goal of becoming the number two search engine within five years.

Launched as a decision engine as opposed to a search engine, Bing’s initial focus is on travel, shopping, health, or local search. If the concept of being a decision engine translates to users, those of us in search marketing might discover a higher proportion of users are further down the purchase funnel, ready to buy. Bing has tremendous implications for pay-per-click advertisers as searches at this end of the funnel could lead to better conversion rates and require reallocating client keyword portfolios. Time and testing will tell. But for our clients in the travel and local search space we are considering diversifying their spend. If the early trends hold Yahoo will need to respond to survive. (more…)

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Turning Clicks Into Cash

Friday, June 5th, 2009

When training clients in pay-per-click management,  I often see the same costly error—mistaking conversions and sales for profit when determining budgets and maximum cost per click. Basing campaign success on conversions alone is not going to help unless these conversions are profitable. It’s important to understand and incorporate acceptable customer acquisition costs into campaign setup. Without doing so, every sale can chip away at profits.

In some instances profit isn’t the only metric that matters; sometimes it isn’t even critical. It’s important to understand the specific goals for your campaign and the associated success metrics. On occasion we have clients whose only goal is to be at the top of the results. Position is all that matters. Your budget is going to based around achieving top position, profit be damned.

Other clients first begin stating they want to maximize sales and mention metrics like highest traffic, most conversions, return on ad spend and highest profit margins. While certainly an achievable and sometimes desirable strategy, none of the metrics factor in overall profit. Traffic doesn’t equal conversions and conversions don’t necessarily equate to profit. Return on ad spend is tricky for newcomers to understand, especially those who have been bombarded by salespeople pushing return on ad spend as ROI. But return on ad spend only factors in sales-not profits from those sales. (more…)

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