Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Realizing the Importance of Paid Search when Marketing Your Business
There is more to a successful ad campaign on Google than just “looking good”. Beware that if you do not know how to select relevant keywords, write effective ad text, and choose the most relevant landing page from your website, your Pay-Per-Click ads could appear many pages back in the search results and cost more per click! That isn’t a good start to receiving that return on your investment.
Search engines strive to provide relevant content to users’ search queries. The relevancy of the results pertains to organic listings and paid advertisements. Organic listings for most search engines are the main listings you see on the left when you do a search. You cannot pay the search engines to appear in the organic search results. You can pay Search Engine Optimization companies to optimize your website to include the right amount of effective keywords to allow you to appear for free in the organic search results based on the search engine’s algorithm. The search engines’ algorithms used to determine organic search results ranking is always changing, and there is no guarantee that you will appear in all the searches you want by optimizing your website.
Search Engines are obviously a bit torn when it comes to paid advertising. How relevant do the ads have to be to the users’ search queries? Advertisers are paying to appear there, right? Then again, users want to see useful, relevant results based on their search or they will use a different search engine next time. Well, there is a happy medium. On Google, your rank is determined not by your bid alone, but also by a Quality Score. The higher your Quality Score, the less you have to bid to appear higher.
Google basically rewards relevance. The Quality Score is determined for the most part by Google determining the relevance of your keywords, ad text, and landing page. Another huge factor that impacts your ranking is your clickthrough rate. Your clickthrough rate is a ratio of clicks over impressions (the number of times your ad appears on the search results screen). If users perform a search, see your ad, but do not click on your ad, that impression will affect your cickthrough rate. If Google determines that your ad is not relevant enough to users searches for a keyword, Google will inactivate the irrelevant keyword unless you are willing to pay more per click for that keyword. There comes a point when an irrelevant keyword is not worth as much as Google wants you to pay, so you will delete that keyword from your advertising program. Google then continues to display relevant results for users searches. It is a self-correcting cycle.
When setting up paid advertisements that usually display on the right side of search results, there are many aspects of the ad you need to keep in mind. Relevance is the key. Your keywords, ad text, and landing page should all be similar in content and focus. Keywords that are too broad can ruin your results.
What is the point in setting up Pay-Per-Click ads? The point is to increase your revenue by converting clicks on your ad to sales.
The point of Pay-Per-Click advertising is not to receive the most impressions. More impressions do not mean more revenue. If you are a plumbing contractor, and you use the keyword “plumber” in your advertising program, your ad could display if people search for “plumber certifications”, “clorox liquid plumber”, or even “plumber jokes” if you do not know specifically how to setup that keyword. Those searches will give you impressions that will not become clicks, and therefore, will not become sales. In fact, receiving those impressions without clicks will lower your clickthrough rate which could cause you to pay more for clicks.
The point of Pay-Per-Click advertising is not to receive the most clicks. You do not want to setup an ad that is not focused on the product or service you provide. The last thing you want is for a user to click on your ad and then determine that you do not offer the product or service they want. You just paid for a click that did not lead to a sale. You want to setup effective ad text with specific keywords that lead a buyer to click on your ad when they want what you have to offer. That will lead to a sale and increase your revenue.
How do you setup an effective Pay-Per-Click advertising program? You will establish your daily budget and the cost you are willing to pay for a click. A professional Search Engine Marketing Account Manager will analyze keywords, write effective ad text, and analyze your website to determine the best way to setup your ads.
There is not a perfect way to setup your Pay-Per-Click ads. There are “best practices” that are constantly changing. Let your Search Engine Marketing Account Manager keep up with those never-ending changes in the Search Engine Marketing industry. You are trying to run a business. Let the Search Engine Marketing Account Manager provide you with qualified traffic. Your Search Engine Marketing Account Manager will setup your advertising program and optimize your ad based on the market and past results. You cannot just setup your Pay-Per-Click ads and then let them remain the same. Remember that setting up ineffective ads can lead to a higher cost-per-click and a low return on your investment. There are many Search Engine Marketing companies out there that charge based on the results you receive. You cannot afford to setup your ads incorrectly. If you do not know the best practices in the Search Engine Marketing industry and you do not have the time while running your business to learn, pay an expert. It is worth the investment.
