{"id":1382,"date":"2008-06-07T21:26:24","date_gmt":"2008-06-08T02:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/07\/is-your-paid-search-a-profit-or-a-loss\/"},"modified":"2008-06-07T18:47:06","modified_gmt":"2008-06-08T02:47:06","slug":"is-your-paid-search-a-profit-or-a-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/?p=1382","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Paid Search A Profit Or A Loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Terry Stanfield<\/div>\n

Is your paid search making a profit or is a loss. There is great profit in paid search. The question is, are we the ones profiting or the search engines? Their goal is more clicks. The more people click on our ads<\/a> the more money they make. The real goal should be “fewer clicks, lower cost with more conversions”. Let’s look at some strategies that should make a improve our campaigns.<\/p>\n

1. Do not use Content Network in Google when you first set up a campaign default setting is set “on”. There are two things that you need to consider before turning on the content match. The first is: “The website that is hosting<\/a> our ad gets paid every time someone clicks on the ad”. Most click fraud happens is when an owner<\/a> of a site clicks on these ads. The second is: “Individuals who click on these ads are most often, at the research end of the buying cycle. Limit those who click on your ads to those who are on the buying side of the cycle.<\/p>\n

2. Search Terms. The more general the term, less qualified the lead (generally speaking) and the more the cost. What I try to figure out is what terms would work in order to get my ideal customer to my site.<\/p>\n

3. Keyword “types” There are three types of keywords “Broad”, “Phrase” and “Exact”. The rule of thumb that I use is: for single word phrases, use exact match and for search phrases that are two to three words, used “phrase matching”. I am also experimenting with using “exact” matching for these terms as well. The more specific the search term is to what you are offering and who your ideal client is, the more qualified to lead will be. Better a small number of qualified leads than a large number of leads that waste your time and ultimately cost a lot more money.<\/p>\n

4. Just a couple thoughts on writing creatives (ad copy). Use the following in your “headline” box: keyword: “your main keyword. This will put your keyword phrase into the headline. You want to attract only your ideal client (someone who is looking for exactly what you have to offer) so be specific. Add at least one of your “unique selling propositions”. This can be very challenging because of the space limitations. Rule of thumb, find out what your competitors are doing and do something different. For example, if everyone is offering free shipping, use one of your other unique selling propositions.<\/p>\n

5. Give careful consideration to your landing pages. These pages should do one thing; answer the questions that the searcher had in mind when he started his search. The searcher type in his search terms because he has a problem, needs a solution and is in some kind of “pain”. You have about two seconds to convince him that you understand what he is going through and what he needs. You must show him that you possess the answers to his needs. Don’t just send them to your home page unless your home page can accomplish the above. Once you connect with your searcher you must have a call to action. You must be very specific and clear about the next steps. Have your “phone number” or “contact us button” on every page.<\/p>\n

6. The most important thing to remember are three words: tracking, tracking and tracking. Track everything. Paid search is not an exact science. It takes time to set up and optimized your campaigns to get the results that you are looking for. You must monitor your campaigns at least weekly in order to catch market changes. Google, Yahoo and MSN have free tracking tools that work great.<\/p>\n

Paid search, if done properly, can yield big profits. If you are new to this or do not have several hours a week to devote to learning the ins and outs of PPC Management, it might be a lot cheaper to find someone who knows what they are doing. It may be wiser to pay a little up front rather than lose thousands of dollars trying to figure it out yourself.<\/p>\n

\n
About the Author:<\/div>\n
Before you start an SEO project, go to Terry Stanfield’s site for information on Search Engine Marketing<\/a> and more Search Engine Marketing<\/a> articles<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is your paid search making a profit or is a loss. There is great profit in paid search. The question is, are we the ones profiting or the search engines? Their goal is more clicks. The more people click on our ads the more money they make. The real goal should be “fewer clicks, lower cost with more conversions”. Let’s look at some strategies that should make a improve our campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[87],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}