Pay-per-click advertising can be a marketer’s dream come true, or it can be your worst nightmare. By properly laying the foundation for your pay-per-click campaign, you can avoid many of the potential pitfalls and enjoy marketing success.
Step 1: Do the Math
Before considering a PPC campaign, you need some important data. If you know your site’s conversion rate, you can calculate approximately what each visitor is worth in terms of potential profit. Be sure you have enough visitors to get an accurate sampling. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is over-estimating your conversion rate.
For example, if your sample consists of 1000 visitors, and you made 25 sales, that’s a conversion rate of 2.5 percent.
(That figure is slightly below the industry average. If your conversion rate is over 3 percent, you’re doing better than the average website.)
How much profit did you make from those 25 sales? Divide that figure by 1000 and you have the profit potential for each visitor. Your PPC amount should be significantly lower than this amount to maintain profit.
It’s important to stay informed about your site statistics. A change in your conversion rate can signal a need to improve your site design to increase sales. A dramatic drop in conversion rate may indicate potential fraud from a PPC affiliate.
Step 2: Do Keyword Research
One of the biggest mistakes made by new pay-per-click marketers is buying the most popular AdWords. These are also the most expensive and most competitive AdWords. Look at alternatives, such a keyword phrases, synonyms, or generic terms. A service such as WordTracker can assist you in identifying keyword trends, and your own site statistics will reveal what current visitors are searching for.
Step 3: Do the Dance
Another big mistake made by PPC marketers is throwing away the opportunity to connect with non-buyers. If 2.5 percent of your visitors are buying, 97.5 percent aren’t. Instead of wasting the money you spent for their click, give them an incentive to give you their contact information for follow-up marketing messages. Common incentives include free reports, downloadable checklists, or email newsletters. This classic two-step marketing strategy can build a lead database of people who have been pre-qualified as “interested” in your niche.
Your follow-up emails to this targeted list should continue to provide helpful information as you build your trust and credibility. Ultimately, the conversion rate from these targeted mailings should be significantly higher than the conversion rate from the one-time site visitor.
Pay-per-click advertising can boost both current and future sales if you take the time to develop an effective strategy.