The Key to Better "Traffic"

by John M. Hanevy

Published on this site: September 11th, 2004

A Beginner's Guide to PPC's

PPC's, or pay-per-clicks, are performance-based methods of advertising. The advertiser's cost is based on how many customers take action by clicking on their link in a search engine's results. The cost can be very cheap, or it can be extremely expensive depending on what keywords are used in the ad, and how much the advertiser bids on those keywords.

Keywords are words that relate to the product, opportunity, or service that you are advertising. You select keywords so that your ad will be shown when potential customers are looking for that type of product, opportunity, or service. You then "bid" on those keywords, indicating how much you are willing to pay each time someone clicks your link as a result of your keyword listing. The more you bid, the higher your position in the search results. If your link is clicked, you pay the amount of your bid for that keyword.

For example, if you sold apples, you would probably use apple, apples, and fruit as some of your keywords. Then when a customer types "apples" into their search bar, your ad would pop up--at least in theory.

In reality what happens is hundreds, thousands, or even more sites will be listed. The prospect may never see your listing! They are not going to check every single link, they will most likely find what they are looking for in the first few pages of results. The key to getting your ad seen is to have it come up on the first page--preferably near the top. So how do you get the best position?

The way to get to the top of the listing is to choose the top keywords for that category. Many PPC search engines have tools you can use that will tell you the top keywords in your category, and how much you must bid to get the top position for that keyword. But getting the top position can get very expensive! There is a better way.

A better way is to use more specific keyword phrases. For example, instead of trying to get the top position for "apples", try to get the top position for "red delicious apples" or "granny smith apples". Often it will be much cheaper to get the top position for a phrase, rather than a single keyword. While you may get less traffic using this method, you will get better targetted traffic and your campaign will last longer.

Stick to the major search engines when starting a PPC campaign, many of the smaller search engines get little or no traffic. Most will not refund your money once deposited--so if they don't get enough traffic to support your campaign you will lose that money! I have lost money with search engines that produced no clicks--no matter what keywords I used, or how high I bid! Don't you make the same mistake!

Always try a small PPC campaign first before making a commitment. Test the waters, and learn what works, what doesn't. Like any other type of advertising PPC is trial and error until you get it--it can get very expensive in a hurry, start small until you know what you are doing. A final word of warning--avoid the use of "free" as a keyword. (yup, I did this too!) Your campaign will end very quickly, everyone loves free! You also will attract people just looking for the "freebie", they very likely will not sign up, or buy anything from your site. You can use it in your link description if you want to, just don't use it as a keyword.

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