Tips for enhancing your PPC results

All Web sites need traffic to be successful, and the best place to look for the most targeted traffic on the Web is the major search engines. It can take time to get your site to be listed in the top ten rankings of the search engines. In addition to their free listings, Google®, Yahoo!® and a handful of other engines offer paid advertising sections that appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

It's a good idea to invest your time and/or money into optimizing your site for long-term rankings in the organic search engine results, but you can use pay per click (PPC) advertising to get your site listed in the paid advertising section of the results. Once you set up an account, you'll want to increase your click through rate (CTR) in order to get a good amount of targeted traffic, but you'll also need to watch your cost per conversion (CPC). Here are some tips that will help break down the basics of pay per click management.
Conversion tracking

Put your PPC conversion tracking code into the completion page of your checkout.

Most PPC engines offer the ability to copy and paste a bit of conversion tracking code into your site to track Cost Per Conversion. Network Solutions storefront owners will need to go to:

Order processing >> Payment manager >> Order Confirmation Message to paste this code into the HTML there.

This step is extremely important. Once this is done, you can check your return on investment (ROI) for your most expensive or highest clicked keywords so you'll know where your money is well spent. It's important to focus on those keywords or keyword phrases with the greatest ROI before those with the most traffic or gross sales.
Bid management

If you want to qualify your traffic more, you'll probably want to try a feature called "Exact Matching". This will prevent unnecessary visitors (which translate into clicks that you must pay for) and will encourage only those seeking exactly what you offer to click into your site. Ads with exact matching typically perform better than those without it.

Delete all duplicate keywords: a keyword should be used only once across all campaigns and categories.

Re-categorize your keywords to better manage them: try creating categories that are sorted by your site's categories or product lines.

Select keywords based on the different stages of the buying process. Choose your keywords or keyword phrases based on an understanding of the buying process for your product or service.

Do not obsess with becoming number one. This may result in unnecessarily paying more for traffic that may be just as targeted as when your ad appears in the number two or number three position or even lower. In some cases, and particularly in those industries for which comparison shopping is more common, the number one position may not be your most coveted spot because many customers will not feel comfortable buying from the first ad they click. These are the same types of consumers for which clicking "Back" and reviewing the other ads is common behavior. Industries with high-priced items usually face this challenge. In these instances, you'll want to be concerned with keeping your ad above the fold of an 800x600 screen for a good click through rate.
Ad Writing Tips

Make sure that wherever possible, you are using your keyword in your ad text and title to encourage click through. In most engines, if the keyword searched is in the ad's title or description, the keyword is bolded, which encourages click-through. Google considers click-through volume, as well as bid price, to determine an ad's position in search results. A good click-through rate (CTR) to shoot for is 1% or higher.

You may feel you have to give up too much space to use the keyword in the title, especially if the keyword is a lengthy phrase. If the keyword phrase is long, and you don't have room or you want to include more in the title, determine the basic essence of the phrase, and be sure to include that in the title. If you have room for the full search phrase, don't worry about losing just a portion of that phrase by cutting out one or two words so that you can communicate a marketing message. The ad should include key search term elements that will help the ad stand out to searchers.

Rewrite your titles and descriptions to be more persuasive. Descriptions that have proven to work very well contain one or more of the following:

* It is in sentence format.
* It has statement that provides a benefit.
* It shows how your site or your offer stands out above others.
* It includes added information.
* It isn't too "sales-y."

Avoid getting overly creative with your writing. Believe it or not, ads that are more direct and to the point will perform better. Focus on attracting visitors with special offers that will out-perform your competitors' offers rather than trying to grab attention with punctuation, capitalization or clever wording. Here are some offers that have proven to be successful when advertised through PPC ads:

* Free shipping
* Free download
* Free trial
* Call-to-action words like "buy", "download", or "try"
* Problem solving benefit statements: "save time", "save money", etc.
* Third party endorsements. For example: "Voted best distributor"
* Simple, easy to understand adjectives like "powerful" or "easy"

After the click

Provide a clear navigation and deliberate sales path from your landing pages to the desired product for visitors who know exactly what they want. Use the same targeted keywords from the ad on the pages you are using as landing pages for that ad.

Above all else, it is essential to know that your primary goal is to convert visitors into sales. Ultimately, the success of this type of advertising, as is the case with many other types, will depend on your site's ability to persuade and convert. You'll have trouble succeeding without key assets such as competitive pricing, a professional e-commerce store design, convenient navigation, great service and other e-commerce SEO essentials.
by: MySolutionSpot Editor