Paid Search Advertising (also Pay-Per-Click, PPC) has gained a significant influence in the search engine industry over past couple of years. Whilst a traditional search engine optimisation still remains the online marketing strategy number one, more and more e-marketers discovering the potential of online advertising campaigns. Properly designed and managed, PPC campaign can deliver highly qualified visitors to your online shop.
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Quick Overview
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engines are built on the similar principle as auctions. The difference is that you bid on keywords — terms people use when they search for stuff on the internet.
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The concept of PPC bidding is rather simple: you buy (= bid on) keywords that relate to your product. The highest bidder gets placed at the top of the search results, the second highest bidder gets the next listing and so on. Every time someone clicks through to your website, you pay the amount you bid on that particular search term.
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Advertising with PPC search engines basically gives you two key advantages:
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Cheap and Highly Targeted Traffic
With bidding on keywords that relates to your product or service, you actually pre-qualify the type of visitors you wish to attract. You determine how much you are willing to pay (bid) for the click and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and. This implies that PPC search engines can cheaply direct qualified visitors to your website.
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Fast Exposure, Immediate Profits
Traditional search engines usually take few weeks (sometimes even months) to list your website. If you are having problems to get your website indexed by search engines or if you would like to get a quick results from the search engines than PPC is the best alternative. Most of PPC search engines will set your website live within a couple of hours (maximum few days) and the impact on your site traffic and sales is practically immediate.
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Guaranteed Top Position
Search engine optimisation is the classic method of getting your website on the top of search results for free. Simply said, the process of optimisation involves choosing keywords that are directly related to your website and placing them meaningfully within your pages. However, as easy as this sounds, for an average webmaster this is usually a quite daunting task without any guarantee on the success. This again brings me to PPC as the best solution to gain high rankings on the search result list. Often, by spending just few cents per click, your website can get to the top three positions within 24 hours!
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The best-known and most popular PPC Search Engines are Google AdWords (www.google.com/ads) and Overture (www.overture.com). Advertising with those two industry leaders will get your website lots of exposure and traffic. Furthermore, top 3 listings in Google AdWords and Overture appear on an extensive network of sites (including Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, Excite, and many others) so you can reach up to 80% of all active Internet users. However, at the same time be prepared that their top listings tend to be rather expensive and you need to pay quite a bit.
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Generally, the more popular keyword you choose for bidding the higher is the price. You can start your bid from 1 cent per click and finish paying $5.00 (or more) for very competitive keywords.
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Designing Successful PPC Campaigns
The golden rule of PPC bidding is: “Attract highly qualified buyers and keep your bids as low as possible”. Since you are paying for each single visitor landing on your website obviously you wish to maximize the effectiveness of your PPC campaign. Let’s take a look at some basic guidelines to help you optimise your campaign and ensure your ROI:
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Determine your bid cost
The calculation of the bid cost (also cost per click) requires a rather complicated formula. For the purpose of this article I mention just a baseline that helps determine how much you can afford to bid:

• Firstly, you need to know the conversion rate of your web site. That means how many unique visitors you need to close one sale. For example, if you need 50 visitors (= clicks) to close 1 sale then your conversion rate is 2%. If your bid is 10 cents per click than one sale has $5 of bidding cost.
• Secondly, you need to know your profit margin. If your profit margin is high enough to justify the cost you can consider increasing the bid and getting a higher position for your ad. This way you may increase the number of clicks through your website and acquire more sales.
• Finally, calculate if the extra sales justify the extra cost and adjust the bid accordingly.

Focus on highly targeted keywords
As mentioned earlier, PPC Advertising can deliver cheap and highly targeted traffic to your website. To use this advantage to your benefit it is important to choose wisely the keywords you wish to bid on. The key is to be specific. For example, instead of bidding on “skin care” you can consider bid on “anti ageing herbal treatments”. More targeted keywords attract more qualified buyers. It is easier to convert them into paying customers because they found exactly what they were looking for. This strategy is also a big money saver — more specific keywords tend to be less expensive than the general ones everybody is biding on.
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Customize your advertisements
You will attract more attention from qualified buyers by writing ads specifically for each of keywords you bid on. Speak directly to the type of visitor you want to serve. For example, instead of writing an ad for “pies” you can write “home made meat pies”.
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When tailoring your ads to a specific audience, be also sure that you direct your visitors to a page on your website where it’s easy for them to buy these items.
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Use less popular PPC search engines
Overture and Google AdWords are clearly the PPC market leaders. However you can still benefit from the less popular ones such as:

• FindWhat http://www.findwhat.com
• eSpotting http://www.espotting.com, (biggest PPC engine in UK)
• 7search.com http://www.7search.com
• Kanoodle.com http://www.kanoodle.com
• Enhance Interactive http://www.enhance.com
• Sprinks http://www.sprinks.com

Bids on these less popular PPC search engines are much cheaper and you can purchase your listings for as little as one cent per visitor. Even though you may not get the same exposure as you would get with Overture and Google, you still generate a decent amount of traffic. And while you only pay for actual clicks to your website, you never waste your money.
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Choose the best position for your advertisement
To be listed first on the search results is not always a smart move. It certainly helps to attract lots of visitors, but may cost you lots of money at the same time. People usually visit first 5 top listings before making a final decision about their purchase. Therefore, it is more profitable to have lower ranking for highly competitive keywords.
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Managing PPC Advertising Campaign
You have designed a killer selling ad copy, chosen highly targeted keywords, calculated the maximum you can afford to bid on each of search terms and determined which spot on the search results you wish to secure. Yet, there is no guarantee that your ad always remains on your desired position.
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The key to managing the desired position is to adjust your bids correctly in accordance to the PPC market conditions. It’s like monitoring shares on the share market — to get the best deal you need to constantly watch prices and react immediately to any change.
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The main factor influencing the price of the bids and your position are your competitors. Let’s make few examples of bidding strategies you can consider using in your PPC campaign: assuming, your maximum cost per click is $1.00 and your goal is to secure position #3 at the most effective cost.
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(a) Maintain Target Position
Your aim is to target the position #3 however your ad appears on the position #10. Knowing that the current holder of the position #3 pays $0.51 per click you can improve your position and take over his place by bidding $0.52. This strategy sometimes tends to drive up the keyword prices so be aware you don’t cross the limit of spending $1.00 per click.
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(b) Remove Bid Gaps
Overture defines the bid gap as “the difference between the amount you are currently paying for a click and the minimum you could be paying to still remain above your next highest competitor in the search results.”
For example: You pay $0.70 per click and your next highest competitor pays $0.60 per click. You can pay just $0.61 per click and still be placed above your competitor. By closing this bid gap you save $0.09 per click which in 1,000 clicks is saving of $90!
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(c) Control your Maximum Cost per Click
As mentioned earlier in this article, the calculation of your maximum bid cost (cost per click) requires you to collect a list of statistics about your website. Based on our assumption, you are willing to pay maximum of $1.00 per click. Therefore you should not pursue any positions where the bids are over your $1.00 limit. Wait till the price falls under $1.00 to prevent any possible losses.
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To get the most accurate bidding results without having to baby-sit your advertising campaign, I would recommend relying on one of the automated bid management software available on the market today. In general, those tools constantly check your bids and adjust them accordingly to maintain your desired position so that you don’t have to be alert 24/7.
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The more sophisticated tools allow you to set your daily budget to prevent spending more than it is efficient for your business. Below I have listed the main features you should be looking for when choosing the bid management software for your campaign:

• The ability to create and identify targeted keywords and phrases that convert leads in sales
• The ability to set the maximum amount your want to bid
• The ability to fix bid gaps so you don’t pay more money than is necessary
• The ability to set your desired position
• the ability to compile comprehensive reports on your keywords, bidding cost, bid position and current bid for each keywords
• The ability to monitor competitor’s activity by checking competitors ranking and current bids

If you would like to download a demo version of bid management software, there is one available for free at website http://www.keywordbidmaximizer.com/bidmaximizer. It will help you to better understand the whole process of designing and maintaining PPC campaigns so you always manage to cost-effectively allocate your budgets and increase your revenue.
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Paid Search Advertising presents an excellent opportunity to immediately address your offers to the proper online audience. Focus on identifying highly targeted keywords that convert for your website. Calculate your bids so your sales justify the cost. This way you will maximize your return on investment and ensure your website’s success with PPC advertising.

By Ivana Giardi

When it comes to keyword selection, clients always want to optimize for the highest searched terms (according to keyword research tools) and those alone. It takes some convincing to get them to go after lower search volume, but more relevant phrases. It’s become a regular part of the cycle with my clients, especially those who are learning about SEO and the process of optimizing a site.
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Real Searches vs. the Numbers Game
Last week, a client wanted to know why I had suggested several phrases to them that showed 0 searches in WordTracker.
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The reason?
Those phrases were showing REAL referrals in their logs for several variations. People were actually using those phrases to search, and although they found my client’s site, it wasn’t doing a good job of focusing on these relevant searched-for terms.
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The Keyword Research Process
I usually have the client provide me with the typical words they think someone might be using to find the product, service or information that they offer. We look at what competitors are optimizing for and then I look at their log files. When possible, I talk to the client’s salespeople and a few customers about the words that describe the products or services.
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Then I may play with AltaVista to see what phrases it thinks are related (you see a list of related searches to the right of the search results in AV). Then I’ll hit WordTracker and the Overture suggestion tool to get an idea of how people are searching in that industry.
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Other keyword research tools that may be helpful are:

• Search Term Research by PrioritySubmit
• Keyword Research Tool by Webmaster Toolkit
• Keyword Suggestion Tool by DigitalPoint Solutions
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool by Google
• Keyword Suggestions for Google by SEO Chat
• Keyword Generator by eSpotting Media

These tools are a great help in suggesting possible phrases that you may want to optimize for, but they are limited. They aren’t inclusive of all searches, and they can’t foretell the future. Just because people searched on a term last week, doesn’t mean they’ll search for it next week.
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Many people today simply run through WordTracker, grab the results that have a high KEI, and set about optimizing for those phrases. Some of the problems with this tactic are:
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• They believe that general phrases are relevant because they show a high number of searches. However, general phrases often bring traffic — but no sales. Specific phrases bring traffic that converts.

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• WordTracker’s KEI function doesn’t tell you much. It doesn’t really show how many other pages are competing for your phrases, and it doesn’t really matter anyway. You are only concerned with the top 10 results!

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• Many keyword phrases are seasonal — seeing what people searched for last month doesn’t always tell you what they will search for next month.

Common Sense Keyword Selection
What many people miss is the common sense aspect of search; what words will people who want to find your goods or services use to search for it? Besides keyword research tools, your client, their salespeople and customers, here are 3 additional ways of finding out what people are typing in at the search engines to find what you offer:
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• Trade organizations or industry news sites
• Usability testing/surveys
• Log files

A note about log files — they can be deceiving. If you have a high traffic phrase that is garnering lots of referrals, and you have a high exit rate from the page that is receiving those referrals, its likely people aren’t finding what they wanted. On the other hand, log files are a treasure trove of information. You can find some great search terms that are not very competitive and maximize them on your site.
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Competitive phrases may not be as competitive as you think (check the top 10 search results to see) and the highly searched upon phrases may not be as lucrative as you would hope. People often refine their search 2-3 times before getting the results they expect.
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The bottom line when it comes to keyword research is that it pays to know the industry. Use all the great tools available to help you come up with variations and alternate terms to target, but use common sense when targeting terms. Go for the ones that are going to convert!

By Scottie Claiborne

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Overture now offers the Yahoo! Search Inclusion under its own branded name - Site Match.
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According to the page info from Overture, submitting your site to individual search engines is expensive and time-consuming. But with Site Match you can reach millions of users by submitting your pages through one program that powers search results for top web portals such as Yahoo!, AltaVista, AlltheWeb and other sites.
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Summary of Site Match Benefits (according to Overture):

• More exposure for your site–reach more than 75% of active internet users
• A simple, single point of submission to multiple web portals such as Yahoo!, AltaVista and AlltheWeb
• Frequent refresh of your pages–every 48 hours

• Daily reporting to track and optimize performance
• Pricing–Hybrid of Inclusion and Pay-Per-Click

Site Match uses a hybrid of the old Inktomi paid inclusion program and the pay-per-click search listings. When you start a Site Match subscription, a non-refundable annual review fee is charged for setting up your account and for quality review of your pages. Once your pages are accepted into the program, a cost-per-click fee is charged for each lead driven to your site.
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URL Submission (non-refundable annual fee, per domain) First URL: $49
Next 2-10 URLs: $29 each
11th URL and beyond: $10 each
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Cost-Per-Click Fee:
Tier 1 Categories: $.15
Adult
Automotive
Books
Computers & Software
Dating
Education & Career
Entertainment & Attractions
Jewellery & Watches
Music & Video
Office
Other
Reference
Sports & Outdoors
Toys & Baby Equipment
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Tier 2 Categories: $.30
Apparel
Electronics
Financial Services
Flowers,
Gifts & Registry
Health, Beauty & Personal Care
Home & Garden
Professional Services
Real Estate
Telecom & Web Services
Travel $.30
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Okay, now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way, here’s the real deal on Yahoo!/Overture’s Site Match:
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It’s a license to steal! It really is. Here’s why:
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Site Match isn’t a true pay-per-click program, like Google’s AdWords or Overture’s own pay-per-click program.
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What’s the difference? With Site Match, you don’t have any control over how much you pay for a particular keyword. I’ll talk more about that later.
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Site Match charges you $49 to “review” your URL, at which point you get included in the databases of several search engines, including the new Yahoo! search engine. By the way, paying the $49 annual fee doesn’t improve your page ranking one iota.
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It’s also important to point out, this isn’t the same thing as Yahoo!’s Submit Express, where you have to pay $300 to have them review your site for possible inclusion in their directory, without any guarantee whatsoever.
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With Site Match, you’re guaranteed that your URL will be included in their various databases, and will be spidered regularly. This is how it works: If your listing is shown for a particular query and someone clicks on it, you get charged an additional 15 or 30 cents– over and above the $49 annual fee! That’s one reason why I call Site Match a license to steal. Here’s another:
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If your URL already happens to be in the search engine databases, you’re now paying money for clicks you would have previously gotten for free.
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It’s really a bad deal, because for most sites, paying more than $.10 per click will end up costing you money.
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If you’ve participated in a true pay-per-click program, you already know that there are many keywords, especially generic terms, that are worth little or nothing, so you’d never bid on them to begin with–or you’d bid very low.
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But with Site Match that control is completely taken away from you because, the way the program is set up, you have to pay a minimum of $.15 to $.30 per click, no matter what.
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Personally, I think you should avoid Site Match like the Bubonic Plague!

By Dean Phillips