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Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) has had a pretty good press these last few years.  Google has become one of the world’s most admired companies on the back of its sponsored search and Adwords revenues.  Fees earned from visitors clicking through ads on their sites has become the most important revenue source for many content providers, including giants like Facebook and Youtube.  Armies of individuals have created content (like this article) in the hope of taking a tiny slice of the huge PPC pie, which is estimated to reach $60 billion globally in 2010. But does this burgeoning PPC spend really pay for the advertisers?  The short answer has to be “yes” because such growth would not have occurred without the bulk of the spending generating profitable results.  However if you’re planning to spend on PPC perhaps you might want to look at some potential downsides: 1. Variable and skewed traffic Most people never click on internet ads. Estimates vary but it seems that 70-85% rarely if ever respond to internet advertising so the traffic you do receive from PPC is obviously skewed to a certain segment of the population.  This may not matter if you are getting profitable sales from acceptably priced traffic but it is at least worth considering if you find that you are attracting the wrong kind of visitor (such as non-buying ones) to your site.  It is also an argument for not putting all your eggs in the PPC basket as you are missing the bulk of your potential market. 2. Brand and credibility issues Being “no 1 on Google” carries a certain cache, though it does not take an internet marketer to know there is a big difference between being top for a competitive term (“restaurant New York”) and an obscure one (“Bulgarian restaurant New York”).  But by the same token, it is also true that paying to put your name, brand or site in front of internet eyeballs can sometimes look like an admission of failure or, worse, spammy and amateurish.  If you begin an Adwords campaign for your blue chip investment advisory service do you want to end up just below an ad touting 1000% returns for penny stock tips? 3. What about “nonliners”? If you spend a large amount of your marketing budget on PPC you are missing a large part of your potential audience.  We have already talked about the majority of surfers who do not click on paid results or banners, but what about “nonliners” who do not use the internet or do so but not when searching for your product or service?  At least if your internet marketing strategy is mainly “organic” (non-paid) then you may have money left over for offline marketing. 4. Failure to convert If you think PPC is a lazy and easy way to make money online then you can forget it.  Anyone in the industry will tell you that attracting traffic is only part of the battle; you can quickly lose a lot of money paying for clicks through to bad internet sites or “landing pages” which do not convert clicks to profits.  Try an experiment for yourself, typing in a relevant search term and clicking through the sponsored results.  You will quite often be led to boring, low impact homepages with no sales pitch or “call to action” (in marketing speak), or pages with limited relevance to your search term or even to broken links.  If you spend money on PPC you still have to invest time and thought in developing effective landing pages and arresting site content. 5. Click fraud One of the great advantages of PPC is that everyone clicking through has had their interest piqued by your ad and therefore is a potential customer.  But what if you are paying for clicks made by competitors trying to undermine your campaign or online marketers generating phony clicks to make money?  This is a growing problem and even though there are controls and protective measures that Google and others take, this can be an expensive pitfall for the unfortunate or unwary. 6. Bidding wars If advertising your chosen keywords is expensive or at least going up in price, this does not necessarily mean that you are getting more valuable traffic for your money.  More likely it means the competition is hotting up.  US car dealers faced this problem at the beginning of the recession when Americans stopped buying cars: PPC rates for key industry terms doubled and trebled as dealers scrabbled desperately for clicks. If you build your business around paying for clicks it can be very painful when those clicks suddenly double or treble in price.  If the cost becomes prohibitive what do you have to fall back on? 7. Keyword research A lot of site owners are put off the alternative to PPC – achieving high search engine rankings by link building, article marketing or other techniques – because it sounds too much like hard work or very demanding and technically difficult.  There is some truth to this – it is not easy to rank well for competitive terms but given time and effort you can get there.  However the alternative of PPC is also demanding because campaigns also require a lot of skill and knowledge, particularly in terms of researching keywords that are not only going to attract the right traffic but also be affordable enough to be profitable.  Campaigns also require constant monitoring and adjustment to achieve goals efficiently. 8. The risks of getting PPC wrong How do you fancy getting “Google Slapped”?  If you are new to the world of PPC you probably don’t even know the term but it is about as unpleasant as it sounds.  If Google doesn’t like something about your Adwords campaign (most likely a lack of quality or relevance on your landing page) you can be penalised with a “slap” which puts up your ad costs to sometimes prohibitive amounts.  Other forms of PPC, like paid search, can be fraught with risk too, if you are unskilled or inexperienced.  For example say you bid for a search phrase that you already rank well for in regular organic results.  This may not be disastrous and in fact research shows that sites that show in both sponsored and regular search results do particularly well, but if you do so unwittingly you may end up misdirecting your resources, undermining your non-paid (organic) internet marketing and overestimating the benefits of your PPC spend. 9. The sugar rush problem An Adwords consultant once described PPC to me as like a “sugar rush”.  He meant that the effects were indeed gratifyingly instantaneous and effective but not automatically lasting.  There are ways of using PPC campaigns to build lasting results (e.g. building up email lists by offering visitors a newsletter or by offering programs or content which give them an incentive to return regularly) but most often PPC buyers are left with the option of keeping paying – even when click rates shoot up – or lose their lifeblood of traffic.  Organic traffic building takes time but when done right the results are long-lasting and in fact self-reinforcing over time. 10. Budgets become moving targets In theory PPC should be budget-friendly because you work out what sort of traffic volume you are looking for and have an idea of the cost per click but the reality is not so straightforward.  For one thing until you have launched a campaign and had some experience of it you do not actually know the cost per click.  Google has a Traffic Estimator which gives you a range of cost estimates for each keyword combination but one internet marketing guru I know says he has more faith in unicorns than this tool.  Also as we have seen the cost of PPC can rise and fall very suddenly making a mockery of your carefully constructed marketing budget. CONCLUSION:  I wrote this article to balance all the good press that PPC generally receives.  There is another side to this much-lauded and still fast-growing marketing tool which is worthy of consideration.  However I do not mean to say that you should never use paid search, banner ads, Adwords and the rest it as part of your marketing effort just be aware of the limitations of PPC and use it as part of a multi-faceted approach. The author is based in Spain and has written this guide to marketing for Spanish small businesses: and author of the guide to marketing in Spain http://www.advoco.es/home/22-latest/32-30-or-so-ways-to-market-a-business-in-spain.html James Baker is a UK-qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years business experience in London and Spain. He is Senior partner of Advoco, Spanish law & accounting. Website: http://www.advoco.es Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ppc-advertising-articles/10-reasons-pay-per-click-advertising-doesnt-always-pay-1671063.html

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10 reasons Pay Per Click advertising doesn’t always pay

Now i am going to show you a strategy for making a little big money with Google Adsense.i think it is obvious but there may be a few people who have not yet noticed it, especially newbies.Anyone can put an adsense ad on their site but where does the traffic come from?The chance of getting traffic from a blog or SEO is quite slim. Here is my advice: Be a traffic middleman.Get quick, cheap, quality traffic to your website by buying keyword ads on the small PPC search engines, and when people click on your ad and are taken to your site, immediately show them relevant Adsense ads, and optimize your site to get them click on these ads. You are paying small pennies for the visitors, but you can earn a few dollars if that same visitor clicks on Adsense ad on your site. Thats because Google advertisers pay alot more money to be seen. if you bid 10 cents for a keyword on another PPC search engine and get 50 cents from Adsense, thats highly cool.There are a lot of keywords that you can buy ads for cheaply on the other PPC sites.Yet many of the same keywords are very expensive on Google. For example; i look on Miva.com for a popular keyphrase i may want to market, “online money”, and see that it currently costs $0.21 per click to appear in the 1st position.Now i look on Overture’s max bid for that keyphrase and see that advertisers are bidding up to $7.00 per click.The Overture bids indicate to me that advertisers on Google are bidding similarly. Online Overture tells you exact amounts that advertisers are bidding, but Google Adwords advertisers tend to bid similar maximums.Yet its a fact that Google advertisers pay most.Some advertisers bid up to $250 per click! So, now you create a page on your website specifically about “online money”.Then what you need to do is optimize your page for Adsense ads so as to get your visitors to click on them so that you can make money with this strategy.?ts important to note that while optimizing your page, you do not violate Google’s Terms Of Use, otherwise Google will ban you. Now, in order to trigger a Google ad for your example keyphrase “online money”, you must make sure you have the keyphrase “online money” in your page title, in the meta tags, in the description tag and withing the text of your paragraphs several times, make sure you bold it at least once.Also have a h1 and h2 heading tag on the page with “online money” as well.And also have a link somewhere on the site, linking back to your homepage, with an anchor text of “online money”. By optimizing your page for this keyphrase, and sending people who click on your Other PPC Search Engine Ad to this same page, your website will automatically display the top 3-4 Google Adwords ads for keyphrase “online money” .Now if the top 3-4 Google Adwords advertisers are paying $7 per click for that keyphrase , you can expect to earn close to $3.50 for every person that clicks on the Google Adsense ads on your site.So you make $3.29 for doing nothing but sending someone from another PPC search engine to a Google advertiser’s website.Now imagine if you repeat this over and over every day for thousands of keywords. Online Marketing can be considered useful for those who are engaged in similar subjects with this as an additional info. Fatih Bulut is a student at the University of Istanbul, taking up Computer Engineering and Business Administration.He has been engaged in internet marketing and web design since the very beginning of high school times.Those who are seeking additional info/material as to Online Marketing and Web Design may want to take a quick look at my blogs that i’ve been into for several months. Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ppc-advertising-articles/a-pay-per-click-strategy-1651666.html

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A Pay Per Click Strategy

Google AdSense program is easy way to earn money. At least for someone. There are many people making thousands of dollars with Google Adsense. Students, Housewives, Retiree’s, etc… You don’t have to be tech freak to do something like that by yourself simply by placing Adsense on your blog. But what I would like to write about here are those Adsense Experts. Maybe you heard of them somewhere, maybe you know some of them, people able to make half a million of dollars a year only with Google Adsense. But don’t mix them with those from first group that got like picking the right niche or writing one good ad. They have systems that create web sites for them and people who do that for them, they have outsourced and automated all that work such as blog posting, keywords searching, etc… Are you ready to get those techniques and be one of those Google Adsense Experts ??? Here are 7 Steps you can implement today to achieve what they did. 1) Starting today… treat your AdSense business like it is a REAL business and track what you do. TRACK EVERYTHING!!! Track things that work and track things that don’t work. Working that way you won’t make same mistakes forever and you can use stuff that work while eliminating obstacles to your success. Yes, I know. This sounds too simple. And it is. But do you do it always??? So many people don’t. Start now and take advantage over them in Google Adsense Expert Program. 2) Get the latest tools and software available. The Google AdSense Experts are not any smarter than some average person. They are just regular non techie people willing to do things easy way. Maybe I could say they are smarter in one respect though… they use the latest tools available to them to automate most of the tasks involved with researching and creating sites. They use the latest keyword, site creation and search engine optimization tools available. They consider those tools as their secret weapons. 3) Don’t go after the Big Dollar keywords. You must be aware that you can’t compete with many search engine experts who have rich clients with big budgets behind. Yes, you might say now that you managed to beat them, OK, I do that too from time to time but in the long run you should build sites for low to medium range payout keywords. The competition is not so big and your chance is much bigger in the long run. 4) Pick broad niches and break them down. What we learned from Google Adsense Experts is that while starting they choose a broad subject as their main theme (like computers for an example). From there they break that niche down into as many sub niches as possible. Using Computers as the example… you can build sub niches/sites like laptop computers, computer hard drives, computer keyboards, etc, etc. You could literally build hundreds of sites around one major theme and stay totally focused. Once you have exhausted every possible sub niche of that major theme… choose another main theme and repeat the process.

Are you aware that if you’re a local business who is ignoring the techniques of search marketing local you’re ignoring money? If you make available local services such as home improvements, auto care, animal care, transportation, investment services, and chiefly any other type of service that generates local services to its community you must use search marketing local to aid in the quest for increased business. Search marketing local provides mountainous advantages for local businesses. Local businesses have access to desirable features that are developing daily. Google is expanding its connections for local businesses as are masses of other tech and search paths. Every local business that wishes for more customers should position themselves to be making use of these marketing strategies. Local businesses, while bound to a specific region, can expand to be the industry leader in its area by reaching more buyers than competitors. Search Marketing Local gives these types of businesses an advantage in driving targeted traffic to your local business site or local search listings so that businesses can be found easily and so that your particular business is listed at the top. There are a variety of reasons to leverage search marketing local for a small business. By adding and promoting a listing to Google Local, you become greatly visible to local buyers. Potential customers are instantaneously provided the advantage of a map so that directions or determining a business location is automatically provided to them. Remember the now barely memorable times when you were forced to dig through a bulky book, look up a business and sit on the phone and make a request for directions? Those days are well behind us. Every bit of these steps can be reached in only a couple of minutes by completing a search. Additional advantages are that you can even offer coupons that will be prominently shown next to your business listing. YouTube advertising is also an option that is there for you. And also remember to add images. People are greatly visual, and the right image is known to entice new buyers to stop by your business. Google is making a big push search marketing local listings. Google has access to where you call home, the type of things you need and displays search results within the area that you live in. Kind of scary huh? Not scary at all if if you’re leveraging search marketing local listings for your business. This makes a way for searchers to discover you, get your address and directions, and provides to them the things they need to create them into a customer. If you run a business that make available services to your local community, now is the time to have search marketing local generate income for you. With a warehouse of advantages including adding images, videos, coupons, store hours, maps and contact information, your potential clientele will have round-the-clock access to resources they need to do business with you. With Google securing search marketing local listings, you will have a exponential advantages over business competition. Leverage Search Marketing Local to position yourself as the leader in your industry, increase traffic to your business and increase profits. Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ppc-advertising-articles/using-search-marketing-local-to-your-benefit-1635357.html

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Using Search Marketing Local to Your Benefit

From the people who designed your web site to the people who create your traditional advertising, it seems like everyone claims to be experts in search engine marketing. The problem is that most web… [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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The Six Minute Pay per Click Firm Interview

There are diverse methods of advertising any particular product. Every company or service providers use a different approach to promote his/her product or service. The key aspiration for marketing a product is to achieve more customers. The promotion of the products or service through internet is called “Internet Marketing”. Today …

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Explode Your Business with Internet Marketing

The beginning of the year is a great time to take a step back and to re-evaluate marketing plans for your clients. Of course, one key ingredient in a successful marketing plan is the website. Over the next couple of months, the Google Agency Team will be blogging about how you can work with your clients to review their website and landing page performance for 2010. Today, we’ll discuss how site testing can benefit both you and your clients. 1. Testing is good for PPC management agencies Whether you specialize solely in pay-per-click management or you also help your clients with website design, the creation and optimization of landing pages for the best possible user experience will help you achieve your performance goals. We’ve all seen this situation before: you’ve already worked exhaustively to ensure that your search marketing efforts are bringing in relevant traffic, but are still not seeing conversion results. The reason? The current format and messaging on the site does little to retain even the most qualified traffic. Remember that doubling your conversion rate is essentially the same as doubling your traffic at your current conversion rate. (click here to view image) If you’re a design shop, establishing a strong culture of testing will also bring great benefits. As with PPC campaigns, it’s best to consistently monitor current site performance and then optimize based on data. Even if you’ve designed the site yourself, there’s no way to predict exactly how it will perform and as a result, there will always be an opportunity for incremental improvements. Build these expectations in with your design clients. Consider also that market and visitor expectations change frequently (e.g. holidays and the recession). The beauty of testing and re-optimization is that you can address the immediate site issues and help the client adapt to any changing conditions. 2. Testing is good for your clients Often a major concern from clients is the production resources and money necessary to move forward with testing. But it’s worth it! We all know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover; but let’s face it, first impressions matter, especially on the internet. If users don’t like what they see at first glance – even if it’s for a superficial reason – they are likely to move on. Explore the possibilities with your client. We have an extensive library of success stories with Google Website Optimizer that showcase some of the increases in conversion rates for businesses that have done landing page testing. Higher conversion rates mean more sales and/or leads at the same cost. If the client already is doing PPC and has an understanding of the opportunities in online marketing, the importance of providing visitors with the right on-site experience for their goals will be easy to demonstrate. Your client will appreciate your expertise in helping to develop this crucial piece of their marketing plan. 3. You likely have the data to identify site problems If your client has web analytics data, you can begin to identify site and landing page weaknesses today. In Google Analytics, the “Content” section houses some of the most useful reports. Start by looking at Top Landing Pages. If the bounce rate of these pages is higher than or close to the site average, you may want to examine possible issues with these pages that would cause a user to leave the client’s site. To see if visitors are proceeding down the expected path, set up a funnel if you haven’t already to find out if there is kink in the trajectory to conversion (i.e. if visitor volume is dropping off at any point in the process). You can then open your Navigation Summary to see where those visitors are actually exiting out of the funnel. 4. You can test with Google Website Optimizer for free Remember that while Analytics may help identify issues with the site or landing page, a website testing tool can help you find the solution. With Google Website Optimizer, you can quickly set up a A/B or multivariate test. Website Optimizer can work with almost any site infrastructure or type . It’s free and easy to get started, and a great way to add value to your existing client services. Be sure to check back soon when we explore more ways to use your Analytics data, industry-specific challenges, and testing strategies. Happy Testing! Posted by Michael Giannotti, Agency Team

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Four things agencies should know about site testing