One Reason to Learn StumbleUpon Ads

See the graphic below…

StumbleUpon is the #2 Referrer of Social Media Traffic

This has compelled me to learn and start testing.  Instead of striking out on my own, I decided to learn from someone with results and purchased an eBook to get started.  So far, I’m impressed.

Are you using StumbleUpon Ads? Any good?

How to Advertise on Facebook in 10 Minutes or Less

If you are an experienced Pay Per Click marketer, you’ll appreciate the simplicity of setting up a campaign, as well as the targeting possibilities of your ads.  If you are new to pay per click, you still can have your first campaign up in 10 minutes or less, setup is just 3 steps.

1 – Design Your Ad

First step, design.  Go here to get to the page that looks like the screenshot below.  You can either drive traffic to a Facebook page you have (fan page, or group), or a page on the web.  Give it a title, some text, and an image if you like.  In this example, I’m setting it to drive traffic to a fan page.

2 – Target Your Ad

This is probably the most compelling part of the service, advertisers can target millions, or laser focus an ad to less than 100.  As you specify the targeting it updates the estimated number of people that meet your targeting parameters.

Some interesting things you can target include (not in screenshot):

• Workplaces
• Relationship status
• Users who are or not connected to a page, event, group or application.
• You can even target friends of connections to a Page, Event, Group or Application.

Here’s a screenshot of the estimated people based on the parameters set.

Needless to say, you can get very creative here.

3 – Campaigns and Pricing

Once you have the ad targeting set, now you need to determine the name of the campaign, and your pricing model.  What you might expect here for pricing options and estimates (nice).

I wish Facebook offered a little more flexibility on the schedule.  More specifically, what Google Adwords users know as ‘day parting’ would be really useful for some marketers.

Done

Once you confirm your settings and payment, you are done, and your campaign will be live after it is approved by the reviewers at Facebook.  Congratulations, you have just launched your first Facebook ad campaign.  Now you can enjoy the stats collecting that Facebook offers advertising, and tweak your ads further.

Easy enough?  Useful? What say you?  Feedback?  Have your own experience? Chime in below.

I did a search on the topic, and I think I can still hear the echoes on my computer from the search engines.

In reviewing the Facebook stats page, there are over 350 million users, and 50% of active users log on in any given day. Fan pages alone have created over 5 billion fans. 

What’s Your Experience with Facebook Advertising?

With these huge numbers, why is little spoken of this traffic source?  One thought is, either nobody is using it, or it is the best kept secret for pay-per-click advertising on the web.  Since Facebook became cashflow neutral several months ago, the revenue must be coming from somewhere, right?

What is your experience with Facebook Ads as a promotion tool for your business?  Have you ignored it?  Tried it? Big believer?  Chime in below.

Yesterday Microsoft and Yahoo! finally reached a deal, and while it is no hostile takeover per se, it is worth considering especially for online marketers who use Pay Per Click to drive traffic to their landing pages.  How will this deal impact PPC prices?  Is it good for the industry as a whole? For searchers?

Microsoft and Yahoo What It Means for Online Marketers

The details of the deal can be found here:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/technology/microsoft_yahoo/index.htm?postversion=2009072908

and here:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-29release.mspx

The details of the deal are pretty straightforward, search results on Yahoo.com pages and properties will say “Powered by Bing” and Yahoo will be the ones getting premium advertisers.

Some Thoughts on this Deal for Online Marketers

1. Potential for PPC costs to go down for advertisers (and payouts for publishers to go up)
2. Better ad targeting if indeed search results become more relevant
3. Google has more (viable) competition, which is better for everyone.

Of course these are some speculatory ideas on my end, and the deal won’t go into effect (pending regulatory approvals, etc.) until 2010, but make no mistake Microsoft wants to be a game changer to Google.  There is also good ole gamesmenship between these two (consider the announcement of Google Wave the day after Microsoft announced Bing earlier this year).

Enough…What About YOU? Good for searchers? Advertisers? Marketers? Comment in the boxes below with your thoughts on this deal.

Many use pay per click (PPC) campaigns to drive fresh leads to their site, and well they should, it is a quick and easy way to do just that.  What many don’t realize is the little ads one writes serve as one of the greatest competitions on the web.  Copywriters aren’t typically known as being fiercely competitive, but obviously everyone wants a great return on investment when handling their PPC campaign management.  Good news is PPC search engines reward the best performing ads with higher rankings, more qualified traffic, and at a better price.  The bottom line, the better the ad the more likely you’ll get clicks (and sales) for less money.  In this post, I’ll share 3 components of a good PPC advertisement.

Why Pay Per Click is the Copywriters Biggest Contest

Great Headline

It’s important catch the attention of the reader so they might read more.  The headline is the first thing searchers see when looking at an ad.  A great headline should engage the reader and encourage them to read on.

In the screenshot there are several ads.  Which headline (blue text) do you find most compelling?  To be fair, it really doesn’t matter what we as marketers think, it isn’t about us, it is about what the market responds to.  I think there is a reason that two identical headlines appear twice for this key phrase (organic food).  What are your impressions?

Great Subhead with CTA

It’s important to motivate the reader to read the ad.  The subhead should offer something to the reader, again, to engage them and encourage them to click, or read on.  The first ad does that quite well, the call to action is subtle, offering answers to questions.  Others are talking about products, or saving money, the last ad seems irrelevant altogether!

Great Domain Name

A solid domain name is great.  The Google adwords campaign now mandates that the domain name displayed in the ads must be the domain name the landing page is served from (not automatically taking them to another page). I am not sure if this is the case on other popular ad networks (chime in with a comment below if you know). While this may create some limitations, it is a great way to brand your domain, while offering an intriguing directory, or page name.

One opportunity that is missed in many ads, is using a clever sub-domain to build relevance and/or intrigue.  Notice only two of the ads offer a sub-directory, and one is bolded as it is a word in my search phrase (organic food).  It stands out, and is rewarded for having the word in the display link.

Lower Cost

While it typically costs more to get a higher position with your PPC campaign, what newbies often don’t realize is that, as ads perform better, they get higher placement and the cost actually falls as the search engines reward you for delivering relevance to its searchers.  This is a great motivator to write great copy!

As you consider your next PPC campaign, remember, it is a contest. Look for examples of great headlines that aim to catch the attention of the reader, compelling sub-headlines and call to action.  Lastly, use an intriguing domain name and/or directory name as the final bait for searchers to click through.  If you win this contest, you’ll get a better understanding of your market, while increasing qualified traffic at less cost.  That is a great combination by any standard.

Agree? Your thoughts?  Chat it up with your comments below . . .

image credit to davichi

Make no mistake, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your website. What is the reason any small business wants to get traffic to their website? To get people to take action, and ultimately profit. With decent PPC search engine placement and PPC tracking in place, you can do just that. In this post we’ll discuss three ways you can profit based on where you send your PPC prospects (landing page).

4 Ways to Make Money with Pay Per Click Search Engines

Send PPC Traffic To Your Product Page

This is the most obvious place to send PPC traffic. You want visitors to buy, so send them to the place where they can see your products! If you choose this option, consider creating a special page just for PPC traffic. There you can include a promotion code only available to your PPC traffic. It is also useful for PPC tracking of sales. This works well with low-price consumer products on an eCommerce site, but may not always be the best approach.

Send PPC Traffic To Your Special Report Page

Prospects who are researching are prime for information. If you can help answer many of the questions that are top of mind for prospects researching your solution, you can build rapport with them by giving this away. A more strategic approach would be to give it to them in exchange for their email.

This opt in technique combined with the use of an autoresponder gives you a chance to follow up with them to see if they have further questions, or to provide new information that has surfaced since the report was published. It also gives you an opportunity to sell by educating them on product features, or new product releases. PPC campaign management becomes more meaningful as you couple with such a list building strategy.

Send PPC Traffic To Your Welcome Page

This works particularly well for high ticket items, and is geared more toward a soft sell. Make your welcome page inviting, consider using video with a welcome from the company president, CEO, or a VP of a department or division. There is nothing like putting a face to a company or a product, and a welcome page can do just that. Your message can invite them to see various aspects of the site that you think will be useful to them. If you need to establish rapport with visitors, and know they don’t typically buy on the first visit, this is a PPC strategy worth considering.

A Super Strategy, Combine Them

Want to make the most of your PPC campaign? Combine these in a way that is suitable for your market, and you have a super-strategy. Example: consider a welcome page with a video which introduces the executives, and invites them to supply their name and email to get access to a special report. You just might find conversions skyrocketing, and hopefully sales as well.

Chime In:PPC campaign management doesn’t have to be hard. With decent PPC search engine placement and PPC tracking in place; lighten your load with a solid PPC landing page strategy and have some fun while you are at it. Do you PPC? Where do you send visitors? Comments welcome below.

*Image credits to kevindooley

So, you know that you need to move forward or expand your marketing online, and decide that now is the time to get serious about Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing.  Congratulations!  Used properly, with solid PPC Campaign Management, it can be one of the most powerful online marketing resources available.

4 Considerations to Get Started with Pay Per Click

Criteria to Start Your PPC Campaign Management:

1.) You have an idea what is buzzing in your market
2.) You have something interesting for web searchers on the page (landing page) you take them to
3.) You have some goals for your visitors
4.) You have some goals for your campaign

What’s the Buzz in Your Market?

For someone just getting started, you need to build momentum, so don’t get too creative.  What messages are fresh in your mind of prospects in your market?  Some questions to ask:

• What is everyone talking about in your industry or market?
• Is there a new technology, competitor, or government regulation?
• What are people afraid of, or losing sleep over?

If excessive dog hair shedding is a big deal in your market, and NoShed, Inc. just released a controversial new shampoo to combat it, and everyone is talking about it, it qualifies as buzz.

Find the buzz and put a plan together to ride the wave it is generating with your PPC campaign.  It will make your marketing dollars go further.

Generate Interest and Create Action.

This ties in with the first point, as you leverage the buzz in your market, and strike a chord, you will create interest.  Now we need to see them take action.  Consider what actions you can get them to take.  Building on the Buzz for your PPC campaign; here is a dog hair shedding example:

• Does NoShed, Inc. Shampoo concern you?  Consider our Consumer Report on Our Award Winning All Natural HairCleanse.
  

As with any marketing, be sure to avoid copyright infringement or or other legalities.

Goals for Your Visitors

This should be pretty obvious, but is amazing how this step is often misunderstood.  Many want more sales, and well they should, but depending on your market, product/service, or price point, that isn’t always possible. Focus on the visitor: You must have an action that you wish your visitors to take. Knowing and measuring this is part of any PPC campaign management.  In our example above, our goal is to get people to read the consumer report.

Your Company Goals for The Campaign

What do you want to get out of this campaign?  What are your business objectives?  Sometimes when starting a PPC campaign management it is unclear what the goals should be.  Let me provide some suggestions:

• Get our special report in the hands of 1000 people in 30 days.
• Increase website traffic 33%
• Increase sales by 10% over the same month last year
• Lower the cost of sales
• Determine if PPC campaigns bring in more qualified leads
• Determine if our PPC campaign leads shorten our sales cycle

With goals as a part of your PPC campaign management, you’ll know if PPC is headed in the right direction at your company, and can continually improve your PPC campaigns.

By leveraging buzz, creating interest and action, as well as goals for both your visitors and campaign, you are well on your way to getting started with successful PPC campaign management.  With these foundations in place (before diving deeper into PPC search engine placement or detailed PPC tracking) the beginner will be off on the right foot.

Chime In: Have you started Pay Per Click for your business?  What about PPC campaign management?  What other elements do you consider in your PPC campaigns?  Fill the boxes below with your thoughts, ideas, and feedback.

*Image Credits to saba?dija

Many get excited with the prospects of a pay per click (PPC) campaign for their business.  They like the idea of fresh, targeted traffic coming from the first page (hopefully) of Google for certain search terms.  What is sometimes lost is good PPC campaign management.  What I want to share with you is the core elements of good PPC management.

PPC Campaign Management, What’s That?

Let’s be fair here, I’m sharing from my experience.  I too launched my first PPC campaign with no real PC campaign management components in place.  I soon learned that campaign costs can add up very quickly.  I didn’t mind spending the money if the campaign was leading to conversions, and conversions sales (at a satisfactory rate).  The question was what are good elements of ppc campaign management?

Watch Your Campaign Closely

PPC Campaign Management is not a set it and forget it activity.  You need to monitor your campaigns at least daily (in most cases) with proper ppc tracking.  If you are experimenting with a new market or a new keyword set, you may need to monitor it hourly.

Average Position- (Keywords) If you are not landing on the first page of Google (first 10 positions) or other PPC search engine, you need to be there to get traffic, preferably the first 3 positions.

Click Thru Rate- (Ad) Of course this varies per market, but what I’ve found is if you are on the first page of Google, and not falling in the 5-10% range, this needs attention.

Conversions- You need to know what percentage of customers for a given keyword are choosing to take the action you give them on your landing page.  The end game is to get more sales, so this should be measured here.

Cost Per Keyword- Obviously these costs impact your daily budget, and depending on what you are paying, can eat up your budget pretty quickly if not monitored properly.  Don’t focus on how much you are spending, rather on the investment as a percentage of the return.  If you pay $10 for a keyword that yields you an average sale of $500 when clicked vs. a keyword that costs only $5 but yields no sales with twice the clicks, which one do you want?  The one that gets the sale.

You may have some solid PPC search engine placement but you also want to have a decent click thru rate (CTR) when compared with competing ads.  If you don’t, most PPC publishers (like Google) will deem your ad less relevant than others, bumping it down the food chain, and increasing the price you pay to present your ad.  Google rewards the best paying ads, the better your ad performs the less you pay.

PPC campaign management that monitors average position, click thru rate, conversions, and cost per keyword will be head and shoulders above the rest, will cost less than the competitors, and more importantly puts the PPC campaign management owner in a powerful position towards profitability.

It’s Your Turn!: Have you considered Pay Per Click for your business?  What about PPC Campaign Management?  Certainly this is not a complete guide, what elements are missing?  How can it be better?  Chime in below with your thoughts, ideas, and feedback.

Image credit to elplagiarista