Moderated by Jake Ballie, he explains this session is very basic overview of PPC. Should be fun. :)
First up is Cat Seda of Seda Communication. She did a search for las vegas wedding and showed where they show up in Yahoo. She explains you pay per click and they start as low as $0.10 and up to $100. MSN can go up to $999.99. Most engines work, where the highest bid gets the highest rank, outside of Google and MSN. She explains where Yahoo and Google and so on are syndicated. PPC is easy, its instant and cost-effective. Make sure to use ROI tracking tools, she names a few examples. The big three in PPC are Google, Yahoo and MSN. She said the rest of the engines, do not matter - she means it. $5 activation fees across the board. The number one bid does not get the number one position on Google and MSN. Google uses max bid x CTR and MSN uses max bid x CTR x more. Character count for MSN and Google are 25 for title and 40 for Yahoo. She then goes over Kanoodle, Business.com and SuperPages.com as the vertical players in this market. Kanoodle is contexttarget and behaviortarget. Business.com is PPC ads and directory listings. Super pages Free and enhanced business listings. 5 Simple steps for PPC. (1) choose your keywords, (2) write ad copy, (3) assign landing pages, (4)set up campaigns correctly, (5) and track your results. She shows one client, Fire Mountain Gems - she explains keyword groups and landing pages. You organize your campaigns by keyword groups. Keyword research tools (overture, Google, WordTracker) are critical in your keyword research process. Keyword Match Types; new advertisers should get as specific as possible (standard / exact match) and quickly goes through the others. How much is PPC going to cost me? The engines give you tools to figure it out. The engines give you monthly estimates. She then says, do not start in the number one position. What not to do with PPC? (1) Do not set it and forget it. (2) Dont forget to change your ads when the offer is no longer valid. (3) Dont change your destination URLs without changing them in your PPC campaigns. (4) Dont accidently delete the PPC tracking code from your Web pages. (5) Dont yell "click fraud" until you confirm your team is not clicking on your ads.
Joe Agliozzo from BetterPPC to talk about copy testing. A key to succeed with PPC is to have the right ad with right keywords, also to have multiple ads and to test to find the right combinations of keywords. Why test? 86% chance of improving performance, performance increase from 30-50% on average, possible gains of up to 400%, with Google, decreased CPC as CTR rises. He explains you have only a couple seconds to persuade the customer to click through to your site. He shows dynamic keyword insertion, {KeyWord: default text} rest of ad (that is how to do it in Google, the keyword would be bolded). "Credibility" Words are important, such as Guaranteed, authorized reseller, large selection, lowest price (be careful with guidelines from google). Be different, think different, he shows the think different Apple posters. Overall, he is stressing that you test. He then goes over a case study for Team America Movie. They tested a bunch of different concepts. He shows some more case studies, one for a book he wanted to promote, which doubled the ad performance (CTR). He explains that you can increase your ad rank by using keyword groups, instead of lumping them all together. When you are testing widely different keyword copy, be creative. Credit card industry is very competitive. They tried low API, build credit history and for emergency reasons, you need a CC. They tried these different messages. The results were interesting, which I didnt fully get. They made ads like, Need credit for pizza and books (to target that niche) and it worked. Test keywords, credibility words, keyword segmentation, various combos, and interrupters. Most importantly do your testing. BetterPPC has software that automates this, the sales pitch which is cool.
Brad Geddes is last up, aka eWisper at WebmasterWorld. Bridging the gap, search query to conversion. When you are talking about ad copy, you are talking about screen real estate - so we have three to five seconds to grab attention. You must know why you are advertising before you write the copy. Branding, Conversion, Total visitors. USP Unique Selling Point. What is your angle. Whats unique about your product? Often these are similar for all products, but you need to make a difference. Features & Benefits; feature is a component or function of your product or service. A benefit is something your product will do for the consumer. User identification is important, you cant identify with everyone! You must leverage your knowledge of the user. Based on search query you may be able to figure out who the user is, also based on geo-location and so on. Call to Action - Direct your visitors where they should go. Copywriting tips; emphasize benefits, write for your target audience, satisfy your audience. Standard Google Ad Copy (user benefit, product feature, call to action, display url). Effective landing pages; extension of ad copy, seamless transition from ad to landing page, they should go to a specific landing page (give it to them now). Converting landing pages, remove barriers, products with 1 click to add to cart, easy nav to related items, easy to find shipping price/ delivery time, detailed product info within 1 click. Measuring conversions; measure everything, ROI, CPC, Conversion rate and so on. Advanced measurements; high CTR & low conversions versus low CTR and high conversions, etc. Measure profit per impression. Ads bridge user query to landing page. Landing pages are bridge from page view to conversions. Ads and landing pages should work together.
