So have you made up your mind to give pay-per-click marketing a try?

June 7, 2010 – 11:07 pm

PPC is one of the most affordable advertising options available to small and large businesses. But like most advertising, you need to have a good strategy to get your money’s worth.

Normally, a lot of people running their first PPC campaign make mistakes that can quickly turn expensive.

This article will offer some basic advice about bidding and choosing keywords to help you run a smart PPC campaign.

The most important thing to know before starting your PPC campaign is how much you can afford to bid for a keyword. High traffic keywords on Google – the leading PPC providers – can cost $8.00 per click for a top ranking.

Can you afford that?

Consider this: the typical e-commerce site converts about 3% of its visitors. That means you need to bring 50 visitors to your site before you make a sale. At $8.00 per click, you’ll spend $400 dollars to generate one sale.

Also keep in mind that you usually want one of the top 3 listings for a keyword. So you’re caught in a catch-22: you want a high PPC ranking to get traffic, but the top rankings for popular words are too expensive.

The solution is to cast your net on a large scale, targeting a large number of less popular keywords. These words are usually less expensive and, taken as a group, can give you a considerable volume of traffic.

It’s common for PPC advertisers to target thousands of keywords. I’ve managed PPC campaigns for clients using over 1500 words.

The downside is that it can be difficult to manage a large number of keywords. You’ll want to track your ads, making sure your rankings haven’t dropped. Plus, you’ll want to know which keywords are sending you traffic and converting visitors into actual clients.

Many companies also outsource the management of their PPC campaigns. Most SEOs now offer PPC management services. These options cost money, but they usually pay and justify for themselves by running your campaigns very efficiently.