bunny started this topic @ 08:47 on 12/10/2004
Can any of you IT people give me your opinion on whether pay per click is worth investing in for a new on -line business, with limited funds, or is there a most cost effective solution to getting traffic to your site which converts into sales? Thanks
RE: pay per click - opinions please
Jonny | 12/10/2004 08:58 AM
What's the business bunny? You have a URL?
The only way pay-per-click works is if you can be really, really, really specific and targetted with your keywords as I'm sure the experts will agree. If it's pay-per-click banner ads then it only makes sense if your banners give a very accurate picture of what your business is and that the banenrs are shown in aplace your target customers are likely to be surfing the web.
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RE: pay per click - opinions please
helga | 12/10/2004 09:25 AM
It's difficult to generalise as, like all marketing tactics, pay-per-click works better for some companies / industries than others.
What I would suggest, for a new business with limited funds, is to give Google AdWords a try just for a few weeks to see whether or not it is worth it. Put in, say, £50, and see how many sales / enquiries you can get out of it. Start off by bidding the bare minimum (4p per click) and see whether this gets you any traffic. If it doesn't, keep upping it step by step until you find the right level. You may find that you don't need to be in the top 3 positions to get some sales coming through, which could save you a lot of money.
If you decide to go down this route, here are a few tips-
- Target lots of keywords and see which work best
- Write several different ads, including the keywords in the ad wherever possible, and see which ones work best
- Include a call to action in the ad and if you have any special offers / free trial etc, mention it
- Measure, measure, measure! Make sure you're not spending £1 to get a sale which is worth 50p.
- Link the ad to the most appropriate page on the site, which is not necessarily the home page.
- Make sure that when people reach your site, it is easy to use and drives conversion. If you're finding that you get lots of clickthroughs but no sales, it could be that your site is putting them off - or that you are targeting the wrong keywords.
Hope that helps. If you need any more advice give me a shout!
Kind regards
Helen Mitchell helen@ascendancyinternetmarketing.com
Ascendancy Internet Marketing www.ascendancyinternetmarketing.com
RE: RE: pay per click - opinions please
iccommunications.co.uk | 12/10/2004 03:18 PM
I have found that ppc advertising works for my business. The only thing is it needs lots of monitoring and tweaking.
My traffic has increased and so have my sales but as helen says it is hard to say and depends on the business.
It is worth having a try with say £20 and if it gives you what you were expecting stick with it.
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RE: RE: pay per click - opinions please
webvideo4u | 12/10/2004 03:46 PM
I'd say that ppc is essential to a good online marketing campaign. Think about it.
You start a campaign and have ten keywords. You can monitor those keywords from the moment they land on your site to see which one converts best. You then have this wonderful bit of information and can use it to optimise your site for this keyword in the organic SERPS.
Use your free £50 voucher and see how you get on. A wonderful tip I've found is that if you put {keyword:alternative} in your advert then the 'keyword' will be replaced by whatever the search term is. The alternative will be used if a very long keyword was entered that would make the ad dimensions too big.
This has led to vastly improved click through rates on my ads, with some over 50% and the average around 10%.
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RE: RE: pay per click - opinions please
Jonny | 14/10/2004 07:11 PM
"A wonderful tip I've found is that if you put {keyword:alternative} in your advert then the 'keyword' will be replaced by whatever the search term is"
Ooooh - I'm well impressed with that one! What a great tip!
Have just tried it out and it works a treat.
Thanks!!!!
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RE: RE: pay per click - opinions please
Jonny | 14/10/2004 07:18 PM
erm, may I just point out that I really didn't mean to sound so camp in that post above.
The "ooooh" noise was fully intended as a manly, Tool-Time-Tim, grunt sort of noise rather than a camp squeal.........
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RE: RE: pay per click - opinions please
iccommunications.co.uk | 14/10/2004 10:22 PM
Arhhhh
google adwords is good when it works. But wait until it goes wrong I haven't had a response to a question in over a week. One campaign just stopped working. I deleted and re added all the keywords and it works thank god.
Any one else had problems with adwords??
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www.iccommunications.co.uk - 0845 numbers, 0700 and 0800 numbers
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