I have a client who has a stated goal of increasing conversion for his pay-per-click ad. His PPC ad already shows up on the first SERP (search engine results page) for a keyword phrase that is highly relevant for his profession. Should I use SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising) to build traffic to my website? This is a really common question regarding a dilemma that seems to plague many decision makers trying to figure out just exactly what strategy will work best in promoting the website they are responsible for. Competitor’s web sites are largely unremarkable and his looks better graphically.
Exact match
As the name suggests, when exact match is selected the advert will only appear when that word or phrase is used.
Broad match
Sometimes more abstract interpretations of your phrases can occur, causing wasted clicks and losing a little relevance. Your advert will appear for the keywords used when setting up the campaigns. However this can be reduced by including more keywords and getting negative keywords removed from the campaigns.
Phrase match
This is where the primary keyword has to appear within the search phrase used for it to appear.
So why isn’t he converting traffic into leads and clients?
Pay-per-click advertising can be an extremely effective tool for lead generation or sales conversion. Research shows, however, that few people even scroll “below the fold” on the first SERP. Even fewer click to secondary SERPs and beyond. If you’re using a PPC ad you don’t show up on the first SERP, you’re not likely to pay much because you’ll get very few clicks.
How to Start
You begin PPC with search engine optimization (SEO), associating the right keyword phrases with your ad. Using SEO and PPC are two of the most common forms of internet advertising. That’s the trick to showing up on the first SERP. Unless you’re targeting the right keyword phrases, people searching for what you sell won’t find you.
SEO requires research in the keyword tools and a view of what your competitors are doing. You can do this on your own but if you’re not trained in SEO and have some experience with it, you’re shooting in the dark. PPC is most commonly associated with Google AdWords. Make no mistake about it adwords is the best form of advertising on the internet.
My client has good keywords for his ad but PPC management is not just about getting people to click your ad. That helps Google more than it helps him. The only downfall of PPC is the cost associated with it. However, if you can find cheap keywords that are profitable then this is the way to go. It costs him money every time someone clicks his ad, whether they subsequently become a client or not.
PPC Secret
The secret to PPC marketing and getting conversions is the content on the landing page. Pay per click is a form of advertising in which the advertiser pays only for those users who “click” on his or her ad. Google AdWords is the most popular PPC program currently available. Some web sites create a custom landing page for their PPC ad but this isn’t absolutely necessary.
What is necessary is that you follow these rules for the landing page:
• The search terms the searcher used must appear on the page.
• The copy on the page must be compelling and written for human consumption.
• The copy on the page much be relevant to what the searcher is searching for.
You can do an exercise right now and search on any term you like. Click on any of the PPC ads that appear in your SERP. I used to advise people very strongly to hold off on their search engine optimization efforts until after their initial pay per click (PPC) work was done. Look at the landing page. Is it clean, concise, and relevant to what you searched for? Does it make you want to contact the company? Is it just confusing and entirely irrelevant to your search term?
PPC gets complicated when it comes to actually creating the advertising campaigns themselves. If you want to write superior copy for the web and get PPC conversions, study some of those pages and see what works and what doesn’t.
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