Pay per click is a great way to get quick attention to your website. There’s no waiting for the search engines to discover and rank your websites for the keywords you’re after. You decide what you’re willing to bid and spend each day, and in a short time your website is out there waiting for searchers to discover it.

However, pay per click can also get expensive quickly, especially if you aren’t tracking your ROI. It takes time to develop a campaign that pays what you spend on it in many cases.

With this in mind, I’d like to go over some of the basics you need to know about running a successful pay per click marketing campaign:

1. Research your keywords.
I like Wordtracker for this. The free version does a fair job, but when you’re serious about it, pay for at least a day’s use of the paid version. You’ll get so many more keywords it really is worth the money. Failing to research your keywords can really limit your campaign’s effectiveness and you will miss some great keywords.

2. Use negative keywords.
Negative keywords are those words which keep your ads from appearing. “Free” is very often a good negative keyword, unless you’re trying for freebie seekers. However, other keywords may also keep things more relevant to your website. If there’s a keyword commonly associated with what you’re selling, but actually has nothing to do with what your site offers, make it a negative keyword. Once again, Wordtracker is very useful in discovering these keywords.

3. Watch out for content networks.
Google, for example, runs ads on their content network if you allow them to. Some campaigns convert just fine on the content network, but many do quite miserably, even when they do well on search. If you run content ads, make sure you bid less on them.

4. Spend only what you can afford.
You may get a recommendation for a daily budget, but that doesn’t mean you have to go for it. This is particularly important when you’re testing and don’t know that you’ll make a profit. Pay per click is a great way to lose money if you aren’t watching things, so don’t let your budget get out of hand.

5. Keep your landing pages relevant.
If you’re selling blue widgets, don’t send searchers to your home page. Send them to the page that specifically sells blue widgets. Someone who has just searched on a search engine for a product doesn’t then want to search the site they just landed on. They want the product to be right there. Having visitors land on the exact page can be a huge factor in your conversion rate.

6. Consider adding your price to your ad.
Adding a price keeps the freebie seekers from clicking your ad. It also helps keep out the people who aren’t interested in your product at that particular price. However, this does also lose you the chance to justify that price, so use this with caution.

7. You don’t have to bid for the #1 position.
The top position sure looks good, but you may get a better ROI at #2 or #3. Remember that many people comparison shop, so they may click on the first ad, then on yours, and if you have the better deal, you get the sale.

8. Don’t assume that everyone else is making money on their campaigns.
Sure, your competitors are investing heavily in pay per click advertising campaigns. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing well with it. Some do it just to deny their competition the ad space or to build their brand. Other ads may come from affiliates, some of which don’t know to keep a careful eye on their budgets and are in fact losing money. In any case, if you find your ad campaign isn’t earning you money, drop it or modify it until it is earning money.

Pay per click advertising is popular for one simple reason - many businesses find it to be highly profitable. If you keep watch on your business and tweak your campaigns as appropriate, you can test this option and decide if it is for you.

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