Is PPC A Waste of Money

Whenever a group of business people gets together, whether real estate agents or shop owners, if the discussion turns to PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, the comments are often highly mixed. Some are negative, saying they spent a lot of money and couldn’t attribute much business to the effort. Others will say they had some luck, but they weren’t sure they would do much more PPC. Still, others won’t know anything; they know it works incredibly well if done correctly, and they don’t want to add to the competition.

While learning more is required to get campaigns up and to run and send buyers to a website, here are the critical points that, if covered, will result in the delivery of real business on a budget.

Focus keywords and phrases – Too many people new to PPC will set up ad campaigns on broad terms and keywords highly competitive in their business. A simple example for a real estate agent might be the phrase “Denver real estate.” It’s going to be highly competitive, costs a lot to entice clicks, and usually will turn off the business owner, who will stop PPC due to high costs and low results. Using other phrases like “Denver downtown lofts,” “Denver luxury condominiums,” or “Denver subdivision name homes or real estate” will get more focused searchers with less competition and at a lower cost.

Word the ad properly – Place the key phrase in the title. If possible, use it in the body of the ad or at least part of it. Expand on the phrase with extra information available. An example would be expanding on the “Denver downtown lofts” phrase like “Denver downtown lofts with stadium views and walking distance to restaurants and entertainment.”

Send the searcher to a custom landing page – Probably the single most common mistake made by new PPC marketers is to send the searcher to their site home page. Consider it this way: they have just taken the time to type in what they want to know about, and they’re sent to a home page where they have to search for a link. They’ll click away, the dreaded “bounce.”

A custom landing page should be constructed just for the search, and the search phrase should be in the page’s title. Then, that page should be focused on that single topic. It can link to other pages, but the landing page information should only discuss the search topic.

Have a call-to-action for conversion – Once the searcher has arrived, found what they want for information, and are interested in more info or buying, there must be a prominent call-to-action to get them to buy or give up their contact information. It should be evident, featured on the page, perhaps in several places. It should offer the next logical step in the path to buying.

Following these four simple steps properly will deliver viable prospects seeking what the site is selling. They’ll arrive where they get more information to urge them to buy and a link. This is what those successful at PPC aren’t bragging about in discussions because they don’t want their competition to know.