Avoiding PPC Keyword Problems

This is a huge area for problems, so you need a thinking cap, and a good one, to avoid them. As stated before, keywords must be targeted and scheduled to be effective. You must monitor your PPC system every day (even every hour) to see what is happening, and adjust it until it is fine tuned to get you what you want. The keywords must not be too general, or you will get too general traffic and no sales. The keywords must not be so targeted that no one ever uses them!

Use the keyword suggestion tool that the PPC system provides and check the statistics carefully.

For example:

Suppose you have that kids music CD and you are considering using the keyword MUSIC. When you run that keyword through the suggestion tool, you may see something like this:

MUSIC
4,567,213 searches in the last 30 days. 2,456,659 clicks in the last 30 days.It means that 4,567,213 searches took place in search engines using the keyword MUSIC.

It means that of those who searched, 2,456,659 clicked on any site that appeared in the search engines after a search for MUSIC was performed.

This indicates that if you are paying even $ .05 per click and you are using that keyword,

your money could be gone in a flash!

Try a more targeted keyword!

Try: Kids Music CD. In this case your “keyword” is a “key phrase” but it counts as a

Keyword and it is very targeted.

When you run that keyword through the suggestion tool, you may see something like

this:

Kids Music CD

3,145 searches in the last 30 days. 457 clicks in the last 30 days.

It means that 3,145 searches took place in search engines using the keyword (keyphrase) :

Kids Music CD

Of those who searched, 457 clicked on any site that appeared in the search engines after a

search for Kids Music CD was performed.

This indicates that if you are paying even $ .05 per click and you are using that keyword

(keyphrase), your money will be spent, but not nearly as quickly as if you used the too

general term: MUSIC, and you have a better chance of getting a customer.

in mind that keyword usage reports of this kind are not always up to date. They are a

general indicator of current or expected activity based on previous activity. They can be affected

seasons and other factors. For example, if you look for “snow shovels”, you may see low

searches and low clicks in July (in the U.S. anyway), but come November, you’ll see that activity

Snow shovels are a seasonal item, and people tend to look for them when they need them.

Use the keyword scheduling tool to move your listing around through time.

Keyword Scheduling can target your keywords through time and get better results. Your schedule can avoid obvious non-customers from clicking on your ad. You need to know your niche and your customer to do this well. And be aware of location and time zones.

3. Track with a special PPC links page.

Many PPC providers suggest making a special page on your Web site that is identical to your home page, but is not really the home page. This is a way to track exactly how many clicks came from your ad. Many PPC providers allow you to DISPLAY one URL (your Web site or store front URL) but actually link to a different URL.

Most Web sites use the filename: index.html or index.htm as the home page. In the case of a special PPC “click through” tracking page, you could simply make a copy of that home page file, change the name to something like: ppc.html or ppc.htm and post it to your Web hosting server. The link you attach to your PPC ad would then be something like: www.mysite.com/ppc.html where “mysite.com” is your domain (not mysite.com) and “ppc.html” is the “click page” you created. But the display URL would be “www.mysite.com”. When visitors click on the DISPLAY URL they actually go to the LINK URL. To them it is transparent. When people click on your PPC ad link, they go to a page that looks identical to your home page. If they leave that page and then try to come back through a navigation link on your site, they will go to your home page instead.

Your Web server will keep track of the special page you made for the PPC link and thus will record the traffic from the PPC ad. This makes it easy to follow the clicks and check them in your server stats against PPC provider reports. You don’t have to do this, but it is a good practice.

4. PPC Helper Programs and Books:

There are, if you look around, plenty of books and companies that will help you with PPC. Some are reasonable and sensible. Others are—well, amazing! Unfortunately, many of them offer an idiotic strategy for using PPC systems. Some may recommend the use of a lot of keywords to make more traffic because they feel that traffic is all you need, or they claim they have THE foolproof system that will get you lots of sales, and they

have testimonials to prove it. Be careful of such claims. Most are simply not true. These pitches are highly persuasive, and they take advantage of your desire to see a good ROI on your PPC dollar. But NOTHING replaces knowledge and common sense! Some companies will offer a service to manage your PPC campaign for you. You want to check

this carefully. YOU should be managing your PPC ad yourself! But sometimes, your business or what you are doing just prevents it. In that case, you must consider VERY carefully what you are doing. Check out the company or service, get references and follow up on them. Find out if they offer timely reports of what they are doing and if there are any guarantees. In the long run, the BEST solution is to do it yourself, or hire and train someone to do it for you if you can’t.

Avoiding PPC Ad Problems

The biggest problem people cause themselves with PPC ads is that they are not properly targeted. You can write a brilliant ad that gets you everyone but your desired customer! Many PPC systems have sections of their Web site to guide you to writing a good ad. USE that tool! One thing to be careful of is curiosity. People are naturally curious. If they see an ad with a compelling headline and body, they will click on it just because they are curious. So your ad mustbe targeted to reduce the curiosity seekers and attract customers. It’s almost a “Catch - 22” because your ad has to be compelling to get interest, yet is can’t be so compelling that it gets
the curious!

1. Avoiding the Problem: Clichés
Some ads are filled with clichés. WOW, BEST, SPECIAL, LOOK. You see these a lot on e-bay! This is a waste of words. It attracts the wrong people. If you sell shoes and you say WOW, people who aren’t interested in buying shoes will visit, just to find out what is so WOW about your shoes! Unless your Web site or store front can convince even the most arbitrary visitor to buy your shoes, that visitor is a wasted click. Some PPC providers will alert you to this and ask you to re-write your ad.

2. Avoiding the Problem: Vague Ads
Some ads are deliberately vague (sometimes, this is called a teaser). You want people to click in to read about your product. This is a really DUMB strategy. You pay for that click, and all you attracted was the curious. How many of the curious are going to buy? YOU WANT BUYERS! Make your ad clear as to what you are selling and why the customer would want it!

3. Avoiding the Problem: Urgent Ads
This is a very old trick that has little or no impact anymore, yet you see it all the time, especially on TV infomercial type ads. Unless your product is time sensitive (i.e. you are having a sale for a seasonal holiday), don’t use this trick to get customers. it will backfire. Many large cities have stores that are always “going out of business”. They post big signs in the window saying “Prices slashed, urgent, buy now!” and so on. This trick is so old that people just don’t fall for it anymore. So don’t do it (unless you really ARE going out of business!) The sense of urgency you try to engender in your potential customer through the ad will also attract the curious. Also, many PPC providers who review ads will catch this and not allow it.

4. Avoiding the Problem: Misleading Ads
Be careful of misleading ads. PPC providers may watch this also and stop you before you “shoot yourself in the foot” with them. Your ad should be honest and say what you are selling. For example: Putting the words FREE SEX (which probably won’t go through anyway, the PPC provider will censor that trick) in the ad will once again get the curious. Unless, of course, you are actually offering free sex—which will bring you a host of other problems we won’t even go into here! Your ad can be inadvertently misleading, and you want to watch for this as it will get by the PPC provider review. If you have something to SELL, then tell people they must BUY! Let’s take that music CD again.

Suppose your ad headline reads: Listen to this great kids CD!

Do you think a lot of people will click through? You bet!

They think they are going to LISTEN to something. That’s what you told them!

Suppose your ad headline reads: Great kids CD for sale!

Do you think a lot of people will click thorough? You bet!

Now they KNOW ahead of time that they are expected to buy something.

BUT... what the heck is a “kids CD?”, a game, a program, music?

Try this one: Buy this great kids music CD!

Do you think a lot of people will click thorough? You bet!

They KNOW ahead of time that they are expected to buy a music CD for kids.

BUT... What is a “kid”? Teenager, toddler, pre-schooler, etc?

We can do this forever, but you get the point by now. NEVER ASSUME, ALWAYS BE

CLEAR! There is a method to writing compelling ads, they MUST be targeted as much as possible! You can target by being very familiar with your market niche, your USP and your benefit. Many PPC systems allow you to change the ad content (subject to review), so if you DO make a mistake, you can correct it. And may times, you will have to do this several times, because getting it right is a bit of a guessing game. You can reduce that by testing the ad prior to using it.

5. Avoiding the Problem: PPC Ad Writers/Services
Many PPC providers will offer to write your ad for a fee (sometimes for free). This is tempting, but let’s gets this straight up front. Only YOU know your product best. The PPC people do NOT. Asking them to write your ad is like asking a stranger to do it for you. That’s exactly what you are doing. They WILL write the ad and they will follow their own rules for ad writing, which may or may not help you. So be VERY CAREFUL of paying someone to write an ad that you yourself are better qualified to write! If you know your niche, USP and Benefits, you are qualified to write a good, compelling ad! You can save a LOT in copywriter’s fees by doing this for yourself. Yes, you CAN write a perfectly good and sales generating ad. As long as you know the basics.

Avoiding PPC Traffic Problems

1. Don’t Fall for Traffic Clichés!

There are many “secret” success solutions on the Internet that claim that to make sales, you MUST have traffic. This will tempt you to use extremely popular keywords to generate traffic. Don’t fall for this one--think it through. You must have GOOD TRAFFIC! (not just traffic) Read these statements and find the flaws and you will get clear on this important distinction:

_ Change is Good

_ Think Different

Do you see the flaws in these two statements?

They SOUND so true, and they are NOT.

Change is good.

Time for a change? Change is good?

No, change is Change.

You could change for the WORSE

Change is Change, nothing more. It has No value.

Think Different.

Need to change your thinking? Think different?

NO, thinking different is just different.

You could be thinking even worse than before!

Different has no value.

The correct phrase is: “Think Better”

So now you see why you have to be careful of buzzwords and catch phrases that will get you into trouble because they are not accurate. In the case of PPC ads, targeted traffic is good. NOT: ALL traffic. It is a matter of quality versus quantity.

The PPC systems can deliver traffic. They can only deliver the quantity. You have to control the PPC system to get the QUALITY. And to get that, you have to plan, and strategies and do the thinking yourself. Proper use of the elements of the Marketing

2. Avoiding the Problem: Your Funds Disappear -- in an hour!

The PPC provider will give you reports on how many clicks your keywords get and they update this frequently. YOU have to monitor it to find out what is happening. So get used to visiting your PPC account many times a day. If you have a too general keyword that is a very popular search, your budget can be drained in a matter of minutes! watch your keyword activity reports constantly! If a keyword is getting too many clicks, Pause it and re-think the strategy before more money goes down the drain! A less popular keyword with fewer click through may get you better sales because now your traffic is Targeted! Consider scheduling your keywords to prevent obvious non-buyers from clicking on your ad. Many schools have Internet connections and children use the school computers to surf the Internet. If they see your ad and it makes them curious, they’ll click on it just to see what you are all about. Scheduling your keywords for when school is out may relieve some of this problem.

3. Avoiding the Problem: You GET NO traffic – ever!

This is the opposite problem from the above. Your keywords are too specific and people who are looking for what you have to offer aren’t thinking that specifically! If you know your niche and you’re USP, you can avoid this by picking keywords that are targeted (not just relevant) and that people are actually using!

4. Avoiding the Problem: You Get Useless Traffic – all clicks and no action

This is the biggest problem for PPC advertisers, and the PPC providers can sometimes help. But nothing beats your own knowledge and strategy. Your Web site or store front is key to solving this problem.

_ Be careful of using too General keywords. This is the prime source of curious clicks instead of
buying clicks. Most clicks are curious, not purchase.

_ Make sure that when your potential customer gets to your Web site, they can easily make a
purchase (i.e. don’t hide the price of what you are selling!).

_ Most people spend less than 15 seconds on a Web site. Make those seconds count by giving the
potential customer incentive up front, and that includes the price and any special offers. That
will help them stay and maybe make a purchase.

_ Make sure your page loads fast or relatively fast. Although there are a lot of high speed

Internet connections, many people are still on modems, and their connection speeds are slow. Images slow down a page load, so keep the images on your front page lightweight!

They won’t wait if the page is too slow!

_ Offer the visitor a “freebie”, something they can take away that has your Web site listed
on it. (This handbook is an example of this strategy). Your could offer a screensaver, a
desktop picture, a list of resources, an article they may find interesting and want to read. This
increases the chances of that person coming back to your Web site, but NOT through your PPC
ad. (They will use the link you provide on whatever you offer).

_ Remember that people don’t always buy instantly. You may have a potential customer
who is “on the fence”. You can increase their return by asking them to bookmark the
page (you can’t force this, you have to ask.) They can then use the bookmark to return to
your site instead of clicking again on your ad.

-Try different keywords until you really lock down your niche. Check your keywords against
your market niche and the market niche that normally applies to

the keywords. You could be using the wrong keywords! For example, MUSIC. A lot of people who search for music are searching for FREE music. Many are not interested in buying anything. The MUSIC niche is so large that it is a really bad one to leave by itself. Find the USP in your product and find the niche where that USP is pertinent.

5. Avoiding the Problem: ROBOTS and PPC Fraud

The Internet is populated by robots, little programs that scour the Web looking for Web sites. Some of these are search engine robots (called “spiders”) that find new sites to index, old dead sites to remove. Some are virus programs seeking victims, some are phishing robots, looking for important information about you to report to their creators, some are just bad code seeking to self replicate. There are MORE robots on the Internet than there are people. And robots move as fast as the speed of electricity. They can be in and out before you can blink. PPC systems have varying degrees of checking for when a robot clicks on your ad and goes fishing in your site. In some cases, this can be beneficial. Search engine spiders are “good bots” and the PPC provider will not charge you when one of these comes to call. But PPC systems are not perfect and some robots WILL get through, even though they are “bad bots”. Check with your PPC provider for their “robots policy” and safeguards. Use your Web site statistics to check for the visits by robots, and if you see a very persistent one, report it to your PPC provider. They may give you a price break and update their system. PPC fraud is when a robot or a person has managed to find a way to click on your PPC ad a lot, just to drive up your costs. Many PPC providers are on to this and will block it, but some are not that good at it. You can check your Web site stats to see if you get a lot of clicks from one source that is obviously not interested in buying. You can rotate your keywords and schedules to put a stop to some of this. There are many articles about PPC fraud on the Internet. You should check them by going to any search engine and looking for Pay-Per-Click Fraud. Some of what you will find is just ranting by irate PPC users, some are bona fide news reports, and some are sales for tools you may or may not need. However, BE CAREFUL.

You will see listings, sponsored ads from people who are selling PPC tracking devices, programs and so on. If you aren’t going to buy their product, please DO NOT click on their sponsored ad! (Would you want them doing that to you?) Instead, copy the URL at the bottom of the listing and paste it into your browser’s address bar. You can then visit their site and you won’t cost them money. Fair is fair!

PPC Bid

Here is where the money is spent. You’ve got your ad, your account, your keywords, you are all set to go. Now, you BID! Bidding is telling the PPC provider how much money you are willing to pay for a click on your PPC ad. They use bidding because a lot of people use the same keywords. The only way to determine who winds up on top of the listing is by payment—how much they pay for a click. This is the BID.

You always bid on keywords! So if you have 10 keywords, you must make 10 bids! But you can often bid different amounts on different keywords. It isn’t an “all-or-nothing” deal. There are minimum amounts you can pay for a bid. Some PPC providers will allow you to bid as low as $.05, others have different minimums. A minimum bid will place your ad in the Queue of placed ads for the keyword you have chosen, depending on what other advertisers are bidding on the same keyword. They usually list the top five bids. For example: You are using the keyword: MUSIC and you are willing to pay $.05 for a click.

You may see PPC provider reports that the top bids are: $.30, $.22, $.14, $ .10 and $.05. Your $.05 bid will place your listing BELOW that of the advertiser who is already paying $.05 for a click. If you want to outbid the top bidder, you must agree to pay $.31 per click. You can also bid anywhere in between and your ad will appear accordingly.

Almost all PPC providers will show you the top 5 current bids on a keyword, so you can decide where you want to be in the listing. Most PPC providers will also tell you your position (called a “ranking”) after you submit your bid, and you can change it if you don’t like it by bidding a higher amount. However, be careful. Top ranking is no guarantee of sales or traffic! If the bids are too high, even to be at the bottom of the list, you can simply deactivate or “suspend” the keyword—you basically say, “NO BID”. Your ad will not appear when someone does a search on that keyword.

Or you can bid $.05 (or the minimum allowed). This will place your ad in the search engine, at the bottom of the sponsored listing. This can work for you, so don’t dismiss it! Many PPC system bidding tools have a “make me the top bidder” feature. In this case, you allow the PPC provider’s computer to determine who is top bidder, and then it increases your bid by $.01 so you wind up on top. Obviously, if someone else is also doing this (and you can bet they are) you’ll soon see a computerized bidding war in action, at the speed of light! The computer will keep outbidding you against each other.

There is a solution to this, called a BID CAP.You tell the system that you will only spend, say, $.70 per click on your keyword MAX. This means, if someone else spends $ .71 for their ad (this is their BID), the computer will not bumpyou up. Your bid will stay at $ .70 and the other advertiser will take top position in the search engine. Your listing will be next in the list. If the two of you have the same BID CAP and BID, then whoever signed up first will get top bidding in a tie. If someone else comes along and it is a three-way tie, and that person arrived at the PPC system after you did, then you outrank them. So you are below the first advertiser, but above the third in the search engine listing. Many PPC providers will caution you if you are overbidding, so you don’t waste money.

For example:
Suppose you are bidding for a PPC ad placement using the keyword MUSIC. You see that the top bidder is paying $.35 per click. All you need to spend is $.36 to get top placement. But, for some reason, you tell the PPC system that you want to bid $.75. Very often the PPC system will reject your bid and drop it to $.36 so you aren’t wasting money. This also prevents people from “stoking the furnace”, causing artificial inflation in bids. However, you should check with your PPC provider to make sure their system will do this for you. And that’s basically how PPC works. The best advice anyone can give you is to READ the PPC provider site thoroughly and if you have questions, call their customer support and ASK questions! It is up to you to manage PPC advertising by using the provider’s system wisely and well. Now—onto those problems and how to avoid them!

PPC Location

Many PPC providers allow you to limit the area or region where you PPC listing will appear. If you are selling only to people in the United States, you can limit your ad exposure to those search engines that display in the United States. Your PPC ad will not appear in London or Tokyo. Check with your PPC provider for this feature. You need to use some common sense with keywords, schedules and location.

PPC Keyword

This is an extremely important part of the PPC system, and where you can get yourself into a lot of trouble. Keywords are the words people use in search engines. Your keywords will determine whether or not your ad appears when someone does a search using that keyword. BE CAREFUL! Keywords are powerful and they can generate a lot of lost revenue because you have not targeted them properly!

For example: You sell children’s music CD’s (songs for children to sing along and so on). You might be tempted to use the keyword, MUSIC. This is a tremendous category and is not necessarily any good for you. People are curious and people browse on the Internet. That’s why the Web page display software is called a “Browser”. You want BUYERS not BROWSERS! So, using the keyword: MUSIC, for a CD of children’s music is not going to get you good ROI (sales). It IS relevant to your product (your CD contains music), so the PPC provider will allow it. But it is too GENERAL.

Most PPC providers have a “keyword suggestion” device or tool. You can pre-test your keywords and see what kind of traffic (or clicks) they get over a given period of time. Some of these tools will offer alterative keywords. You can pick and choose as many as you like from the suggestion tool depending on the rules of the PPC provider. But remember that the tool is from a machine and does not understand context or anything that humans use to make decisions. Consider the suggestions carefully. Don’t take them at face value. They are suggestions, not requirements. You can have hundreds of keywords (expensive and difficult to manage) or just one (not enough coverage). Some PPC providers limit the number of keywords you can use. Read their RULES!

You can also, many times, schedule when each keyword is active (when your ad appears).

Here’s how you can use this:

If you live on the east coast of the US, having your ad (which is controlled by keywords) appear between about 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM is a pretty good schedule if that is when your expected customers are using the Internet. But remember, the Internet is GLOBAL—there are time zones! When it is 1:00 PM in New York, it is 10:00 AM in California. If you want buyers from California AND New York, they will see your ad if it is scheduled for 1:00 PM EST. But many Californians won’t be up and about when it is 6:00 AM in New York because it will be 3:00 AM in California. 24 hour timing (letting a keyword be active for 24 hours—often the default setting) can waste your money, so look at scheduling and consider its use wisely.

PPC Account

When you use a PPC system, you establish an account with the PPC provider, usually through a credit card. Some will charge a “membership fee”. Some will charge a “one time set-up” fee. All require an account. You set up the account by sending them some money, usually via credit card. It can be as little as $50 or as high as $300 and more. This account is money they have up front and against which they will draw as your PPC ad acquires clicks. Think of it like a checking account. The clicks are the checks. When the money runs low, or out, they let you know so you can “recharge” the account. Some PPC systems have a “minimum click through per month” fee. In this case, if you get less than a minimum number of clicks on your ad, they charge you a small fee. Finding the documentation on this requirement is tricky, it is buried in the agreement you sign with the PPC provider, so you have to READ it ALL!