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
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!
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