| Landing Page Tips for Pay Per Cllick | | Print | |
Conversion is a large part of how successful a pay per click campaign is. A few tips
to improve your landing pages:
• Remove navigation: unless it is necessary remove other options. Let
people do what you want them to do, and don’t give them many other
options.
• Make link text appealing: people tend to glance over copy instead of
deeply reading every word. Since links are action points people tend to pay
more attention to link text. Make sure link text is appealing since it is far
more likely to get read than most of the page copy.
• Show them their location: Place the words they searched for in large text
at the top of the page to show them they are in the right location. If you are
a large merchant with many products maybe use something like search
results for: their search term. In many cases it is best to point people at a
landing page instead of the home page.
• Other ideas: some of the other concepts listed throughout this ebook
(such as using short paragraphs and subheaders) also apply to landing
pages. Corey Rudl constantly retested his landing pages. You can learn a
good amount by seeing how he changed his landing pages over time.
MarketingSherpa also has a landing page handbook for sale.
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing was formerly named Overture.
How Does Yahoo! Search Marketing Work?
Yahoo! Search Marketing is primarily a manually edited pay per click search
provider. You write ads for your website and they get approved to appear in the
search results on YSM partner websites. YSM bid prices are transparent. You can
usually see exactly what your competitors are bidding at any given time.
YSM places exact match listings above broad match listings. This means that if you
bid on the exact term that someone is searching for you will rank above ads that are
matched via broader matching options.
If you bid 10 cents for “best seo book” and someone else bids 25 cents for “seo
books” your best seo book ad will show above theirs if someone is searching for
“best seo book.”
YSM also truncates search terms for ad targeting, so book and books should target
the same ads.
YSM Bid Prices vs. Click Costs:
With YSM you pick a maximum bid price and your bid will never exceed that.
Their software has a bid discounter built in, so often times your average bid cost
may be less than your bid prices. YSM makes most bid prices transparent. In
competitive fields competitors will ensure your click costs are near your bid price.
Bid Jamming:
In some niche markets there will only be a couple people who place exceptional
value on ultra qualified leads. For example, a Chicago DUI attorney may bid much
higher for the term 'Chicago DUI attorney' than a general nationwide firm would.
If there are only a couple competitors in a market, it is not uncommon for the top
few bids to be $5 or $10 while the rest of them are around 25 cents or less.
For example, if they bid $10 you can bid a max bid of $9.99. If the third placed
person is only bidding 25 cents your clicks will cost you 26 cents each while
ensuring your competitor pays a full $10 per click.
Of course you want to monitor your accounts closely if you are using aggressive
bidding techniques or bid jamming people. Some competitors will be stupid and let
you take their lunch money. Others may be smart and re adjust their bids to bid jam
you. Some will go so far as click fraud, so you need to watch your account closely if
you are bidding aggressively in competitive markets.
Bid to Position:
When you use the bid-to-position bidding strategy, it also hides your full bid price,
only showing 1 cent more than the person below you. Bid to position allows you to
bid a max price and max position. Yahoo! will keep your click cost and ranking at
or below your max.
YSM Programs:
YSM offers a $10 bid bonus when you open an account, but has a $5 startup fee
(which is converted to click credit), and it has no monthly minimum spend. They
also have a FastTrack program where their account representatives will set up your
account for a one time $199 fee. I recommend taking the time to set up your own
account. You know your products better and are more interested in your own
success than some random YSM editor is, they are more interesting in ensuring you
spend as much as you are willing to.
YSM recently launched Local Match, which allows you to target your ads from a .5
to 100 mile radius of your business location. The Local Match product requires that
you have a business with a physical address, but it does not require a website. These
ads give driving directions to your place of business. Local Match ads show up in
the same location where other YSM ads appear.
YSM also offers a paid inclusion program by the name of Search Submit Express
(which I generally consider a waste of money for most websites). Search Submit
Express gives your sites 48 hour refresh throughout the Yahoo! powered search
products. SSE is a one time $49 review fee and also has an incremental cost per
click. SSE is good for sites which:
• are rapidly changing
• or are having dynamic indexing problems
• or need indexed quickly
• or need the associated tracking offered by Search Submit Express
Free Yahoo! Search Marketing Tools:
Yahoo! offers a suite of tools to help their advertisers set up their accounts.
• Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool: shows the frequency of searches
across the YSM network for the prior month.
(http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)
• Yahoo! View Bid Tool: show the highest bidders for a specific search
term.
(http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/?Keywords=casino&mkt
=us&lang=en_US)
• Yahoo! Regional Search Term Suggestion Tools: gives country or
region specific search frequency.
• Yahoo! Advertiser Workbook: free downloadable ebook released by
Yahoo! to help you get the most out of your YSM campaign.
YSM Search Term Suggestion Tool Errors:
YSM truncates their search terms. While the plural and singular versions of search
terms will greatly differ in search volume YSM just lumps them together.
Please note that the Yahoo! search term suggestion tool tends to run high since
many automated bots and bid managers scour through their partner network.
WordTracker tracks click data from the meta search engines by the name of
Dogpile and WebCrawler. Since WordTracker makes their money by selling data
versus clicks you can usually expect more legitimate traffic measurements using
WordTracker. Digital Point created a free keyword suggestion tool which compares
both traffic estimates.
KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com are two additional useful
keyword research resources.
When doing pay per click advertising deep keyword research is a fundamental part
of most successful campaigns. Many of the keyword research tools are a bit top
heavy (only showing the most common terms), but WordTracker has a few cool
features called lateral search and thesaurus which help you find similar keywords. I
tested many of the keyword research tools and WordTracker is generally the only
tool I feel is worth paying an ongoing subscription for.
Another option to finding deep keyword data is to run a broad matched Google
AdWords ad (AdWords and matching options are discussed later in this chapter)
and mine keyword data from the referral strings. Make sure you watch your budget
closely and use negative terms to filter unwanted traffic if you use this technique.
The Keys to Doing Well on Yahoo! Search Marketing:
Ensure you target your keywords properly and do not get in bidding wars. Do not
bid high prices for exceptionally broad or generic phrases.
Your exact match listings will still compete against broad match listings, but if you
make a list of targeted phrases then you will not likely pay for as many untargeted
clicks as a person bidding for more generic phrases. If you use somewhat generic
phrases you will want to make sure you use negative words to block terms you are
not interested in.
A few good examples of good negative terms to block are cracks and free.
Keyword tip: Spammed Out Guestbooks: software or searching techniques
which find spammed out guestbooks which have been visited by competitors can
help you find many keyword variations. Keyword tools may help you find about
500 keywords, but the guestbooks sometimes may yeild over 5,000.
This free tool (web based) or this free tool (downloadable software) or this $50 tool
(downloadable software) will help you create a ton of keywords based on different
keyword groupings. Using that tool will allow you to quickly create hundreds or
thousands of relevant exact match terms. This is the tool I use to make up my
extended keyword lists after I have already done primary keyword research.
Microsoft Excel also has a similar feature.
Some of YSM’s partners cut the ad text short so you will want to include your most
important words near the beginning of the ad title and ad description.
YSM does not factor clickthrough rate into click cost. A high click through rate
may bring more expenses without many more conversions so you will want to
prequalify your site visitors. If you are trying to sell bulk stuff at wholesale do not be
afraid to use the word wholesale in the title AND use $1,000 minimum order in the
ad text.
PPC vs SEO in Small Paid Niches:
The more expensive the associated PPC ads are the more value there is in
performing SEO on a site in a paid niche. If the average cost per click is $5 then a
$1,000 SEO campaign pays for itself after only a few hundred targeted visitors.
YSM tends to be a bit sloppier than Google at monetizing niche advertisements.
YSM’s open bidding means that if there are only a couple strong advertisers one
gets to stick the other and then get their ads cheap.
I have one client that gets most of their Yahoo! clicks at about 12 cents when her
competitor pays about $8 a click. On Google I pay closer to $3 for each of those
clicks.
If you are unsure whether an SEO campaign would justify its fees you can run a
test PPC account to see what type of demand there is in your target market.
Ad Writing Tips
There are many subtle hints to doing pay per click advertising correctly. A small
change in conversion rate can make a huge difference once scaled out across the
entire web. A marginal loss that turns into a marginal profit can become an
automated revenue stream if you write your ads and convert slightly better.
English to English Conversion
I went to the UK and realized just how different the versions of English are around
the world. If you are targeting a specific region or country make sure your ads and
website make sense to locals using words and phrases that make sense in their
dialect.
Use Specific Words!
Choosing a keyword for pay per click ads is similar to choosing a keyword for
search engine optimization. You do not want generic terms. Frequently single word
terms bring so many competitor clicks, compulsive clicks, and fraudulent clicks that
it is hard to justify having them. Single words are usually poorly targeted AND
more expensive. If you get into bidding wars over general terms you are playing the
game all wrong. Actually, the game is playing you.
Do Not Follow the Crowd:
Bid prices may not be justified where they are. Many times people feel they need to
have certain terms. Without tracking them, these people lose money and do not
know why they are losing.
Sometimes people chase things which give them an inflated artificial value. If you
try to do exactly what the other ads are doing you may fail. In many markets the top
listed ad is losing money on each and every click.
Use Creativity to Lower Cost and Increase Conversion
Rates:
Keyword Selection:
The way to choose a term is to think creatively. Try to imagine what your user may
type into the search engine to find what you are selling. You may even want to bid
on terms which exist in a question format. Think of your target audience. Maybe
these terms are problems that people have. Perhaps these people do not even know
your product exists.
Writing Headlines:
Some of the most competitive ads in the world are magazine covers in a checkout
isle. You may want to glance through a few magazines covers and table of contents
to find ways to write headlines and ads that pull sales.
Place Keywords in Your Ads:
Many search engines highlight the words in ads that match the users query. Placing
the search term in the ad will help your ad stick out more and improve your click
through rate.
Bid on Current Events & Buzz Words:
Often times my cheapest and highest converting ads are for industry buzz words
that nobody else bid on. The phrase “Nigritude Ultramarine” (from the SEO
competition) has sold multiple copies of this ebook. In addition it has introduced
hundreds of visitors to my site at 8 cents per click.
Start with a Verb:
You may be able to significantly increase your clickthrough rate if you start your ad
copy with a powerful active verb.
Additional Conversion Tips:
Many times it is not worth it to list at the top spot. Frequently trying to list at the
top will cause bid wars with ego bidders. Usually listing a bit lower will improve the
return on investment since you have less compulsive clickers and a lower bid price.
In addition as people scroll down the ad list they do a better job of showing user
intent. They do a better job of prequalifying themselves for the purchase.
If you make the ads sound compelling to the reader, you can improve your click
through rate to where you get more traffic than the top ad does anyway. Try to
solve a problem, show a benefit, or offer a solution to their problems.
Link to a Landing Page:
Link into the exact page of your site you want visitors to see and not to your home
page. By channeling all your traffic through the home page you may be telling a
person that you do not care about them, and making it harder for them to convert
into a sale. You may even consider adding a special page to your site that is made
exclusively for that pay per click program. By linking directly into it from the ads
you make it very easy to track ROI.
Exact vs. Broad Matching (explained further in AdWords
section):
Many search engines have different matching levels which are used to filter when
your ad is displayed.
Exact match will only show for search results where the user searched specifically
for your keyword phrase, and only your keyword phrase.
Phrase match will show when your exact phrase appears anywhere within the
search query with the words in the same order.
Google and Yahoo! may show broad match ads when people search for synonyms
of your keywords, or if your keywords appear in the search in any order your ads
will display.
If you are new to pay per click you may want to use exact match until you get a feel
for pay per click advertising, unless you are using broad match for keyword mining.
Misspelled Words:
Spelling errors are sometimes corrected for by the search matching software, but
sometimes they are not. Bidding on keywords ran together, missed keys, and
spelling errors can help generate many cheap keyword variations. This free tool
makes generating a list of misspelled terms quick and easy.
Make sure you do not place the misspellings in your ad copy as search engines do
not want misspelled ads.
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