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Posts Tagged ‘PPC’
Monday, January 16th, 2012
To be successful at anything, you need discipline. When it comes to the online world, discipline is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. In its broadest terms, marketing is the single most important aspect of an online business. I say broadest since SEO, PPC and many other activities could come under the marketing umbrella. Why is discipline important?
Discipline affects your mindset. If you are sitting down to write PPC ads, then you need to have the discipline to follow your planned approach. A lack of discipline could see you easily swayed to change your mind – that’s never a good idea without research. The same can be said for a blog or a social media campaign. If you have planned your approach, then stick to that plan.
Humans are emotional creatures and we have a tendency to look at what others are doing and then trying to replicate their actions in our lives. For small businesses, that can have some limited success in the offline world, however, the online world can be very different. This is where discipline becomes an important attribute. Before trying to replicate what someone else is doing, you need to be able to examine and perhaps measure, or predict, how that action will affect your online business. We often see “fads” in the SEO and social media marketing world that work very well for one business but do absolutely nothing for another business. Sometimes they backfire and cause more damage than good.
Small business Internet marketing requires a well planned approach. Once you have that plan, you need to have the discipline to follow it through. That doesn’t mean your plan is stagnant – you still need to measure, review and make changes where necessary, however, that too is a disciplined approach that takes all the variables into account before making a move.
If you are disciplined in your approach, you are giving your business the best chance of success. Of course, discipline will do little if your marketing plans, products, or service are rubbish to begin with. If they too are spot on, then a disciplined approach should lead to high success rates – and that normally means more profit.
Tags: blog writing, marketing, PPC, SEO
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
When you think of doing business online, do you first think about those big businesses with million dollar budgets? You don’t have to. Small businesses are alive and well on the internet.
So, where do you fit in? What’s up with all that talk of keywords, SEO, social media, and such? There are three basic elements that will drive your business online. They are:
- On-Page Content – If possible, have mixed content on your site. Take advantage of articles, videos, etc. and provide your site visitors with a wide range of content to match their interests. Optimize your content to help it rank better in the search engines for your most profitable keywords.
- Off-Page Content – Content you create for marketing off of your website is good for building links back to your site and delivering new visitors to the site.
- Behind The Scenes Content – This is the code that makes your website visible to search engines and web browsers. You can have too much and you can have the wrong kind. Make sure your code is optimized for better results in the search engines.
Since the internet is growing by leaps and bounds, it is very important to have these elements successfully optimized on your website. It sounds complicated, but it really is not.
With the right guide and a good web marketing strategy you can build a great website with excellent on-page content, a wide variety of off-page content that drives traffic to your site, and great code that gets you well deserved rankings in the search engines.
Tags: advertising, google, keywords, link building, PPC, search engine optimization, SEO, small business
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
If you thought Google+ was just another social network, think again. It’s more than that. In fact, Google has said all along that it intends to connect all of its services with Google+. And it looks like that is happening slowly but surely.
One way that Google+ users can benefit from the service on a sister property is by connecting their Google+ account with their Google AdWords account.
If people respect the recommendations of their friends and families as the latest polls show that they do, then it makes sense to show how many +1s your ads receive. People who conduct a search on Google and see your ads on the search results pages will see which ads their friends and families have +1ed. That will act as encouragement for those searchers to either +1 your ad or click the link.
But here’s the catch: You have to turn this feature on in Google AdWords account.
Google calls this “social annotations” and they could become a key metric for your PPC advertising. It’s also a way for your pay-per-click initiatives to take on a flavor of social media marketing. In the 21st century, social media marketing could become the standard by which all other marketing initiatives are judged. Including PPC.
Tags: adwords, google, PPC, social media marketing
Posted in PPC for Small Business | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
For years, large companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and ExxonMobil have spent millions of dollars simply to maintain a positive impression in the media. They weren’t so much concerned with the coveted ROI on advertising campaigns as they were with branding themselves and achieving top-of-mind awareness.
When you establish a new advertising campaign – whether it be through pay-per-click services, outdoor advertising, print media, or any other medium – you should outline your goals. Are you looking for ROI or would you be happy with branding effects?
If ROI is your main concern, then you have to think about your budget. Being the top spender in your market segment may mean that you lose money on your advertising. But it could mean that you achieve huge branding success. Which is more important to you?
PPC is like any other advertising medium. You can figure out which price point per click will yield the greatest ROI on your advertising efforts or you can try to own the advertising space with a PPC branding campaign. If you opt for the latter, be prepared to pay top dollar for clicks. Sometimes, your customers come from other places on the Web because they noticed your PPC ads when they conducted a search.
PPC for branding isn’t for the faint of heart. You must ensure you have the budget for it or you may as well go home.
Tags: advertising, Branding, Pay Per Click, PPC, roi
Posted in PPC for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 29th, 2011
One thing that is inevitable is change. Especially online. And especially when it comes to online marketing. What’s important today may not be important tomorrow.
Case in point: Remember those old web rings? Who joins those any more? Certainly not anyone who is serious about online marketing.
At one time, you could read online debates about which method of advertising was going to win in the end – PPC or banner ads. I guess we know how that turned out.
When Flash first hit the scene everyone tried it. But the consensus was, “No, not now.” It slowed down connections and pages loaded so slow that you couldn’t enjoy them. Now, Flash is almost as commonplace as links, though people are using it differently. And online video looks to be a future force not to be reckoned with – in whatever format it takes.
What’s next?
Will Google+ take over Facebook? Will social replace search as the preferred method of marketing online? Will VOIP become as commonplace as e-mail? Will VOIP and e-mail integrate to make both more powerful tools? Will mobile marketing outpacing video marketing?
We are moving forward and there’s no stopping it. If you are just now starting to market your business online, then you have some catching up to do. It’s time to prepare for change, and that itself requires change on your part. What are you doing about that?
Tags: e-mail marketing, Flash, online marketing, PPC, SEO, Social Media, VOIP
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
One of the first cuts to a small business budget after the economy starts to drift south is in marketing. I’ve seen it time and time again. Struggling businesses trying to watch their bottom lines typically kill the marketing budget just when they need the business the most.
I won’t talk about the folly in this. Instead, I’ll offer a suggestion, an alternative if you will.
It’s understandable that a business will want to protect its profits and slash its expenses when the economy is wavering. However, instead of killing the marketing programs completely, how about shifting your budget to less expensive marketing channels.
It isn’t news any more that Internet marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing. Television ads are generally rough on a small business budget. Radio advertising has become a niche form of advertising. And newspaper ads just aren’t effective any more. However, you can still advertise your business through some judicious budget cuts and redirection of your marketing budget.
PPC ads are a type of online advertising where you get to choose how much you are willing to pay for a lead. You pay when someone clicks on your ad and not before.
Other online marketing channels are just as effective as PPC, and just as cost effective. The key to getting started is to consult with someone who understand the needs and challenges that small businesses face. An online marketing consultant can help you build a strategic plan that fits into your budget and delivers results.
Tags: internet marketing, online marketing, PPC, small business
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 6 Comments »
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Are you making the most use of your time as a marketer? I’d be willing to bet that most online marketers are spending too much time on social media or unproductive channels. I have no data to back it up, but I know people and I think I know that most people are going to do what is fun before they do what is profitable and unfun.
Social media is fun. You can chat for hours with your best friend from high school, get stuck playing Cityville, or laugh out loud at the funny jokes your fans are sending your way. But are you getting any work done?
It’s a well known fact that 80%-85% of traffic for almost every website online comes from the search engines. It should seem to reason then that website owners and managers should spend that much time on search engine marketing efforts rather than social media or other forms advertising. Don’t you think?
Let’s say you work 10 hours a day every day. Six hours of that is spent on customer service (fulfilling orders, taking complaints, billing, etc.). That leaves you four hours for other activity. How are you filling that four hours?
In my opinion, you should be spending three hours on search engine marketing activities (blogging, PPC, or content creation) and the remaining one hour on social media and non-SEM activities. If you are spending your time in just the reverse, then I’d say you’ve got it backwards.
Don’t get me wrong. Social media is good. It’s fun. And you can generate traffic and sales from it. But 85% of your traffic is going to come from Google and Bing. So you should probably put your efforts into activities that are going to bring you the most money. That’s SEM. That means writing that daily blog post and spending some time tweaking your landing pages and PPC ads. Are you doing that?
Tags: blogging, content, PPC, search engine marketing, search engines, Social Media
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Google has said publicly that it fears Facebook. As well it should. The social network is now the most trafficked website online. But there is another reason to fear Facebook too. It has a competing advertising model.
For the longest time, serious advertisers online went to the pay-per-click line, and Google was the beginning of that line. The alternatives were Yahoo!, Bing (or Windows Live), and smaller PPC search engines. But then Facebook became the popular social network and introduced its own PPC advertising model. In the last couple of years, Facebook has improved its advertising offerings and is now in a respectable position.
The latest test run by Facebook is for real-time advertising. Will it win out?
Imagine posting to your Facebook wall, “I’m going out tonight and wearing my red high heels.” At that moment, an ad appears advertising shoes. Would it creep you out? Would you click the link?
The verdict is not out on whether Facebook users would tolerate real-time advertising. My bet is that they would. There may be a few complaints, but most people would just go along with it. So I think this represents a great opportunity for advertisers. If you want to promote your business through PPC, Google is no longer your only option. It may not even be your best option.
Tags: facebook, google, online advertising, Pay Per Click, PPC, real-time advertising
Posted in PPC for Small Business | No Comments »
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
In this day of fast-paced content recirculation, it’s important that we Internet marketers reground ourselves in a few simple truths. Or, what I call ‘staples’. You know, those things that are concrete and unchanging.
As it happens, there are 4 Internet marketing tactics that I would call staples. These are tactics that will never go out of fashion. Here are the 4 staples that I think will always be important Internet marketing tactics no matter what day it is.
- E-mail Marketing - This one is probably the original staple. I don’t see e-mail marketing going anywhere. In fact, there’s evidence that it’s becoming more important. And more people are using e-mail now than ever before. Effective e-mail marketing, however, is another story. Do it, but do it right.
- Blogging – Blogging is another content staple. Since search engines thrive on new and fresh content, I don’t see blogging going anywhere soon. It may change some, but blogging will always be an important way to keep your content fresh and your search engine marketing up to date.
- Pay Per Click Marketing – PPC marketing is another staple. Unlike other staples, however, it does cost something. But your potential for ROI is so much more immediate and so much more rewarding.
- Search Engine Optimization – Search engine optimization is a staple that so many small business marketers still don’t understand. It’s a simple concept, but not so simple you can’t get it wrong. Nevertheless, if you want your content to rank, don’t leave it out.
What about social media marketing? Isn’t that a staple too? I’d say it’s definitely important, but social media marketing is still new enough that I can’t call it a staple. On the other hand, in a few years I’ll likely be changing my tune.
Tags: blogging, e-mail marketing, internet marketing, Pay Per Click, PPC, search engine optimization, social media marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 10 Comments »
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