WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Our next few lessons will revisit PPC Search Marketing. This first lesson in the series will outline the general principles and strategies of Search Marketing. From there, we will address the specifics of campaign management in upcoming lessons. You will learn how to effectively sell your products and promote the SFI opportunity by using PPC Search Marketing.
TERMINOLOGY
As discussed in previous lessons, the term "PPC" stands for "Pay Per Click." This defines a type of advertising charged for on the basis of the number of clicks that you receive from the advertiser’s site, rather than on the amount of exposures or the length of time your ad appears. I, and others, often refer to advertising on the search engines as "PPC." This is accurate, but the terminology can be more specific. The custom has become to refer to advertising on search engines, with your ad placed according to the terms used in a search, as "Search Engine Marketing" or "Search Marketing" for short.
What we are talking about specifically is Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly "Overture"), Google AdWords, and similar advertising programs on the major search engines. (You will note that in previous coverage of this subject in this course, Overture had not yet been purchased by Yahoo!. When Yahoo! purchased Overture, Overture became "Yahoo! Search Marketing.")
CONSTANT FLUX
I have been intending to write again about Search Marketing for some time now. Each time I have started to do so, however, I came across some indication that things were about to change significantly. Thinking that I would wait until things settled down, I have postponed writing on the subject. One of the indications that things were about to change was an announcement from Yahoo! that it was completely revising its Search Marketing interface. Another indication was an announcement from Microsoft that it was unveiling a Search Marketing program for its MSN search engine. This one was followed only a month or so later by an announcement that it was postponing the launch of its new search marketing program. Other matters indicating flux have been two class actions lawsuits against Yahoo over its search marketing program. One of the class actions claims failure to protect against Click Fraud. (Click Fraud is a hot topic is Search Marketing now, which we will discuss later in this series.) The other class action lawsuit claims failure to notify advertisers when the advertisers could reduce their bid and still hold their position. There have been several other things as well. That these things kept popping up has caused me to postpone these lessons.
I have now realized, however, that there is no point in waiting any longer. Things will never truly settle down with search marketing. Not for the foreseeable future anyway. All things pertaining to the Internet are always in flux, but that doesn’t prevent us from getting a grip on them. Like photographing a moving train, we just have to set a fast shutter speed and grab a picture. Although somewhat blurred by the speed, there is a lot we can learn from that picture.
I make a point of this so that you will not approach this subject thinking that anything is written in stone. Those who read these lessons in the future may find that many things have changed. So be it. But, as always, we will discern the lasting principles. We have to look at the specifics of today, even though they may change tomorrow, in order to do that. Before we get to any specifics, however, I want to cover some of the lasting principles and strategies.
IMPORTANCE
Search Marketing has become extremely important to Internet marketers. As competition for PageRank and search engine position has skyrocketed, Search Marketing is now, in many cases, the only realistic way to get traffic for your site immediately. You can still achieve a good search engine positioning for your new Website, but it takes more time and effort now. Most of us want some immediate results after putting forth the effort to build a new Website. We want to begin testing the effectiveness of our new site right away. The way to get these immediate results is through Search Marketing. Within minutes after finishing a new Website and creating Search Marketing accounts with the search engines, you can have targeted traffic coming to your site.
SEARCH MARKETING STRATEGY
PPC Search Marketing is for those who have some money available and budgeted for advertising. Even if you cannot afford it right now, however, it is wise to begin to learn it now. As you begin to earn money from your free advertising efforts, you can allocate some of those earnings to Search Marketing to increase your results. Whether you have money from other sources or whether you earned it with your free advertising efforts, everyone who ventures into Search Marketing should be careful to use their money wisely.
Thus, I cannot overemphasize the importance of a sound, well-thought-out strategy, carefully followed in your Search Marketing campaigns. In one sense, Search Marketing is like gambling—you may be able and willing to throw money at it, but if you do not know what you are doing or lack a clear strategy, you can lose a lot of money in a hurry. That is, if you are not careful, you can spend a lot of money on Search Marketing in a short period of time and have no results to show for it. It is crucial that you carefully develop a clear and effective strategy before you ever deposit any money—and that you carefully follow that strategy until you have sound reason to modify it.
For example, it can cost several dollars per click to have the first position for some of the very competitive keywords. Only a small percentage of the people who visit your site will result in conversions (i.e. actually buy your products or sign up for your programs). If you have to spend $100 to get one conversion that is only worth $10 to you, then you are losing money...and losing it fast! If you set your sites on obtaining the first position in the search engines’ advertising section for the most competitive keywords, rather than setting your sites on getting the most return for your investment, you can spend a lot of money in a hurry—with very little return on that money.
The secret to effective Search Marketing is to maintain a position that will bring you enough traffic to have conversions, but at a low enough cost per conversion to allow you a decent return on your investment. More on this later.
SEARCH MARKETING BASICS
Before going further, let’s make sure you understand what we are talking about when we discuss "Search Marketing." Pull up your Web browser and go to yahoo.com. Type in a search for whatever comes to your mind. After you have submitted a term or phrase to be searched, a search results page comes up. On the top of the left hand column of the results page, there will be zero to five links with a darker background. If there are no links here with a darker background, you have chosen some pretty obscure search terms. The absence of any links with a darker background means that no one has selected your search terms in an active Search Marketing campaign. Usually there will be at least two or three. (If there are no links with a darker background resulting from your search, try more popular search terms until you do get links with a darker background.) If you were to click on one of these links with a darker background, the owner of that Website would incur a charge from Yahoo! The charge would be the amount that the Webmaster has currently bid for those search terms (keywords).
Now look over to the right hand column of the search results page. There may be some more links there. If there are links in the right hand column, those are also advertising links and the Webmaster will incur a charge if you click on them. If there are links there, it will say at the top of the column "Sponsor Results."
Now look back at the left hand column and scroll to the bottom of the page. Here again, there may be some links with a darker background. These, like the ones at the top of the left hand column and all those in the right hand column, are also ‘sponsored links’. The Website owners will pay if those links are clicked.
The numbered links in the left hand column without the darker background are your actual search engine results. There will be no charge to these Website owners if you click on these links. Those Websites have earned their position in the search results due to an evaluation of all the factors that Yahoo considers in awarding search position. These links are there to serve the users of the Yahoo search engine. They are there without charge because Yahoo has determined them to be quality sites that are very relevant to the search terms used by the visitor to the search engine. Thus, as we have said before, the search engines balance the need to provide relevant, quality links for their users with the need to earn revenue from those who are willing to pay for clicks to their site. They also attempt to make the sponsored links relevant by tying them to specific search terms. Their guidelines will not let you tie your links to keywords that have no relevancy to your landing pages.
Now, pull up the Google search engine in your browser. Search for the same terms you used in Yahoo. Here you see pretty much the same setup—the only possible exception being that Google doesn’t appear to put highlighted links at the bottom of the left hand column. Otherwise, everything we just said about the Yahoo results is also true regarding the Google results.
Then, go to Ask.com and you again get similar results on the left column (darker background on sponsored links at the top and bottom of the page), but a little variation on the right column. Instead of individual sponsored links in the right column, Ask.com has category links, which lead to full pages of sponsored links for that category. The categories listed in the right column are related to the search terms used, of course, but give a broader coverage by linking to category pages rather than individual sites.
There are several other search engines that also allow you to bid to appear as sponsored links for specific search terms. Your bid is the amount you are willing to pay when your link is clicked by a visitor. You pay nothing until someone actually clicks on your link and visits your site, regardless of the number of times your link may appear but go unclicked. Hence, the term PPC (pay-per-click).
Your position in the sponsored results (i.e., whether you appear 1st, 2nd, or 50th, in the list of sponsored links) depends upon the amount of your bid. The higher bids appear higher in the list.
Having a link to your Website appear in the sponsored results (either on the left side with a darker background on in the right column – or on a category page linked to from the results page on Ask.com) in search engines when certain keywords are searched is the subject of PPC Search Marketing.
FACTORS AND SKILLS INVOLVED
When you sign up for a Search Marketing account with a search engine, you are then asked to create titles and descriptions for your links (often called "ads"). These ads link to certain pages on your Website, referred to as "landing pages." You then tie these ads, in turn, to certain keywords that people may use in their searches on the search engine. You then set "bids" or amounts you are willing to pay when clicks result from your ads showing up when people search for specific keywords. You can set different amounts for different keywords. In most search engines, you can also set daily and monthly limits on the amount spent for these clicks. Your ad will run until your daily limit is reached each day. It will then show up again the next day and run until the daily limit is reached again. This will continue each day until your monthly limit is reached. When your monthly limit is reached, your ad will be retired until the next month when the process will start over again. In other cases, you make a deposit into your account and your ads run until your account is depleted. Your ad is then retired until you replenish your account.
Remember that your goal is to get the most conversions (people clicking to your site and actually buying something or joining your program) for the least amount of advertising costs. To reach this goal, you need to develop some skill in Search Marketing.
The key skills you need to develop to be successful at Search Marketing are:
CONCLUSION
Even though PPC Search Marketing is in a state of flux, it is important to begin now to learn the skills necessarily to do it effectively. With the proper knowledge and skills, you will be able to obtain traffic to your site that will result in conversions. When your skills are honed, you will be able to do so while spending less to obtain the traffic than you make on the conversions resulting from the traffic. That is, you will be making profit! The skills needed are:
WHAT’S COMING NEXT
In our next lesson, we will continue to explore the knowledge and skills you need for effective Search Marketing.
by George Little
Our next few lessons will revisit PPC Search Marketing. This first lesson in the series will outline the general principles and strategies of Search Marketing. From there, we will address the specifics of campaign management in upcoming lessons. You will learn how to effectively sell your products and promote the SFI opportunity by using PPC Search Marketing.
TERMINOLOGY
As discussed in previous lessons, the term "PPC" stands for "Pay Per Click." This defines a type of advertising charged for on the basis of the number of clicks that you receive from the advertiser’s site, rather than on the amount of exposures or the length of time your ad appears. I, and others, often refer to advertising on the search engines as "PPC." This is accurate, but the terminology can be more specific. The custom has become to refer to advertising on search engines, with your ad placed according to the terms used in a search, as "Search Engine Marketing" or "Search Marketing" for short.
What we are talking about specifically is Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly "Overture"), Google AdWords, and similar advertising programs on the major search engines. (You will note that in previous coverage of this subject in this course, Overture had not yet been purchased by Yahoo!. When Yahoo! purchased Overture, Overture became "Yahoo! Search Marketing.")
CONSTANT FLUX
I have been intending to write again about Search Marketing for some time now. Each time I have started to do so, however, I came across some indication that things were about to change significantly. Thinking that I would wait until things settled down, I have postponed writing on the subject. One of the indications that things were about to change was an announcement from Yahoo! that it was completely revising its Search Marketing interface. Another indication was an announcement from Microsoft that it was unveiling a Search Marketing program for its MSN search engine. This one was followed only a month or so later by an announcement that it was postponing the launch of its new search marketing program. Other matters indicating flux have been two class actions lawsuits against Yahoo over its search marketing program. One of the class actions claims failure to protect against Click Fraud. (Click Fraud is a hot topic is Search Marketing now, which we will discuss later in this series.) The other class action lawsuit claims failure to notify advertisers when the advertisers could reduce their bid and still hold their position. There have been several other things as well. That these things kept popping up has caused me to postpone these lessons.
I have now realized, however, that there is no point in waiting any longer. Things will never truly settle down with search marketing. Not for the foreseeable future anyway. All things pertaining to the Internet are always in flux, but that doesn’t prevent us from getting a grip on them. Like photographing a moving train, we just have to set a fast shutter speed and grab a picture. Although somewhat blurred by the speed, there is a lot we can learn from that picture.
I make a point of this so that you will not approach this subject thinking that anything is written in stone. Those who read these lessons in the future may find that many things have changed. So be it. But, as always, we will discern the lasting principles. We have to look at the specifics of today, even though they may change tomorrow, in order to do that. Before we get to any specifics, however, I want to cover some of the lasting principles and strategies.
IMPORTANCE
Search Marketing has become extremely important to Internet marketers. As competition for PageRank and search engine position has skyrocketed, Search Marketing is now, in many cases, the only realistic way to get traffic for your site immediately. You can still achieve a good search engine positioning for your new Website, but it takes more time and effort now. Most of us want some immediate results after putting forth the effort to build a new Website. We want to begin testing the effectiveness of our new site right away. The way to get these immediate results is through Search Marketing. Within minutes after finishing a new Website and creating Search Marketing accounts with the search engines, you can have targeted traffic coming to your site.
SEARCH MARKETING STRATEGY
PPC Search Marketing is for those who have some money available and budgeted for advertising. Even if you cannot afford it right now, however, it is wise to begin to learn it now. As you begin to earn money from your free advertising efforts, you can allocate some of those earnings to Search Marketing to increase your results. Whether you have money from other sources or whether you earned it with your free advertising efforts, everyone who ventures into Search Marketing should be careful to use their money wisely.
Thus, I cannot overemphasize the importance of a sound, well-thought-out strategy, carefully followed in your Search Marketing campaigns. In one sense, Search Marketing is like gambling—you may be able and willing to throw money at it, but if you do not know what you are doing or lack a clear strategy, you can lose a lot of money in a hurry. That is, if you are not careful, you can spend a lot of money on Search Marketing in a short period of time and have no results to show for it. It is crucial that you carefully develop a clear and effective strategy before you ever deposit any money—and that you carefully follow that strategy until you have sound reason to modify it.
For example, it can cost several dollars per click to have the first position for some of the very competitive keywords. Only a small percentage of the people who visit your site will result in conversions (i.e. actually buy your products or sign up for your programs). If you have to spend $100 to get one conversion that is only worth $10 to you, then you are losing money...and losing it fast! If you set your sites on obtaining the first position in the search engines’ advertising section for the most competitive keywords, rather than setting your sites on getting the most return for your investment, you can spend a lot of money in a hurry—with very little return on that money.
The secret to effective Search Marketing is to maintain a position that will bring you enough traffic to have conversions, but at a low enough cost per conversion to allow you a decent return on your investment. More on this later.
SEARCH MARKETING BASICS
Before going further, let’s make sure you understand what we are talking about when we discuss "Search Marketing." Pull up your Web browser and go to yahoo.com. Type in a search for whatever comes to your mind. After you have submitted a term or phrase to be searched, a search results page comes up. On the top of the left hand column of the results page, there will be zero to five links with a darker background. If there are no links here with a darker background, you have chosen some pretty obscure search terms. The absence of any links with a darker background means that no one has selected your search terms in an active Search Marketing campaign. Usually there will be at least two or three. (If there are no links with a darker background resulting from your search, try more popular search terms until you do get links with a darker background.) If you were to click on one of these links with a darker background, the owner of that Website would incur a charge from Yahoo! The charge would be the amount that the Webmaster has currently bid for those search terms (keywords).
Now look over to the right hand column of the search results page. There may be some more links there. If there are links in the right hand column, those are also advertising links and the Webmaster will incur a charge if you click on them. If there are links there, it will say at the top of the column "Sponsor Results."
Now look back at the left hand column and scroll to the bottom of the page. Here again, there may be some links with a darker background. These, like the ones at the top of the left hand column and all those in the right hand column, are also ‘sponsored links’. The Website owners will pay if those links are clicked.
The numbered links in the left hand column without the darker background are your actual search engine results. There will be no charge to these Website owners if you click on these links. Those Websites have earned their position in the search results due to an evaluation of all the factors that Yahoo considers in awarding search position. These links are there to serve the users of the Yahoo search engine. They are there without charge because Yahoo has determined them to be quality sites that are very relevant to the search terms used by the visitor to the search engine. Thus, as we have said before, the search engines balance the need to provide relevant, quality links for their users with the need to earn revenue from those who are willing to pay for clicks to their site. They also attempt to make the sponsored links relevant by tying them to specific search terms. Their guidelines will not let you tie your links to keywords that have no relevancy to your landing pages.
Now, pull up the Google search engine in your browser. Search for the same terms you used in Yahoo. Here you see pretty much the same setup—the only possible exception being that Google doesn’t appear to put highlighted links at the bottom of the left hand column. Otherwise, everything we just said about the Yahoo results is also true regarding the Google results.
Then, go to Ask.com and you again get similar results on the left column (darker background on sponsored links at the top and bottom of the page), but a little variation on the right column. Instead of individual sponsored links in the right column, Ask.com has category links, which lead to full pages of sponsored links for that category. The categories listed in the right column are related to the search terms used, of course, but give a broader coverage by linking to category pages rather than individual sites.
There are several other search engines that also allow you to bid to appear as sponsored links for specific search terms. Your bid is the amount you are willing to pay when your link is clicked by a visitor. You pay nothing until someone actually clicks on your link and visits your site, regardless of the number of times your link may appear but go unclicked. Hence, the term PPC (pay-per-click).
Your position in the sponsored results (i.e., whether you appear 1st, 2nd, or 50th, in the list of sponsored links) depends upon the amount of your bid. The higher bids appear higher in the list.
Having a link to your Website appear in the sponsored results (either on the left side with a darker background on in the right column – or on a category page linked to from the results page on Ask.com) in search engines when certain keywords are searched is the subject of PPC Search Marketing.
FACTORS AND SKILLS INVOLVED
When you sign up for a Search Marketing account with a search engine, you are then asked to create titles and descriptions for your links (often called "ads"). These ads link to certain pages on your Website, referred to as "landing pages." You then tie these ads, in turn, to certain keywords that people may use in their searches on the search engine. You then set "bids" or amounts you are willing to pay when clicks result from your ads showing up when people search for specific keywords. You can set different amounts for different keywords. In most search engines, you can also set daily and monthly limits on the amount spent for these clicks. Your ad will run until your daily limit is reached each day. It will then show up again the next day and run until the daily limit is reached again. This will continue each day until your monthly limit is reached. When your monthly limit is reached, your ad will be retired until the next month when the process will start over again. In other cases, you make a deposit into your account and your ads run until your account is depleted. Your ad is then retired until you replenish your account.
Remember that your goal is to get the most conversions (people clicking to your site and actually buying something or joining your program) for the least amount of advertising costs. To reach this goal, you need to develop some skill in Search Marketing.
The key skills you need to develop to be successful at Search Marketing are:
- Keyword Generation--Strategies for identifying which keywords or keyphrases to use for your subject matter and how many keywords or keyphrases to use at a time.
- Writing Effective Titles and Descriptions--Your ads have Titles and Descriptions. You want to write titles and descriptions that will "qualify" your visitors. That is, you do not want the idly curious to use up your funds by clicking and then leaving. Instead, you want to write your ads to be attractive—but only to those most likely to buy your products or join your programs once they click to your site.
- Designing Effective Landing Pages--Designing pages specifically for a particular ad or keyword and then directing your Search Marketing clicks for that ad or keyword to that ‘landing page’ in a way that will create the most conversions. (Remember that by ‘conversions’ , we mean getting people to buy your products or sign up for your programs.)
- Bidding Strategies--Keyword bidding is highly competitive. You are in competition with many others for the business of those who search for your chosen keywords. You must develop good strategies to get these customers at the least cost.
- Tracking Strategies--How to tell if your campaigns are working. What to test, what to track, and how to analyze this data to get results by reducing your cost per conversion.
- Understand the Guidelines--Knowing how to get your listings approved by the search engines for the keywords you want to use.
- Campaign Management--Knowing what ads to use when, what keywords to use when, how much to bid, what limits to set, which landing pages to use with which keywords and which ads, and how to manage these settings in the interface when you log into your Search Marketing controls in particular search engines.
CONCLUSION
Even though PPC Search Marketing is in a state of flux, it is important to begin now to learn the skills necessarily to do it effectively. With the proper knowledge and skills, you will be able to obtain traffic to your site that will result in conversions. When your skills are honed, you will be able to do so while spending less to obtain the traffic than you make on the conversions resulting from the traffic. That is, you will be making profit! The skills needed are:
- Keyword Generation
- Writing Effective Titles and Descriptions
- Designing Effective Landing Pages
- Bidding Strategies
- Tracking Strategies
- Guideline Compliance
WHAT’S COMING NEXT
In our next lesson, we will continue to explore the knowledge and skills you need for effective Search Marketing.
by George Little