Manage Your PPC - Then And Now
In times past there was no trouble getting an upper position in those highly searched, general keywords like 'china', 'business', 'running' and 'headache' for a nickel a click. When you did a search on Google for one of those terms, you would get only 1 or 2 results, indicating to you that you could bid a minimum price for your clicks.
But advertisers had a very hard time getting a generic term like "running" to stick, especially in the early days before phrase- and exact-match options were available. A person who typed in a keyword like "business" could have any of a thousand completely different ideas in mind for what he was looking for, so he was not only unlikely to click on your ad, but even if he did click on it, he was that much less likely to buy anything from you.
Since that time, there have been changes in the ways to manage PPC. No longer is there a minimum CTR, so keeping your clicks up is a non-issue. Also advertisers have gotten more savvy in the past year or two and are able to make these general terms become opportunities to market lucrative information.
So there's now value in bidding on generic, nonspecific, high-traffic keywords. But how do you make them work?
Here is how to do it:
Change your ads until you find a winner. Make copy changes and run trials, then more trials. This can be a lengthy process with plenty of failures but the victories will come if you will be willing to try and try again until you get a winner.
Utilize the full benefits of negative keywords.
In your ads have phrases that are disqualifying to those you don't want to click. By offering 'Free Golf Instructions' with your ads you will most likely attract undesirable traffic, but if you advertise '$49 Golf Video" most of your clicks will be folks serious about making a purchase.
Market information, not just products. Send people to a landing page that collects opt-ins, and offer a free guide, a tutorial, or an e-mail course of some kind, which will establish you as an information source, create longer-term customers, and grow your visitor value to where even the most generic clicks are worth getting.
Managing PPCs - The New Rules
Literally every keyword in your list is a market of its own.
Each keyword stands for the state of mind the person had when typing it.
Behind everything explicit that your customers type in when they're searching, there's some want, need, question, or assumption, they have (but may be completely unaware of).
The markets for your keywords will vary in size large, small and in between.
Some keyword markets are more competitive than others.
Keywords will not deliver the same earnings to each person using it.
There are always keywords that are overloaded with competition, where bid prices are jacked up far beyond their real market value.
On the other hand there will be some keywords that, though they make up a better more reactive market, and are available using good keyword tools, are generally neglected.
You sell when you match that implicit conversation that your customers have with themselves.
Article Source: http://www.search-raven.com
About the Author
Need to optimize or "fix" your Adwords & PPC campaigns? Kirt Christensen manages over $600k in PPC spending & knows what it takes to make your account hum! When it comes to adwords ppc management, he's the man!
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by: KirtChristensen
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