How much should I spend on Pay-Per-Click advertising? This is the first question many of our customers ask us. It’s a simple question that leads to a very complex answer. I always say, “too much if you do it wrong.” So that’s where I’ll begin.

Pay-per-click can be an incredibly costly experience and all of you who have tried it with lackluster results are the ones who have made Google the giant they are. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are a few fundamentals that I want you to know from the start.

First, think TARGETING. “Movies” is an extremely broad keyword and can apply to various topics – movie reviews, buying movies, movie plot, movie prop, etc. Each of the preceding are slightly better than just “movie.” You will find the better targeted your search terms are, the more clicks you will receive and the less those clicks will cost you.

Think about it this way. If I type in “movie reviews” as a searcher, I have yet to fully qualify my thought. But if I type in “reviews of the Inception movie” I have fully qualified my thought. This is a long query, but it means I have truly thought enough about my intent to expose my intent to the search engine thereby resulting in the correct result set.

This will take you a long way to reducing the total cost-per-click. Why? Because these terms are much less competitive and therefore cost much less. Most search advertisers go for the terms like “movies”, which blows through their budgets and the conversion rate is exceptionally low.

The second point here is how one figures out the correct keywords. Search for Google Keyword Tool and you will find a great resource. It will show the search volume, the relative number of world searches and help you understand how people think about their searches. But again I throw caution at you. It will suggest words, but only if you are thinking in the right frame of mind. Consider my first point when discovering relevant keywords and phrases.

Now we come to budget. Most people will start with a small number like $1/day ($30/month), actually that’s where I started when I began search marketing. You won’t get many clicks, your budget will get eaten up quickly, but it’s a good way to learn to be frugal from the start and begin testing the waters. The reality is that when it comes to budget you need to think beyond the cost to the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). If it costs your $85 in clicks to get one sell and your sell is worth $1,000 then arguably that is a great return – most would say yes. Conversely, others would say $5 to get $10 is a good spend. The answer resides in your business. Is the lifetime value of a client greater than the initial outlay? How much budget can you afford to test with as you capture the right balance? A lot of thought goes into this and each business is unique in its numbers and what is reasonable. I can help you get to your number – call (208) 639-0781 and ask for George.

Last point here; I’ll let you get on with your day. You will get a better sense of what “works” by creating LOTS of ads with very few keywords in them. Lots of keywords in one ad to try and catch everything actually dilutes your results, and confuses things. Very few of my ads exceed 3-5 keywords, and most of those are variations – example, scifi movie, scifi movies, sci-fi movie, sci-fi movies, science fiction movie, science fiction movie (those are still very broad, just examples.)

We are search marketers and we will provide you leadership and direction. Please give us a call and we will guide you, your team or your marketing partner in obtaining that return on ad spend. My name is George Seybold and I woudl lov eot earn your business.

Google Insights for Search can be a great tool for understanding how to most effectively target your campaigns and find out where you should focus your search efforts. While it uses the same data sources as Google Trends, its advanced features are designed to be useful for advertisers.

The data is normalized to allow different datasets to be analyzed simultaneously and can be compared by either search terms, location, or time ranges. In addition, the data can be split on the different industry categories and across other Google properties, such as image search, news search, and product search.

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Spending on search advertising in the U.S. grew 24 percent during Q2 versus the same period in 2009, according to Efficient Frontier’s latest quarterly search engine performance report.

Data aggregated from a range of the search optimization firm’s clients suggests advertisers in the retail category helped drive that growth, upping their spend by 38 percent during Q2, year-over-year, and 19 percent versus Q1. Meanwhile, advertisers in the travel and auto categories spent 10 percent and 6 percent more, year-over-year, while advertisers in the finance category spent 2 percent less.

Efficient Frontier Director of Business Analytics Dr. Siddharth Shah said the growth was well above the company’s estimations, which anticipated a year-over-year spending increase of between 15 and 20 percent. He warned of a possible slowdown in Q3 of the year, however, as continued economic difficulties in Europe may influence budget allocation for some U.S. advertisers.

In terms of market share, the report found Microsoft’s Bing engine increased its portion of U.S. spend significantly in the past 12 months, growing from 4.1 percent in Q2 2009 to 6.4 percent in Q2 2010, representing a 54 percent increase. In the same period, Google’s share has remained relatively stable, growing just 0.1 percent to reach 75.6 percent in Q2. Bing’s growth has therefore come at Yahoo’s expense, which saw its share drop from 20.4 percent to 18 percent.

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Search has remained a crucial tool in digital marketing and should not be overlooked.

Stefan Tornquist, research director at Econsultancy, emphasised the fact that this area is still experiencing solid growth that he describes as “significant”.

“Looked at in comparison with other digital channels, the percentages of growth in 2010 might be higher,” he explained.

Mr Tornquist warned that this could be due to a larger drop in these alternative channels.

He predicted that the North America will experience a similar growth rate in this area as will the UK, France and Germany.

Earlier this year, Econsultancy and Guava published research that showed the proportion of firms looking to increase spending on SEO and natural search has risen five percentage points this year only.

It found that only 14 percent of companies reported that they are decreasing paid search spending, with four percent planning to spend less on SEO in 2010.

Growth in search marketing is likely due to gains in the economy as companies enter the marketplace again.

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Seybold Scientific offers a host of search optimization and advertising services. Please contact us at (208) 639-0781 to learn more, thank you.

Pay-Per Click (PPC) services enable businesses to advertise online and only pay each time a potential customer clicks on their advertisement. The most popular places currently for PPC campaigns or search engine marketing is through the top 3 search engines, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. However, social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace should also be considered for pay-per click campaigns. Facebook and MySpace are considered second tier pay-per click websites, and are great additional social media marketing resources for reaching target customers in a more cost effective manner. The benefit of using these second tier websites for PPC services is that it allows businesses to reach those individuals that are constantly visiting social media sites. Often times, heavy users of social media do not use the search engines as regularly, thus allowing advertisers the greatest customer reach.

A major difference between the top tier pay-per click ad sites and the social media sites lies in the delivery method used to display the advisement. Google, Yahoo!, and MSN present ads to users based upon search queries matching predetermined keywords chosen by the advertiser. On the other hand, ads in social media PPC sites are targeted to users based upon the demographical information provided in their profiles. Age, gender, and location are some of the key demographic variables that advertisers can make specific selections in targeting customers.

If unsure of whether social media sites will be an effective advertising driver for you, it is recommended that you perform a test. Purchase the minimum amount of clicks on MySpace and/or Facebook and start monitoring your internet traffic to assess each ad site’s effectiveness in reaching your target market. Facebook and MySpace alike provide their advertisers with an analytical package that displays demographical data and metrics that pertain to the performance of the ad campaign. Through this feedback, advertisers can decide whether social media marketing is an effective channel in reaching their customers.

In today’s global market companies and individuals alike must adapt quickly to changing environmental needs. One of the fastest growing segments in this realm is the use of online properties to market your company and gain customers. Unfortunately, with the growth of this industry too many individuals and companies now claim to effectively market online. From the traditional ad agencies to the graphic designers and even the web developers it seems everyone now plays in this space. So how do you distinguish who can effectively deliver from those who only partially understand the online portal? The simple answer, look for a certification; this is the quickest and easiest way to see if the company in question is serious about their online marketing. Read the rest of this entry »