1.- Separate Content from Search
Online Marketers need to view their contextual listings campaigns differently from search, because the results and the customer are different. It is normal to expect lower clicks and conversion rates, with it not being a qualified, targeted lead. This does not necessarily mean an advertiser should not participate in content buys that decision is ultimately up to the statistics. The separation provides much more insight into what is working, and more importantly what is not working.

2.- Control spending by adjusting bid amounts, not daily spend budget
Often, the funds are simply not available to meet the demand (which that in itself could use some analyzing; because if a campaign is optimized correctly then the return should justify any spend.)

It is important not to control spending based on the daily budget. Advertisers need to lower the bidding cost, to reach the maximum amount of target customers. Controlling spending based on daily budget, leaves too many customers on the table.

3.- Create a negative keyword list
Eliminating unwanted traffic is an easy step to lower cost and improve conversion. All of the major pay-per-click providers allow an advertiser to create a negative list of keywords. In this case, less is more. Although this results in less traffic, the traffic that is eliminated is unwanted (non-buyers).

An example of negative keywords would be a site selling soap. If the consumer searches for any of the following, the advertiser would not want to pay for that visit: “soap opera”, “soap digest”, etc. The list of negative words could be: -opera, -digest, -abc

4.- Conversion matters, not click-through rate (CTR)
This point seems to finally be making its way to marketers. However, there are still a few that seem to think that quantity is better than quality. As any pay-per-click expert can tell you, it is easy to get traffic. Getting that traffic to buys is another story. By using all of the other habits listed here, the pay-per-click advertiser can weed-out unwanted traffic and only pay for conversions. It is important to keep an eye on the Cost per Conversion. How much does a customer cost? Not a click.

5.- Avoid #1
Bottom line: The number one position is a bad ROI.

Often times that can also be said about the #2 and #3 position. The traffic coming from the top positions are not buyers, they are just researching. Serious buyers WILL go to the 3, 4, 5 position. When the consumers are ready to buy, they will be back. Be patient.

6.- Bid Exact, Avoid Broad
This one takes time and a lot of work, but probably one of the best ways to get strong ROI on pay-per-click marketing. By using exact matching, the advertiser is eliminating the researcher and getting straight to the buyer. Like many of these habits the traffic will decrease, however conversion and online revenue should increase. The best way an advertiser can start is to triple the keywords by creating broad, exact and phase of every keyword. Then, after reviewing analytics, gradually eliminate broad, and possibly phrase keywords that result in lower conversion.

7.- Good Analytics
All of the above habits can not be truly comprehended with out strong analytics. A reliable analytics program is the backbone of any online (and often offline) marketing campaign. Determining the cost per conversion, the unwanted visitors, the negative keyword list, the ROI – all require dependable analytics.

Now that many of us (but sadly not all) have realized the impact pay-per-click marketing has on acquiring new customers, it is a good time to look beyond online marketing.

There are vast arrays of opportunities for pay per click marketing that are not being utilized.

I recently saw several print ads for Borders. The ad was very simple. It consisted of a quick catchy phrase, which I can’t recall at this moment. That was followed by a line that said

“Google Borders for a coupon”

As a marketer (and lemming), I did what they ad told me to do. The Google result for “borders” was very interesting. The first 3 natural listings were all Borders owned sites. However, the paid listings were even more interested. I should say listing, because there was only one.

The PPC ad for “borders” takes the consumers to a page where they could print a 20% off coupon. Simple, Clean, straight to the point.

This is a brilliant concept, because it provides so much data for future marketing strategies. Now, Borders has the following information when the coupon is used:

* The keywords the user typed in the search box
* Location of customers
* Time and Day the coupon was printed vs. when it was used

Plus, the ad has a quick expire date. My hunch is that the date changes often, but the consumer does not realize that. They have to spend now before the 20% off is gone.

As much as I like that concept, there is one slight tweak that would result in even more marketing knowledge.

How does Borders distinguish consumers who found the coupon by initially looking for Borders vs. consumers who found the coupon because of the original print ad? And maybe in the big scheme of things that is not a big deal, I can completely see that.

One suggestion may be instead of having customers Google “borders”, how about a specific coupon code? A code so random and unique that the CPC would be extremely low and the competition would also be non existent. That would directly tie a search to an off-line campaign. And even better why not make that an on-line only coupon?

This Borders example is just one small example of pay-per-click marketing being used in other ways. There are large un-tapped marketing possibilities out there in the PPC area; we are only at the beginning stages.

The beauty of online marketing is, if used properly, results can be measured.

For every dollar spent, we can track revenue. If not revenue, at least other metrics (sign-up pages, landing pages, e-mail, etc.) can be measured. With that information advertisers have instant access into what is working and what is not. The results are quick and clean.

However, CPM (cost per thousand impressions) does not allow for that measurement.

I do not understand the advertising model that says “Let’s confuse and annoy the consumer enough, so they will buy.”

This “turning away”, has led to a low return on investment on banner advertising.

Its mass marketing and that does not work.

There are discussions that the CPM model may be saved with behavioral targeting. The theory is consumers are only annoyed by advertising if the product is something they do not want or need. If it is a product in common with their surfing habits, then the advertiser has provided a service to the consumers by making them aware of the product

However, there are still holes in the execution of behavioral targeting. Until that is resolved, CPM pricing is not a wise investment.

Google is also aware of this shift away from CPM. They are beta testing the CPC (cost per click) model on site-targeted ads, which has long been a CPM model.

According to Google:
“Until now, site-targeted campaigns were available only with cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing. Now when you create a new site-targeted campaign, you can choose to price the ads using either CPC or CPM. If you choose CPC bidding for your site-targeted ad, your account will be charged each time a user clicks on your ad. You won’t be charged for each impression. If you choose CPM bidding, the reverse is true: you’ll be charged for each impression, but not for clicks.”

Online advertisers need to evolve past the CPM model. It’s a dead solution.

As CPC and more importantly CPA (Cost per Action) improves, more and more advertisers will begin jumping off the CPM ship.

Have you seen this yet?

There is a vast array of search engine optimization techniques available. Some SEO tactics are extremely overwhelming and can often bog down a company in the details.

From alt tags to meta tags. What really works and what does not work?

It is best to push those concepts away for awhile, and come back to really what matters most in search engine optimization: keyword-research.

Of course, the definition of “keyword-research” varies.

I define keyword-research as searching for keywords and phrases that bring in the most conversions to a website. It is important to note, a site needs quality visitors, not quantity. Discovering which keywords cause people to buy most often is what an SEO needs as a top priority.

I often hear search engine optimization experts discussing how they double, or tripled traffic to a website. Or how specific keywords are ranked higher today than yesterday. However, that does not mean much. What about revenue?

An SEO can get precise keyword analytics through a short pay-per-click campaign. See post from 4/17/07: Pay-Per-Click is Customer Analytics

Once those keywords are discovered, those are the targets. Those are the keywords that need to be used for link building and content improvement. Forget about the keywords that bring high traffic. Instead, focus on the ones that bring in the most revenue. Those are often very different words.

Without strong keyword-research than any traffic that is gained from search engine optimization is just traffic and not helping revenue.

I recently had the honor to meet and hear Greg Stielstra speak for the first time. Not only were Greg’s ideas fascinating, he’s an excellent speaker and entertainer.

Stielstra is the author of PyroMarketing. I can not do justice in describing his marketing concepts, so I will just quote directly from his page:

“PyroMarketing is a new way to think about marketing—one that acknowledges and accommodates human nature and society’s new realities. But more importantly, it takes the mystery out of word-of-mouth by reducing it to a systematic approach anyone can follow. PyroMarketing involves four simple steps:

Imagine that you are lost in the freezing wilderness (the marketplace), must start a fire to survive (actual sales of your product or service), and that you have only one match (the finite nature of your marketing resources). You may get only one shot at building your fire. So make it count.” – PyroMarketing.com

I encourage everyone to download the FREE PyroMarketing audio book from pyromarketing.com