Knowledge Is Power!

You MUST know your customers and what words they're likely to use when searching for your products or services.

What ARE they Thinking?
(Or, Are Your Customers Alien To You?)

The only guaranteed way to figure out the words your customers are likely to use is through feedback.

One quick and simple (though potentially expensive) way to get this feedback is to set up a trial PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign and to cast your net wide, gradually removing search terms that are of no use to you.

For example, paying for an advert on the search term 'blue cars' will get your advert displayed near ANY search engine results related to blue cars.

You then use tracking software to narrow down the terms which bring traffic to your site that converts to leads, sign ups, sales etc. and remove all the search terms that are of no use to you ('old blue cars', 'cars').

Analyse Your Customers

Another way is to begin conservatively with one or two specific terms and to try out new search terms as you get more confident. Bear in mind that if you're TOO conservative and only spend a miniscule amount of money on PPC you will never get enough meaningful data to use as feedback.

Yet another way to gain insight into the terms your customers are using is to analyse existing log-files.

A considerable amount of time must be spent on discovering and testing search phrases your customers use. It's also necessary to test the wording in the adverts that your customers see next to the Search Engine Results (the 'creatives') and to track your visitors to and around your website.

Advertising's A Game And You've Got To Win!

You will need a bidding strategy. If you're always 'number 1' (at the top of the adverts) you may be wasting money. The top adverts cost the most but don't necessarily attract the best-qualified visitors. Casual users are more likely to click on the first advert they see whereas those with a genuine interest are more likely to browse down the adverts and click on the ones they think are most relevant to their needs.

Calculate Like A Grandmaster

In Google you pay for 'clickthroughs' (a user clicking on your advert) and your position in the page's advertising hierarchy is determined by how much you are prepared to pay for those clickthroughs and how much traffic you get (the more traffic you get the more relevant Google assumes you are and the higher up the page you go).

You might be in position #1 (at the top) and paying 50p per clickthrough but by position #5 you might only be paying 10p per clickthrough.

As a rough guide for every 10,000 users typing in your search term roughly 100 will click on your advert. You will pay for those 100 'clickthroughs'.

It's then up to you to convert those clickthroughs as you see fit. If you're selling your product directly then out of those 100 users betweeen 1 and 3 will go on to purchase your product. If you're giving away a free PDF White paper and require only an email address you might get up to 70% signing up.

You have to have a strategy in place and must calculate whether or not the expense of your 'clickthoughs' is justified.

Should You Venture Out Of Your Niche?

You need to work out what you can afford and what you define as a good ROI in terms of sign ups / sales / time spent by users on your site etc.

Generally speaking the more focussed any company is on its niche market the better its business model for that market and the more it will be able to pay to be in that advertising space.

If you have a weak business model you will find that your competitors are more efficient than you and are consistently able to outbid you.

Their Dirty Tricks, Your Clever Marketing?

Still, it's not that simple.

A competitor might pay a premium price for clickthroughs knowing that over a customer lifetime (the length of time over which the customer continues to purchase the product) they will make a good return on their investment.

Companies that sell coffee over the internet calculate that customers will get into the habit of reordering their coffee, and though they may lose money in the short term over a period of months or years they will recoup their investment through that repeat custom. Naturally their less focussed and less efficient competitors are kept out of that advertising space by the prohibitive cost of advertising there.

Companies are also starting to use Search Engine advertising as branding opportunities, and as 'spoilers' to prevent their competitors' adverts from appearing in that space.

Make Your Customer An Irresistible Offer!

Having discovered the words your customers are using on the search engines (and you must permanently research these words) you need to create an advert (your 'creative') that is concise, informative and appealing, and make an offer to potential customers that will tempt them to click on that advert.

I've Landed, I'm Lost - Is This The Moon!?

You need a landing page (example) for your users to arrive at once they've clicked on your ad. This landing page needs to be focussed and relevant to your advert. You should have a clear idea of what the purpose of your landing page is. Are you trying to sell your product immediately? Are you asking users to contact you for a free quote? Are you asking them to sign up to a newsletter (with a view to 'upselling' them later on)?

Generally speaking your landing page needs to give users exactly what they hoped for in as quick and painless a way as possible and with no distractions or deceit.

Now Where The Heck Did That Customer Go ... !?

You also need to track your users. Tracking tells you which search terms, adverts, offers and creative copy worked best - and ultimately helps you to increase your ROI.

So Many Opportunities ...

There are many ways of advertising on the internet. Search Engine advertising is one of the most effective ways, but there is also contextual advertising (where your ad appears on other people's sites, see below), the purchase of text-links, banner advertising (which can work very well), viral campaigns (subversive videos for example), affiliate networks, competitions, special offers and more.