Pay Per Click StrategiesBetter Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

The continued growth of search and social media marketing is creating new opportunities, but Marketers are challenged on how to effectively integrate social media into their search marketing efforts. To address this challenge, PPC Summit presents an all new conference this year “Search & Social Media Success” which will be held at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel on Sept. 21-22, 2010. 

The new sessions will teach expert, trusted strategies, and provide the tools and resources to Marketers searching to improve their campaign results. Registration is open and parties can register now before the full agenda is live to get the $400.00 early bird rate.

The ALL NEW 3 Tracks and 27 ‘How-To’ Sessions cover step-by-step instructions for creating and managing successful search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Over the last five years, PPC Summit has trained thousands of internet marketers how to be smarter and increase their ROI using search engine marketing. Results from a recent attendee survey sent to 3500 Search Marketers, revealed the growing need for further advanced training in these areas: Google AdWords, Quality Score, Keyword Targeting, Pay Per Click, Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, SEO tips and tools, Landing Pages and more.

What Marketers Will Learn:

• Leading-edge SMM (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube), SEO and SEM (Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing) instruction, content and actionable strategies that can be implemented right away to boost ROI.
• Which SMM, SEO and SEM tools, solutions and resources to utilize to achieve higher profits, and take-away comprehensive reference guides to build an effective search and social marketing plan.
• How to get on the fast-track of successful search and social media marketing–gain answers direct from the SEM/SEO/SMM experts and build lasting relationships with peers

 Register today for the two-day pass, only $995–includes three tracks and 27 in-depth sessions, networking, breakfast, lunches, breaks, 2 comprehensive training manuals and more. For more information, visit the
PPC Summit website or call 800-507-2958.

Social media marketing has grown to such an extent that many companies are abandoning other types of marketing altogether. Proof? Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was the first major company to announce that it was abandoning email marketing to focus more on social media marketing.

The real “story of this story” though is not that they did this, but why they did this. As the article states:

“ . . . the iconic Vermont-based premium ice cream maker is dropping its regular email newsletter . . . after customers aired their preference to be contacted via social media channels [emphasis added].”

Only you can decide if social media marketing is the only form of marketing you want to engage in. But, it should definitely be a part of your marketing mix – for it’s a direct line to what your customers want. Following is the number one thing you can do to generate traffic – for years to come.

The #1 Social Media Marketing Tip Every Business Can Use to Get the Most Traffic

Make useful content creation the foundation of your social media campaigns. Following is why.

There are many ways to generate traffic online, eg, commenting on other blogs, article marketing, pay per click, etc. Some are more time consuming than others. But great content will always drive traffic – immediately and in the future.

This is because web surfers look for information. Two hours spent writing an in-depth blog post that answers a lot of questions those in your niche might have will get linked to over and over and over again. This generates traffic for years to come.

How Content Marketing Via Social Media Outlets Saves Time

Once you create great content and make others aware of it via social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can spend much less time marketing because it becomes viral. Social media users love to promote great content – for it makes them look good. This is akin to having a social media marketing sales force on payroll.

And it’s why great content – whether it’s a series of videos or a standalone blog post – should be the cornerstone of every social media marketing strategy.

Have you heard about PPC Summit’s upcoming Seach & Social two day conference coming to the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in Sept? It’s the event for marketers to learn actionable strategies for effectively integrating search and social campaigns.

One of the benefits of social media marketing for micropreneurs and small business owners is that they can level the playing field — big time — by investing in this medium. In fact, it’s a perfectly suited medium for the entrepreneur with no budget or a small budget to compete with the big boys. Why/how?

One advantage that small businesses have over larger companies is their ability to really know their customer. When you know, you can engage more readily and effectively. This is a powerful advantage that many forward-thinking entrepreneurs are leveraging.

By putting just a small amount of effort into using social media marketing, your firm can stand head-to-head with larger companies — at least in this realm. And, it works! Proof? According to a post on Emarketer.com, a noted research firm that reports on digital media and marketing:

“. . . a February–March 2010 survey from office services firm Regus, smaller companies see the most success [with social media marketing], with nearly half of small businesses around the world having acquired a customer through social networks. . . . Overall, 40% of businesses studied had acquired a customer through a social [media] site, 35% of US businesses said the same.”

So, not only is social media marketing effective for small business, it appears to be a MORE effective outlet for them.

Is your firm leveraging this powerful outlet? If not, why?

Did You Know? PPC Summit’s next conference will bring the top minds in Social Media and Search Engine Marketing together during two days, three tracks and 27 expert-led classes in Los Angeles (Sept. 21-22, 2010).  The educational sessions cover all aspects surrounding: search marketing, search engine optimization, and social media best practices and strategies. You can’t afford to miss it!

Ben & Jerry’s recently made what some would consider a ballsy move? They abandoned email marketing in favor of social media. While arguments can be made on both sides — ie, it was a good move or a stupid move – that’s not the point.

The lesson here is one every business can capitalize on. What is it?

Social media marketing is not a fad; it’s here to stay. And if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, you’d better bet your competition has, or plans to very soon. Proof?

50-75% of Businesses Worldwide Use Social Networks (eg, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

According to a July 2010 post on BizReport.com entitled, Survey: Small businesses find success with social networking” on BizReport.com:

Social networks are now actively used by between half and three quarters of companies worldwide for  various networking functions . . . [and] 40% of businesses globally have found new customers via social networks.

While some may argue that Ben & Jerry’s have gone a little far in their adoption of social media marketing, the argument could be made that pouring a company’s resources into a marketing method that works is just smart business.

Social Media Marketing: It’s Biggest Advantage

Social media marketing provides immediate feedback. While email can be pretty immediate, a newsletter, for example, may sit in a prospects mailbox for days or weeks before it’s read. With social media marketing (eg, Twitter), prospects are primed to respond to tweets immediately – and constantly.

Perhaps the brand manager for the giant ice cream change said it best, ie: “Developing friendship and a relationship is key for us and social media [marketing] is the best place for that.”

PPC Summit is dedicated to bringing you the latest strategies, insights, and techniques for Internet marketing.  Search marketing, search engine optimization, and social media practices are constantly evolving.  Stay up-to-date and learn about special offers with PPC Summit’s monthly email newsletter, and it’s free!

When most business stick their toes in the search engine marketing waters, one of the first things they hear about is search engine optimization (SEO), as it relates to content. Not a lot of talk revolves around images; but it should for, everything on your site (eg, videos, photos, etc.) can help it rank well in search engines. And, this is what search engine marketing is all about.

The first thing you should know is that search engine bots (ie, spiders) can only read (search) text. And this is why things like Flash should be kept to a minimum, or not used at all unless it’s really, really necessary to your industry (eg, you’re a web developer, animator, movie maker, etc.).

Following is a mini tutorial on how to name your site’s images so that it ranks higher in search results.

Name Images Using Keywords: For example, instead of naming a photo photo.jpg1, name it pay-per-marketing-tips.jpg (if PPC marketing is what your firm specializes in).

Use the “ALT” Tag in Your Coding: Piggybacking on the last point, add the ALT tag when you name images. This tag explains what an image file is. A completed coded image with this tag may look like this:
<img src=”images/pay-per-click-services.jpg”width=”250″ height=”135″
ALT=”ABC Firm pay per click marketing services”>

Text Surrounding Images: The text that immediately surrounds your site’s images is valuable real estate from an SEO standpoint. Hence, you should do things like put captions on all of them and use keyworded text (ie, SEO content) in this space.

If you do these three things, your images (just like your site’s content) will increase the effectiveness of your search engine marketing efforts.

While starting a pay per click (PPC) campaign can be as easy as logging in to AdWords (or similar services from Yahoo! or Microsoft), doing it right and maximizing your ROI requires you to pay more careful attention to the choices you make when launching a PPC campaign.  This article will take a look at several settings you’ll want to carefully choose when setting up your PPC campaigns.

 Advertising Networks – Google Search, Search Partners, and Content

Performance across Google’s various advertiser networks can vary dramatically.  Currently, you can choose to have your ads shown on Google’s search network, Google’s search partners (3^rd party sites that use Google to power their results), content pages across Google’s entire AdSense network, or content pages that you specifically choose.  (Note: Google is in the process of rebranding its Content network as Google Display Network).

Choosing your networks

Ad Performance Can Vary by Network

Costs and performance can vary widely across the different networks (example below).  Bids and thus cost per click (CPC) tend to be lower on the content network, as that network generates a far higher number of impressions and lower click through rates than the search networks.  However, looking at the example below, you can see that rates can vary dramatically even within the search networks (Google vs. search partners) and within the content network (if you’re choosing your own placements).

Example of Campaign Performance by Network

Choosing Advertising Networks

So how do you choose which networks to run your ads on?  There isn’t a simple answer – it depends on your goals, spend available, and the topic or keywords of the campaign you’re running.  If you’re unsure of how your campaign will perform, a possible strategy is to setup two campaigns with the same keywords and ads, with one running on the search networks and one on content.  Separating them this way will make it easier to compare data using AdWord’s reporting tools.  Once the campaigns have been running for a while, you can tweak them, adjust the networks they’re running on, or cancel them if need be.

How would you like to have less competition, and at the same time lower the cost of your Google pay per click campaigns?

Google Pay Per Click Marketing: The Old Way

If you follow what everyone else is doing (eg, bidding on the same keywords), you will most likely get the same results. But, it may cost you more and if you can’t afford it, then you have to drop out of the game.

Google Pay Per Click Marketing: The New Way

In order to get different (ie, better) results – without breaking the bank – it’s time to try something new. Following is a plan for getting better results.

1. Go for Long-Tail Keywords: Instead of bidding on the same keywords as everyone else, bid on long tail keywords. You’ll most likely have less competition for these keywords, which mean they cost less. But, the brilliance in bidding on these keywords is that they can convert better than shorter, more popular phrases that all of your competitors are bidding on.

The reason is, when web surfers are serious about purchasing, they tend to get very specific (ie, use more words) to find what they’re looking for.

2. Optimize Landing Page with Original Keywords: Optimize your landing page using the shorter, competitive keywords everyone else is bidding on.

By “double dipping” in the long-tail and short-tail keyword waters like this, you gain traffic from organic searches, as well as higher-converting, lower-cost traffic from your Google PPC marketing efforts.

If you’re a Google AdWords pay per click marketer, you know how important it is to rank high for the right keywords. However, many PPC marketers pay too much – unintentionally. Following is one way they do so, and how to avoid it.

Are Your Organic Listings Robbing You of Valuable Pay Per Click Dollars?

In the 8/24/09 post here entitled, Get FREE Traffic with Pay Per Click Marketing, we stated:

Once you start to get traffic [via paid search methods like pay per click], search engines notice. Once search engines notice, they rank your site higher – which means it gets even more traffic. This last part is significant because it means you start showing up higher in organic (emphasis added) traffic results – ie, getting free traffic.

The point is, traffic brought via pay per click ads can result in higher organic listings. So for example, if your site is ranking in the top 3 in organic listings, check to see if you can adjust your bid(s) to be in the fourth or fifth position.

As you already hold spots in the top 3 organically, there’s no need to spend more pay per click dollars to rank in those positions.

How to Get Double the Bank for Your Buck Using Google Pay Per Click Advertising

To further capitalize on this, make your Google AdWords pay per click marketing dollars do double duty. How? When you’re doing your keyword research for your AdWords campaigns, optimize your pages so that they rank high for these same keywords organically.

When used in this manner, Google pay per click marketing makes an excellent “tester” for your search engine optimization efforts, for it measures the possible success/failure of keywords before you go through the time-intensive process of optimizing your pages using them.

If you want to learn important strategies for AdWords success, then sign on and listen to the expert led sessions during the AdWords Advantage Online Summit going on now through March 25th!

Wanna know the easiest way to capitalize on all the leads your Google AdWords pay per click marketing efforts are bringing you?

Get organized BEFORE you start an AdWords campaign. It’s so simple that most internet marketers don’t even think about.

The Psychographics of the Average Internet Marketer

We say this a little tongue-in-cheek, but really, the average internet marketer is so overwhelmed that they wind up doing only what is necessary to keep things rocking along. This is why most never get around to things like categorizing leads, doing follow up, designing special offers for their various niches, cross-marketing to their database, etc.

You can take class after class, learn “inside secret” after inside secret and buy the latest pay per click campaign management software, but if you don’t take the time to get organized – to use all of these tools – you will never realize their full potential.

Google PPC Marketing Advice: What to Do Before You Start Your Pay Per Click Campaign

So, before you start a Google pay per click campaign, decide:

How you’re going to store leads (do have a way to capture leads don’t you?). You should store them with some type of data management software;

When you’re going to follow up;

How often; and

With what kind of offer.

This is the bare minimum.

Keeping the Pareto Principle in mind (ie, 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers) you should have no problem increasing your bottom line if you get organized – before you start your Google AdWords pay per click campaign.

Have you heard? The AdWords Advantage Online Summit starts this week (Mar. 9)– there’s still time to register and save 40%!  Learn how to fast-track your AdWords profits during 14 educational sessions led by the Pay Per Click experts on March 9-30, 2010.

Just announced….The AdWords Advantage Online Summit (AAOS) has announced the schedule of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising online training classes to be held  March 9-30, 2010.  All AAOS participants will save 40% upon registration by the early bird date (March 4).

“Next week we will unveil the first ever online educational AdWords training summit for marketers to learn unbiased Google AdWords techniques from experts who have run multi-million dollar Google AdWords campaigns,” said Mary O’Brien, Adwords Advantage Online Summit and PPC Summit Founder.

 These 14 educational classes uncover the value of AdWords tools, resources and methodologies, and gives students ample opportunity to learn how to improve their AdWords campaigns through hands-on guidance for results at the top of Google.

Each one hour class will teach advertisers step by step how to leverage AdWords to their advantage and develop more profitable campaigns. Attendees will learn Google AdWords Pay Per Click solutions for all business types — Ecommerce, B2B, SMBs and more. Attendees will be able to access the recorded class for 90 days.

AdWords Advantage Online Summit Training Schedule (March 9-25):

> AdWords Optimization in Challenging Times
> Promoting to the Right People at the Right Time - Ad Scheduling & Geo-Targeting
> Assign Proper Attribution and Solve the Complexities of Measurement
> The New AdWords Interface – Save Time and Optimize Your AdWords Campaigns
> AdWords on Steroids: Implement Advanced Strategies Leave Your Competitors Gasping
> Slash Click Costs (37%) & Increase CTR (82%) Using Mathematical Formulas
> 30 Tips in 60 Minutes: Convert MORE AdWords Visitors into Buyers
> Understanding the B2B Buyer Sphere: How to Apply Enquiro’s Latest Research to AdWords
> Utilizing SEO and Social Media Marketing to Improve AdWords Strategy
> Researching and Managing Keywords-the Key to Google AdWords Success
> Get the Most out of Google Analytics & Google AdWords
> Contextual Advertising – Best Practices and Hot New Secrets
> AdWords for Local: Sort Heads from Tails, Find Free Clicks and Calls 

More information at AdWords Advantage Online Summit.