Thousand of firms are promoting their product or service online, so how do you get yours noticed? Pay-per-click advertising can not only attract attention, but go a long way to converting interest into sales. Follow our tips to set up your first pay-per-click advertising campaign
1. Know what pay-per-click advertising is. Pay-per-click advertising is otherwise known as sponsored links in prominent areas of search engine pages. To get listed here, you bid against other firms for keywords and search phrases that are relevant to your offer, but you only part with your cash when somebody actually clicks on your advert. If you bid more for a relevant search term than another company, you will appear above them in the sponsored links.
2. Have an objective. What do you want to achieve? Are you selling a product or trying to drive traffic to your website? Perhaps you’re trying to get people to subscribe to a newsletter? Be clear about why you are advertising, as this will help you select appropriate keywords and write a persuasive advert.
3. Pick a search engine. Google and Yahoo are the most popular search engines, so these will produce the most interest in your offer. Simply sign up for either Google AdWords or Yahoo Sponsored Search, create an account, then follow their instructions to get your pay-per-click campaign up and running. You may be able to restrict your advert by geographical location so that it only appears to people in your region.
4. Choose which search terms you want to advertise alongside. The keywords or search phrases you bid on must reflect what your potential customers will type into a search engine when looking for your product or service. Be specific: if you are a small building firm in Harlow, don’t pin your hopes on ‘small builder’; try ‘home renovations Essex’, ‘loft conversions Harlow’, and so on. Experiment with different keywords by using abbreviations, everyday language and product codes.
