What’s the Best Advice I Need to Know Before Building my PPC Account?

Generating traffic can be extremely difficult, especially if you’re just getting started with a new website. While you can slowly build a loyal following organically through high quality content, careful keyword selection and word of mouth, most site owners opt to use a PPC (pay per click) campaign to generate larger amounts of search traffic. This strategy will generate a larger flow of traffic to your website much quicker than you could ever hope to accomplish simply by relying on organic traffic.

 
Setting up a PPC campaign may seem like a simple process. However, if you want to be successful with your campaign, you really need to keep some things in mind. Before you get started with your PPC account, follow these pieces of advice so that you can successfully kick start traffic to your website.

1. Set parameters. How profitable will each visitor resulting from the PPC campaign be for your business? You will need to set parameters from the start to make sure you aren’t spending more than each visitor will be worth. A good rule of thumb is to look at your profit for a month and divide it by the number of unique visitors your site received during that month. This will give you your profit per visitor. From there, you can successfully set parameters for your PPC account and increase your chances for a successful campaign.
2.  Carefully select keywords. In order to see a return on your investment for your PPC campaign, you’ll need to use highly targeted keywords. Be sure to thoroughly research your keywords to make sure you are going to be getting high quality web traffic to your site that converts. The whole idea of the PPC campaign is to provide your site with more visitors who are actually looking to buy your products and services. If your keywords are not spot on, you may not see a high conversion rate.
3. Remember to monitor and adapt as your campaign progresses. You may not set up your PPC account perfectly at the start of your campaign. Therefore, it is vital to your success that you monitor your campaign and adapt accordingly. Don’t be afraid to make changes to your budget, keywords, ad copy and bids in an effort to get the results you desire from your PPC campaign.
4. Target traffic to specific pages. Instead of sending all of your traffic to your home page, you will want to use your PPC campaign to target specific keywords to specific pages within your site. This will increase your chances of converting visitors because they will be arriving at pages that contain products and services that they were actively seeking out.
5. Carefully craft your ad copy. It can be easy to get caught up with finding the right keywords and forget about the need for compelling ad copy. The success of your PPC campaign is largely relying on the quality of your ad copy. You need to sell users on your products and services in a limited amount of copy. Therefore, it needs to be skillfully crafted.

 
These bits of advice are by no means the be all and end all for people preparing to launch a PPC account, but they are a good place to start. You’ll benefit from taking your time and thinking things through carefully as you put together your PPC campaign. In the long run, you’ll receive a higher return on your investment if you put the time and effort in upfront.
Image Credit: bruceclay