16
Aug/10

Pay-Per-Click Marketing.. The Cinderella Story?

by admin under Pay Per Click

One great reference of all-time utilizing the Cinderella Story has to come from the obscure 80’s comedy CaddyShack.

“What an incredible Cinderella story, this unknown comes outta no where to lead the pack, at Augusta. He’s on his final hole, he’s about 455 yards away – he’s gonna hit about a two-iron I think. Oh he got all of that one! The crowd is standing on its feet here, the normally reserved Augusta crowd – going wild – for this young Cinderella, he’s come outta no where, he’s got about 350 yards left, he’s gonna hit about a five-iron, don’t you think? He’s got a beautiful backswing – that’s – Oh he got all of that one! He’s gotta be pleased with that, the crowd is just on its feet here, uh – He’s the Cinderella boy, uh – tears in his eyes I guess as he lines up this last shot, he’s got about 195 yards left, he’s got about a – its looks like he’s got about an eight-iron. This crowd has gone deathly silent, the Cinderella story, outta no where, a former greenskeeper now – about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac – It’s in the Hole!”

What does this have to do with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing?  Everything… In today’s market there are so many businesses jumping into PPC just in hopes of being that one Cinderella story that magically takes the wrong club and makes magic happen.  Similarly many of those in PPC are utilizing the wrong messaging, and landing pages to get the success and the jump to “perfection”.  When you take a step back and look at why you are in PPC, is it because of one of the following?

  • My competitors are doing it, so I feel I should as well?
  • I need traffic and I need it now.
  • I gotta get the word out about my business ASAP.



Well, let me tell you… All of these are legitimate reasons to be in the market, however, you have to have an underlying business goal of what you are looking to get out of PPC or you have just flagged yourself as a Cinderella story hoping it all works, and in some cases yes it does. In the long run, don’t hold your breathe. My point here is that planning, structure and the right strategy are key to making that hole in one, if you layout the facts of what you are trying to accomplish, how much you are willing to pay for an acquisition and exactly what the cycle will be from impression to conversion for a consumer or business you will succeed in pay per click with a very effective spend!

So yes I know it costs money to have someone manage your campaigns full-time, many businesses don’t realize the effectiveness of match type, geography, time of day and quality score and how that vastly impacts your PPC strategy. So if you aren’t certain on just how to execute, do your homework. Just like buying a house, you aren’t going to buy it  without checking out all the details and doing your research on it. In the meantime, keep on strategizing and getting your business on the upSurge!

Cheers!


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28
Jul/10

“Once you pop.. You can’t stop!”

by admin under Pay Per Click

I am sure you have all heard the adage of “Once you pop… You can’t stop.” Yes that is the notorious Pringles jingle.  I like to think that more than not in today’s pay per click marketing strategy world this adage is happening daily. Is it the right approach? NO! But believe me when I tell you many businesses today pop open their pay per click campaign whether good or bad for them and burn through a lot of dollars without looking at the consequences  of it.

There are three things you can’t take back easily in pay per click marketing; just as eating a lot of Pringles doesn’t do your body good. Popping the top in pay per click marketing while un-moderated has a similar effect.  If you do not have a clearly defined strategy before indulging you can feel the impact of lower quality scores, higher cost per click and lower positioning and placement. This is not to indifferent from that can of Pringles, you have the opportunity to gain weight, increase cholesterol and get greasy fingers.   Ok, I don’t know about you but not sounding to great to just pop the top and walk away.

The good news! If you are able to define and build a strategy, select the correct keywords including relevant keywords, ad placements, copy and optimized website to drive conversions away you go and you will see the revenue, results and conversions pour into your business. So at the end of the day pay per click marketing is an AMAZING marketing tool if moderated, strategically put into place and not just opened up and left with the lid off for all to pour out.

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14
Jul/10

Google Adwords vs BING… Superfight.

by admin under Uncategorized

Have you ever wondered or sat back and thought “Which advertising search engine should I use?” Well my opinion is in a world where everyone is marketing; I personally say both but let’s look into this Rocky like battle.

It’s hard telling if Bing’s momentum will continue. Will they continue to gain strength and build their pay per click platform up to go the full 15 rounds in this championship battle for pay per click marketing dollars? Let’s look at the differences of how BING runs their pay per click marketing campaigns in comparison to Google Adwords.

  1. Competition on Bing PPC is much lower driving CPCs down. There are fewer businesses advertising on BING as it stands right now, so the opportunity to get core keywords at a lower CPC is there and your spend will go a longer way than on Google.
  2. BING allows you to target age and gender. Uh-oh, something Adwords does not do.  Bing lets you boost your cost-per-click bids for customers with your target age or gender by accessing Windows Live account data where applicable. For example, you can have Bing increase your bid 10% if someone between the age of 25 and 34 is searching and by 20% if a woman is searching. 
  3. Bing in some cases with a better design make your ads stand out. As the design of the search engine is much more refined than Google the ads you create stand out much more when being searched upon rather than just black and white text. However with limited traffic amounts your visibility currently is much higher on Google.
  4. You can import your AdWords campaigns into your adCenter account.
  5. BING conversion tracking isn’t quite as robust as Google’s. This one may be up for dispute, but the key factor in pay per click marketing is being able to track through conversions. In my opinion, Google far surpasses BING in this realm with dynamic variables and setting numerous types of conversion methods.

Well it looks like BING is on its way up in the pay per click marketing space and you may be thinking that BING is a better solution overall and has won this round of the SuperFight. All I will say is keep in mind it is still in training and is by no means as strong of a contender as Google’s reporting, keyword strength, and reach. But at the end of the day, you are asking is it worth it should I advertise in BING? Sure.

I am just not quite ready to put my bank with BING just yet outside of complementing my Adwords campaign which is really what it naturally does, but if they keep developing at the rate that they are and their reach continues to grow so with that of ad spends and Google might have a Cinderella story on their hands.

But at the end of the day use ‘em both, and keep this simple equation in mind. More Impressions+Increased Reach = More Opportunity+More Revenue

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29
Jun/10

You’re Bidding on Keywords People. Spend Wisely.

by admin under Pay Per Click

Ok. It’s been a long week already and it’s only Tuesday. I am a day late and it makes me a bit upset, but as the French say C’est la vie!

So let’s take a look into bidding in the pay per click marketing arena. So if you are asking yourself how important is bidding? Well it is absolutely vital to your campaign, if you are over-bidding you are getting prime placement, but may be getting erroneous clicks. On the flip side if you are underpaying you are getting lower position and fewer clicks. I know you are saying, I already know this… But what if I told you that in order to effectively manage your campaign you need to find that sweet spot CPC in order to be spending wisely.

I am talking about Pay Per Click thresholds. In other words what is the most you are willing to pay for a conversion from a set of keywords.  So let’s talk more in depth on how to figure out what your threshold is.  The formula to find your CPC threshold is simple:

Total Value of Conversion * Percentage advertising spend * Avg Conversion Rate Percentage = CPC Threshold

So now you know the formula. But I know as I originally did years ago when starting a new, is how do i find out my advertising spend and when starting from zero how should I estimate conversion rate percentage? Well a good baseline for advertising spend is no more than 15% and a sound conversion rate can be based on an assumption initially off of if you were to sell 100 of your widgets how many would approximately sell and that would be your conversion rate until you get about 30 days of baseline data to tell you otherwise. Granted using this assumption might cost you a little more in the short-term, just keep in mind you are bidding on keywords and just because you spend a little more now doesn’t mean you aren’t spending wisely, you will gradually taper your spend to a wise and effective amount.

In my experience I have seen numerous companies just spend and spend to get that number one position in PPC however I will be quite honest  I have found that getting your ads in the 3-6 position range which puts you on the right side provides a better conversion rate. The top ads unless extremely niche and exact match targeted provide a lower conversion rate and higher CTR, in other words an unwise spend, there are other ways to pay to just get clicks! I don’t know about you but I would take fewer clicks and more conversions.

So with this all being said, I will just re-iterate the importance of finding your CPC threshold and maintaining it to spend wisely and keep in mind even if you are selling a Rolls-Royce product stay on top of managing your spend or you will exhaust your daily budget faster than a speeding bullet without getting the conversions your business needs

Inside upSurge Marketing PPC

upSurge Marketing LLC was founded for the purpose of utilizing the vast experience of our experts to help businesses increase ROI and guide them through the conversion cycle. In today’s market billions of dollars are being spent with pay per click marketing and surprisingly many businesses don’t have the resources needed to manage this online marketing strategy.

We bring over 10 years of expertise to the table with our roots being in traditional search engine optimization and pay per click marketing strategies. What differentiates us from other consulting companies, is just that, we are not a consulting company. We specialize in PPC marketing and make it our business to know all of the ins and outs of this market. We are conversion experts that analyze your business, current PPC campaigns if applicable and generate the results you need to succeed. We offer you all the tools to monitor the success of the service from implementation through day to day activities.

upSurge Marketing was founded on the methodology that we succeed when the customer succeeds. We put our business reputation on the line each time we obtain a new client to ensure we understand the business we contract with so that we can make your campaign as efficient and effective as possible to get you on the upSurge.

http://www.upsurgemarketing.com

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21
Jun/10

Pay Per Click Ads… You Said What?

by admin under Pay Per Click

Whew… Cutting it close for this week’s blog, sorry to keep you waiting, this week’s is short and sweet.

Let’s get real. Pay Per Click ads all look the same, let’s face it.  They all use all of the buzz words Premium, Superb, Affordable, Best, Super. Ok, here is a crazy thought instead of being a sheep, be the shepherd and quit doing the same thing everyone else does. Let’s think about what is being said in ads and put it in a real world example. If you were to go drive by 10 billboards on the side of the road that all essentially said the same thing about the same product but different manufacturers would you remember who said what?  Would any of the ads of made a mark on you? As the great Seth Godin says, “be remarkable”.

Ads now a days are so vague due to character limitations from Google that people forget that a consumer or business needs to understand and be engaged with your message to get them to click. They way to think about your ads is what would it take for you yourself to click on the ad. If you were to search on a topic what would you be looking for? It’s really surprising that people are so gung ho to get their pay per click campaigns running without really thinking about the message. A lot of businesses spend so much time on the post click pieces (landing pages, forms, databases) that they forget that really the most critical piece outside of setting up your campaign is the message once consumers find your ad.

I know this topic may not be as exciting as others, but believe me you need it!

Getting back to last week’s topic of Quality Score, let’s not lose sight of this topic. I know I am repeating a note from last week but relevancy is always key, when you are creating your ads be sure to add your keyword phrases into your ad title copy, this increases your quality score thus making your ad stand out and have the keyword or phrase be bold in the title. It’s the little things and always be sure your pay per click ad when you read it doesn’t make you think “I said what?”….

About upSurge Marketing

upSurge Marketing LLC was founded for the purpose of utilizing the vast experience of our experts to help businesses increase ROI and guide them through the conversion cycle. In today’s market billions of dollars are being spent with pay per click marketing and surprisingly many businesses don’t have the resources needed to manage this online marketing strategy.

We bring over 10 years of expertise to the table with our roots being in traditonal search engine optimization and pay per click marketing strategies. What differentiates us from other consulting companies, is just that, we are not a consulting company. We specialize in PPC marketing and make it our business to know all of the ins and outs of this market. We are conversion experts that analyze your business, current PPC campaigns if applicable and generate the results you need to succeed. We offer you all the tools to monitor the success of the service from implementation through day to day activities.

upSurge Marketing was founded on the methodology that we succeed when the customer succeeds. We put our business reputation on the line each time we obtain a new client to ensure we understand the business we contract with so that we can make your campaign as efficient and effective as possible to get you on the upSurge.

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15
Jun/10

Quality Score or Not.. You gotta have it.

by admin under Pay Per Click

This week’s topic is the infamous Google quality score, everyone bow to its greatness as this is what control how much you pay for your click and the frequency your ad  is displayed.  I don’t know about all of you, but the more I think about quality scores, the more my head hurts. Seriously, this is one of the true key success factors of your pay per click marketing campaign and how you can get the best ROI and conversion rates possible.

What does all of this mean? Well, let’s put in in layman’s terms. If you don’t have the right tools and support in place you aren’t going to get all of the results you want. Google quality score is a simple mathematical equation decided on by the following pieces of your pay per click campaign:

  • Landing Page Relevance
  • Ad Copy
  • Unique Content
  • and Honoring your statements

What’s all this mean? Well essentially this means you have to do your research and stand up to your convictions.

Landing Page Relevance

This is pretty straightforward people. If you are going to advertise about a service, product or offering, then you better drive people to a page that is relevant to that topic.

Ad Copy

FREE… Sunday. Sunday.Sunday.. I don’t think so, the more unique you can get with your ad copy that is in line with your keywords for your campaign the better off you will be in your quality score.

Unique Content

Just because you say tomato and I say tooomato doesn’t mean you have unique content that Google has never seen before. If you are going to promote a product in PPC marketing be sure it is relevant and a unique way of promoting it.

It’s all about honor

If you say in your ad something is FREE or available now. You better deliver or your quality score will suffer and you will pay for your lack of honesty. Let’s think about what your mother always told you “liars and cheaters never win.” Be honest about what you are selling and stick to the basics!

So yes, at the end of the day Google quality score is a much talked about topic that many businesses ignore and pay dearly for it. Please, to be successful, don’t ignore the tools that are put in front of you. Google has put the quality score in their resources for a reason. Don’t bite the hand the feeds you and the pay per click leaders will get you the prize.

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9
Jun/10

Pay Per Click Marketing. Best Friend or Worst Enemy

by admin under Pay Per Click

Ok.. So we all know that we can be a part of the pay per click marketing world and can bid on keywords but at what expense? I frequently find myself discussing this very topic with customers and businesses looking to get into this space, “is this going to be my best friend or my worst enemy?”

Alright I am going to come out and say it. Don’t look at pay per click marketing as “how can I get in and at what expense.” If you look at it that way, you WILL have a new worst enemy. So, you are thinking ok you have my attention. GOOD!

There are so many businesses of all sizes with this mentality and within 30 days they give up on pay per click marketing and say this just doesn’t work. Let me tell you that just because Superman knew that kryptonite was his worst enemy or weakness that he didn’t keep trying to win the war against the enemy. All I am trying to say is that pay per click marketing doesn’t have to be your worst enemy. If you use this targeted, low cost and effective tool correctly it can be your new best friend or your ally!

Pay per click marketing is a means to get the exposure for your site that you need at a budget you control. The beauty of having this new found friend is that you can tell this friend exactly where to be found, what time, and even as granular as a specific geographic location. Just think about that…. Isn’t that a perfect friend? A friend that is going to attract the people you want and potentially bring you money…

So to keep this posting pretty straightforward. I just ask to think pay per click marketing through and if you need a service that will provide that needed surge for your business get a hold of the conversion experts.

About upSurge Marketing

upSurge Marketing was founded on the methodology that we succeed when you the customer succeeds. We put our business reputation on the line each time we obtain a new client to ensure we understand the business we contract with so that we can make your campaign as efficient and effective as possible to get you on the upSurge and on your way to increased revenue and the highest ROI.

Website: http://www.upsurgemarketing.com/

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/upsurgemktg

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31
May/10

Getting Supersized PPC Campaigns

by admin under Pay Per Click

Welcome to upSurgeMarketing.com PPC Blog. Let’s get this started the right way!

What is a super-sized PPC campaign? Well before we get to that, let’s walk-through a couple of real world examples of competitive business to put the PPC world in perspective.

Let’s look back at the infamous super size, giant size, king size era in the fast food industry. All of the chains were all saying the same thing, and at any given time I don’t know about you but I found myself forgetting what message was where even though they all meant the same thing. You may be asking what in the world does this have to do with PPC marketing well I think my point is pretty obvious. If everyone is saying the same thing how can you tell the difference between the companies, where should a consumer go?

Still need another example? Ok… You got it…

Using a search engine example, let’s search for hardware store in Google. In the PPC space, instantly I see a large amount of companies (small, medium and large). So let’s take the monsters brand names out (Lowe’s etc…) now who do you pick? I am at a loss; I will say I have no clue who is going to be the best at what I am looking for. Still wondering where we are going…..Let’s just say in my ad for a broad match term “hardware store” perhaps I should have a half dozen ads for that campaign with  area specific copy (“Huge selection of tools for your KITCHEN. Buy Online. Low Prices.”) where the word KITCHEN is replaced with other home areas. And yes, before you jab at me, I wouldn’t capitalize KITCHEN.  What you then can do is gauge clickability and interest for what specific area of a home drives most conversion from your ads.

This is a science people; you have to crawl before you walk. Find out why people are searching for hardware store and begin deciding what kind of consumer you want! If you find yourself cranking for the fences on every keyword you WILL be BROKE!

So how do you get that perfect mix?  That Supersized campaign?

Let me tell you that the more segmented, tested and conversion focused you get you will have a higher ROI or a supersized campaign. Let’s use our example for the hardware store above and focus on segmentation. So if I were to do phrase matches on “hardware store kitchen”, “hardware store office” etc… I would greatly reduce the amount of impressions potentially to my ad. I know that doesn’t sound so great, but would you rather have 500k impressions on an ad and get clicks that most likely won’t convert and will cost you dearly.. OR would you prefer to have a lower impression amount and clicks that WILL convert giving you POSITIVE ROI on your dollar spent? I would hope for all you business folks it would be POSITIVE ROI.

Before anyone says, I want impressions and that’s that… Hang tight I am not saying at all to abandon broad match terms as these are the core to find out how to segment your campaigns. If you don’t have the baseline of ads and aren’t tracking your keyword CTRs and spend you will have no idea how to increase conversions on your PPC campaign. But again, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of constantly re-targeting and segmenting from the broad match terms by using phrase matching, negative match and where applicable exact matching. The more you can stray away from pure broad match the more effective your spend will be. Don’t be in the PPC arena without an idea of what you are really going for; please for the sake of your business ensure you have a reason to be in the PPC marketing space. Don’t do it just to be there because X, Y and Z are there you will lose a lot of money without expertise guiding you.

At upSurge Marketing we are the conversion and ROI experts and can provide the service you need to be in the PPC marketing space we WILL provide your business a supersized campaign!

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