Smart Tips for Managing PPC Programs

Pay per click programs are highly effective way to get instant traffic on your website. This is a good tool to attract quality and highly targeted traffic. The bids normally start from .05 cents which is quite good as you can get a good number of visitors by spending a little amount. Even if bid is .10 cents, you can get 10 visitors by paying $1

Smart Tips for Managing PPC programs

• Identify the set of keywords which clearly defines the services / products you offer. This clearly means that you need to remove unnecessary keywords which might be related to your category but can not generate quality traffic to your website.
  
• Focus on product/service which you wish to sell. Remember, its selling service and you have to be specific in PPC approach. You can not have your whole catalogue on your single campaign.
  
• Take bottom up approach for bid management. Start with a certain minimum value and the scale up the campaigns on a day to day basis till you arrive at an optimum level where your goals are met. ( an optimal combination of your budget / CPA / Bid / position)
  
• Come up with a precise ad copy. Include text in the campaign which clearly states about the service / product you are promoting in the ad campaign. If possible, try to include pricing in the ad copy if you are selling any product. This will increase the CTR if your pricing is competitive.
  
• Setup the campaign and bid on maximum relevant keywords possible. This will increase the possibility of clicks.
  
• Track you campaign: This is the most important step. You need to place tracking to track the ROI. You need to restrict your CPA (cost per acquisition). Big programs like adwords/overture can generate huge volumes and your money can vanish in a day. So you need to track your returns, and this is the only way by which you can know whether its working out for you or not.
  
• Keep tweaking the campaigns in terms if bids and ad copy by looking at the reports. An attractive ad copy can increase the chances of getting clicks.
  
• Do not rush for position #1. Settle for positions 4/5/6 as bids will be lower and visibility will also be OK. This will lower your CPA and increase ROI.
  

If you try the above points, you can expect improvements in your ROI and in the long run, constant bid management can get you sustained success in managing PPC programs.

Himanshu Singh is the owner and founder of Bangalore based Internet Marketing firm Himshilp

What is a CTR (Click Through Ratio)?

What is a CTR

CTR refers to Click Through Ratio. It is a widely used term in Search Engine Marketing.

Click through Ratio (CTR) is the ratio of the number of times the Pay Per Click (PPC) AD appears (number of impressions) to the number of times it is CLICKED by the visitors.

For Example, if your ads are shown 100 times and 2 persons have clicked on them during this then your CTR would be 2/100 => 2%

More the CTR is, more relevant your ad copy is. This means that person who has typed something in the search box will look for the most relevant AD in the results. If your ad copy shows him/her the information he is looking, more likely he/she will click on the AD. However CTR also depends on the competition, position you are bidding and whether the ad is thrown up in content or direct search.

CTR is important while you set and manage CPC campaigns. Especially Google gives certain weight age to healthy CTR. CTR can be improved by:

• Writing effective ad copy
• Making keyword appear in the Ad copy
• Creating multiple Ads within a Ad Group

Himanshu Singh is the owner and founder of Bangalore based Internet Marketing firm Himshilp