Part I: Research

This is part I of a three part series on Pay Per Click (PPC).

I have a love-hate relationship with PPC. I have used it for years, both personally and with clients, and I have never really found it very successful. Most keywords are way overpriced, there is a lot of click fraud, and I never really saw much return on my investment. Actually I usually lost money. I was just about to give up on PPC altogether until I started doing a lot more research about it. The more I learned, the more I realized the mistakes I was making and I was doing things all wrong. I want you to learn from my mistakes, so I have decided to write this 3 part series on PPC. This whole series is geared towards e-commerce, so if you own an e-commerce store and have not really had any results with PPC, this tutorial is for you.

Research

Before you launch any PPC campaign, you must spend some time doing research. You need to do competitor research, keyword research and some market research. You need to know exactly what you are dealing with before you spend a dime on PPC.

Keyword Research is one of the most important aspects to a successful PPC campaign. Say for example you have a website which sells cell phone accessories. Write down every keyword you can think of which people will search for to find your site and your products. Try to get as specific as possible. “Cell phone accessories” is OK, but “Samsung A400 wireless headset” would probably convert better because it is very specific.

Once you have your giant list of terms it is time to use some professional tools to help out. WordTracker is some of the best software out there for keyword research. You can input some general terms and it will generate a huge list of related terms. I can’t stress enough how important this step is. Even though WordTracker cost money, it is well worth the investment. You can learn more about it here.

There are also a lot of free tools out there you can use to research keywords also. I like the collection of tools at SEO Book.com

Try to find what are called “long tail keywords.” Long tail keywords are keyword terms which are less popular, less competitive and less searched for, but when taken collectively, long tail keyword phrases can be responsible for driving significant levels of website traffic. They also use multiple words - 2, 3, 4, and 5 word combination keywords.

Because the keyword “Cell Phone Accessories” is going to be highly competitive, you probably don’t want to bid on it. It will cost a lot per click, and your ROI probably is not going to be very high. Look for the more specific, longer keywords.
Your list of terms now might range from the 100’s into the 1000’s. The more the better because we are going to be testing these terms in Part II to see which ones convert well and which ones don’t. Remember your ultimate goal after all this is over is to find the terms which make you money – They have to bring in more profit than the expense you are paying for each click. It is totally fine to pay $1 per click or more as long as you are making a profit from sales generated by the clicks.

Also do some competitor research. Search for a few of the keywords in Google. Look at the first few sites for each keyword. How does your site compare? These are the people you are competing against. If you were a consumer who would you rather purchase from? Are you pictures and descriptions as good or better than your competitors? Hopefully the answer to these questions is yes, which means your site is ready to convert your new visitors into customers.

This leads us into part II – Launching your first campaign.

About the Author: Brennan Heyde is an e-commerce consultant working in San Diego, Ca. He specializes in online marketing and SEO for e-commerce.  Have a struggling e-commerce website? – Contact Brennan today for a site analysis.