One of the essential management aspects of doing a business is monitoring how your products conduct in the market. For online businesses employing pay per click marketing, monitoring is mainly about tracking the performance of the chosen keyword or keywords in search results. This is basically done by keeping track of the bids made for the chosen keyword or the bid gaps in comparison to competitors' bid. Knowing how well or not your keyword is performing is vital in securing higher chances of garnering clicks, visits, and potential sales. Keyword performance is primarily hinged on the the bid made for it. If a competitor or two has outbid your keyword value, you should not take that in sitting or else your product is more likely to be left behind.
While bid monitoring can be done by an online business owner himself, there are available management tools that can be utilized for greater monitoring efficiency. These tools work with very minor supervision yet perform with reliable results. A lot of online businesses are actually using these tools to save time and focus on other management aspects of a PPC marketing campaign.
One example of a keyword bid management tool is PPC Pro 2002. This monitoring tool is an easily downloadable software. Using PPC Pro 2002 enables an online business owner to run the software manually or automatically to close gaps on bids, specify dates or frequency of changes in bids. It allows full control and monitoring without the burden of personally keeping track the latest bid rates. If, for example, you choose to bid on 60 keywords but do not want to make the highest bid for all of them, PPC Pro 2002 can very well handle the task for you. You apply the specifications (e.g. 20 keywords at 1$ each, another 20 at $2 each , and the last 20 at $3 each) and just let the tool do the consistent application of such specifications. Also, if what you are after is the rank and not your limit on the biding price, PPC Pro 2002 can do just that. If you wish for your keywords to just appear as rank number two or three, you need not personally check the changes in bids made by your competitors. PPC Pro 2002 can be programmed in such a way that it will sustain the ranking of your keywords in your intended position. It automatically adjusts your keyword's performance relative to the changes in your competitor's keyword's ranking.
Keyword bidders on Google AdWords may find PPC Pro 2002 incompatible to their monitoring needs. This is really not necessarily true. In using Google Adwords, the position of keywords is determined by the equation Max CPC x CTR or the Click-through-Rate. This equation is different from the formula being used by other PPC search engines like FindWhat or Overture. In others, the position of a keyword is solely dependent on the highness or lowness of your bid rate relative to other bidders. But in using Google AdWord, this usual formula is altered by the CTR component of the formula. PPC Pro 2002 can go as far as controlling the formula's Max CPC element. PPC Pro 2002 cannot intervene with the CTR aspect for that is your alone to determine. What it can do is to utilize algorithms, in the way Google AdWords work, to give you an idea how much more or less Max CPC you have to have to get your desired ranking.
Also, the PPC Pro 2002 tool has a Return on Investment (ROI) tracking feature. This feature permits you to identify which among your keywords in what search engine have exactly resulted to sales, information request, or regular mailing request. This feature, of course, will enable you then to focus on the keywords that seem more useful for you and work more on those that are lagging behind. This feature is capable of doing automatic calculation of your inputs' effect and relevance to the output and how to ensure that you get your desired results. This feature can work not only for PPC campaigns but for *electronic mail* marketing and banner advertisement campaigns as well.
Other winning components present in PPC Pro 2002 are its 'competition buster' tool, bid gaps closing tool, bid updates scheduler, keyword research tool, security features, and autopilot feature. For trials and pricing rates, you may visit www.ppcmanagement.com and see for yourself the other wonders of this keyword management tool.
* The web is only one part of your business * You have a specific budget for your web site, and * You want the site to not only carry its own weight, and * Why can't it make you some extra Yahoo or Google PPC profits, too?
The corporate situation: budgets need to be closely monitored, and tech people can't get carried away with unnecessary frills.
My experience learning search engine marketing ROI and becoming an SEO expert was more guerilla than corporate.
Beginning in 1999, I learned about ranking high on search engines and increased online traffic flying by the seat of my pants. By early 2005, I'd learned how to get tens of thousands of visitors per month, had started my own SEO training course, and had made more than $20,000 two months in a row.
As it turns out, web site design itself doesn't lead to better web site ROI... at least not the graphic kind of web design most people think of.
Ironically, the flashy flash web sites everyone raves about often prevent you from getting increased online traffic. Search engines analyze sites based on their text- they can't see flash yet, and who knows if they ever will. If your text is in graphics without alt tags or in flash movies only, you'll never get high search rankings.
There are loads of web designers out there who want to get paid to make you a beautiful web site, but don't know the first thing about helping you improve your web site ROI. Though independent web design entrepreneurs have to know enough about business to survive themselves, corporate web designers may never have had to learn about running a business or getting good web site ROI.
On the flipside, I spent so long raising myself by my own bootstraps that I've learned how to
* Boost web site traffic for free * Make free money from Google without AdSense click fraud * Build my own ecommerce web sites * Profit from smart PPC bid management
To get better web site ROI, naturally you have to lower your investment and/or increase your profits.
Where do the profits that lead to better web site ROI come from?
* Traffic (free or paid) * Converting Prospects * Selling new products to previous customers
Here are some review questions for your business:
Are you getting free online traffic by ranking high on search engines? If not, why not? Is your website search engine optimized? Consider getting search engine placement improvement, taking an SEO training course, or getting affordable small business SEO from an Ethical SEO Firm.
Are you adding to and updating your content? Google prefers fresh content, and other search engines may follow suit.
Are your internal linking and navigational structure optimal? Google Guy says internal links from your own site count as much as links from other sites- how many times is each page in your site linked to from other pages in your site?
If you're running multiple pay per click (PPC) campaigns: What is your PPC campaign management plan? How diligent are you with PPC bid management? Are you meeting your break even points for all PPC bids except new ones? Are you dumping the PPC bids that don't work?
If you're sell products or services: Do you have special pages with sales copywriting for each product or service? Is your conversion rate on all sales pages at least 1%? Have you tried to increase your conversion rate to 2% or 3% by tweaking your sales copy and using split tests?
Are you diligent about increase your web site's stickiness? Are you staying in touch with previous customers via an opt-in, third-party managaed ezine? Do you offer ezine subscribers them helpful tips and resources? Do you monitor which articles subscribers read more? Do you use the ezine to upsell? Do you use the ezine to get feedback on products and services?
Are your new products and service changes based on consumer feedback? Do you have any digital products (ebooks, audiobooks, special reports, etc.)? Do you use visitor polls for market intelligence?
Those are just a few questions to help you see which way lies the real road to better web site ROI. If you're interested in my Web consulting services, you can answer those questions on my needs analysis feedback form.
Now here are a few concrete suggestions to improve things on your web site:
1. Get more free traffic
All visitors are candidates for sales conversion and profits. Free traffic is without expense, so that means better web site ROI. Search engine optimize your web site after taking an SEO training class, or get affordable small business SEO.
Ever had a keyphrase review for your business sector done? If not, get one. Optimised keyword marketing can be free, or PPC. It all starts with identifying the right keywords.
Targeting the proper keyphrases is one of the three major factors in writing your web site sales copy.
2. Only do profitable pay-per-click advertising
Buy pay per click ads without PPC bid management is throwing your money away.
Make sure you have a clear plan in place for every phrase on which you bid. Know what conversion rate you need for each. Send each phrase to specific and different web pages, and monitor your success rate. If you can't tweak conversion rates high enough to profit on a pay per click phrase, ditch it!
What cuts into your web site ROI more than pay per click advertising at a loss?
And don't think it's branding. There are much better ways to do branding, and lots of them are free. Branding goals/internet marketing strategy are a whole other ballgame.
3. Convert more prospects
Hopefully you already have a most wanted response (MWR).
Perhaps you've developed customer profiles and/or modeled customer acquisition and retention phrases. However you group your prospects, make sure you split-test your web copywriting to develop the most powerful sales pages possible.
Your traffic cost for each phrase shouldn't change much from month to month- either it's free, or you're doing alert PPC bid management, so improving your conversion rates will lead to better web site ROI (as well as allow you to pay higher bids as the phrase becomes more competitive).
4. Encourage Community and Get Feedback
Don't be afraid to let your customers talk to each other- they'll talk either where you're aware of it, or behind your back. Use forums to help them and find out what they need. Use polls, articles in your e-zine (e newsletter), and free offers to motivate them to answer your specific questions.
The best way to stay in business, sell more, and increase ROI is to know what they need and give it to them. Remember, it's easier to keep a customer than to get a new one.
Both Patrick Connor & Brian Carter are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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