Thread: Pay Per Click

Anyone have some good news or success stories with pay per click? How much a month? How long did it take to build the site?

Chris:

I'm a Google Certified AdWords Professional and have been doing PPC for my real estate site for years. There is no site to build. Once you set up an account, you research your desired keywords, set your budget and build an ad or ads pointing to your site.

There are some things that you can do to dramatically cut your cost per valid lead, such as turning off "Content Match" for more focused traffic. Though I help REALTORS

Chris:

Since my previous reply, I completed a project to produce videos and instructions for setting up a Google PPC account. It is a series of instructions and short flash videos that walk you through the first sign-up and intial ad design for an account.

There is also some explanation of matching keyword phrases to ad copy to improve results and examples of an actual account. If you check it out, let me know if it was helpful.

I like the use of ppc it has worked for me on our web page. We have generated many leads if the right keywords are used.

Dan

Question about PPC campaigns... What happens when the same person logs onto your site multiple times? Are you charged for each individual click or is it charged on a per person hit?

Many thanks!

The PPC programs have integrated a fraud protection program to stop your competitors from clicking your ad all the time. The way it works is that once someone clicks on your add, your IP address is registered. Then if that IP address clicks on the ad anytime in the next 60 minutes, your account will not be charged.

It doesn't stop them from clicking on another of your ads.

How much does it end up costing you per lead with averaged out with the PPC?

Your question about cost per lead simply cannot be answered, as it varys hugely. You can pay precisely the same amount for each click as a competitor, get the same number of clicks to site visits, and have a much higher or lower cost per valid lead.

Getting them to the site is the easiest part, only taking some PPC money. Once they're there, it's all in the site content, offerings to capture their contact info, and follow-up systems. More on this here. It's still a great marketing investment, but don't pay for the first click until you've got the back end figured out.

As nice as it is to feel like you have control over your advertising, it is still a good idea to consider having a professional set up and manage your pay per click advertising. The pay per click industry is constantly changing and the major players (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) are always tweaking and updating their ad distribution and administration tools. It is very time consuming to try to keep up with all the changes and tricks and new strategies but a management company will keep up with all those updates and changes and can even anticipate them.

A good management company will make sure that your account is tweaked and adjusted to meet any new requirements or updates that might affect your advertising account. Many management companies will also give you full access to your account with the understanding that you can make minor adjustments (daily budget, pause/unpause, etc.) and they will make major adjustments (campaign settings, new campaigns and/or adgroups, etc.).

Adwords can suck your wallet dry if you are not careful.

Set reasonable limits at first, and then just study the results. There is a Google keywords testing tool that can help you determine what the average PPC is for certain keywords. I'd post the link but I can't yet (not enough posts).

Go to Google and click on Advertising Campaigns. Go through the Adwords tutorial, and you should find the Keyword Tool. Play with it, and you'll get an idea how much your keywords are costing per click.