For the little guy, the small business, internet marketing can be a tough game. You’re competing with major brands 
in a crowded market place which makes it easy to get lost. When you factor in pay per click marketing, the cost begins to climb. The small business internet marketing budget is no match for million dollar budgets. This can send small business owners screaming away from PPC internet marketing, but it’s important to know that even small business owners can compete effectively in the paid search marketplace.
Here are some great tips to keep in mind while sculpting a smarter strategy for your internet marketing.
PPC Internet Marketing Tip #1 – Parting Time and Day
Google provides business owners with the ability to determine when their PPC ads will show right down to the day of the week, time of day, etc. If you’ve taken the time to do your research and you know when your target audience is typically looking for products or services, then you can target those time periods and get more visibility during peak hours. This can make your campaign far more effective while reducing overall costs.
PPC Internet Marketing Tip #2 – Match Types
Pay close attention to the match types when you setup your PPC campaign. Gone are the days where you can plug in a string of keywords set to broad match. You’re left with nothing but shattered hopes for an return on your investment as you blow your marketing budget in days (even hours.) Use Exact Match to control your costs and decide the specifics of which searches will display your ad(s).
PPC Internet Marketing Tip #3 – Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are not a bad thing, they’re used to offset unwanted traffic and funnel it away from your ads. When you target negative keywords in your campaign, you’re specifically telling Google what terms you do not want your ads to appear for. If you know a certain phrase is relevant and would make your ad show, but people aren’t like to convert on a click, you can hold your ad from presenting. This is a great way to approach high volume key phrases without triggering a lot of long tail results that aren’t as relevant to you.
PPC Internet Marketing Tip #3 – Geo Targeting
Are you trying to get more visibility? Internet marketing can be a deadly wild west for local businesses all competing for very limited digital real estate. Geo targeted PPC is a great way to supplement a well optimized site and a Places page. With multiple listings on page 1 – paid search included – you dramatically increase your odds of gaining the dominant market share.
PPC Internet Marketing Tip #4 – Refine Your Keywords
The traffic estimator in Google might let you know that a term has 1.5 million searches each month but that doesn’t mean it’s a quality keyword for your ad group. To get the most out of your budget you need to think locally and get a lot more specific. General terms can bring good traffic but specific, brand, product and service related keywords can funnel the best converting traffic to your deep landing pages when used in PPC campaigns.
Lastly, make sure your website and the internet landing pages for your PPC campaigns are optimized using the same keywords you’re targeting in those campaigns. If the match is off then relevancy is reduced which increases your cost per click.
If you’re still overwhelmed with your PPC campaigns and need help with paid internet marketing then contact us today. We can walk you through your PPC management or take over your online marketing campaigns to get you the best return on your investment. Call today for more information!
