You can get a good idea of your target market by using the keyword suggestion tool that most pay per click providers give you. You simply type in your search term and this tool will show you how many searches were done on it in the last month.
It will also show you similar keyword searches and how many of these were done in the last month also - so you can get some great keyword ideas for your pay per click campaign.
Use these suggestion tools to find out exactly which terms your potential customers are searching for. It may not always be the terms you'd expect!
Another great tool that Overture provides is the MaxBid Suggestion tool. Type in your desired search term and it will show you who holds the top position for that term as well as how much they are bidding.
This can help you search out untapped keyword niches and get lots of traffic for a much cheaper bid price.
If you're serious about targeting your market and want an all-inclusive research tool, you might also want to try Wordtracker, which gives you keyword results from ALL the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Altavista, MSN in one place.
Wordtracker tells you how many other websites are bidding these search terms (so you can find the terms that have the least competition) as well as 'mistake' spellings people use when searching for your product. (Most people don't bid on keyword spelling mistakes and you can usually get top position for these keywords for pennies).
By doing your research before you go into your campaign, you'll be MILES ahead of the competition and well on your way to getting a very high return on investment for your keywords.
To try out Overture's search term suggestion tool - click here
To try out Overture's MaxBid Suggestion tool - click here
- Tip #2: Optimize Your Title
Your web site title is the first thing the searcher sees. Make sure it matches what your web site offers or else you'll tick your searcher off - and that's not a good way to start a potential customer relationship!
(How many times have you been looking for something and clicked on a title only to find a porn site or a get-out-of-debt-fast site...talk about bad Internet etiquette!)
Also, try to put the main, relevant, most popular keywords in the title. Titles with keywords in them have been proven to get up to 50% more click throughs.
If you can, write a title that lists a benefit to the customer or evokes curiosity. Titles with benefits will pull more click-throughs than stale, factual titles.
Test different titles if your ppc search engine allows you to track click through rates. You'll eventually find one or two titles that pull in the most clicks and you'll probably want to stick with those.
- Tip #3: Use Your Description to Pre-quality and Pre-sell
If the searcher gets past the title to the description you're doing well...but you have to hook them with your description. Again, make sure the description elaborates on the title and tells your searcher EXACTLY what they can expect.
This is also a way you can further 'pre-qualify' your traffic. You don't want to spend money on people who don't fit your perfect customer criteria so be as specific as possible about what your website offers them.
Don't just say "A website that sells a variety of cheesecakes" Pre-sell and pre-quality your traffic with a description like:
"Gourmet New York Specialty cheesecakes sold exclusively online. From Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake to Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake. Come check out our online catalogue if you're in the market for something heavenly!"
Makes your mouth water already doesn't it? And chances are that someone only looking for a free cheesecake recipe won't click through so you've prequalified your traffic and your conversion rate will go through the roof!
- Tip #4: Think 'Niche' with your keywords
Unless you are Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, chances are you can't afford to spend $5.00 on the word "diet". That's ok, you don't have to.
You can pick up a huge variety of more specific keywords that probably very few pay per click competitors have thought of (for example 'heart healthy diet')
Just make sure to do your homework and remember to get the misspellings people use also (see Wordtracker for the best and most common misspellings people use)!
- Tip #5: Monitor Your Results
This is so, so, so, so important. If you want to succeed on line you MUST monitor your results to see where your sales are coming from - and that includes you pay per click traffic.
So many websites are simly throwing money down the drain because they don't take the time to monitor which words bring in sales and clicks. They don't take the time to test which descriptions or titles make people want to click and buy.
You're not doing this for fun. You're doing it to see what works and what doesn't work. Then you can eliminate what doesn't work, and do MORE of what does work.
Make sure that you sign up with a pay per click search engine that allows you to track how many sales your pay per click traffic brings you, which keywords they came from, and which descriptions persuaded them to buy (Overture has a tracking tool like this).
Once you know all of this you can sign up with other ppc search engines and use this information to double, triple, even quadruple your sales and profits!
That's the way to run a pay per click campaign successfully! Good luck and may you make millions with your website!
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