A full set of notes and activities will be published here over the course of the module. Anyone is welcome to join in.

hide alert

Exploring PPC advertising (eCommerce Activity 7)

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

November 18, 2009 [1096 views]

Down the right hand side of Google’s search results are Pay-Per-Click or PPC adverts. The adverts shown are related to the keyword you have typed. Type in keywords related to your case study and look at how the adverts change.

A search for Kingston generates the following ads…

Virgin Holidays: Jamaica
Research and Book to Jamaica
with Virgin Holidays. Save Online
www.virginholidays.co.uk

Holidays to Jamaica
Great deals on holidays to Jamaica
Book & save online at First Choice.
www.firstchoice.co.uk

Kingston Properties
UK's Property Search Website. Find
Kingston Properties Now.
www.PropertyFinder.com/England

Flash Memory -Crucial.com
Shop at Crucial.com for quality and
Excellent prices. Buy Now and Save.
Crucial.com/UK

Look at the adverts themselves. They are made up of a headline, two short lines of text and a link (actually two links – a visible one, usually short and a hidden longer one that actually takes you to a specific location on the site).

Try making small changes to the phrase being searched to see how the ads change

Compare broad and more detailed searches.

Kingston
Kingston property
Kingston rental property
Kingston holidays

This week's activity

This week’s activity asks you to look at a site of your choice and plan the start of a pay-per-click advertising campaign for the site. PPC advertising allows you to pay only when an ad is actually clicked (not when shown) and can result in highly qualified traffic. The best known PPC advertising is Google adwords although MSN and Yahoo both offer similar programs (and will do more in the future).

The steps this week are
  1. What site have you chosen for this exercise?
  2. What keywords or keyphrases would you buy? (list at least 10)
  3. What ad would you show? Read Google adwords guidelines and write 3 adword text ads.
  4. What page would you link to on the site for each ad?
  5. What changes might you make to the site to make the ad more effective?
  6. How much would you be willing to pay for each click? (guess if you don’t know)
  7. How much would you expect the average customer to spend per order? (guess if you don’t know)
  8. What percentage of the customers who come from a PPC keyword campaign would you expect to make an order? (guess if you don’t know)

Here is the link for feeding back your answers: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/208260/ecommerce-activity-7

Recent comments:

On November 18, 2009 at 8:05 PM, Modun Wofeertoo wrote:

sup briggsy, i can't find the link to this weeks ecommerce activity, where the link should be it says '[LINK:]'

maybe you should stop tweeting and start fixing up?

Jonathan replies: Whoops! Shows all this stuff is new and fresh. I published the activity by accident and then went off to prepare a new lecture for you before building the survey form. I will do the survey first thing tomorrow and add that to the activity post.

FYI - no time to tweet today! So, pay attention! :-)

On November 22, 2009 at 4:33 PM, E-Commerce wrote:

I dont understand what we are supposed to do. you have posted "This week’s activity asks you to look at either a site of your choice and plan the start of a pay-per-click advertising campaign for the site." Either WHAT???? you did not give us a choice!

Jonathan replies: Well spotted - it should just say "a site of your choice" - in fact it does now.

On November 23, 2009 at 8:55 PM, mawo wrote:

Hi Jonathan, I pointed out something last time. We have been learning more on how to make sites attractive and engaging customers. However we havent talked about the security of information and how malicious hackers can be prevented ........what is your take on the security of e-commerce???? Thanks

www.facebook.com

Jonathan replies: I will try and work security into a future session as it is very important.

On November 24, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Francis wrote:

Hi Jonathan, when I tried to generate an ad, it requested that I pay. So do I have to pay, or is there any other way I can do this for free?

Jonathan replies: No way of doing it for free - but I don't need you to do it for real to complete the activity. If you find it interesting then its worth investing some time and money as it is a very useful skill - not necessary for the module however.

What do you think?







Add your comments