Feedback on PPC Advertising Activity

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

November 26, 2008 [2906 views]

Thanks to the 70 of you who completed this activity this week; you will find that you are better prepared for the exam than those who did not (and you have a free mark!).

Buying keywords

Consider carefully the difference between broad and narrow phrases; in my example “Kingston” versus “Kingston holidays” or “Kingston memory”. Fewer people will be looking for the later but they are likely to become customers.

Learn how to write adverts and optimise the site

Headlines were often too long; you have 25 characters
Adverts broke Google’s editorial; Best products ever! is never going to be allowed
Think carefully about where the ad will go: landing pages, products, collections
Do add the text to the landing page to improve the ads quality score
Most sites can be improved to better fit the ad or vica versa
Don’t overstuff the page with keywords; you will be punished by Google
Provide clear calls to action that respond to the message started in the ad - remember customer journeys

Experiment with different ads and different keywords

How much would you pay for ad click and how much would you expect to make from each sale?

I wanted you to start thinking about basic ecommerce economics.

You make money when your revenue is greater than your costs (obviously).
This can be in the short or medium term (may be worth having a “loss-leader” to capture a customer, if you can get them to buy in the future)

Average order values are different for every site. For Market Quarter they are around £30 including shipping.
The costs include products, packaging, shipping, labour, wastage, advertising, cost of ecommerce site, hosting etc

Conversion rate: Only 1-3% of customers to a site buy (2 in every hundred visitors)
Click-through rate: Only 1-5% of people who see an ad click (2 in every 10,000 who see the ad, buy)
Typical display advertising might cost £20 CPM (per 1000 impressions)
10,000 impressions might cost £200 and generate £60 in sales (bad business!)

Your questions

Why is PPC considered to be a good form of advertising if fewer than 5% of people click through? How effective is PPC? Do these ads really work? Surely no one clicks on them because they are so boring.

http://investor.google.com/releases/2008Q3_google_earnings.html

Would it be beneficial if my key word is the same as my title on the google ad ?

Yes and you can do that automatically using the format

What difference does it make when you decide to pay 1p for PPC than £1?

Whether you ad is shown
How high up the page your ad is shown
How often your ad is shown

Why is Google only allowing 25 characters for the headline and why capitalization is not allowed?

To fit in with Search results and to stop everyone shouting.

How much do companies really pay for PPC?

http://www.spyfu.com/uk/

How does the pricing really work?

How can you track the effectiveness of your ads?

How profitable can adSense be for a website?

How does this compare with banner advertising?

How does this compare with advertising in a newspaper?

http://www.mediapack.ie/assocnews/rates.htm

Are there any adverts that are charged based on how long a customer spends on the site?

Other models including Pay-Per-Action are being trialled.

What do you think?

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