Pay-Per-Click Ads: Should You Use Them? - Choosing Words
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You want to gain a lot of traffic from your pay-per-click ads, so why not choose all the most popular words and phrases you can think of? Keywords like Paris Hilton, money and golf get searched all the time -- so why not make up some ads with those words and call it a day?
Unless your site is actually about the golfing habits of celebrities like Paris Hilton and the money they spend on the sport, choosing those keywords probably isn’t a good idea. First and foremost, you want to choose words which are somehow relevant to your site; otherwise, it’s a little bit of false advertising, isn’t it? Remember, your ads aren’t just ads but links which will take users to your pages. If they click on golf, they’re going to expect to see golf.
Choose keywords for your ad that you actually have within the content of your site. If you really do have pages of content on the subject of golf, words like improve your golf swing, putter and caddy may help you form the bulk of your pay-per-click campaign. Your ads are going to crop up when people search for Web content, so try to give them exactly what they’re looking for. If they visit your link and feel immediately dissatisfied, it’s just bad for business.
You may know exactly which words you want to have for your pay-per-click ads, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to get all the words and phrases you desire. If nothing else, pay-per-click is popular. Popularity in marketing methods means more competition for you.
In many cases, you will actually have to bid on the words you want. You’ll pick and choose words from a list, each word and phrase having its own cost (generally from one to fifty cents per keyword). Everyone else who wants to use those words will have an ample shot at using them also, and sometimes you may have to share keywords with several other businesses. No one can have a monopoly in pay-per-click.
After keywords are checked for your availability, you’ll make the final decision on which ones you’d like to use. Now all you have to do is associate an ad (your sponsored link) with each keyword, and wait for the traffic to roll in.
Creating the Ads
If you want to tempt traffic, you want to know how to create great ads. Almost any keywords you could choose will crop up in someone’s search at some point, and with pay-per-click you’re all but guaranteed pretty good sponsored link placement even if you choose only a very small number of keywords. All the words in the world won’t help if your links are hard to notice or unexciting. It may cost you money when it happens, but the real goal of pay-per-click is to get people to actually click. You want them to visit your site, don’t you?
The link itself isn’t the most important aspect of the ad; it’s the small description which appears just under the link that matters. You know how it works. Say the link reads “Find Great Music.” The words under the link read “buy, sell and trade the greatest tunes of the ages at the online music exchange -- forums, marketplace and tunes 24/7.” And you click, because you love music as much as the next guy. And that’s how marketing works. Make them click to make your campaign a success.
Remember to keep your ad short, simple and easy to read. Don’t use cumbersome or hard-to-spell words; approach people in a casual, friendly tone. You want the ad to bring them to action, so encourage viewers to click and to visit your pages.
Next: Another Way to Pay-Per-Click >>
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