Your taking the leap, your going to allocate a portion of your marketing spend to advertising on the internet. Pay per click the most obvious choice is also probably involved in the most internet marketing blunders I’ve seen. For some reason companies think if they throw money at it success will follow, when really there are steps that must be taken to ensure your foray into PPC is worthwhile. What are some of the biggest issues I see on a regular basis, the margins and data.
- The product. What are you selling and how much are you willing to spend to acquire a single customer? If you haven’t figured this out you better.
- Data. You can never have enough data. Analytic’s is key with any pay per click campaign and with out it your flying blind. Improper information can lead to a big waste of money.
With any campaign you should know what your willing to spend and you should have the tracking in place to show you your CPA (Cost per acquisition). Without these two items you might as well just walk down the street and pay random people one dollar and hope they do something that benefits your business.
If your not tracking what users are doing from the time they click the ad to the time they leave your website you will not be running a successful online marketing campaign.
Look at Google Analytic’s as an example. You can define and track conversions and assess whether your marketing efforts are working or need work. If your not watching, then your not effectively managing your PPC. Advertising your business on search engines is a constant process, one that needs constant attention. Search habits, buying patterns and competition are always changing so you need to keep up.
Create, Monitor, Adjust … Rinse and Repeat. PPC can me a valuable marketing channel if done right.
I have visited your port before. The more I read, the more I keep coming back! ;-P