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Per Click - Step 5 Ranking
Ask Susan - Tip of the Month
April 2004
There are 6 major steps to effectively use paid advertising
on the Web.
1) Which
key phrases (search terms) to use?
2) Which
service has the best price for each key phrase today?
3) What
is the most effective wording to bring in customers? 4) How
much should I spend and how do I control the spending?
5) What ranking
do I want and how to I keep it there?
6) How do I know which advertisements
are bringing in customers and which ones are wasting my money?
Today
we look at Step 5: "What ranking do I want and how to I keep it there?" You
have a list of key phrases and ads written for each one. In last months' newsletter,
you learned to set a budget and control the spending to get the "most bank for
your buck". Now you need to decide what "ranking" you want.
Is it always
worth bidding for the #1 spot?
NO - and here is why:
1) You can
start or escalate a bidding war. People get carried away trying to beat out their
competition and end up paying more than a visitor is worth to their business.
This can drive up the prices very quickly.
2) People shopping on the Web are
shopping and will often check out several listings from one search. We see similar
"click through rates" (number times the ad is shown to number of visitors) for
the first three places.
3) People who are shopping like to do "due diligence"
and will often research three choices before making a decision. So the third place
position often shows better conversion rates for big ticket items and major decisions.
And - it costs less!! A win-win.
Top three rankings also influence
where your ads are shown.
Ads that are shown in the top positions on Google
are also shown on affiliate search engines such as AOL. Overture's top listings
appear in search results on Yahoo, MSN, CNN and others. The cost is the same per
click. This may or may not improve your customer reach, you can only tell by tracking
results. We will discuss this in detail next month.
So how do you control
the ranking or position where your ad will appear?
You can check your
ranking a few times a day and adjust your bid for each ad or you can use a tool
like GoToast (www.gotoast.com) where you can specify a ranking and a maximum bid
amount and GoToast will adjust your bid a few times a day. It even adjusts it
DOWN when possible to save you money. GoToast will help manage both Google AdWords
and Overture bids. There are other good tools, but that is the one I use.
Next month we'll talk about: "How
do I know which advertisements are bringing in customers
and which ones are wasting my money?"
We are getting amazing results
with pay per click advertising. It takes planning, time and attention.
Regards,
Susan Hankins
Geoffrey Day
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