Pay-Per-Click campaigns are an immediate source of traffic to your Web site or blog, and can potentially be a crucial part of your marketing success. Before you jump in head first, though, I would like to provide a guide on how to go about starting a PPC program.

1. Determine the Goals and Objectives of your PPC campaign
2. Determine your budget
3. Create a landing page
4. Choose a PPC network
5. Research keywords and key phrases
6. Create the ads you will use
7. Turn your ads on
8. Measure your success
9. Revisit, and make one change to your campaign
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9

Determine the Goals and Objectives of your PPC campaign

This obvious, yet crucial step is necessary to determine the success of your campaign. Typically, the major objectives are:

1. To make a sale
2. To obtain a lead
3. To get a phone call or visit to your business
4. To brand your company, blog, Web site
5. To make money from your Web site through affiliate programs, etc.

If you take the “I’ll just get traffic, and see what happens” approach, you do not have clearly defined or measurable goals. Some of the above objectives are easier to measure than others, but success in anything has some sort of relative measurement, So, determine what your goal is, and make future changes accordingly.

Determine Your Budget

This step is a bit like taking a trip to Vegas. Take as much as you can afford to lose. The first time you start a PPC campaign, you need to realize that just because you are paying for clicks does not guarantee anything. You must be able to afford to lose money for a short time, until you are able to measure, analyze, and adjust your campaign until you reach scalable metrics.

Create a Landing Page

This is yet another crucial step that you should not ignore. A landing page is the page that your visitors will reach when they click on your ad. The landing page should include a means to your end goal or objective. For instance, if your objective is to make a sale, your landing page should include the product(s) you wish to sell, a clear call-to-action, and a quick and easy way to make a purchase. If you want to acquire a lead, you must present a need or desire that will be fulfilled by the user submitting their information, and a form that is either on the page or maximum 1 click away, and is as simple as you can possibly make it. I will explain more about landing pages in a later post, as this is another topic that can be greatly expanded upon, but the poing of creating a landing page is to send your visitors directly to what they were looking for when they typed in a search term, and then clicked on your ad.

Choose a PPC network

There are many PPC networks to choose from, but to start, choosing one of major search engines is your best bet, as you will get the best measurement of success, more volume, and higher-quality clicks. If you haven’t already heard, the top 3 are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter. You can typically find deals for signing up, like free credits.

Research Search Terms

Once you sign up with your provider, you will be able to use their built-in keyword tools to find keywords to add to your campaign. You want to choose the most relevant terms for your campaign, and determine how popular your search terms are. You can also do this without opening an account by using some of the free keyword research tools, such as Yahoo’s keyword suggestion tool or Google’s free keyword tool. There are also many great programs out there like WordTracker and Web CEO. Use these tools by entering some of the key phrases in your landing page. For instance, this blog is about PPC campaigns, so I would type that in, and the tool will give you other suggestions, and an average number of searches you can expect. This helps to broaden your keyword base, but getting too broad will result in non-relevant clicks to your site, which have less potential to create conversions. Try different combinations of keywords and key phrases, and measure which ones give you the best conversions.

This is the conclusion of “How to Start a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Part 1″. Check back or better yet, subscribe to this blog for Part 2. In the meantime, start on these first steps, get your goals set, and do your research. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know your thoughts. Happy marketing!

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If you are looking to start a pay-per-click campaign as a part of your internet marketing plan, these resources will help you get off to a great start. The first three are the main 3 networks (first-tier, tier A).

Google AdWords

This is the most popular network for online advertising, although cost-per-click is usually much higher.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

Yahoo! Sponsored Search connects businesses and customers online. Sign up and get a $25 credit.

Microsoft AdCenter

Advertising on AdCenter network seems to have lower volume, but I have experienced higher conversion rates. The cost-per-click for keywords tends to be cheaper than Google or Yahoo.

Enhance Interactive

Pay-per-click traffic for only $0.03 per click. Enhance Interactive knows your needs. Signup today and get $25 in Free Clicks!

Miva

Get $25 Bonus Pay-Per-Click Ad Credits.Click here.

Search123

Extend your reach with Search 123.

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If you are a using blogging as part of your internet marketing strategy (and you are crazy if you are not), it is a good idea to sign up for the top Social Networking sites. By signing up for these, and submitting your blog, you can quickly spread the word about the topic you are posting, and will attract the search engines to you almost immediately. Enjoy!

1. Technorati
2. Digg
3. Reddit
4. StumbleUpon
5. Blog Catalog
6. Furl
7. Del.icio.us
8. Newsvine
9. Squidoo
10. LinkedIn

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Do you use these social media sites? Are there more that you use or that are your favorites? Let us know.

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Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the practice of achieving traffic to your website through search engines by methods including: Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Blogging, Affiliate programs, Email, and link-building, to name a few.

Search Engine Marketing can be broken down into paid and non-paid methods. A good mixture of both is ideal, as it may take some time to acquire traffic through natural or organic SEO.

Non-paid or SEO includes the following methods:

• Web site optimization
• Blogging
• Link Building
• Social Media Marketing
• Directory inclusions

Paid methods include:

• Pay-Per-Click
• Pay-for-Performance
• Affiliate Programs
• Targeted Ad Placement
• Paid Placement Inclusions

A good SEM plan involves a solid strategy and approach, as well as identifying the results you wish to achieve with your SEM campaign. Are you looking for traffic, leads, sales, branding….all of these and more? In order to measure how successful your SEM campaign is, you must first determine your goals, and have a way to measure them. This, in turn, gives you a benchmark in which to figure out what works, and what doesn’t.

If you are attempting SEM without using a professional company or individual, choose a couple of the free methods to begin with, and as your budget allows, give PPC a shot. This should be enough to give you a start, and be able to test these methods on your site without becoming completely overwhelmed.

If I were to choose 2 methods to begin with, I would start with SEO on your website, and one of the 3 PPC programs )Google, Yahoo or MSN). After getting your feet wet, and seeing the results, you can then progressively add methods. Once this gets to be more time consuming than your business can handle, I strongly recommend hiring a professional. This will give you more time to focus on your business, and a better chance at being successful.

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