Ok Im launching my first PPC program for spanishlearningtools.com And want to start a budget of $30 a month. And was wondering how to make the initial cpc around 0.5 - 0.10 Also I was wondering how to pick the "Right" keywords to get sales. Thanks
Congrats on starting your first PPC campaign. If done correctly they can bring in some great traffic. Here's how I would do it: Before you get started on any marketing campaign, you need a way to measure the results you are getting. If you are not analyzing what keywords are bringing you the best return, you are just throwing your money away. Sure AdWords & YSM will tell you how many clicks you are getting, but what you really need to know is, "What did the visitor do on my site?" How many pages did they look at... how long did they stay... did they convert? You are going to want to study this because this is going to tell you which keywords you should be putting your money into, and which ones you shouldn't. With that said, you are going to need a good analytics program. Google Analytics is free, and despite the fact that Google will know what people are doing on your site, I still recommend it. Whatever you choose, make sure you study its functionality and know for sure that you can track your PPC performance on a keyword level, and how to do it. Once you've got that ready, you are going to need to figure out what keywords to bid on. You'll do fine with some of the basic keyword research tools like: - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ or - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Start by researching the broadest concept of your site, like "Spanish", so you can gather the related words like, "learn Spanish", and then keep expanding until you've found everything you can think of. When you are looking at the keyword result, just use common sense and knock out the ones that don't really apply to your site. For example, if the point of the site is to assist in learning the language, perhaps "Spanish dictionary" is not relevant ...although it may be. Trust your judgment. Now choose where you want to advertise. Google, Yahoo, and MSN all have their own program, and between those three you're reaching about 90% of all searchers. With a budget of about $30 a month, however, you are going to want to make that money stretch, which means you probably want the cheapest keywords on the market. MSN generally has the lowest CPC, as there is not as much competition, but you can sometimes get a decent price for Google keywords if the competition is low. A word of caution, however... MSN still takes about three - five days to have your keywords approved, while Google and Yahoo are pretty much instant approval. Don't get stuck in the trap of thinking that Google is better, just because it is bigger. That is not the case. Use your analytics program to tell you which one is the best. You will find that, although some keywords rock on one search engine, they totally tank on the other. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze!! One more thing... I would start with "content match" turned off. With limited funds, you are going to get your best results with search only ads. The reason for this is that people who are searching are actively looking for a solution to their problems, but people who stumble across your ad on a content site tend to be more curious. Another one more thing... Don't land everyone on your home page. Land them on the page that is most appropriate for what they are searching. If that happens to be the home page, so be it! Anyway... That's my $.02. I hope it helps!
My pleasure... I've been doing PPC for years and have managed some million dollar accounts, so it was fairly easy to write this up ...and I was more than happy to do so If you need anything else, let me know.