Increase your Website Sales in 2 weeks, by using Pay Per Click

Google Adwords PPC: the fastest sales generating mechanism ever....

The digital marketing power of a PPC campaign is 6-fold:

• that your ad is shown thousands of times a day for free, until somebody clicks; then you pay a small fee of on the average $0.15 (USD) per click;
• that the clicking customer is the targeted one; browsers-only (tire-kickers) can be excluded easely by using negative keywords and a good ad/website-match.
• that you will never overspend planned budget; you can set your daily click-budget as low as $1 /day.
• that it is lightning fast to set up; after first (SEO-based) analysis, your ad can be shown within hours, and you can receive the first customers on your website from that moment on.
• that the ad campaign is extremely targeted; you can target your ad to specific countries (even cities, in the USA) and search languages.
• that the ad-campaign can be run for hundreds of keywords at a time, allowing many relevant user-searches & clicks; wheras conventional "free" search allows for only up to 15 (mainly title-related) keywords at a time.

Influence of Google Instant on PPC

PPC: the best ad placings

Click both pictures to enlarge

Above you see two screenshots. The left screenshot shown is the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) shown for a specific query on Google. The arrows indicate the areas where the Search Engine Optimization (SEO, also called "organic") results and Pay Per Click ads (PPC, also called "sponsored links") appear.
The right screenshot displayed is a so-called "heatmap" of the Google search screen, showing the areas in red where people focus on when they use Google. Yellow and blue colours indicate areas of less focus.
From the second image it becomes clear that a website which wants to be seen, needs to be in the top left hot spot; this hot spot is occupied by SEO results as well as PPC ads.
For most of our customers we recommend to use a combination of PPC+SEO, as the plans are complementary; they re-inforce eachother. A PPC plan assures fast ranking (in less then 2 weeks) and ROI (less then 3 months), while an SEO plan generally takes 4-6 months or more to take effect. More over, the PPC Plan provides excellent feedback on popular (and converting) keywords and keyphrases used, which input is very useful for the SEO plan.
So we advice to use a PPC plan first (while developing and implementing the SEO plan), and as soon as the SEO plan has effect, out-phase the PPC Plan.

PPC; the approach

• Mass product advertising worldwide (e.g. coffee);
• Mass product advertising in a niche consumer market (e.g. men's shoes in NY);
• Niche product advertising worldwide (e.g. caviar);
• Niche product advertising in a niche consumer market (e.g. surfboards in LA).

Many customers ask us: how many adwords to use? There is no golden rule, but on the average ANY campaign can run efficiently with 20-100 words. Having a so-called "universe of 500-1000 keywords" is used frequently by us in the initial stages, but after a few weeks the core-words will settle down to just 50 or so. Focus always should be on the ones generating conversions (leads, sales), and that group usually will be not larger then 50.

PPC; the 4 Key Success Factors (KSF's)

Every keyword targeted PPC campaign has 4 KSF’s (=key success factors, in this case filters):

• 1: the keyword used; is it searched after or not; if not, the ad will not show.
• 2: the ad-text itself: is it appealing for the user to click, when he/she sees the ad.
• 3: the match (relevance) between the PPC ad text and the website landing page; does the user get what he/she expects, or do they backout on the first page-view.
• 4: the website-pitch; is the sales-pitch on the website landing page good or insufficient; can the website convert user-clicks into leads and sales. A good website has a linear path towards the sales-page, motivating a user into a sale, de-motivating de-tours or worse, click-aways to other websites.

For a brief on the E-marketing cycle, and to see where and how PPC fits in, see the picture below. The red lines (from bottom to top) show where feedback from the PPC campaign parameters is used as input its tuning, which is done in iterations, step-wise.

PPC; the cost

By the proper selection of adwords we target to achieve (even in bidding wars) that you will never pay more than 50% of the industry average CPC (of the market segment you are in). We target to accomplish this because Google rewards ad-RELEVANCE, measured by maximum bid and CTR (click through rate); your ads will show above the ones bidding more, provided your ad-CTR is higher. We specialize in high-CTR (>2%) and low-CPC (<50% of industry-average) campaigns via iterative tuning; see the "tracking and tuning" chapter for proof and references.

We have extensive expertise in PPC programs, especially the ones from Google Adwords, Overture, now Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter. The minimum CPC (Cost Per Click) for Google campaigns is $0.05, the one for Overture campaigns is $0.10.
Whereas Google PPC ads are shown as "sponsored links" on the Google screen and on AOL, Ask Jeeves, and Compuserve screens, Overture PPC ads will appear as sponsored links only on MSN and CNN (and not anymore on Yahoo, Altavista, and Infospace, like before).
Though Overture started as early as in 1998 with PPC, Google Adwords PPC essentially took over the major portion of the PPC market after its launch in 2002.

Until Q1 2006, up to about 250 PPC programs were set up and managed by us; please check our references page. PPC campaings with maximum daily budgets ranging from $5/day up to $2000/day were set up; with websites acquiring 30 up to 6000 clicks/day.

PPC; break even point and ROI (Return On Investment)

• Suppose there are 100000 queries/month for a specific word, worldwide; source: Wordtracker or Traffic Estimator tool from Google).
• If the word is an english word, it will most likely only be searched after by the english speaking community on the web; which is 540 million people (2010 data; see internet languages) large.
  If the word is an international word or name like "adidas"; the number of people able to look for it form a much larger group: about 700 million (chinese, japanese, korean and russian are excluded). In the example here we will work with an english word being searched after.
• So the search-word is english; now suppose the PPC target audience is the USA. The USA population comprises about 340 million people (2010 stats) of which 270 million are online; source: internet stats.
  These 270 million are 50% of the 540 million english enquiring internet users worldwide (2010 stats); so 50% of 100000 queries= 50000 queries/month or 1700/day.
• Suppose the cost of click on that specific word is $0.20 (sources: Yahoo Search Marketing Bid Tool and Traffic Estimator tool from Google).
• Now suppose that the CTR of the ad is 2%; so on 1000 impressions there are 20 clicks. These 20 clicks then cost 20 * $0.20= $4.
• Next suppose that the conversion-rate (of clicks into sales) per click is 2%; so there are 2 sales on 100 clicks.
• Cost per sales then is $20 / 2= $10.
• If the margin per sale > $10 the PPC campaign is above break even.
• Concluding: as the USA target market generates about 1700 queries/day (see item 3 above); the number of clicks/day will be close to 51 (at 3% conversion) at a total PPC cost of $10.20 (cpc=$0.20), and the number of sales/day then will be close to 1 (at 2% conversion), with a cost/sale of $10.

Large PPC accounts; automated bidding

Note the current standard Adwords account maxima:
--maximum 25 (active) campaigns within 1 account;
--maximum 100 (active) adgroups within 1 campaign;
--maximum 2000 adwords per adgroup;
--maximum 50000 adwords per account (hard limit).
Concerning upload maxima for Overture/YSM, the manual (per screen) maximum is 500 and the bulk upload is 5000 (per session); for MSN Adcenter the manual (per screen) maximum is 200 and the total bulk account upload maximum is 10000.
For Google Adwords one can calculate, that, for large accounts with many adwords (say the maximum of 2000 adwords per adgroup), there is an adgroup maximum of 25. If a lower number of adwords per adgroup is used (say 1000), 50 adgroups are allowed, and so on.
Our PPC optimization offering is for normal SME (small & medium enterprise) accounts with a maximum of 50000 keywords and/or 100 ads; for larger accounts surcharges apply: 50000-100000 keywords and/or 200 ads: +50%; 100000-250000 keywords and/or 300 ads: +100%; and over 250000 keywords and/or 300 ads: contact us (note that for accounts with over 50000 keywords an automated bidding tool install is recommended).
We support the following automated bidding applications:

NB1: pricing stated is taken from the websites of the bidding tool suppliers; status 2008.
NB2: 60000 bid reviews equal e.g. 30000 keywords reviewed 2x/day, or 10000 keywords reviewed 6x/day.
For us to start using one of these tools, they need to be purchased first by our client, and hence will form part of the contract and pricing. The monthly (or yearly, when desired so) fee of the automated bidding tool is to be paid seperately by our client, direct to the bidding tool supplying company.

Organic Ranking (SEO) vs. Sponsored ads (PPC); How to choose?

• Speed: organic ranking can take up to 12 months; sponsored ranking only takes 24 hours;
• Range: organic ranking is only possible for 10-15 keywords; sponsored ranking is possible for thousands of keywords;
• Stability: organic rankings can drop overnight with search algorithm changes; sponsored rankings are much more stable;
• Cost: organic rankings are free; sponsored rankings are paid per click, and can suffer from click fraud;
• Targeting: sponsored rankings can be shown per time of day or per geographic region; organic rankings cannot
• Media: sponsored ads can show rich media like banners and video ads, organic rankings basically only show text (though this is changing with google universal).
• Audience: organic rankings are shown to all people, sponsored ads can be targeted per website (adsense style) and audience demographics (gender, age, income group).

CPM (Cost Per Mil) campaigns

CPM (cost per mil) is the classic banner model, where the advertiser pays a publisher per each 1000 ad impressions.
Google offers CPM ads on content related sites (google calls this "content targeting") or specifically chosen websites (called "site targeting"). Site targeting was introduced in 2005, and renamed to "placement targeting" in 2007.
Since 2008 a combination of PPC ads ("keyword targeting") and placement targeting is offered by google,. allowing ads to be shown on specific websites, for specific keywords. When this option is used, payment can be per click or per 1000 impressions.
The KSF’s (Key Success Factors) of placement-targeted CPM ads are the same as for PPC targeted ads with one additional KSF; the success/failure of the CPM ad is for a large (at least 80%) part determined by an additional, fifth KSF. KSF #5 for site-targeted ads is User Group Relevance; if the website user group does not (very) closely match the requested target group, the CPM’s will go to waste, and the clicks (if any) will be absent or non-relevant, not generating leads or sales. CTR’s close to 0% will be the result; even at extreme high CPM bids (and daily cost).
So it is crucial to choose the website targets very carefully. It is basically a trial and error process; starting with a large enough group of target websites, and next focussing more and more on the converting ones. The process of website selection can also be sped up by using the combination of keyword+placement targeting; however, the number of ads shown per website will be on the low side then.

Adsense

PPC Plans

Our PPC Plans include:

• Website landing page (quality score) optimization
  • Competitor research
  • SWOT (strength/weakness/opportunity/threat) research
  • Keyword and google trends research
  • SERP (search engine result page) research
  • Landing page SEO settings optimization
  • Landing page sales pitch optimization
  • Click flow and menu optimization
  • Google Pagerank Optimization
  • Google Analytics and Google Sitemap install (when needed)
  • Google Analytics Goal synchronization with Adwords
  • Advice on Social Media Optimization(Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/YouTube/Google Wave/Press Releases)
• PPC campaign optimization
  • Campaign structure optimization
  • Campaign settings optimization
  • Adgroup structure optimization
  • Ad text, ad title, and display URL optimization
  • Ad position optimization
  • CTR maximization
  • CPC minimization
  • Conversion maximization
  • Cost/conversion minimization
  • Split (A/B) testing of ads
  • Keyword Quality Score optimization
  • PPC Conversion script install (when needed)
• An extensive (30 page) PPC analysis report, with all details and planned optimization steps explained

• Targets:
  • Ad position top5
  • View to click conversion (CTR) >1%
  • Cost per click (CPC) below 50% of industry average for the market segment involved
  • Click to Lead conversion >10%
  • Click to Sale conversion >2%

  
  

  	PPC Professional Optimization Plan	PPC Time-Material Interim Plan	PPC Small Business Year Plan	PPC Enterprise Year Plan
  Plan Description	Fast track Development & Upgrade plan for existing as well as new PPC campaigns	Interim Maintenance plan for Startup PPC campaigns with a daily budget spend <$50	Maintenance yearplan for PPC campaigns with daily a budget spend between $50-$200	Maintenance yearplan for PPC campaigns with daily a budget spend >$200
  Time needed to implement	2 weeks	Interim maintenance solution; can start any time	Can start immediately after Professional Plan is done first	Can start immediately after Professional Plan is done first
  Fine Tuning	Daily during 6 weeks	Depending on Time & Material used	Daily during 1 year	Daily during 1 year
  Workload (manhours spent per item are between () ) . .	-Competit.research(8) -Keyword research(8) -Landingpage optim(4) -SEO/PPC rept(16) -Campaign creation(4) -Ad split testing(4) -PPC fine tuning(22)	-Daily tuning(6) -Monthly report(10) . . .	-Daily tuning(5-10) -Weekly reporting(6) -Monthly report(10) -CPA scenarios(2-4) -Landingpage tuning(2) .	-Daily tuning(15-30) -Weekly reporting(8) -Monthly report(14) -CPA scenarios(4) -Landingpage tuning(4) .
  Manhours spent (see "Workload" details above)	44 (campaign creation) plus 22 hours tuning=66	12-20 month (depending on T+M allocated)	25-32 per month (depending on account size)	45-60 per month (depending on account size)
  Hourly fees	$37/hour for cam- paign development	$27/hour for campaign maintenance	$27/hour for campaign maintenance	$27/hour for campaign maintenance
  Total Fee (=Manhours spent * hourly fee)	66 hrs * $37= $2450 (one time fee)	Average 16 hrs * $27= $430 (monthly fee)	28 hrs * $27= $750 (monthly fee)	52 hrs * $27= $1450 (monthly fee)
  Monthly Fee NB: the margin per conversion can be negative; if we do not reach a certain nr of conversions, we pay you back	Not relevant; it is a 2 month duration project	Minimum monthly fee of $325	Fixed monthly fee of $750 or 10% of monthly ad spending plus an agreed margin per PPC conversion	Fixed monthly fee of $1450 or 5% of monthly ad spending plus an agreed margin per PPC conversion
  Targets (*)	1: Ad posit 1-5 2: CTR >1% 3: CPC <50% maxbid	Targets are open to negotiation, Depending on T+M used.	1: Ad posit 1-5 2: CTR >1% 3: CPC <50% maxbid	1: Ad posit 1-5 2: CTR >1% 3: CPC <50% maxbid
  Targets (**)	1: Lead Conv >10% 2: Sales Conv >2% 3: SE rank in top10	Targets are open to negotiation, Depending on T+M used.	1: Lead Conv >10% 2: Sales Conv >2% 3: SE rank in top10	1: Lead Conv >10% 2: Sales Conv >2% 3: SE rank in top10
  Max # keywords (***)	50000 per PPC account (***)	50000 per PPC account (***)	50000 per PPC account (***)	250000
  Max # PPC campaigns	25 per PPC account	Depending on T+M used	25 per PPC account	100 Targets are open to negotiation, Depending on T+M used.
  Covered PPC Platforms (Adwords, YahooSM, Adcenter)	1	1	1	all 3
  FREE addition of new (related) PPC campaigns after project start:	1	Depending on T+M used	5	10
  PPC Stats Reporting	Every day during week 1-2, then every week, from week 3-8	Every 7 or 30 days, depending on T+M allocated	Every 7 days, plus extensive monthly report	Every 7 days, plus extensive monthly report
  Click Fraud detection & prevention	Y	Y	Y	Y
  Google Analytics install & analysis	Y	Y	Y	Y
  Landing page optimization & quality score tuning	Y	Depending on T+M used	Y	Y
  24/7 Helpdesk support	Y	Y	Y	Allocated Team
  Minimum subscription period	Not relevant	1 month	3 months	3 months

  
  *: targets are only valid for the Year plans if the Professional Plan is implemented first.
  **: a Top10 SE (search engine) natural rank in Google is only targeted if the Homepage pagerank equals a top5 value.
  ***: The PPC optimization offering is for normal SME (small & medium enterprise) accounts with a maximum of 50000 keywords and/or 100 ads; for larger accounts surcharges apply: 50000-100000 keywords and/or 100-200 ads: +50%; 100000-250000 keywords and/or 200-300 ads: +100%; and over 250000 keywords and/or >300 ads: contact us (note that for accounts with over 50000 keywords an automated bidding tool install is recommended).