Trust Google to take the Pay-Per-Click concept to the next level. Many of the protocols inherent in Google’s AdWords program are now being adopted (or copied) by other services. (LookSmart and Overture come to mind.)
Is AdWords better than your average PPC?In some ways, it’s better and more flexible. And in some other ways, it’s worse. The AdWords program is definitely much harder to wrap your head around, and it’s definitely a lot easier to lose money at! However, once you do grasp its power, you will become a convert!
So what makes AdWords different?With Yahoo!, it’s pretty easy to figure out where you are going to appear in the rankings for your selected keywords. All you have to do is determine your bid level, and the corresponding position is yours until someone outbids you. Ultimately, your involvement depends on your budget. The AdWords program isn't nearly so transparent.
It does take a little a longer to get into the swing of things with AdWords, but once you do, the flexibility of the program and its ability to serve up ads to an extremely targeted audience are powerful positives indeed. And, of course, there is Google’s huge search network to consider!
Google AdWords does drive more traffic, and it does better reflect the monetization value of keywords. Bidding the same keyword to the same position may cost you less at Yahoo!, but Google tends to bring you more clicks, impressions and conversions (i.e., they deliver your Most Wanted Response more often).
Google also has a much smoother signup process…https://adwords.google.com/select/
And they have an excellent demo...
http://services.google.com/tutorial/awsignup/awsignup.html
The full Google AdWords FAQ is at...
https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US
So proceed through the sign-up process, set up a test campaign, and try to determine whether this service is right for you. (No purchase, or intent to purchase is necessary).
Monetize It! will help you find excellent PPC opportunities. Besides pointing out what new content you should be creating (high value keywords that have no page yet, or are not ranking well yet), it also helps you build terrific, high ROI PPC campaigns (“buy low”) and where to focus your AdSense ads (“sell high”).
Monetize It! (MI!) pulls data together data in ways that Google and Yahoo! never will...• compare Google and Yahoo! pricing and predicted clicks
• tie Google and Yahoo! information to how each keyword ranks in SE HQ
• generate a bottom line dollar value (“Keyworth”) for each keyword.
If you are an experienced PPC marketer, you understand the power and convenience of having this data all in one place, visible at a sweep. Google will never tell you what Yahoo! is charging, and vice-versa. And it’s tedious to check the status of each of your pages for each keyword, or if you’ve even created a page with a topic that focuses on that keyword.
Monetize It! is part of SBI!’s comprehensive, integrated system.
Time to wrap up DAY 8... Pay-Per-Click advertising is a good way to bolster or supplement the free traffic you are obtaining from your highly optimized Keyword-Focused Content Pages. PPCs can bring you guaranteed, targeted and cheap traffic.
The keyword lists that you build through this research have two other benefits. Use them to seed more ideas for high-value content. These lists will also help you to decide where you will place ads (through the Google’s AdSense program). You don’t want to make your site look too commercial, with ads on every page. Instead, place ads on the “money-makers.”
Before proceeding to DAY 9, please complete your DAY 8 Goal-of-the-DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...
Ongoing Goal... With PPC advertising, you are spending money to make money. Track and monitor your campaigns so that you know where you are getting your best ROI. Google and Yahoo! both provide tools (called “Conversion Tracking”) that allow you to track clicks right through to conversion. SBI! has its tracking tools to help you verify click-reporting.
Before you launch your first PPC campaign, it’s a good idea to start an e-zine (or at least your own RSS feed). After all, you’re paying good money to get those visitors to your site. It would be nice to be able to reach those who like your material over and over again.
Put on your editor’s hat and let’s go…