In this article I’ll look at at how you can run a mini PPC campaign and avoid the pitfalls that cause a lot of marketers to lose more money than they make.
The way to begin is to run a small advertising campaign so that you are not risking too much of your cash at the outset.
If your monthly PPC budget is $100, you can set a cap on the PPC campaign when you enter your details into the Adwords Campaign Settings. You can always remove the cap when you have discovered what works. However, at the start you will need to keep within the constraints of your budget until you have found a formula that works for you.
It would also be sensible to to set the maximum cost per conversion. For example, if your earnings per sale are $10, and your montly PPC advertising budget is $100, you’ll need to get a minimum of ten sales to break even. Your eleventh sale would yield you a modest profit. With a 2% conversion rate, you need to get 500 click-throughs to break even. In that case, your maximum cost per click (CPC) should be no more than twenty cents. (20 cents x 500 = $100.)
When working with Adwords Campaign Settings, be sure to opt for “Set a separate bid for content network impressions”.
Find several keyword phrases that attract a reasonable amount of searches, and don’t go over you CPC limit. Avoid general or vague keywords.
Also, try to get your ad into third position rather than the top two spots. You will save cash when you bid and can still expect to get a good flow of visitors to your site.
When it comes to writing your ad copy, keep in mind the fact that you are limited to just ninety-five characters, so you don’t have a lot of space in which to attract attention.
Don’t just write one ad for you campaign. Compose several variations so that you can compare your results and replace the one that attracts fewest clicks.
Google Adwords will also be tracking your ads for their performance and once they’ve got enough statistical data they will show the ad with the best click through rate (CTR) more often.
As well as testing your advertisements, you need to test your landing pages. Split your Adwords campaign into two, and point the advertisements to two slightly different landing pages. Make one feature of the second landing page different from the first and check which version performs better.
A successful PPC campaign is built on testing and fine-tuning every possible variable the keywords, the CPC, the adverts, the landing pages. Keep within your spending limit until you have developed a successful PPC campaign.
