Custom Website Design News

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has become a very popular and effective way to drive traffic to a website. With search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing promoting certifications in their pay-per-click programs, it is clear that this new form of advertising isn’t going anywhere. Google Adwords, the leader in pay-per-click advertising, along with its competitors have created ways to make pay-per-click advertising easy and cost effective. The concept is the same across the board; pick your targeting keywords, create a sponsored ad or link and only pay for each click.

Before diving into pay-per-click advertising it is best to analyze which methods are best for your company and if it will truly benefit you. Some of advantages of pay-per-click advertising are:

• PPC is very targeted. You can decide the time of day and location (country, state, city, etc.) you want your ad to be seen.
• Your campaign can be turned on and off when you want it to be. This is ideal for testing the conversion rates for your website. You can learn when is the best time to achieve the highest conversion rates and set your campaign to turn on then or turn off when it’s not the most lucrative time.
• You pay for CPC (cost per click) in pay-per-click advertising versus cost per impression from traditional banner advertising. This means you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it, thus you really are paying only for the true traffic you are sent.

While the advantages are significant there are some aspects of pay-per-click advertising you need to be aware of before diving in that may be more disadvantageous to your company.

• As pay-per-click advertising gets more popular, there will be more competition for the top spots thus creating a higher cost to get to the top. This however, is not a major disadvantage as with all business comes the concept of supply and demand.
• Unlike SEO, it is easier for your competitors to outbid you in pay-per-click advertising, especially if they have a larger budget. With that said, spend your advertising dollars and pay-per-click budget wisely to ensure your not digging yourself an early grave.
• Keep track of your quality score. Google uses a quality score to determine how much they will charge you per click for each keyword chosen. The lower the score, the more they will charge.
• Don’t make a novice mistake by not tracking your ROI. Pay-per-click advertising may be easy at first but the whole point is to track your success. If you let it go, you will no doubt be throwing money down the drain.

So now looking at the advantages and disadvantages you may be a little disconcerted about the idea of using pay-per-click advertising, don’t be. Just be smart and hire someone to handle it for you. We, at Icon Website Design are experts in pay-per-click advertising, managing over $2 million dollars a year for our clients. To find out more, visit us at www.iconwebsitedesign.com

“How To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website” by Seth Rand

In order for a website to be successful, you need to have people visiting it, which is often known as website traffic. Of course, we are not just looking for website traffic. We are looking for targeted traffic to our website. Targeted traffic is defined as unique visitors to your website that are interested in the products and/or services being offered on your website, so that they have the potential of turning into a customer and/or client. The more targeted the traffic is, the higher conversion rate that you will have. Generally, the higher conversion rate that you have, the lower your cost per conversion (CPA) will be. 

Now the question is, how do we get targeted traffic to our website in a cost effective way, so that we can potentially have a positive ROI (return on investment)? These are some of options:1. Search Engine Marketing - The # 1 search of targeted traffic on the internet is search engine marketing. This includes the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, as well as the less used search engines, such as Ask, Altavista, AllTheWeb, HotBot, and Lycos. Because the person is searching for a keyword related to the products and/or services that your website offers, that means that there is a strong possibility that they will be the targeted traffic that you are seeking. The two primary ways of accomplishing this is generating organic targeted traffic through search engine optimization, or through pay per click marketing in the sponsored link area of the search engines.

  a. Search Engine Optimization - search engine optimization is the process of getting your web site in the top organic search engine results in the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN, in addition to Ask, Altavista, AllTheWeb, HotBot, and Lycos, for your website’s main target keywords and keyword phrases. This is often the most cost effective way to drive targeted traffic your website on a long term basis. For more info on available search engine optimization packages, visit http://www.iconwebsitedesign.com/.  

  b. Pay Per Click Marketing - You can get targeted traffic to your website immediately though platforms such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter. The ads can be in contextual ads, banner ads, or video ads. Pay per click marketing campaigns are highly customizable campaign, based on keywords, geotargeted area, date and time, maximum cost per click, and maximum daily budget.

2. CPM Marketing - this includes banner advertising, email marketing, text message marketing, fax marketing, and are usually paid for on a CPM (cost per thousand) impressions basis. These methods can be successful if done multiple times to the same market, but are often less cost effective than search engine marketing.

3. Social Media Marketing - This is the newest form of internet marketing. It involved using free accounts on high traffic websites, including social networking sites, social bookmarking websites, blogs, and forums, such as MySpace, FaceBook, Linkedin, YouTube and Digg. It can be very labor intensive if done correctly, but with little to no out-of-pocket expense.  

4. Affiliate Marketing - this can including online affiliates through major networks including Commission Junction and Linkshare, or real affiliate relationships tat extend beyond the internet.

5. Media Advertising - this including TV and Radio advertising. Media advertising can either be for branding purposes or for direct marketing purposes. If it is driving targeted traffic to your website, it would be considered direct marketing. 

6. Print Marketing - this can including direct mail campaign, utilizing door hangers, passing our flyers, newspaper advertising, and/or magazine advertising. For your graphic design and printing needs, I recommend Preferred Print.

In summary, there are many marketing options to drive targeted traffic to your website, however search engine marketing may be the most cost effective way.

Seth can be reached at seth@iconpress.com with any questions or comments related to this article, or for a free quote on any of your graphic design, printing, website design, and/or internet marketing implementation or consultation needs.