St. Louis Pay Per Click

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The last post covered the consideration and purchase stages of the consumer buying cycle. Once the client has moved through these stages, messages should concentrate on retention and company advocacy discussed below.  

Retention/Advocacy

Creating ads for customers at the retention stage means creating reasons for repeat purchases. One way to encourage repeat purchases is advertising complimentary products. With the dog collars example, if a customer just bought a dog collar from your store, it would only make sense that they would be in the market for a dog leash shortly after. Read the rest of this entry »

When writing ads for your product or service, it is important to consider the buying process consumers go through when deciding to purchase a product. For instance, a consumer that is in the awareness stage is gathering information and is not necessarily sure what he or she is looking for. In this case, you would use general keywords to capture a wide range of possible consumer searches. On the other hand, if you sell dog collars and you should also be prepared with keywords such as “buy dog collars” to capture consumers in the purchasing stage. There are six steps in the consumer buying cycle: awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. This blog will appear in three parts. Below are some helpful tips for creating targeted ads for consumers at the awareness and interest stages.
 

Awareness/Interest Stages

The awareness/interest stages in the buying process occur when the consumer identifies a need that he or she desires to fulfill. In order to meet this need, the buyer is going to gather information to determine the product or service that will best address his or her need. Consumers today are much more technically savvy, so it is likely that the internet is the first place they will go to gather information. With this in mind, it is important to have a pay per click message that will grab the consumers attention from the beginning. The message at this stage should be informational. Going with the dog collar example, a possible keyword at this stage would be dog collar, with a broad match. This will allow you to capture additional keywords that consumers are searching for at this stage, as well as help to ensure that your ad is more likely to show up.

Once they develop interest in the product or service you sell, they will look for further information on both the products and companies. It is important to give them as much information as possible at this stage as they will compare your company to your competitors. The ad’s landing page should provide the consumer with an overview of your products/services and their features. During this stage, consumers will begin evaluating the information they have gathered. They have information on their top companies and a list of criteria to judge them against.

Tracking conversions generated by pay per click advertising is getting much easier for strictly e-commerce websites. Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, and other pay per click advertising networks are providing tracking script solutions to advertisers. Advertisers can place source codes in each ads destination url to capture information on click referrers. They can also use tracking scripts provided by the networks themselves or analytics packages they are using, in order to capture the conversion amount that is generated by a click. These two solutions allow advertisers to get a better idea of where the visitors are coming from and what they are buying.

But how do you track orders that are placed outside of the website’s shopping cart?

Many e-commerce sites allow customers to purchase products both online and offline. We know that several measures can be taken to track online conversions, but what about order that are made over the phone? Luckily several methods have been uncovered to assist advertisers in closing the conversion gap. Some of the solutions that advertisers have available to them include:

800 Numbers

Some advertisers are purchasing batches of 800 numbers to assist in tracking phone conversions. The numbers are assigned to individual campaigns, ad groups, and even keywords to track success and overall performance.

Analytics Packages

In addition to purchasing 800 numbers for the company, several analytics programs have been created for this exact purpose. Web-based analytics providers, such as ClickPath, provide phone numbers for a company, both local and 800 numbers, which can be tracked within the analytics platform. These packages offer advertisers the ability to track conversions, conversion rates, and capture information on customers. This call-tracking method can alleviate the work advertisers would have to perform when using their own 800 numbers, making it less necessary to go through the phone bill.

Google AdWords Number Tracking Solution

Google’s AdWords program also makes it possible for advertisers to track their success. Advertisers can assign both local and 800 numbers to campaigns within the AdWords platform. The numbers are free and can be used to track print, radio, and television advertisements. Google provides a reporting function so advertisers can track the traffic that is generated by each number.

Tracking pay per click conversions and overall advertising success can be challenging, especially for companies that allow both online and offline purchases. Even with some of the best analytics programs, information can fall through the cracks. Yet, although there is no one solution that will allow each advertiser to accurately track their pay per click performance, a combination of solutions can help to make the reporting gap smaller.

Consumers spend a large portion of their days texting, emailing, and searching for web pages, directions, phone numbers, movie times, and many other things on their cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices. With consumers becoming more and more accustomed to using mobile devices for internet access and everyday communication, advertisers are finding success in mobile advertising.

How the Google Ads Work

Google AdWords’ mobile ads are text-based ads that appear on mobile websites or when users access the Google search network from a mobile device.  Mobile text-ads follow the same keyword bidding model as standard text-ads, with pricing for a given keyword based on demand for the use of that keyword as a trigger for display of an advertsement. The ad can send users to a mobile website or allow them to connect directly to your company’s phone through a call link that appears in the ad. This is a great way to target your potential customers and promote interaction.

Through the AdWords platform, you can select the carriers you want to display your ads. Ads can appear on all or a select number of mobile carriers, which can assist with targeting. The ads appear on both the search and content networks, increasing visibility of ads on mobile website, and the traffic potential.

For those wondering how to create a mobile website, AdWords helps you create your own ad page. The business pages are free to create and can provide users with basic information including your business address phone and fax numbers, email address and other information about your company and the products and services it provides. In short, you give potential customers your contact information at the exact moment they are able to contact you. Sounds like a great way to connect.

This post is purely informational. This is still a new form of advertising that can prove to be very useful. For more information check out Google AdWords site.

No two pay per click campaigns are created equal. Pay per click account managers pride themselves upon the fact that they create unique, specifically targeted campaigns for each account they manage. So where do the new Google campaign templates come into play? Who will actually use this function…and for what?

The Template Center allows campaign managers to create templates for both keyword-targeted and placement-targeted campaigns. The templates allow you to set the values for the various settings involved in campaign creation (you know: ad groups, ads, keywords, budgets, target languages and countries, and start and end dates). Once created, these settings are automatically applied to each campaign that uses the template. Campaigns can be customized once the template is in place. 

With so many differences between campaigns, including geographic reach, pricing, and budgets, is it realistic to think that effective campaigns can be created through the use of a single template?

To me, the answer is yes. While a template is certainly not sufficient to run an entire, long-term client campaign, the template function does offer some interesting possibilities when it comes to quick and efficient deployment of baseline and test campaigns. The templates allow quick and efficient set up of standard campaigns, with a budget, geographic reach, and other settings that would apply to each test campaign setup. This can help standardize initial testing and experimentation. 

This option is especially appealing to pay per click account managers acquiring clients that have existing pay per click accounts. When working with a new client, it is often hard to prove effectiveness during the beginning stage of the relationship. A repeating question that clients ask all the time is “What did you do for me that I wasn’t doing before?” In order to show the value you provide, it is helpful to run a similar campaign, with minor modifications. In theory, you are showing them that with all else equal, your modifications are improving overall campaign performance. That is if you are successful.

Erica Scharringhausen is a Pay Per Click Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis Firm.

In today’s business environment, conversion tracking is becoming increasingly popular. It is not enough to generate customer leads. You want to convert leads into sales. When measuring the success of pay per click advertising, a great amount of focus goes toward return on investment, generated revenue, and sales/leads conversions to determine which advertisements produce the most revenue for your business. Pay per click advertising can help drive traffic to your business, but you need to be able to track your success. The following are some important areas to consider when setting up conversion tracking.

 

Landing Page Layout

You cannot track conversion without providing an action for the customer to take (an action you deem a conversion). The landing page that the pay per click ad leads to is one of the most important factors in creating a successful ad. While the ad encourages a potential customer to visit your web site, it is the landing page that encourages potential leads to take the desired action once they arrive at the landing page. A common practice is to place a form, number, link to the contact us form, product the visitor wants, promotion, or some other means for the visitor to connect with your web site and its products or services.

Conversion Page

Equally as important as having a landing page that connects with the customer is having a page that entices the client to engage in your product or service. The best way to track conversion is through actions such as making a purchase, filling out a contact form, signing up for your company’s newsletter, or any other interaction that serves as a lead or sale on your web site.

Utilizing Analytics

In order to determine which conversions came from your pay per click advertisements, you need to have the tools in place to track the source. There are several analytics packages available that can assist you in identifying the source of the conversions you receive. Google AdWords allows pay per click advertisers to track conversion through its online platform. The tracking script is placed on the page that signifies a conversion. Through the Google AdWords platform, you can track the ads and keywords that provide the highest return on your advertising. This will allow you to refine your campaigns and utilize your strongest advertisements. Analytics services outside of the AdWords including Google Analytics, Hitslink, Index Tools, Omniture, and other packages, can also provide you with the tools to determine how you can get the most bang for your buck.

The key is to formulate a plan and then put your plan into action.  In order to develop a successful advertising campaign, you have to be able to track conversion.