St. Louis Pay Per Click

Archive for the ‘CPA Information’ Category

Google AdWords has many different extensions that allow for increased versatility with your PPC ads.   I have been writing about these extensions in the last few posts, including local extensions, site links, and product extensions.  Google debuted yet another new extension earlier this year that is still in beta testing called ‘Contact Form Extension’. The Contact Form Extension will be an expandable feature in your PPC ad that will allow visitors to fill out a contact form directly from your ad, rather than clicking through to your site.

The following image from PPC Hero provides an example of what the drop-down will look like:

 

The form will allow you to collect information on the visitor, including name, phone number, address, and up to 3 custom questions, all for the price of a click. However, this will only be available to the ad in the top position. PPC Hero was selected to test this feature and explains in detail how it works in this blog post.

There are pros and cons to this new feature.  On the plus side, it can simplify the conversion process. However, you may miss the opportunity to draw visitors in to your landing page and provide additional them with additional information that may lead them down the path to conversion.  And, users might be reluctant to offer up contact information such as their phone number so quickly.  This might also mean an increase in the bid needed to maintain the number one position. For more thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages from ROI Revolution on this new extension, read this article from BGAmedia.  This is only in beta right and the time this feature rolls out to all, there may be some changes so it will be interesting to watch and see the effect this new feature will have.

Cost Per Action (CPA), also sometimes referred to as Pay Per Action (PPA), is a way to advertise that allows you to only pay for each conversion instead of paying each time someone clicks on your ad with Pay Per Click (PPC).  An action is determined by the advertiser and is whatever the desired outcome is, for example, it might be making a purchase, filling out a form, taking a survey etc.

CPA allows you to have a little more control of your advertising budget allowing you to only spend money on terms that are driving lucrative traffic to your site.  Since you only pay when certain actions are performed CPA is a low-risk advertising investment.  This allows you to have more control of you ROI (Return On Investment).

To meet your ROI objectives you need to have successful CPA bidding.  There are three ways to do this:

By Hand – Determine your CPA goal and raise and lower your bids in order to reach that goal.

Paid Tools & Service – There is an array of bid management services and tools that will help you meet your ROI goals by automating the bidding service and managing your bids.  This can save you time as well as help you to minimize conversion costs.

Google’s Free Tool – If your account qualifies Google has a free conversion optimization service that you can take advantage of.

Here are a few pros and cons associated with CPA (Cost Per Action) that should be considered before buying into a new advertising plan.

Pros:

-    As an advertiser you can be sure about your investment and ROI.  It is easy to see how effective the CPA is based on the money you are spending versus the money you are making.
-    Can avoid click fraud sometimes found in Pay Per Click advertising.

Cons:
-    You have to have an impressive website and site history in order to be eligible for CPA network membership.
-    You have to get traffic to the CPA offers.
-    It can be difficult to manage and requires good tracking technology.

If you are considering a change in your advertising campaign look at your goals and then consider giving CPA a try.