Sites often view SEO and PPC as exclusive marketing techniques. Every marketing method has its advocates. In fact, they both have a place in the internet marketing process. If you intend to pursue a major SEO effort, a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign is a crucial early step.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This is done by making changes to the website's structure, content, and other factors to make it more attractive to search engines like Google.
What is PPC?
PPC stands for "Pay Per Click". It is a form of online advertising in which companies pay a fee each time one of their advertisements is clicked. PPC ads typically appear at the top or bottom of search engine results pages and on other websites that share the search engine. The most common form of PPC is search advertising.
What are the three types of PPC?
- Search Ads:
These ads appear at the top or bottom of search engine results pages (SERPs) when a user performs a search using keywords related to the business. These ads target users who are actively searching for products or services like those offered by the company.
- Display ads:
These ads appear on other websites that share the search engine or network to display ads. They come in various forms such as text, images, or videos, and can be targeted to a specific audience based on factors such as demographics, interests, and browsing behavior.
- Social Media Ads:
These ads appear on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They can be targeted to a specific audience based on factors such as demographics, interests, and behaviors. Social media ads can be used to promote a company's products or services, build brand awareness, and increase engagement.
What is the PPC test?
Let's say you have a site that offers a service or product in the travel market. You have accumulated a good budget and decided to go bankrupt. Yes, you are optimizing and trading links in an effort to catch up with keyword phrases with traffic and major competition. For example, you decide to take a tour of Europe travel, which has nearly 400,000 searches each month and is the main competition for high ratings. You spend two years trading links, adding content, etc. Miracle of miracles, you are taken to the first page of search results. You start shopping for your own plane only to realize something very disturbing. You're getting thousands of hits, but few sales. After doing the math, you find that the site converts at a rate of 1 in 10,000.
Houston we have a problem.
A PPC campaign should be used to test your site against keyword phrases before spending time and money on an SEO campaign. The best platforms that you can use for your campaign are Google Adwords by force. Yes, click fraud is a problem, but it's less so on these platforms.
After opening accounts and placing a credit card on a PPC switch, you need to think about how you will test your keywords. Here is a hint. The campaign should be designed to test keyword phrases, not drive sales. This may sound like a strange statement, but keep in mind the purpose of the campaign. You decide if you have chosen the right keyword phrases for your SEO campaign. So, how do things go wrong?
With both Overture and Adwords, you have the ability to limit the reach of your keyword phrases. Most choose the "broad match" option, which is bad for testing. With a broad match, your ads will appear for that keyword phrase and its variations. Since the ad appears on a wide variety of keyword phrases, the results can give you a false impression of the value of the primary keyword phrase.
Going back to our example, we're starting a Google Adwords campaign for "Europe travel" and using the default broad match option. After a month, we're happy to find ads converting at a rate of 1 in 70. After validating the keyword phrase, we set off on a long-form SEO campaign. But are we really sure that the key phrase is correct? Since Google is known to diligently expand keyword phrases under the broad match option, how do we know the real keyword phrase isn't "European travel"? We don't unless we take a few extra steps.
Should I set a maximum PPC bid?
The first step is to limit PPC ads by bypassing the broad match option. Instead, you want to limit ad visibility to just searching for the exact keyword phrase. In Adwords, this is known as the "exact phrase" match. To set it, you simply put brackets "[]" around the main phrase. Secondly, you need to track the traffic coming from the ads. This can be done using the tracking tools on your server or through the tracking options provided by each PPC platform. Whichever you choose, the resulting data will give a more honest picture of the value of particular keyword phrases.
Nothing is more aggravating than having top ratings, but miserable conversions. The only way around this problem is to test, test, and test. Using PPC campaigns at the beginning of your internet marketing effort can save you a lot of trouble later on.
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