Articles - Pay per click search engines & how to get the best ROI

Pay per click search engines are a great way to get started in search engine optimization without the wait. As we all know a search engine optimization campaign takes some time to get up and off of the ground. One way to start getting results quickly is through the pay per click search engines. Overture, findwhat, google adwords, sprinks, kanoodle, are just a few.

A well thought out pay per click campaign begins with keyword selection and research. I often recommend NOT going after the category killer. If your company offers business loans, you may want to be #1 for the term "business loan". More often than not, this term is expensive per click and has a large query volume (# of ties it was searched). These are the kind of terms I recommend to avoid when beginning a campaign, if you get 1000 clicks in a month on the term "business loan" which is currently at $1.73 on overture. You have spent $1730. For one month that is a pretty large expenditure.

When selecting words on the pay per click engines I recommend focusing on going after terms that cost less and will allow you to put a toe in the water, so to speak. Maybe your list of terms could be "new business loan", "small business loan for woman", and "minority business loan". As it currently stands, in overture the average cost of these keyword per click is .11 for the #1 position. If you received 1000 clicks on a term that cost you .11 your total cost is $113.33 for the month, a much more manageable expenditure.

Another recommendation is to go for terms that are likely to convert, think about using the term "buy" in some of your keywords. Here is an example: If you type in "buy office supplies" the cost for #1 is .56 (#2 is only .27). The cost for the term "office supplies" is $3.00 per click for the #1 spot. The company in #1 for office supplies (office depot) is not listed for the term "buy office supplies".

Does that make sense to you?
Which user is more likely to convert?
What do you think?
I would bet that someone typing in "buy office supplies" is probably ready to buy, whereas someone typing in the term office supplies includes buyers, researchers, the curious surfers, and tons of others.

The key to maximizing ROI with pay per click listings is in the analysis!
If I were marketing business loans online, I would much rather go for the smaller and cheaper terms in the pay per click engines and track it extensively through my web analytics program(s) than to go for the big terms without knowing how this audience will react to my offering. Keep in mind that if you are planning on using a web analytics tool, ensure that your web site is set up in a way that allows for ease of ROI tracking.

The samples below are oversimplified, but still illustrate a valuable concept
If I get 100 completed loan apps from 1000 clicks, then my click through rate is 10%, not bad. Now lets say that of those 100, 1 of those people actually get the loan that is a 1% conversion. Without any further analysis a marketer in this sector should know what the average revenue per customer is. For the sake of numbers lets say that I expect to receive 1500 in revenue from my average loan. Multiply that by 1 customer and you get 1500 from a small investment ($113.33). GREAT ROI.

Lets take the other scenario, where we spend $1730, if we get the same conversion, we've lost 230! Not so great!

I hope this brief illustration gives you an idea of why it is important to start with baby steps, don't try to conquer the world in the first month. If you are seeing a return on your Internet marketing expenditures then continue to seek out terms that convert. At some point you may max out, you may not be able to find any more good terms to target on any more pay per click search engines (I doubt it). At this point…admit that you have found a good thing and leave it, don't throw more money at it. Just keep an eye out on the conversion rates, maybe from time to time freshen up your link copy and see how it does for a few months.

Top ROI in pay per click search engines is about patience, research, savvy, good copyrighting, and web traffic analysis.