Milwaukee Internet Advertising | Getting The Most From Your PPC Budget

 Milwaukee businesses are being pummeled with phone calls from huge companies offering Pay Per Call advertising and display advertising.  Here is a nice article

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Jeremy Decker
 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Full article

When speaking to business owners who are new to search advertising, a common concern is that their marketing budget is simply not big enough to compete with some of their competitors who are investing huge amounts of money into their marketing efforts. If this sounds like you, then I have some good news for you!
Although having a large PPC budget will help you to achieve results much faster, there are still ways in which you can set up your AdWords account to perform well with even the smallest budget. Below are some ways in which you can get the best possible results out of a small PPC budget:

Target Lower Ad Positions

Many advertisers tend to target the first one to three positions on Google based on the belief that these are the only ads that will be clicked on by Google users, when in fact this is not the case at all.
Adverts in positions 4+ still obtain traffic, often at a much lower CPC (Cost-Per-Click) price than the higher positions. Furthermore, for some industries, these lower positions can even convert better, as well. This is due to the fact that sometimes the top positions will attract a lot of “tire kickers”—that is, people who really aren’t interested in making a purchase at all and just clicked the first Google listing they saw.

 Target Only Specific, Long-Tail Keywords
If your AdWords budget is extremely limited, the importance of using only the most targeted and specific keywords is much higher than usual. In general, specific long-tail keywords (keywords made up of 3+ words) that describe your exact services are much more likely to convert compared with broader, single word keywords.
For example, if you were an PPC agency looking to attract more customers, you’d probably want to focus on terms such as “PPC agency Milwaukee” rather than a keyword like “PPC.” This is because a person searching for “PPC agency Milwaukee” is obviously only looking for one thing: an PPC agency in Sydney.
However, someone searching for “PPC” in Google could be looking for a range of different things; they could be looking for information on PPC, a blog, the AdWords login screen etc.

Create Specific Campaigns for High-Converting Keywords

One of the biggest mistakes made by business owners running an PPC account (see this article for a full run down on common problems found in self-managed campaigns) is only creating single campaign for all of their campaigns. This can create many problems, one being that it groups all of your traffic under a single budget cap each day.
If you’ve got broad, highly popular but low-converting keywords within the campaign, then there’s a chance that these keywords will obtain traffic very quickly, exhausting your budget before any of your other keywords can a chance to obtain traffic. Because of this, it’s recommended that you dedicate at least one campaign for only your high-converting keywords. This will give your high-converting keywords their own dedicated media budget, which should allow for more conversions overall throughout the day.

Avoid the Display Network

While the display network has the potential to drive huge traffic volume and expose your brand to a massive audience, conversion rates seen in this channel are generally nowhere near as high as what you’d see from search traffic. Because of this, if your budget is limited then it’s probably best to disable the display network.
  
Analyze Location Segment Reports, Then Refine Geo targeting
Thanks to the extremely granular reporting provided by PPC, you’re able to quickly identify which cities and states your traffic is coming from. If you’ve got conversion tracking installed on your account, then you’ll also be able to see which areas are delivering conversions.
To maximize your conversion rate with a low budget, it’d be a good idea to monitor this report about once a month and exclude any areas that have poor conversion rates compared to other areas. You may even want to create specific campaigns that target only your highest converting locations, too!
These points should help you get the most from your limited PPC budget. However, the most important thing to do to ensure you’re getting the best results possible is to pay close, regular attention to how every aspect of your campaign is performing. Ensure that campaigns, adverts, and keywords are analyzed regularly and optimize your account according to the data you see.

Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my clients or publishers. Jim is an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His mission is to help you increase your advertising return on investment and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He works with local businesses, agencies, and Non-Profits. Feel Free to call him at (414)699-5444 to schedule a Free Consultation.