PPC means Pay Per Click. It is a form of affiliate advertising and marketing. First, the advertiser posts an advert on an affiliate network. The advert is then displayed by webmasters on the affiliate network. As the advertiser, you have to pay every time your advert is clicked. As the webmaster, you are paid every time the adverts on your site are clicked.
It is also possible for affiliate networks to place your adverts on search engines and on social media sites too. It really depends which affiliate network you choose to run your PPC campaign on.
1 – Pay as much attention to the landing page as the affiliate advert
The affiliate advert and the landing page are both parts of the same thing. You need to adjust the affiliate adverts with a mind to altering the landing page. Do not forget that if you are not getting a lot of conversions, then the affiliate advert may not be the blame; it may be the fault of the landing page.
On the same note, if you are getting a lot of traffic but not a lot of conversions, then it may be the affiliate advert that is leading people astray. They may be clicking on your adverts with the understanding that the landing page holds something that it does not. Make sure that the affiliate adverts and the landing page are both singing to the same tune. If the affiliate advert is promising something, then make sure your landing page is delivering it.
2 – Use trial and error to get the correct keywords
Affiliate advertising, especially PPC, is perfect for trial and error testing. Not only do you have an ideal and quick platform to do it with, you are also able to control almost all of the variables. Even better still, you are often given access to some very powerful analytic and monitoring tools. This is especially true for the Google AdWords affiliate network.
You may set a daily budget and test a different theory every day if you like. You may run month-long PPC campaigns that test different marketing theories, strategies and keywords. Every time you have a little bit of success, you may learn from it and apply it to your next affiliate advert test. You may continually tweak and improve your adverts with a high amount of precision.
3 – Be prepared to scare people away
This is the most counter-intuitive tip on this article. But, scaring people away is part of online marketing. You cannot please all people at all times, and you cannot appeal to all people at all times. In many offline cases, this will simply mean that people ignore your adverts, but being ignored is a very precarious situation to be in when marketing online.
What you need to do is gain the attention of as many people as possible, and then scare off the ones that are not part of your target audience. You have to do this by being honest. If you are honest on your landing page, then that is up to you, but it is better to be honest in the affiliate advert because you have the pay for clicks. For example, if some people are not going to be able to afford your product, then put the price in the affiliate advert.
4 – Aim for conversions and not traffic
If you are trying to get traffic with no end game in sight, then affiliate advertising is not the way to go. Affiliate advertising is a very expensive way of getting traffic. If you do have an end-goal in mind, then make sure that your affiliate adverts and landing page are both focused on your goal.
If you are running a PPC campaign and you are getting a lot of traffic, then that does not constitute a good campaign. A good campaign is one that gets lots of conversions, whether they are sales, subscriptions or sign-ups. You goal is to convert people from clickers to buyers, instead of just getting people on your website. If you are getting lots of traffic but very few conversions, then it is going to become very costly with no real payoff.
5 – Do not base your campaign on outbidding other advertisers
Many PPC advertisers will work on outbidding their competition. This will get them at the top of the results pages and in the most prominent positions, but that means you have the pay more than your competition. One of your biggest competitors may be two adverts below yours on the same page and yet is paying 50% less than you are.
Being in the most prominent position does not mean as much as you think it does. On the Google search engine it is good to be on the first page, but affiliate adverts often appear on the same page, so all you are really doing is jockeying for position in a very small area. Plus, do not forget that people do not instinctively click the first affiliate advert at the top of the page.
6 – Persistently improve your campaign based on sales not metrics
The online arena changes all the time, so you cannot afford to keep running the same adverts and hope for the same results week-on-week. You need to keep improving your affiliate adverts and your landing page. This is going to help you to improve your traffic numbers and improve your sales numbers.
However, do remember that your analytic metrics are useful, but should only be taken as advice. They are not true measures of your PPC campaign success. Your sales figures are the real measure. If you are converting a lot of people into buyers on a consistent basis, then that is the real measure of your success, and not the metrics you see on the affiliate network.
About Author
Kate Funk is a passionate blogger and online tutor at Tutortop. She coaches individuals in SEO and business networking skills.
