PPC or pay per click is used to describe the small ads that constantly pop up while you are browsing or searching the internet. These ads are a cost effective method to propagate your business and get new customers. They work for local and small businesses as well as for the bigger nationwide ones. PPC advertising campaigns are usually made on Google’s AdWords. If you have always wanted to make a PPC account, but were hesitant about how to create a successful campaign, here are helpful guidelines to set up an account for a first time user.
Step 1: Open a Google AdWords account
Go to http://www.google.com/ads/ and click on the Google AdWords link. There will be a ‘Sign Up Now’ button, click on it.
Step 2: Create your AdWords campaign
The key to creating a campaign that will get you good results lies in correctly choosing the appropriate keywords and locations to get the target audience. This will always vary depending on whether the business is local or national. After you have logged onto your AdWords account, click on the ‘Create new AdWords campaign’. Enter the name of the Ad and create an impressive write up about it. Use the settings option on this page to select the language and target audience for your campaign.
Step 3: Make a keywords list
The first thing you need to do is make a list of targeted keywords that people are likely to use to search for businesses like yours. For example, a Pizza business will use terms like: pizza, Italian, fast food, home delivery, etc. It is wise to put it all of the related keywords that you can think of regardless of the traffic each one brings. You can use analytical tools later to pick the best keywords later. Next, create another list of the area in which you want to expand your business or the locations in which your business serves and combine these two lists. Depending on your resources, you can either do this manually, or use a software tool that will assimilate the basic keyword list and the radius of your customer area to give you a list that you can then put in the AdWords keywords box.
Step 4: Fix CPC rates
Again, depending on the budget of your campaign, you can a set any amount to pay to a potential user in the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) setting. You can also set a daily upper limit to the budget you can expend on CPC. You are ready to start your campaign after you have saved it.
Step 5: Cover all bases
Sometimes, Google encounters difficulties in locating users based on their internet searches and hence shows them results from the larger national database. In order to cover the local and national grounds, create another account and this time change the target audience to the one you had not opted for before. To localize your PPC, you can select the ‘Target customers by region/cities’ or ‘Target customers in a circular area around your location’ and remove the location keywords from the list.