Chapter 1: General Best Practices
Setting Up Your Campaign
Your first step is to identify a goal for your paid traffic. Is your end target getting sales, having leads opt into your list, getting people to Like your Facebook page or more? Once you have identified this you can create your campaign.
Next you need to have a way to track your results, this way you can see whether a particular traffic source is working or not. The easiest way to do this is to set up Google Analytics on your site.
You are going to need keywords to target in your campaigns. You can research the best keywords by using the Google Keyword Tool. Plus don’t forget to use Google Insights to discover trending keywords, hot keywords and keywords which are on the rise.
Make use of the search parameters when looking for suit- able keywords. Use the broad match, exact matches and phrase match to find the best keywords.
As with any type of advertising you must be vigilant and keep track of your campaigns and update them as necessary. Why continue paying for a campaign that is not bringing you the results you are looking for?
Your Budget
This is a huge aspect of your campaign and should not be overlooked. Make sure you set a daily, weekly or monthly budget and stick to it! One of a beginner’s biggest downfalls is to overspend big time. By setting a budget and sticking to it you will not find yourself in a financial crisis. When your limit is approaching you want to take a look at all of your traffic stats and evaluate them. If a certain campaign is not producing results then it is time to change it. Stick with what is working for you and if one source of traffic is bringing great results ramp it up!
Remember you can pause or stop your campaigns at any time while you re-evaluate your ads.
Payment Methods
PPC – this means Pay Per Click and refers to the following methods we have outlined below. PPC is the most popular form of paying for traffic and is widely used on Google Ads and Facebook advertising.
CPC – this means Cost Per Click and allows you to set a maximum bid that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad
CPM – this means Cost Per Thousand Impressions and this relates to how many times your ad is shown on the website or advertising page
CPA - this means Cost Per Acquisition and is basically when the advertiser only has to pay when an acquisition has been made
Other terms that you might see when researching paid traffic are:
VTR – this measures the response or View Through Rate from displaying media impressions. It is often associated with CTR methods.
CTR – this measures Click Through Rates of people taking action and following through on your ad. With email marketing marketers keep track of how many CTR’s they get with each email message they send out.
Landing Pages Best Practices
Your landing page is the page which your visitor will land on after clicking on your advertisement. There are several key elements to any landing page and you should ensure that you have all areas covered.
It is preferable to direct your paid traffic to a specific page (the landing page) as opposed to sending them to the home page of your website. Quite often the home page has a lot of information and things going on and can be a distraction.
It makes sense to design a simple but appealing page that has the sole purpose of getting your visitor to take an action.
Let’s look at some of the basics you should keep in mind when creating your landing page:
Design – the design of your landing page should be appeal- ing and this can be done by making good use of color and visual layout. The whole purpose of your page is to make the visitor take a certain action; signing up to your link, clicking on a product link or liking your Facebook or more.
Call to Action–this is the actual action that you want your visitor to make as we mentioned above this would include clicking on a link or giving you their email address.
Headline–this should be short but catchy and should highlight the benefits or features of your product or service.
Offer–this is the main part of your landing page and the one which will make or break the action that you want your visitors to take. You want to clearly describe the benefits and features of your offer and this can be done by showing your visitor ‘What’s in it for them’.
Above the Fold–the bulk of your information needs to be above the fold. This refers to the portion of the page that
is visible once your visitor loads the page in their browser. You have 5 seconds to capture their attention, research and stats show that this time frame is what it takes before a visitor clicks away.
Use these pointers to create a pleasing landing page and you may want to create more than one page. This is known as split testing and allows you to test which page converts more visitors i.e. they actually take the required action. Then you can take the one that is working and use it on all your advertisements.
When creating a landing page it is important to not overload the page with too much information. Keep to the basics and make your visitor take your required action to get more information – get them hungry for more!
Useful tips for design a good landing page include: Don’t overload with too much text
Create a good headline which is catchy
Make use of lists and bullet points to highlight benefits and features Use one good image on the page that is relevant to your offer Consider using video to highlight your offer
Some landing pages are very simple and these ones often convert extremely well. The less information you ask for from your customer the more likely they are to give it to you. We have seen great landing pages that only require a zip code or email address for example.
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