Internet marketing: How to use pay-per-click advertising

The most common complaint about internet marketing is traffic, or lack of it. So how do you get visitors to your website? Here's an overview of how to use Google AdWords (pay-per-click advertising) to attract visitors.

Internet marketing is not like in the real world. You don’t set up shop and have an instant audience walking by your premises. Once your website is online the only way to get visitors is to do something proactive to attract them.

There are literally hundreds of ways to get traffic to a website. Some cost money, some take time and your results can vary. My guess is that you want your website generating sales as soon as possible and the most effective way to use Internet marketing meet this goal is to use Pay-Per-Click advertising.

What Is Pay-Per-Click advertising?

It is a method of online marketing where you buy traffic from other websites based on a per-click fee. A click is counted each time someone clicks a link that brings them to your website. It is trackable, so you know how many clicks you get and how much money you spend per click.

'PPC' has been around for a while but it wasn’t until Google implemented PPC and built an amazing system to support it that it became easy for any person to use it. The system is called Google AdWords and is all you need to get your business going.

Here's an overview of the basics.

Where do Google AdWords appear?

The system allows you to place advertisements, usually as text boxes but also banners, on the Google search results, where the search boxes appear down the right-hand column and sometimes as the first two “sponsored results." They could also appear on the Google content network, which is made up of websites that display Google AdWords on their website in exchange for payment from Google.

[Flying Solo is now a member of this 'content network' you'll see the ads appearing throughout the site - at the close of this article and in the right hand margin, for example. - Ed.]

Contextual advertising

Contextual matching is the real secret sauce when it comes to PPC advertising. AdWords functions on a keyword system. You bid for words and phrases that match what your target market are searching for. When a person searches Google using your keywords your ad shows up. This is called contextual advertising because you can clearly refine your campaigns to match your exact target market using context sensitive keywords.

Here is a simple example:

A Sydney-based plumber wants clients not too far away, ideally within short driving distance.

To attract this market Google AdWords can be used to bid for keywords such as “Sydney Plumber” or “Plumber Sydney” etc. The AdWords system can be set up to target geographic areas so our plumber targets only Australian Internet users and ensures no overseas browsers see the ad. Whenever an Australian searches using those keyphrases his ad shows up making sure that any clicks come from targeted visitors – people that are searching for what he offers.

There are many further refinements available within the Google AdWords system, too many to go through here, but rest assured that any target market that is using the Internet can be reached with the AdWords system.

There are skills to learn and certainly AdWords has a level of complexity that can only be mastered with practical experience, but even at the most basic level it can bring you good levels of traffic for as little as $100 per month.

Sounds interesting. What next?

Head over to the Google AdWords sign up page and start exploring. There are help files and online lessons that Google provides to learn the system so you won’t be lacking study materials. One word of warning, though, especially for those not familiar with PPC:

Don’t spend any money on AdWords until you have spent time studying techniques for successful PPC campaigns.

It’s very easy to spend lots of money quickly with AdWords, implementing poorly thought out campaigns and attracting the wrong kind of traffic. If you are ready to learn more about AdWords I recommend Perry Marshall’s free AdWords course as a great beginners guide. I took it myself after failing miserably with my first few campaigns.

Have you used AdWords? Or are you reluctant to? Share your experience below.

This article is part 4 of a series on Internet Marketing. Below are links to all 8 articles in the series:

Internet Marketing Part 1 - Its use as a business growth strategy
Internet Marketing Part 2 - Creating an effective business website
Internet Marketing Part 3 - Using email autoresponders
Internet Marketing Part 4 - How to use pay-per-click advertising
Internet Marketing Part 5 - Introduction to search engine optimisation (SEO)
Internet Marketing Part 6 - Search engine optimisation part 2
Internet Marketing Part 7 - The basics of blogging for business
Internet Marketing Part 8 - Breaking down technical skills barriers

• Published 20 March 06
• 
• Email this item
• Print this item
• Rate this article

Attracting new business (7) | Business branding (17) | Business marketing (28) | Communication skills (13) | Customer relationships (12) | Customer service (7) | Email newsletters (6) | Online marketing (23) | Presentation skills (4) | Pricing strategy (8) | Public relations, PR (14) | Sales strategies (10) | Small business blogs (4) | Using surveys (5)

Have you grabbed your four free bonuses from us yet? They're way too good to miss. Details here.

7 comments | Add your own 

• Another fine article Yaro.
  After much deliberation we've recently introduced AdWords to Flying Solo. Given the close targeting of our audience it will be interesting to see what ads turn up. It certainly should be a good medium for anyone who wishes to promote their goods or services to our soloist audience. Robert Gerrish from Flying Solo

• I've set up Adwords for a client and it's certainly not easy to use! Either be ready to spend a fair amount of time setting up your campaigns (2-3 hours initially at least) or outsource it (do a search on 'adwords consulting'). There's also a good article on adwords here
  http://www.netregistry.com.au/news/articles/21/1/Explosive-Adwords-Ad-Copywriting Adam Griffiths from Sydney

• WebBoss contacted me to set up Adwords for me. I decided to go along with it. They do all the work apparently. It doesn't cost too much and you get the option to opt out with money back if not happy. I figured what's to lose. Contact Ben at bthorp@webboss.com.au. He was very helpful. Jenetta Haim from Greystanes Sydney

• Thanks for your kind comments everyone. I'm glad you liked the article. I've started using AdWords now on a namesqueeze page - www.BlogTrafficKing.com - my latest online venture. It's going pretty well so far with a 30+% conversion rate. Yaro from Brisbane

• GetClicks Search Marketing contacted me to set up Adwords for me. I decided to go along with it. They do all the work apparently. It doesn't cost too much and you get the option to opt out with money back if not happy. I figured what's to lose. Contact wesley at wgorton@getclicks.com.au. He was very helpful. Amber from sydney

• Dear flyingsolo.com.au,
  My name is Chris O'Conner I' am the owner of Asquith Pool Shop & Services. I recently was contacted by Wesley Gorton at AdWords Management to advertise my business on Google.com.au. I was a bit confused at first with what he was offering me as i didn't know anything about online advertising but Wesley spent time explaining everything to me in a clear and non-technical way and i soon realised how advantageous this could be for my business. I decided to trial it and within 48 hours my website was on the 1st position of the first page of Google.com.au under keywords like "Pool Renovations"! Now that I fully understand what it is AdWords Management does and the power of Google and the Google Adwords product for marketing a website I wholeheartedly recommend the services that are provided by Adwords Management to anyone wanting to effectively market their website.
  Chris O'Conner (Director) Asquith Pool Shop from Sydney

• Adwords Marketing or PPC is laced with serious issues like Click Fraud.
  Adwords marketing can give a boomerang effect, if you do not formulate right strategy to handly click fraud in the first place. There are several professionals which are hired only to deliver fake click to their competitors website through Adwords/PPC/ or Adsense.
  This could eventually cripple your entire budget along with marketing.
  Meanwhile, I have tried to address some of the issues at: http://blog.seohawk.com/click-fraud/
  I am sure it will help you understand various details regarding adwords/adsense click fraud SEO India : SEO Hawk from Delhi

7 comments | Add your own 

Add Your comments

  Preview comment
 

Name Website * Town / city and country Email (never sold, displayed or given away) * This will link your name to your site. So please avoid self promotion elsewhere! We delete spam, disrespectful or off-topic comments.

Notify me of follow up comments via email Subscribe me to Soapbox, Flying Solo's weekly newsletter Enter security code, without spaces, below: