Pay Per Click (PPC) & Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Pay Per Click (PPC) is really different from Search engine Optimization (SEO).  PPC is a sponsored advertisement in search engine results pages that is located at the top and/or at the top-right side of your search results page. SEO is essentially everything else below. PPC, is exactly what the name infers, you pay for each time someone clicks on your PPC campaign. PPC works on an auction system, so the cost per click will vary depending on the competitiveness of the keywords you are using. PPC and SEO is really different from one another, but both are working for a common goal, which is to drive traffic to a site; the methodology is quite different and both have pros & cons to consider.

 

PPC VS SEO

PPC has a quicker start-up since you can create a PPC campaign you can quickly rank, but as a result the budget is much higher than SEO. By contrast SEO has a much slower start-up than PPC, and is comparatively free to a PPC campaign. In terms of investment and shelf-life, PPC is shorter and SEO is longer lasting. PPC is considered to relate to traditional marketing, and SEO spends a lot of time working with the development team in building display and content collateral.

 

Keywords & Phrases: Fat-head VS Long-tail

Fat-head is a term that is often used to describe a keyword that is general, one word in length, and super-competitive. Long-tail is another term, which serves to describe specific, niche phrases that are at least 2 words in length, and are relatively low in competition.

 

Strategy

One effective strategy that is often used to gain top ranking in the fat-head is to start out with the long-tail. By dominating the long-tails you can pull yourself closer to the fat-head. The long-tail approach often utilizes content strategy and community building. Another approach towards ranking the fat-head is to employ a marketing strategy using PPC. If you are small it is usually best to start out small. This will give you the best return on investments on your PPC campaign and will help keep the data manageable and give you a foundation to build on. First target your fat-head, then build a long-tail list associated to your fat-head. You can often get a higher conversion  and segmentation chasing the long-tail then throwing your budget towards the fat-head. You have to be careful using a PPC approach and knows your industry, because PPC campaign isn’t always effective. If potential customers already know what they are looking for or are already informed about your industry, they will often ignore PPC advertising. Also be sure to make full use of Adwords: geotargeting, dayparting and remarketing.

Conversion from traffic to sales is the other half of the game, which includes a great landing page. The most important element a landing page has to have is simplicity, because a customer’s attention is still narrow in an online environment and your window of opportunity is greater when your landing page  is clear and uncluttered; deliver only the essential elements to help close the deal. One of those elements should be an effective call-to-action to lead your prospect towards your campaign goal. The site needs customized content and relevant titles and keywords. Trust signals will help leverage your lead-nurturing strategies.

If you are new to Google Ad words here are some great resources:

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