Larry Kim founded WordStream, a keyword management tool for PPC & SEO campaigns, in 2007 while he bootstrapped search marketing consulting to pay for development. He secured funding in 2008 and soon after stepped down from the position of CEO to focus on marketing and product development (as VP of product development). WordStream recently released some new features including Google analytics integration and a free keyword tool, which we reviewed. Larry was kind enough to take a bit of time away from his busy schedule to answer a few questions…
Nov
19
2009
Interview with WordStream founder, Larry Kim
Nov
11
2009
Review: WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool
WordStream offers a paid keyword and seo tool, which they’ve recently updated with some new features (integration with Google Analytics and their free keyword tool, analysis based on different traffic sources). I’m taking a look at the paid keyword tool for a separate review (and to see if we want to use it), but WordStream also released a free keyword tool back in September that I thought I would take a look at. I mostly use Google AdWord’s tools currently.
Apr
06
2009
Important Metrics for Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign
Many businesses run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in order to increase traffic and sales to to their websites. However, many are not looking at how effective those campaigns are. I’ve run across several websites which thought they were doing ok with their PPC campaigns, but upon closer examination, we found they were spending more than they were getting out of the advertising.
Conversions
A conversion is when an action that you’re advertising is actually taken on your website. So if you’re advertising a product, it’s when someone actually purchases that product. This is usually tracked by putting a script tag from your PPC ad on your thank you page that happens after a purchase is made. Conversions are the whole reason you’re advertising, so they are very important to track.
Cost Per Conversion
For the number of conversions you get in any time period, how much are you spending on advertising? Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of conversions will give you how much you’re spending per conversion – or cost per conversion. This metric is extremely important for knowing whether you’re spending too much on your advertising for what you’re getting out of it. If this number is too high, it’s time to look at optimizing your ads, website and landing pages. (As an aside, sometimes people will click on an ad and purchase a product much later – days or weeks – this is not tracked with this metric).
Conversion Rate
How many clicks do you have to get before someone purchases from you? How effective is the path the visitor takes to purchase the product? The number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks gives you the conversion rate.
Clicks
How many times people are clicking on your ad- how much interest and traffic it is generating. If you are using advertising for branding or just for traffic, and are not tracking conversions or sales, this is an important metric.
Cost Per Click
How much each click costs – or how much you’re paying for each person that your ad brings to your website. Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of clicks will give you this metric.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
How effective your ad is – in message and targeting (keywords, placements, etc.) Measured by the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of impressions (number of times it is shown). A low CTR can indicate poor messaging or targeting (keywords, placements, etc.).
(photo by The Ancient Brit @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: pay-per-click advertising, internet advertising, internet marketing, search engine marketing, business, SEM, SEO, PPC, marketing
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Aug
22
2008
PPC Advertising
PPC or pay per click advertising is an Internet advertising model where advertisers only pay when visitors click on their ads. These types of ads are typically found in search engine sponsored listings such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter, but can also be found in many advertising networks as well as content networks for the search engines. Here are some terms and concepts you should be aware of if you’re considering PPC advertising:
- keyword bidding – Many ad networks and search engines use keyword bidding to help decide which ads should be shown for a particular keyword. Usually you can set a maximum bid for what you are willing to spend.
- CPC (Cost per Click) – How much it will cost per click. Set either through keyword bidding or a rate card.
- Clicks – How many times your ad has been clicked on. Visitors clicking on your ad should go to a landing page (see below).
- Impressions – How many times your ad has been viewed. Impressions also have value since there is some branding effect so make sure you include your company or product name in the ad.
- CTR (Click Through Rate) – The percentage of clicks you are getting related to the number of times your ad is viewed (impressions).
- click fraud – Abusive clicks by competitors or others intended to drive up the cost of the ad in question. Most PPC ad vendors have sophisticated anti-click fraud systems in place, but this is something you should verify before advertising with any vendor.
- Content targeting or Contextual Ad – PPC ads also show up on websites near content (a content network). Ads which relate to content being seen are more likely to be clicked upon.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Attempts to increase the visibility of a website on search engines through multiple methods, including search engine optimization (SEO) and paid inclusion (PPC).
- Landing Page – To run an effective PPC campaign, you need to send the traffic from the ad to a landing page which has all the information the visitor needs (make sure you cover what was in the ad), as well as some sort of call to action (this is where you offer them something free in return for their contact information – lead or directly to a sale page). Your landing page needs to be specifically tailored to the ad in question, don’t just dump people to your homepage – they’ll quickly leave and you’ll be paying for it.
Did we miss anything? Please submit any terms or concepts we missed in the comments. Thanks!
Technorati Tags: PPC, pay per click, PPC ads, search engine marketing, SEM, internet marketing, internet business strategy
Aug
18
2008
Using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns to Attain Business Goals
Sadly enough, too many advertisers initiate PPC campaigns without knowing what the end goal is. A word of caution: Traffic is not an end goal! …PPC campaign effectiveness is judged by its impact on the company’s bottom line, and the return on investment. Campaign optimization is measured by an increase in CTR and improved quality score. – Ask Enquiro – Key PPC Best Practices (Part 1 of 4)
I’ve had many clients who ask me to increase the traffic to their website by helping them optimize their Google AdWords (PPC) campaign. Often the client is already getting pretty good traffic to their site through the AdWords, search engines and direct traffic – the problem is that all the traffic isn’t helping them attain their business goals – increased leads and sales. In these cases taking a look at the landing pages and the usability of the site can often give clues as to why the traffic is not converting to sales/leads (we’ll cover that in more depth in a future post). Most importantly, think about what the business goals are for your PPC advertising and maintain consistent wording on ads, landing pages and through out the site. To measure effectiveness of your PPC campaigns, think in terms of business goals – conversions, sales and ROI. The Ask Enquiro article has good information to help you run effective PPC campaigns.
Technorati Tags: advertising, pay per click, PPC, internet marketing, internet consulting, internet business strategy
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