Dirkmonster

A low budget pay per click test requires high commitment

It's not just the big brands with their million dollar PPC budgets that recognize the need for pay per click advertising.  It's simply the most effective online customer acquisition campaign channel.  But a great number of AdWords and Facebook advertisers have monthly budgets under $1,000.  How do they spend their limited dollars most effectively?

Commit to starting with a solid testing plan: Let's say this is your first time trying PPC advertising. You suspect that Google AdWords and Facebook Ads my help your business aquire new customers or qualified traffic to your web site.  You are on the right track.  Pay per click advertising works in retail, travel, technology, B2B and simply driving the right people to your site.  But your resources to prove it are limited to $1,000/month.  The greatest danger at this point is spending $1,000 and proving nothing one way or the other.  So a solid testing plan with built in flexibility is essential for success. For example, you will be tempted to manage the test campaign to make your $1,000 last for 30 days, spending an equal amount each day.  In my experience, that rarely makes sense.  In order to gather enough response data to learn what's working (and what's not), I tend to spend it over 1 - 2 weeks instead.  I have a hard time learning anything from a drip, drip, drip of impressions and clicks that $30/day buys me. On the other hand, $100 day spent wisely can give me some indication of where to focus.  Even better, save $3,000 for the test phase and speed up your learning over the first month.

I'll focus later some key aspects of a solid test plan, but if you are not willing to trust the process, you'll pull the plug after the first $100 spent because you don't see acceptable sales numbers.  I don't know of a successful advertising program that didn't start with a test campaign involving trial and error up front. Advertisers that were willing to trust the process with a solid test plan reaped the rewards down the road.

The key here is to resist testing half-heartedly.  Be committed with a good test plan and you will break through a barrier that many advertisers are afraid to approach.

Your web site's home page is where?

When it comes to your home page, think outside the box.

You obsess over the design, positioning and content that is presented on your company's home page.  Of course, all the care and strategic thought that goes into it is well worth it.  But does that level of focus go far enough?

In today's socially connected world, a potential customer's first online impression is not likely to be that home page.  It is almost assured to be your presence on Google, and increasingly, Facebook that introduces new and returning visitors to what you have to offer.  That's because the vast majority of the eyeballs fixed to browsers start with Google, or camp out on Facebook.  Unless you have generated enough affinity to be a bookmark (congratulations!), I am not likely to key your domain straight into the address bar.  Direct traffic can come from your email marketing or display advertising, but take a peek at your web analytics and see who your top "referrers" are.

So I recommend that my clients invest in their presence on Google and Facebook and not as an afterthought.  Google, of course, gets attention through SEO and Paid Search.  Everyone gets the need for SEO even if the implementation is a mystery.  You simply can't afford to have your organic listing #fail.  Paid Search is targeted rocket fuel for SEO and not enough small to mid-sized businesses are willing to spend money that could very well return a profit margin.  And with Paid Search, the results are more quantifiable.

Facebook pages for businesses are also a widely known and accepted tool.  But it's still wild out there in terms of best practices.  Do you just syndicate your web site content on your page?  Or are you offering something extra for those who "like" your page?  That may be a contest, an app or even exclusive images.  It just may be that you can do almost everything you need to do on Facebook that you do on your web site.  And the results I see strongly suggest it is easier and cheaper to use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to your Facebook Page.  I think that's because all those Facebook-ers are in their Facebook world and they don't want to leave.  They are addicted to the look and feel.  They don't have to work hard to understand the page.  The threshold to getting a "Like" is much lower than getting some personal information on your site.  And you still have a way to reach them, build a relationship and hopefully ride a viral wave to millions of others.  All that happens on Facebook because that's where the eyeballs on the browsers are.

There are excellent resources and social media experts out there that can guide you if you're not sure what to do next.  Your next move may well be to give your presence on Google and Facebook some love and attention.