Try a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising test with Google or Yahoo
Written by Chris Barling
Wednesday, 25 May 2011 00:00
PPC ads can be useful and cost-effective traffic generators in their own right, but here we are talking about a small scale (and limited cost) test to both gain familiarisation and to test the water. PPC works a bit like an auction. You put a bid in on the amount you are prepared to pay, and Google will place your ad mostly by comparing your bid with the competition, with higher bids appearing higher up the page. You only pay when a searcher actually clicks on your advert. Getting an idea of the workings of this is crucial.
PPC attracts fewer clicks than natural or ‘organic’ listings and is generally much more expensive than optimising your site. However, you can get a ‘double whammy’ by using PPC to both test whether PPC is cost-effective for you and also testing out how much traffic and sales you get from various key words. In fact with a new site it is probably worth using a PPC ad for a few weeks, limiting it to one or two pounds a day, as this seems to get Google to visit your site more frequently which should improve your ranking.