Many advertisers run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign with one goal in mind. They want to send as many visitors as possible to their website. It may feel like you are going against the grain if you set up a PPC campaign and you are not concerned with conversions or the quality of your traffic, but at times you may want to defy the common methodology. If you plan to make traffic your number-one goal, there are a few things you should know when it comes to setting up and maintaining your PPC campaign.
First of all, let’s talk about the type of advertiser who needs an optimized-for-traffic PPC campaign. For publishers selling cost-per-thousand (CPM) ad space or advertisers measuring revenue-per-visitor (RPV), traffic may be all their business needs to be successful. Publishers in this situation want to drive up the overall impressions their website is getting, as cheaply as possible, so they can in turn sell more ad space to their own advertisers. PPC advertising is still one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. Advertisers measuring RPV are looking for insight as to how much revenue a marketing program contributes to their bottom line by visitor.
Next let’s take a look at the keywords you should target. Depending on the type of website you have, you should buy the broadest terms available within your vertical. If you run an e-commerce site, then buy early buying cycle keywords like MP3 player, cell phone, shoes, etc. For a lead generation site, buy high-volume keywords that are not fully defined, like marketing, diabetes, dentist, gold, etc. Publishers will want to buy a rotating set of keywords based on new headlines and popular culture. Also target the content network. Even though over 90% of web traffic begins at the search engine, over 90% of all page views are non-search pages.
Finally, your ad copy must be optimized for a high clickthrough rate (CTR). The best way to do this is make sure your keywords are in your ads. Make separate ad groups for all of your highest volume keywords so those ads will be highly targeted. You can also use the dynamic keyword insertion tool here. Remember that Google bolds a keyword that is placed within an ad. Another way to gain an extremely high CTR is with high-interest ad copy. Using words like Free, Learn, and Sale are great ways to grab attention and clicks.
By making traffic the main goal of your PPC campaign, you go down a different path than most PPC marketers. Goal setting, keyword research, and copywriting have new meaning within this type of PPC campaign. By employing these optimization techniques, you will be ensuring you are getting the most out of your PPC campaign and its integration into your overall business success.
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About the Author
Chris Stiner is both a SEM specialist and DRTV media buyer at Koeppel Direct. With over 10 years of offline and online direct response marketing experience, he has a unique skill set and outlook on the synergies of multi-channel SEM direct response marketing.
Tags
Goals, Pay-Per-Click, PPC, Traffic
