A paid campaign is as good as the leads it generates. While it is important to select the appropriate Search Engine for your campaign, it is equally important to develop a strategy that delivers positive ROI. This involves selection of the right keywords, bidding adequately for these keywords and thereafter developing a compelling ad copy to garner those coveted clicks.

Pay Par Click campaigns are effective only when built on a prudent research of the best target keywords. However, being a professional craft, it needs to be executed precisely for the results to show.

This newsletter will attempt to provide an overview on the essentials for a high CTR (Click Through Rate) to ensure maximum bang for your marketing spend.

Keyword Research Strategies

Range of Keywords

Keyword selection is fundamental to any search marketing campaign, and requires profound research. The range of keywords to target is decided not by you, but by your target audience. Their preferences will range from predictable to eccentric. So a dedicated brain-storming session on how best to cover all possible keywords goes a long way towards a solid start.

While there is no limit to the number of keywords that may be targeted in a campaign, a bouquet of few high performing keywords is adequate. This assumes importance in view of the fact that each keyword comes with a price tag. It is recommended that the keywords be selected, based on their semantic relevance to the targeted keywords. This would broad base the keywords arena and capture a wider audience.

In highly contested commercial products/services like travel, finance or outsourced services, keywords are highly specific, and permutations limited to within reasonable guesses. But for niche sectors, the possibilities are immense.

For example: A search for Designer Belt Buckles would usually entail the use of the same phrase. However, stylish belts, bling buckles, chic clamps, cute belt clips, glam buckles etc could also be very probable options.

So it is important to anticipate and incorporate such keywords into the target keywords list as well. The less common your product/service, the greater is its range of probable key phrases.

Keyword performance tracking

After the selection of the keywords, a regular Keyword Efficacy Audit should be carried out to weed out the non performers or the black holes (keywords that attract generic traffic but cost more).

This audit allows you to use the best keywords to their fullest potential. It further helps to classify your (say) 500 strong list of keywords and decide on which are getting you the best results(say the top 10%), which ones hold promise with slight tweaking thrown in, and which ones are losing you money all the way.

The smartest PPC campaigns are the ones that milk the best phrases for all they are worth. The recommended approach is always to invest your budget on the tested keywords and phrases. Test, and then invest.

Bidding Strategies

How much to bid

The next step after drawing up the list of target keywords is to develop a competent bidding strategy. However, bidding is not about bidding high, but bidding right. Even a comfortable financial cushion does not warrant a wild goose chase after the most popular keywords.

Typically, bids start from $0.01(Google AdWords) or $0.1 (Overture) and may go up to as much as $50 or even $100(for specific, highly contested keywords). But unlike the layman's misconception, the real action lies not at the top end of the spectrum, but at the lower end. Bids up to $2~$5 witness the maximum competition, and this is where the potential for unleashing the best bid strategies exists.

Therefore the intelligent approach is rather to concentrate on a broad-based strategy that targets the generic, less fiercely contested keywords. This approach opens up channels for attracting better traffic, helps you utilize your funds better, and eventually brings home better Cost-Per-Conversion rates. A regular review of the bids will help check profligate use of the marketing spend.

Selection of the appropriate keyword and a commensurate bid may lead to impressions, however that may not be enough to attract the audience to click. If there are no clicks on the ad copy, the respective ad would witness a drop in its rankings. This would further diminish the chances of being noticed.