Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

Today more companies are using pay per click advertising for their web site.  Unfortunately too many of these companies waste money on PPC advertising.  They falsely assume that your PPC is directly tied into return on investment (ROI).  The more you spend the higher the ROI. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a number of nuances at work. Before you start a PPC campaign for your web site make sure you do some homework.

Wasting Your Advertising Dollars
Perry Marshall illustrates a wasteful PPC spending example on this web site.  You are spending $1.00 per click for a certain keyword.  Instead of using a landing page with a compelling offer most companies send visitors directly to their home page.  With nothing compelling to draw users into the web site users go elsewhere and never return.  All of this happens in about 15 seconds.  In terms of cost this translates into $4 USD a minute or $240 USD an hour.  Would you pay someone $240/hour to unsuccessfully sell your product or serves?  A number of companies are happy to spend the money.

Here are some quick Pay Per Click suggestions/tips:

• Take baby steps with PPC spending.
• Target the right market and keywords.
• Carefully craft your Pay Per Click ads.
• Try rotating ads and measuring performance.
• Setup conversion tracking for all of your ads.
• Set measurable goals.
• Create a specific landing pages for various keywords.
• Create incentive or a compelling offer on landing pages.
• Balance your PPC campaign with other advertising.

I current manage three campaigns across Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  Google is the most expensive service. Yet it also out performs both Yahoo and MSN ten fold for the same keywords.  Yahoo PPC seems to be more conducive to product sales, but it takes a little while to get your campaign rolling.  I’ve had little success with MSN.  You need to explore all the options.

There are companies that smartly spend on PPC advertising and find success. There was someone who once spent $14 USD on a monthly PPC and generated over $20K in revenue.  This is a rare exception, but still interesting.

Spend some time learning about PPC before diving in head first.  My recommendation is go to a firm with a proven track record.  Have them show you their results and pay them for your expertise.  Consider starting your own campaign to just learn.  You won’t become an expert, but you can at least have some exposure to the various services.  Most places let you sign up for $5.00 or less. Always do your homework before spending on PPC!