Multiply Your PPC Dollars

Expand Your Marketing While Maximizing Your PPC ROI

Affiliate marketers often hear of how much money a competitor is making from PPC. Despite having a limited budget, that information (rumor?) makes them itch to get in
the game to rake off some of the cash lying on the table.

But there are many ways to use PPC. Done the wrong way, PPC can chew up all your available budget in a day. Done right, you really can profit, and profit big over the long haul, from PPC advertising.

The basic method consists of multiplying your PPC dollars by forging relationships. The ultimate reward is to maximize your ROI.

What Is PPC?

PPC (Pay Per Click) is familiar to everyone now, even when they don’t know the name. It is nothing more than those small text ads on the right you see on Google or Yahoo when you search for something online. The hope (validated everyday) is that someone will click on an ad rather than, or along with, one of the organic results.

As most know by now, too, those ads are not free. Advertisers (often, affiliate marketers) pay to put them there, just as they would pay for a classified ad in a newspaper. (Remember those?)

The sad fact is, though, that unlike a newspaper, you can pay, but you are not guaranteed placement. Ads can slip off to a later page or off the search site entirely.

Several factors influence that, first and foremost of which is the number of clicks the ad gets within what time interval. "How many" and "what time interval" are, ultimately, determined by the gods of Google and Yahoo, unless you can fork over enough cash to guarantee it stays there.

But, unless you are Bill Gates, you have only a limited budget and have to endure the risk of your ad disappearing. So, it pays to maximize your ROI by optimizing the odds of your ad resulting in a sale. Paradoxically, one of the best ways to do that is not to aim at a sale at all. Instead, aim at generating a relationship.

Here’s why, and how.

Aim at Creating Relationships, Not One-Time Buyers

A person who clicks on your ad is, almost by definition, a good prospect. They are looking for something they think you are selling, as evidenced by your ad. Suppose they do click and you hit them right away with sales copy and a picture of the item with its price prominently displayed. Great. You have made the product they seek easy to buy and they can make an immediate buying decision.

Now, what happens if you don’t have exactly what they are looking for at the price you’re offering? They look elsewhere.
You have just blown your one chance to make that sale. The money you paid to place that ad is wasted.

"So, what?" you say. "That’s the nature of PPC. It’s a numbers game. There will be another along soon." But in some markets, you can do more than just pay for the click and let those non-buying visitors leave.

Instead, you can shift your model and improve your numbers. Present them not only with information on the product and an offer to buy, but value-add content that will keep them around longer. Offer them a chance to become a regular visitor.

Value-add content has yet another powerful benefit: it can improve your Google Quality Score, resulting in lower click
costs over time. Google tends to reward advertisers who send visitors to landing pages on quality sites that provide
users with more than a sales pitch. So your visitors aren’t the only ones who benefit from informative content. You can reap the rewards in a much lower CPC (cost per click) than your competitors are paying.

Product Reviews

Redesign your landing page to give them valuable content. One great way is through great product reviews.

When you shop for an HDTV, you want to know all about the product, not just its price next to a photo. You want to know the screen size, the resolution, and much more that will help you decide if that price is too much or just right. You want a comparison between that product and those of its competitors. Well-written product reviews provide visitors with that crucial information.

The same ideas apply no matter what product is on sale. Concentrate less on making a sales pitch right away and more on providing valuable information. People will be more likely to return to your site for that product and others in the same category.

Testimonials

Believable testimonials offer another way to provide great content for visitors who arrive from a PPC ad click. They’re expecting to be hit with a blatant sales pitch and instead you lay it in more subtly. Offer them trustworthy opinions on the product or service.

Observe how Amazon gets people to buy. Sure they have great prices. But they also pioneered the interactive method of allowing real people to leave comments on the product. That makes the testimonials believable.

Testimonials from recognized experts are one more way to make quotes touting a product valuable. People trust their
friends first, followed by the views of known experts. If Warren Buffet plugs a book by Jack Welch, you’ve got a double whammy. Both are known and respected business experts.

If you are selling an ebook, for example, both these methods work well. Unless you are a recognized author with a track record, you need others to brag about the benefits of your book. When lots of ordinary people say they bought it and are happy they did, you are one leg up on the competition. If a "big name" does so, you’re two steps ahead.

Look at Rosalind Gardner’s superaffiliatehandbook.com as one example of a landing page that converts well. You’ll find
lots of great sales letter content, a big chunk of which is testimonials from satisfied customers and "stars" in the affiliate marketing industry.

Get Opt-In Subscribers

Opt-in is a stellar way to profit from the majority of PPC ad clicks. Many people who click a PPC ad are just like you. They are not buying, per se; they are shopping.

Shopping involves getting information about the product or service. Getting them to opt in to your newsletter allows them to get the information they seek. In return, you benefit in several ways.

The more regular subscribers you have, the more chances you have to put your pitch in front of them. A PPC ad click represents one chance to make a sale. A newsletter offers many.

Your newsletter gives you another long-term advantage: the chance to build a reputation as an expert. You can be viewed as the "go-to" gal or guy on anything related to the product or service you advertise.

Whether it is the latest digital camera, intricate crochet patterns, or affiliate marketing tips and tricks, a newsletter gives you a forum in which to show your stuff.

Also, there’s no doubt that getting a visitor to opt-in on a first visit is a lot easier than getting them to plop down cash the first time around. Most visitors want to get to know you a little bit before they trust you enough to buy. Sending them newsletters will quickly give them plenty of reason to regard you as a valued source of information about the things they will eventually buy.

Get a subscriber from your PPC ad, and you have just used your PPC dollar to cover not only one product, but a potentially unlimited number. You have turned a one-time chance into a long-term relationship.

One Product vs. Many: The Click Multiplier

The way many affiliate marketers use it, a PPC ad provides a searcher with a way to purchase at most one product. But, by establishing an ongoing relationship, you have many more opportunities to sell not just one product or service, but many.

Through any of the methods described above, you can splash visitors with content about a single product. Or, you can offer them a page that offers several. But beware of customer expectations. If your ad touts one product but the landing page displays dozens, a visitor can feel betrayed.

If, instead, you advertise information about the product and provide more than the visitor asked for, you will have a grateful visitor. Few people get annoyed by the info on extra products listed at the bottom of an Amazon search. Looking for a Panasonic DVD? You get that, but you also get info on Samsung, Sony, and more.

Keep that multiple-product pitch in the form of valuable content and not hard-sell tactics, and you’ll have happy visitors who will come back time and time again.

That multiplies the value of a single PPC click to however many products you offer. Now, instead of one-click, one-product (a budget buster for most of us, unless your conversion rate is through the roof), you can have one-click, 10-products. The odds of pumping up your ratio of sales revenue to PPC ad dollars spent just rose by 10. The effect on your ROI will be obvious.

Summary

PPC offers a way to target searchers. It narrows the field down for you, by selecting a subset of all searchers — those who are interested in what you offer. They are predisposed to buy your product. But most are not ready to buy based on that single click. By offering them information and establishing a long-term relationship, you turn a possible one-time buyer into a probable ongoing customer.

Following these ideas will result in more sales over the long run, and not very long at that. At the same time, you will stretch and multiply your PPC budget dollars. That’s something we could all be happy about.

About the Author

David Long is a freelance writer and editor with over 20 years of experience. His PLR articles and eBooks have appeared on hundreds of websites. They cover topics that include Wine & Beer, Travel, Gardening, Health & Fitness, Pets, Stocks & Bonds, and dozens more subjects. He can be contacted for hire at JDavidLong@gmail.com

Multiply Your PPC Dollars