Google’s Adwords Select has soon become the focus of many online marketers simply because it is the best pay-per-click advertising options ever to grace the Internet. Many PPC search engines like Overture had one fundamental problem. Big advertisers with deep pockets were always able to out bid the rest. And the rest did not have any means of competing other than bidding a higher price per key word. Google’s Adwords Select is unlike that.
In order to maintain a high standard and yet enable both the advertisers with deep pockets and those who have a limited budget compete equally, Google’s Adwords Select enforces the 0.5% minimum click through rate or CTR cutoff. Simply put, if your ad was shown 1000 times and it was not clicked on 0.5% of the time or 5 times then the ad is disabled. You might think that this is a brutal rule to be enforced. But here’s how it can level the playing field and help small advertisers compete with the giants.
Let’s take a typical advertising scenario. Imagine that you are selling home made muffins. You have a budget of just $50. In order to have your ad displayed, you need to first choose what key words or phrases you want to trigger your ad. In other words, you need to pick a few keywords or phrases that when entered by a person in a typical search, would result in your ad been shown along with the search results. Let’s say you bid on the phrase “home made muffins”. It’s pretty straightforward. And you are willing to pay $0.05 for each click. This is the lowest bid possible in the program.
There are 8 slots that your ad can possibly appear in. Slot 1 is the top most one drawing the most clicks and slot 8 is the bottom most one which pulls in the least amount of clicks. People are most likely to click on it the higher positions. This would result in your ad getting a better CTR.
Well this works like a dream. But let me burst your bubble! You aren’t the only person who’s chosen “home made muffins” as their key phrase. Lets say that there are 20 other people willing to pay for that key phrase. And let’s say that a very rich lady owns the bakery down the lane. She is willing to bid $1.50 for the same phrase you are bidding for. How can this affect you, you ask?
If someone is willing to pay more than you for a key word or phrase then her ad will be placed higher than yours in the slot positions. This means that your ad is not the top most ad and this in turn will decrease your CTR. Lesser number of people click your ad and your sales drop. You are doomed!
What can you do to stay alive? You might try to increase your bid. But you can’t match $1.50 can you? Not with your budget of just $50. And even if you do manage to bid higher, the baker might increase her bid as well. This leaves you at square one!
What’s happening here is that someone who can afford to pay a high price per key word is forcing you out of the competition. Fortunately for you, Google’s Adwords Select has a system that helps you get back into the game.
If your ad keeps pulling at least 0.5% CTR and the baker’s ad does not, then Google will drop her ad immediately! Yes you heard right. Even if someone is willing to pay a thousand dollars a click but cannot keep their CTR above 0.5% that ad will be dropped! This gives smaller advertisers a chance to compete with bigger ones by way of better ad copy, relevant ads and better organization of key phrases rather than just over bidding your opponent.
I know what you are thinking right now. So how can you make sure that your CTR does not fall below 0.5%? Here are a few simple techniques that you could use. First don’t try to bid for popular keywords. I know this sounds crazy since doesn’t “popular” mean more people search for those key words? And if more people search for them, doesn’t it mean that you need to get your ad in front of them?
There is more that one way to skin a cat. And there’s more than one way to maintain a good CTR. Rather than bid for popular keywords or phrases, you can bid for similar keywords that have a similar meaning to the popular phrase. For example, rather than bidding on “home made muffins” you can bid on “freshly baked muffins” or “oven fresh muffins”. Remember, a populate phrase does not necessarily mean that that is the ONLY phrase people use. There are many variation of the same phrase that you can use. And many of them will not cost you as much; yet still give you good impressions. So while you bid 5 cents for the phrase “oven fresh muffins” your previous competitor is paying $1.50 for the phrase “home made muffins”. Even if you both have the same CTR who do you think ends up with a better deal? You of course!
I hope this little tip helped you increase your CTR and give your competition a fight for their money. May your advertising efforts always be fruitful. Good Luck!
Khemal Dole is an Online Marketer and a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer who has contributed content to many well- known ezines and websites. His latest project QuickPayPro.Net provides a total website automation solution to any business in just 7 1/2 minutes, Guaranteed! The future is here!
Visit him at http://www.quickpaypro.net or write to him at Webmaster@QuickPayPro.net
