Increase Your Site Traffic With The Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
How
would you
like some traffic? How about some cheap targeted traffic? No problem.
The
pay-per-click search engines are exactly what you need to inject
your web
site with a fresh stream of targeted potential customers
-- people who are
actively searching for what you're offering -- without the typical
expenses and
risks associated with many other forms of online advertising.
A
Quick Overview:
Pay-per-click
search engines are much like auctions -- they allow you to bid for
top-ranking
positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor who searches
the
keyword(s) you rank under and then clicks through to your web site, you
pay whatever
you bid. Prices typically range from 1 cent to numerous dollars per
click-through for popular keywords.
And
this means
that there are three key
advantages to bidding on
keywords in the
pay-per-click search engines:
- You only
ever pay for advertising that works because
you only pay when someone actually clicks through to your web site.
This means that pay-per-click search engines can be a cheap way to draw
targeted traffic to your web site.
- Pay-per-click
search engines will list your
site within as little as a couple of hours --
a couple of days at most. So rather than waiting weeks, even months,
for your web site to be listed like you will with many of the other
search engines, you can start profiting from the increased traffic and
sales almost immediately!
- All you
need to do to be ranked in a
#1 spot is outbid the other
sites. It's a pretty straightforward process compared to achieving and
maintaining a top ranking position in the "regular" search engines.
Obviously,
the
pay-per-click search engines are a powerful opportunity to increase
your web
site traffic for little cost.
The trick, though, is making certain that you
choose your maximum bids based on the monetary value of one visitor to
your web
site.
And
this is
where a lot of people get confused or make costly mistakes... They
either
abandon bidding in the pay-per-click engines because it seems too
confusing, or
they bid more than a visitor is actually worth to their site, losing
money on
their advertising!
Strategies
For Maximum Pay-Per-Click Success:
In
the
following article, I'm going to lead you through a simple step-by-step
process
that will show you how to collect the numbers you need to calculate the
value
of a visitor to your web site -- using a special three part formula --
and how
to use this information to purchase targeted advertising in the
pay-per-click
search engines.
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Step #1:
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Compile
A List Of Statistics That Includes Your Unique Visitors, Total Sales,
Gross Revenue, and Total Expenses for A Set Period of Time.
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Before
you'll
be able to start calculating the worth of your visitors and what you
can afford
to pay for advertising, you'll need some key figures; chiefly total
number of
sales, gross revenue, total expenses, and unique visitors for a set
period of
time.
A)
Total
Number of Sales:
This
figure is
easy to calculate -- you probably keep a close eye on your sales totals
anyway.
Just add up the number of sales you have made over a set period of
time. For
example, this month you may have sold 73 widgets. So your total number
of sales
equals 73.
B)
Gross
Revenue:
Here's
another
figure that you probably already have at your fingertips. After all,
what
business owner doesn't keep track of their gross revenue? If you sold
73
widgets for $10 each this month, your gross revenue would be $730.
C)
Total
Expenses:
This
is an
important figure that many new business owners neglect because,
honestly, it's
just more fun to calculate gross revenue. However, until you know your
total
expenses, you won't be able to accurately calculate your net revenue --
your
"in the pocket" profits!
To
guarantee
that your business always generates a profit, your
gross revenue should
always be greater than your total expenses.
So sit down and start adding up
all of the expenses that you deal with to produce, package, and deliver
your
product or service. This figure should also include all of your
operating costs
for a set period of time.
D)
Unique
Visitors:
Frequently
confused with "hits" (which refers to the number of times each file
that makes up a particular web page has been requested from your web
host's
server), "unique visitors" refers to the number of different people
who visited your site. And it's the most important measure of web site
traffic
hands down!
To
calculate
the number of unique visitors to your web site, you'll need to contact
your web
host to get your server logs. (For those of you who don't know what a
"server log" is, it's simply a file that records each time someone
requests one of your web pages and the files associated with it -- and it's
literally a gold mine of data!)
Your
web host
should be able to provide you with your server logs. In fact, they may
already
have log analysis software that will convert your server logs into
easy-to-read
reports, graphs, and charts. If not, though, you can download your own
log
analysis software by searching "log analyzers" at Download.com.
WARNING!
If you decide to
research and test log analysis software, be careful to look for those
that
offer "unique visitors" as part of their reports, not just "user
sessions." One visitor may return to your site numerous times (user
sessions), so to be certain
your calculations are accurate,
you must
know "unique visitors."
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Step #2:
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Calculate
The Value Of A Visitor To Your Web Site.
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Once,
you've
collected the statistics and figures you need, doing the actual
calculations is
the easy part. Simply plug the numbers into the following
3 simple formulas:
A) Conversion Rate: Figure out how many unique visitors you
need to
close one
sale.
Unique
Visitors / Total Number of Sales =
Conversion Rate
Example:
If over the month of
November, you calculate that your web site received 4,298 unique
visitors, and
you sold 35 widgets, your equation would look like this:
4,298
Unique Visitors / 35 Sales = 122.8 Unique
Visitors Per Sale
So
in this
case, your conversion rate would equal 122.8, which means that you
typically
close 1 sale for every 122.8 visitors to your site.
B)
Net Profit
Per Sale: Figure out how much profit you earn on a single sale.
Gross
Revenue - Total Expenses / Total Number of
Sales = Net Profit Per Sale
Example:
If
over the month of
November, you sold 35 widgets for $97 each, your gross revenue would be
$3,395
(35 X $97). And let's say you calculated your total expenses
(production,
packaging, web host fees, etc...) for the month of November to be
$2,537. This means that:
$3,395
Gross Revenue - $2,537 Total Expenses /
35 Sales = $24.51 Net Profit Per Sale
In
this
example, your Net Profit Per Sale would be $24.51. This is "in your
pocket, after expenses, you can bank it" profits.
C)
Visitor
Worth: Figure out how much a single visitor is worth to you.
Net
Profit Per Sale
/ Conversion Rate = Visitor Worth
Example:
This is the easy part.
Just take the Net Profit Per Sale that we calculated in part b ($24.51)
and
divide it by the Conversion Rate that we calculated in part a.
$24.51
Net Profit Per Sale
/ 122.8 Conversion Rate = $0.1995 or
$0.20
So
in this
example, each visitor to your web site is worth $0.20. (Not to be
confused with
the value of a customer, which is $24.51!) This means that you can
afford to
pay as much as $0.20 to attract one new visitor to your web site
without losing
money.
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Step #3:
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Put
Yourself In Front Of Your Best Potential Customers.
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Okay!
You're
almost ready to put your newfound knowledge to profitable use and start
buying
targeted traffic in the pay-per-click search engines. I say almost
because
there is one more important
step you may need to take...
Do
you know who
your target market is? Do you have an accurate profile of the folks who
are
purchasing from your web site? And do you know what keywords they're
searching
to find your web site?
If
you're not
sure, then I'm afraid you'll need to do a bit more homework before you
start
purchasing traffic because until you know who your customers are and
what
keywords they're using to find your web site, you risk wasting money on
unqualified traffic.
The
best way to
learn who your customers are and why they bought your product is by
speaking
with them directly. Get on the phone, do an e-mail survey, offer a free
gift
for feedback... whatever it takes! The more you know about the people
who have
already bought from you, the easier it will be to target
new customers.
However,
another way you can figure out which keywords your target market
prefers is by
using WordTracker,
an online tool that collects the search results from 24 major search
engines
and compiles them into a database which is constantly being updated.
With
WordTracker, you can simply type in your keyword or key phrase, and it
will
return a list of related keywords and phrases. This is a really useful
feature
because it will often produce
keyword combinations that you may not have
thought of!
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Step #4:
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Use This
Information To Purchase Traffic In The Pay-Per-Click Search Engines.
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Now
that you
know the keywords and phrases that your best potential customers are
typing
into the search engines, and you know the worth of one visitor to your
web
site, you're ready to start purchasing traffic. You can start bidding
on the
targeted keywords and phrases that you've researched based on what one
visitor
to your web site is worth.
In
the earlier
example, a single visitor to your site was worth 20 cents. So you could
afford
to bid as much as 20 cents per visitor in the pay-per-click search
engines
without losing money.
Now
of course,
you'd probably want to bid significantly less than that, because you'll
want to
still turn a profit. But if you were to bid 7 cents per visitor, and it
took
122.8 visitors to close a sale, your
profits would still be quite
substantial:
(20
cents profit per visitor - 7 cents
advertising cost per visitor) X 122.8 visitors to close the sale =
$15.96 Total
Net Profit Per Sale
Sure,
your net
profits drop a bit when you pay for advertising, rather than rely on
free
sources of traffic. However, you need to remember that your
total sales
volume is going to go up --
perhaps considerably -- as long as you purchase
targeted traffic! And that means more cash in your pocket at the end of
the
day!
Pay-Per-Click
Search Engines:
The
pay-per-click search engines that you choose to buy traffic from will
depend on
your budget. Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com) is still the granddaddy
of the
pay-per-click search engines, but its popularity has driven up the cost
of
advertising there. Minimum bids now start at 5 cents per visitor,
there's a
set-up fee of $50 (though it's applied to your click-throughs), and
there's a
monthly minimum of $20.
Of
course, with
that said, if you can afford Overture, it's still the best choice for
driving
targeted traffic to your site. You're likely to get
a higher volume of
traffic faster than with any of
the others. Plus, if your site is listed
among the top 3 under any particular keyword, you can expect your site
listing
to appear in AOL, Lycos, and AltaVista searches, too.
Other
good
choices for purchasing traffic include:
From
this list,
I would recommend purchasing traffic from FindWhat first because this
is one of
the faster-growing, better-known pay-per-click engines. But all of the
above
should prove to be good
sources of cheap, targeted traffic.
In
the less
popular pay-per-click engines, you can still purchase listings for as
little as
one cent per visitor. And remember that while you may not receive high
volumes
of traffic from any one in particular, because you only ever pay for
actual
click-throughs to your site, you
never lose money!
Final
Thoughts:
Without
a
doubt, purchasing traffic from the pay-per-click search engines is one
of the
most profitable, most effective ways to drive targeted traffic to your
web
site. As long as you always base your keyword bids on the value of one
visitor
to your web site, you can be
confident that your advertising will always be
profitable.
If
you're new
to Web statistics, you'll want to base your initial advertising budget
on the
costs of acquiring a first time customer. Over time, however, you'll be
able to
calculate the value of your lifetime customers, and use these figures
to
consider purchasing higher volumes of advertising.
To
ensure you
remain profitable, though, and until you're comfortable accurately
calculating
these statistics, you should focus on purchasing your advertising based
on the
value of your first-time customers.
Remember: Don't GUESS! Base your
advertising budget on tangible statistics -- not your predictions of
what your
site might earn in the future!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start
profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or
more) per
year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing
campaigns,
strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over
$40
Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com
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