Paid placement traffic and SEO traffic are two different beasts, so why do we often send both sources of traffic to the same end result? Paid placement marketing campaigns provide something that SEO doesn’t, you have complete user experience control. By not exercising that control, you could possible be handing your business over to your competitors. Landing pages can cater to visitor’s specific needs as spoken by their search queries. Below are a few ways that you can best capture your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) audience with a landing page.
 
Calls-to-action. Websites often don’t have strong calls-to-action available within a click. Keep in mind visitors don’t like to guess what to do and who you are, they want to know immediately. Adding a prominent call–to-action on your landing page will help increase conversions. Tell visitors what you want them to do, don’t just assume they know. Include a brief contact form that will allow you to capture leads without detouring potential customers.

Copy. On average, most websites have an overwhelming amount of content. You need a tight correlation between visitor’s search queries and your website content to engage and capture potential customers. Most consumers are looking for a quick answer to their questions and don’t have the time or patience to read through pages of content. Illustrate your most prominent information in a bulleted or numbered list. Be sure to incorporate your PPC keywords in your landing page copy. This will not only help improve your Quality Scores, but will also help potential customers better connect with your content.

Simplicity – The key to successful PPC landing pages is to keep the user from getting distracted. Limit your navigation and users ability to leave the page or get confused and frustrated. One page with simple, straight-forward content and a relevant form is enough information. If visitors need more information before converting; give them the option to view your full website. You don’t want to distract your paid placement visitors from what you want them to do. Less is more.

Load Times – If it takes more than 10 seconds to fully load your website, that’s to long. It should take less than 5 seconds and could affect your Google Adwords Quality Score. Numerous images, or animated graphics and large flash files, could hinder your load times and if visitors have to wait for a flash animation to load before they can get information about your services, they’re more than likely not going to stick around or even come back.

Always go back to the old school marketing and sales mentality of K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid).  Avoid clutter, reduce the amount of content that you display and make the calls-to-action prominent. Control the user experience.

With 2009 behind us, and a fresh new year ahead, we need to focus on how we can best position ourselves for success in 2010. As past years have shown in all industries, with a new year comes new trends and new technologies. Trends have shown that 2010 will present new internet marketing efforts with a large push toward mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is all about marketing to people through their smart-phones and mobile devices. 2010 has the potential to change business opportunities by engaging with consumers through their mobile devices.

The mobile market industry is exploding. According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile marketing expenditures are expected to exceed $2 billion in 2010. The MMA states that there are 54.5 million mobile Internet users on a regular basis and more than 172 million phones are capable of browsing the Web. There’s been a lot of hype about mobile phones for years, but the mobile web market has finally arrived.

2010’s mobile technology advances could revolutionize internet marketing. To stay ahead of your competition you must keep an eye on the ever-changing trends. Stay one step ahead of your competitors by being sure to place your business in the mobile marketing arena.

Create a mobile website, mobile ads, engage in text message advertising, or create a mobile application. Whether your business taps into one level or all levels, the opportunity exists to bring your business to new heights. Whatever marketing avenue your business decides to venture toward in 2010, be sure to make mobile marketing one of your New Year’s resolutions.

Get a leg up for your business by establishing a presence with your competitor’s audience. You may as well bid on your competitor’s names and products, because they are bidding on yours. It’s imperative to bid on the names of your industry’s competitors, well known brand names and industry experts so that you can better establish your business and generate awareness (keep all trademark infringements in mind). This is an easy and often cheaper way to find new customers, primarily if you’re not well known or your products don’t have a large fan base. This allows you to piggyback on someone or something that does. 
Zappos, Overstock and Amazon are just a few of many companies who have done tremendously well and have generated a lot of business by bidding on competitor’s products and names.

(Above is an example of several companies that are bidding on Nike’s name)

In addition to utilizing the sponsored ads available through the search engines, you should also use your competitor’s keyword phrases and names in the content network, which can be of a great advantage to you. The content network allows you to display your ads on other websites that may mention your competitors or pertain to your industry. Utilizing image ads in the content network can help you start to associate yourself as a top competitor and a company that someone should look into before engaging with other companies. If your competitors or their competing products are getting a lot of press or coverage, you can capitalize on their coverage. Piggybacking on your competitor’s popularity and following is a great way to find new customers and establish a larger fan base.