Articles in The 'cost-per-click' Tag

Google First Page Bids

by Nydia Davis

So you’ve launched your Google campaign and you see that you are getting tons of impressions for your keywords, but no clicks. When you take a look at your keywords you see that Google recommends a higher first page bid estimate than what you are currently bidding. This estimate is higher than your bids for other keywords, but a particular term is very targeted and important to your campaign. It’s time to make a decision. What do you do? Increase your bid.

On the Keyword Analysis tab within the Google Adword’s interface there is a metric labeled “Estimated bid to show on the first page”. This metric is also called the first page bid estimate and it approximates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google’s search results. The estimate is based on your Google Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that particular keyword.

Meeting your first page bid is not a guarantee of placement. Ad placement will still be dependent on Quality Score, your cost-per-click (CPC) bid, your budget, account settings, and user and advertiser behavior.

A common misconception about increasing cost-per-click (CPC) bids is that it would instantaneously eat away at your budget. Although this may seem apparent, it’s not always true. Depending on your keyword’s potential to result into a conversion; the return on investment should be evaluated, therefore increasing the cost-per-click bid if needed accordingly.

Lastly, while increasing your cost-per-click bids, remember that Google sets daily spending budgets for each campaign. As long as you set a realistic budget, the increase in cost-per-click cost should not eat away at your ad budget.

Are Your Ads Making An Impression On Searchers?

by Ryan Faria

Late last week, I was asked by a client ‘How many searchers are actually seeing my ads?’  This is the eternal question advertisers have asked for years; the Google AdWords impression share report makes it possible to actually measure impressions within cost per click campaigns.

Not only does the impression share report give you data on the amount of impressions you have lost according to your rank, but also impressions lost due to budgetary constraints.  Impression share reports are useful for determining which campaign budgets should be increased to accommodate a larger amount of impressions.  More importantly, comparing impression share to your average position will give you an idea as to which keywords bids need to be increased.  A high average position will greatly lead to a lower impression share, as searchers are not able to find your ad.

Google’s impression share report can be accessed within the report section of an AdWords account.  This simple report can help you maximize your Google AdWords campaigns to their fullest potential.  Remember, impressions and clicks go hand in hand, don’t miss out on traffic.

Don’t forget about Yahoo Paid Inclusion!

by Marni Weinberg

I am not trying to beat a dead horse, but I just happen to think that many people do not recognize and/or understand the value of Yahoo Paid Inclusion (YPI). There is no denying that Google is the leader, holding (by far) the largest market share, but does that mean that YPI should be forgotten? It can be a very valid source of driving qualified traffic to a website.

For those of you who are well versed in YPI, this blog post might be a tad redundant. Please forgive me in advance, as I feel the need to remind every online marketer just how fruitful YPI can be!

Just the facts:

YPI results appear in the organic section of Yahoo.

YPI is fundamentally a hybrid of SEO and SEM, which is unlike any other channel that exists today.

There is no way to bid more (or less) aggressively in YPI to gain better rankings, as all results are dependent upon the relevancy of your website; the more SEO friendly your website, the better opportunity you have to get ranked higher.

Although, the platform for YPI is Cost per Click (CPC), the pricing is category based, rather than keyword based.

YPI is stricter with their guidelines. In order to maintain the integrity of the program, all websites must first get accepted into the program. Not every website is a candidate for YPI; if your site is utilizing black hat tactics (link spamming, hidden text) or has other issues like duplicate content, you will more than likely get rejected.

Don’t forget about Yahoo Paid Inclusion! It should be taken into consideration as a viable method to bring qualified visitors to your website.