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BY STAVROS ANGELIDES
The evolution of the Internet into a medium for the masses has opened new doors to companies to reach their target market. Today there are a number of ways to target your audience online, all of which require the use of various techniques and a well coordinated Internet marketing strategy.
A popular online advertising model is the pay per click (PPC). These adverts are short text advertisements that can appear along the top, side or bottom of a web page or search engine results page. When featured on search engine results pages, the pay per click advertisements are targeted to the particular keyword that the Internet audience types in.
Compared to traditional advertising, PPC advertising is a cost effective way. It provides measurable results and the cost can be controlled since the advertiser can set a daily budget and is charged only when the web users click on the advertisement.
It is not that hard to set up a PPC online campaign and run it for a certain period of time. It will generate some traffic to the site, but will not provide adequate results if you don't have in place a well coordinated and properly structured Internet marketing strategy.
Proper planning is highly important if you want your PPC campaign to produce a return on your investment. There are a number of important factors that will determine the success or failure of your PPC campaign, some of which are listed below.
Know your target market and your customer
Define your target market, identify your prospective customers and get them to to understand as precisely as possible what they want and create a customer profile.
Consider all of the reasons why people might purchase your product or service, after all, without knowing your customer’s particular needs you cannot satisfy them.
If you want your funds to be spent efficiently then it is imperative to tailor your advertising campaigns in relation to the needs and desires of your prospective customers.
Analyze the competition
You need to make an impact, stand out from your competitors and approach your target market in a different, unique way.
You should know if your competitors’ adverts are more compelling, or if they are offering a product that you are about to offer at a better price and of course if their headline stands out more. It is vital to remain one step ahead of your competitors in order to gain the edge in attracting new customers to your business.
Write advertising copy that sells
Your advert will be much more effective when the words you use in your advertising copy target your ideal customer. Your advert copy should appeal to your target audience. A good place to start in identifying those customers is to refer to your customer profile research, mentioned earlier.
Text advertisements online have a limitation on the number of characters you can use. Therefore, make sure that in three to five lines, including the headline, you can convince your target audience that your services or products are the ideal solution for their business.
Optimize your landing pages and website
A landing page is the page on your website that is displayed when a potential customer clicks onto your advertisement link. This page should provide relevant content to your PPC advert.
Nowadays most companies advertise on line and link their adverts to their home page, a practice that some experts consider to be ineffective. In the case of a more generic advert about the company, this practice might work. However, if, for example, you are looking to advertise a new product, then make sure that the advert links to the product page and not the home page.
Measuring the performance of your advertising campaign
Without measuring the performance of your adverts, it would be difficult to analyze the return on your investment. It is important that your analytics/website statistics software can track the performance of your advertising campaign. You have to evaluate which strategies work best for your business and identify areas that you need to optimise or improve.
Stavros Angelides is Managing Director of SAE Business Ltd, a professional web design company.
