However, the word “successful” is very hard to define when you are talking about PPC, because it completely depends on the client. He has to decide what matters the most to him. Some will tell you that they need hundreds of clicks and some will say conversion rate is crucial., not clicks.

Before I delve into this matter, let’s first try to understand the concept of PPC. The primary goal of a marketer is certainly getting as many clicks as possible because if people won’t click on the ads, they will never come the client’s website. However, bringing customers home and encouraging them to purchase something is completely different. Conversion rate is the second target after CTR and the most difficult to achieve.

In one forum I noticed a question posted by an internet marketing expert. The question was, “Client wants more clicks but don’t want to increase budget. What can I do?” The PPC expert was concerned because when he reduced the cost per click rate, he was not generating enough traffic.

Other forum users had given him some good suggestions to increase traffic. Read them…

• Shifting budget to the display network.
• Ad position performance tracking
• Get rid of non-performing keywords
• Use 3rd tier PPC engines
• Search for long tail keywords
• How about re-targeting?

These are some great suggestions given by PPC consultants to lower the PPC cost per click rate. However, a few people posted that click is not the right metric to focus on. In fact, one professional commented that click is the worst metric and the person who asked the question on forum should meet his client and question him what matters the more to him? It is great news that 1000 web users are visiting the site, but is he aware of the conversion rate? Did he ever measure the conversion rate and did he ever spent time to make a plan for better conversion rate?

I completely agree with the questions asked by the seasoned professional. Sure, you can look for long tail keywords to drive traffic to your home and use brand terms in the ad copy to increase CTR, but getting the more for same money is not always a practical idea. You can get more, but the quality may not suit your standard.

Let me explain my point of view by giving an example. Suppose you want to buy a house and have only $100,000. Obviously, you want a house as big as possible, but size is not the only thing that you consider while buying a house. What is the bigger house is located in a notorious neighborhood? What if the architecture of the house represents a bygone era? Will you still be interested in that house?

Basically, it is all about quality vs. quantity. So, when a client tells you that he wants more clicks for the same budget, share some facts with him.

• There is a limit of low cost keywords that you can add to an account.
• 3rd tier engines certainly drive more traffic to the client’s website, but are those visitors really valuable? Suppose hundreds of potential and non-potential consumers visit your shop every day. The people outside the shop think that your business is running smoothly, but they don’t know that majority are leaving without buying anything. On the other hand, a shop is bringing only 50 customers per day, but 90% of them are purchasing something before living the store.
• Meet the client face to face and have an honest conversation. Tell him why you think that CTR should not be the ultimate metric. I often tell clients that I can bring millions of visitors to their website if I promise a “free iPod for signing up” in the ad copy, but since their business model does not give them the freedom to distribute free gadgets, it makes no sense.

PPC consultants should realize the fact that clicks should not be the KPI and you can take help of the points I discussed here to convince the clients that quality is far more crucial that quantity. If you are getting less visitors, but they are hitting the “buy now” button in the products/services page, you are doing a good job.

AuthorBio : This post is written by Sarmista Aun. She is a professional blogger and currently works in a leading PPC company in India. She provide tricks through her writings which you can follow to improve the conversion rate of PPC advertising campaign.

The post What Matters the More? PPC Clicks or Conversions? appeared first on Offshore Web Development Services India - Brain Technosys.

Pay Per Click campaigns are one of the quickest way to draw potential customers to your website and a great brand building tool. But there is a big risk in running PPC campaigns effectively. If not executed well it can prove to be expensive and not result in new conversions. If you are new to PPC marketing it is very important to run a successful campaign with experimenting and practice. Here are most common PPC mistakes web marketeers make:

1. Directing visitors to home page: One common mistake made by most PPC managers is that they redirect the searchers to home page rather than specific URL that match with the keyword. This is because the PPC managers believe that the real purpose of the campaign is to increase website visibility, but the truth is that the real purpose of the campaign is to add to the sales figure. If you are running PPC ads for the keyword “Red cowboy boots” a product that you sell, redirecting the visitors to home page can result in huge losses.

2. Not making use of negative keywords: Many PPC experts fail to make use of negative keywords that can then prevent the ads from displaying whenever certain words are searched. Using negative keywords is a great way to control the relevancy without actually eliminating the traffic of broad match campaigns. As a PPC manager you need to spend some time looking out for possible negative keywords that can actually influence the campaign.

3. Miss on the split-test of the advertisement and text: It is best to test PPC ads prior running them. It is suggested to split-test the ads by creating multiple versions of the advertisement text for the PPC advertisement groups. This will help you determine the text that get you the most click-throughs and on-site conversions.

4. Relying on Broad Match keyword ads: Broad match keyword advertisements appear only when complete or part of the target keyword phrase is searched for, which offers a great traffic potential. But the relevance is sacrificed here which also means a wastage of PPC funds. Setting the advertisements to exact match or phrases will decrease the traffic but will ensure that the ads appear in the search queries that are relevant to your business.

5. Directing visitors to contact page: There is nothing more frustrating for visitors than to be redirected to a websites contact page wherein they are forced email newsletters or lead generation form submissions. This will not only affect the sales but also against PPC guidelines. Google AdWords, doesn’t appreciate making visitors to fill out contact forms in exchange for goodies goes against their guidelines.

All the most common PPC mistakes new AdWords advertisers make can simply be avoided if you undertake PPC management training course at a renowned Pay Per Click Training Institute. Or else you can even enroll for Adwords Certification Courses to know more about intricacies involved in designing a successful PPC campaign.

About Author: Dino Roy, an Account Manager with Techmagnate, is currently pursuing his MBA in Marketing from the ICFAI University. He also teaches in SEO Institute and brings expansive knowledge and 6 years of working experience in the Internet Marketing industry. He is a Google AdWords and Analytics Certified Professional and his interests extend well beyond PPC to Media Buying, Strategic Planning and Lead Generation. Get more about  PPC management training course here.

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