How To Advertise

Search advertising (aka keyword advertising) is one of the hottest trends in marketing today, and no wonder--paying only for ads that potential customers click on is an advertiser's dream come true.

Your search advertising campaign's effectiveness, however, depends to a large degree on how effectively you plan, create and maintain it. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your campaign:

1. Know your business. The point of a search advertising campaign is precision: reaching the right users at the right time. And the first step toward achieving this is to know your business. What products and services are you selling? What's your precise market niche? What selling strengths do you want to play toward? Do your homework up front so your campaign planning will be as effective as possible.

As an example, let's assume you're running a gourmet coffee website, http://www.frothing-latte-bean.com, on which you sell a range of coffee products, from beans to machines. Your target market is devoted coffee lovers everywhere, and you want to focus on your great products and easy ordering options.

2. Identify your goals and organize around them. Once you have a clear sense of your business, stay focused on it as you establish the goals for your ad campaign. Then, as you set up your search ads, structure each campaign based on a simple, overarching goal--for instance, getting people who want to buy great coffee products to visit your site so you sell more coffee beans online. In some cases, you can use the same structure for your campaigns as you do for your website. If your site is already grouped into categories, for example, your job is almost done. Mapping your structure on paper first will produce an easy-to-use template.

Now that you've set your campaigns and related goals, you can create logical groupings within each campaign called "ad groups." Ad groups are made up of keywords and ads (and we'll go into this more later). Since you've chosen one goal per campaign, each ad group within a campaign should be helping you met those goals.

3. Choose the right keywords. Choosing keywords is both an art and a science. Start by brainstorming a list that's as wide as possible. There are a variety of online resources that can assist you in brainstorming. Using them, you simply enter a few basic ideas, such as gourmet coffee, French roast and coffee beans, and you'll get back dozens of potential keywords and phrases (two- and three-word phrases usually work best as keywords).

Once you have a good list, you'll want to sort it (many advertisers put them into a spreadsheet to make sorting them easier). Start by selecting a "match type" for each keyword. A broad match means any user who searches on "coffee" or "bean" in any combination will see your ads; more precisely targeted matches--such as a phrase match or an exact match--will deliver fewer ad views but perhaps better targeted ones. You can even choose negative match keywords to eliminate searched phrases you don't want your ad to appear on, such as "cheap" or "free."

Finally, you should refine your list by cutting irrelevant keywords that don't really relate to your business, and then organize the remaining keywords into themed groups. For instance, you might want to place keywords relating to whole-bean coffee in one ad group and those relating to ground coffee in another one.

4. Write ads that get people clicking. Now that you've set up your keywords and grouped them in ad groups, your next step is to write the ads that users will see in their search results when they search on those keywords. You have three lines with which to grab that potential customer's attention. Here are a few tips for getting it right:

Get to the point quickly.
Include your keywords in your headline.
Write copy that encourages users to click through to your site.
Here's a sample ad for our gourmet coffee site:

Gourmet Coffee Beans

Order fair-trade, French roast,

decaf coffee beans. Free shipping.

www.frothing-latte-bean.com
For more:www.enterprenure.com