In case you don't know what the "Pay-Per-Click" (PPC) search engines are, here's a quick overview...

Unlike the traditional search engines such as Alta Vista, Google and thousands more, the PPC search engines allow you to rank your site where ever you want when a search is carried out on your chosen keywords. You simply pay for your ranking.

In other terms, this means you don't have to understand all the intricacies of search engine optimization and page ranking. All you need to know is how much you are willing to spend to get the visitors. And the great news is that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your link and arrives at your site. It's the ultimate in targeted traffic.

Using the "pay-per-click" search engines is quick, simple and cost-effective, and will bring you thousands of new visitors to your site. And many of the pay-per-click search engines charge as little as 1 cent per click. Minimum costs on even the more expensive pay-per-click search engines start at just 5 cents.

The great news is that pay-per-click search engines are gaining more and more visitors to them every day. Most have very stringent editorial processes, meaning when a search is carried out the search reveals the right sites among other sponsored listings.

Getting a list of unrelated sites when you carry out a search, is one of the main frustrations when using traditional (free) search engines. People are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of using the PPC's. And that is good news for you.

Why?

Because when you get it right, you'll generate loads of targeted traffic to your site. And you'll convert that traffic into larger sales because more people are visiting your site. What I really like about the PPC's is the results are almost instant. Within 5 days you can increase your traffic considerably. It doesn't take months like it does submitting to the traditional search engines.

When you position yourself in the top 3 or top 5 of the PPC's on a given search term you'll also be featured on the traditional search engines when the search term is entered. So you get the best of both worlds.

For example the new Yahoo! Sponsored Search - one of the largest PPC search engines has partner agreements with MSN, InfoSpace, Lycos, AltaVista, and Netscape.

Here's a simple example to show you how the PPC's work...

Let's say I'm an accountant. A common search term would be "accountant." You can head over to Yahoo! Sponsored Search and look at what we would have to bid to be number 1 when someone searches for "accountant."

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/index.php 

Type in "accountant," and take a look at the search results. Here are the top 4 results that I found when I did my search. Your results may be different. Yahoo! recently changed the way they show search results. They don't show the bids of advertisers. Instead they just say "Sponsor Results." That's why I've shown you this method for viewing how much advertisers are paying for their ranking.

__________

Database of 35,000 Accountants in US
Find a local accountant anywhere in US quickly
Full details on...
www.accountantsworld.com (Advertiser's Max Bid: $1.55)

__________

Find a Local Accountant
Small business or individual services anywhere in the 
United States.
www.1800accountant.com (Advertiser's Max Bid: $1.54)

__________

Need an Accountant
Get quotes from up to 5 local accountants. Compare rates 
and save.
www.respond.com (Advertiser's Max Bid: $1.01)


Notice at the bottom of each entry it shows you the "Advertisers Max Bid." If you want to be number one on this search term (accountant) on Yahoo! all you do is bid $1.56-one cent higher than the current number one.

That's how it works. Simple isn't it?

To put this into perspective, a couple of web sites owners we know were generating between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors every month to their site using the PPC search engines. And they've made a lot of money from that traffic.

It really is a no brainer technique as long as you follow these proven steps.

There are just 6 steps to success...

1. Build your keyword list

2. Write compelling titles and descriptions for each keyword

3. Select your PPC search engines

4. Place your bids for each keyword on each PPC search engine

5. Submit to each PPC search engine

6. Monitor to save money and maintain/increase your traffic


1. Build Your Keyword List

The key to success with the PPC's is to have a large selection of targeted keywords. I guess you already have a list of keywords that you know are relevant, but I'm going to show you how to get dozens and dozens more. 

Yahoo! Sponsored Search has a Term Suggestion Tool. The Search Term Suggestion Tool is going to be your "keyword builder." It's a fabulous tool that allows you to enter a keyword/phrase. Then after a few seconds the tool shows you how many times people searched on your keyword in the last month, and lists other "related keywords" complete with their numbers of searches.

The great thing about using this tool is you can grow your keyword list based on actual search behavior rather than on the keywords you think people are searching on. Plus it helps you build your targeted keyword list by giving you related keywords.

Next, you'll enter your main keyword in the Search Term Suggestion Tool. If you're running an accountant firm, your main keyword would probably be "accountant."

Here's the result of the search...

20106 accountant
5956 certified public accountant
4137 accountant on call
3575 chartered accountant
2984 certified management accountant
2720 accountant certified mail public
2108 certified general accountant
2051 institute of management accountant
1798 american institute of certified public accountant
1297 accountant salary
1122 national association of black accountant
1024 accountant inc
1008 tax accountant
1007 accountant canadian chartered institute
908 forensic accountant
867 electronic accountant
839 accountant resume
719 institute of chartered accountant
685 accountant joke
618 accountant job
575 certified accountant
557 certified managerial accountant
542 association of chartered certified accountant
482 association of government accountant
474 accountant uk
436 chartered institute of management accountant
421 accountant demand tax
410 management accountant
398 chartered accountant of ontario
379 accountant cpa
364 accountant chartered institute ontario
362 chartered accountant canada
357 accountant job description

See what the tool did? It gave us the number of times people have searched using the main keyword and then gave us a list of related keywords. The list was much longer than we've shown here.

Next, sift through the list and select all the keywords that are relevant to you. Now you'll need to prune this first list down by selecting only those keywords that are relevant.

In the example select the following...

20106 accountant
5956 certified public accountant
4137 accountant on call
3575 chartered accountant
2984 certified management accountant
2720 accountant certified mail public
2108 certified general accountant
1024 accountant inc
1008 tax accountant
575 certified accountant
557 certified managerial accountant
421 accountant demand tax
410 management accountant
379 accountant cpa

Next, create a simple spreadsheet with the following columns...

Keyword Frequency Title Description

Now enter your chosen keywords under the "Keyword" column, and enter the corresponding number of searches in the frequency column. Expand your list further by running a search on each keyword on your list. You can also do this to your other keywords you prepared when you created your web site.

Another search on "certified public accountant" were the top few results...

5956 certified public accountant
2720 accountant certified mail public
1798 american institute of certified public accountant
243 certified public accountant exam
231 accountant become certified public
213 certified public accountant san jose
198 certified public accountant
189 california certified public accountant
174 texas society of certified public accountant
147 accountant california certified public society
130 accountant association certified michigan public
129 accountant association certified public
118 accountant certified public salary
113 certified public accountant cpa
103 florida certified public accountant
102 ohio certified public accountant

Next, go through the list again and add the chosen keywords to your spreadsheet. Here's our list by selecting the following additional keywords...

213 certified public accountant san jose
198 certified public accountant
113 certified public accountant cpa

Keep doing this for each keyword until you've built your keyword list.

Add plurals

You'll have noticed as you built your keyword list that Yahoo! doesn't include plurals. It counts the singular and plural together in the count. When you go to bid for keywords on Yahoo! it only accepts one form of the keyword, either the singular or the plural. When someone searches for the term in the singular form or the plural it returns the same results.

But that's Yahoo!. Most of the other PPC's do differentiate between singular and plural, although several are starting to follow Yahoo!. So it's worth adding the plural versions to each keyword. This will expand your list further.

Here are our plurals to add...

accountants
certified public accountants san jose
certified public accountants
certified public accountants cpa
accountants on call
chartered accountants
certified management accountants
accountants certified mail public
certified general accountants
accountants inc
tax accountants
certified accountants
certified managerial accountants
management accountants
accountants cpa

That's your keyword list completed!

2: Write compelling titles and descriptions for each keyword.

Now you've built your keyword list from scratch. You should have dozens, even hundreds of targeted keywords. Next, you need to create your "titles" and "descriptions" for each keyword. And yes, this is time consuming, but I'm going to explain how you can cut the time it takes to write compelling titles and descriptions.

Your title and description are the two things that show up on the PPC's when a search is carried out. If you look at the results from the "accountant" search we did with Yahoo! here are the top two results...

__________

Database of 35,000 Accountants in US
Find a local accountant anywhere in US quickly
Full deatails on...
www.accountantsworld.com 

__________

Find a Local Accountant
Small business or individual services anywhere in the 
United States.
www.1800accountant.com 


The objective of your title and description is to get the click. So you need to write powerful "headlines" that make it irresistible for the targeted visitor to click on your link. Notice the difference between the two accountant based results above. Neither, the titles or descriptions are particularly compelling and neither of them target the visitor.

So here's how to write compelling titles and descriptions that focus on the people YOU want to visit your site...

Define exactly the type of person you want to visit your site. This is very important, especially when using the PPC's, where you pay for every visitor. You want to minimize untargeted traffic and maximize targeted traffic. The only way you can do this is to specify your targeted visitor in your title and description.

You must do this. Not only will this minimize untargeted traffic, it actually increases the amount of targeted traffic because people can instantly see "it's for me." So let's take the accountant example. Let's say your business focuses on new and start up businesses. Here's how to write the title...


Are You Starting A New Business?


Here's how to include it in the description...

"For all new start ups - Discover how to set up your own business within 5 working days for the cost of a meal for two. Accountant specializing in start ups offers free report..."

Do you see how easy this is? Do you see how targeted your titles and descriptions now become? This is the one step most people fail to action when using the PPC's. But believe me it is the key to your success.

Writing a compelling Title

Set the length of the title to a maximum of 40 characters

You'll notice from the example above that the title is shorter than the description. That's just the way all the PPC's, and many of the other search engines define your site. So there's a limit to the number of characters (letters, spaces, numbers etc) you can use in your title.

Now each PPC sets different lengths, so what you're going to do is fix your character length to the lowest length offered by all the main PPC search engines. This length is 40 characters.

Please Note: We're doing this so you don't have to create different titles for different PPC search engines. This reduces your time preparing your titles and descriptions considerably.

Add Power to your title.

Your title is a short headline. It must identify the targeted visitor and compel them to click on your link or to read your description. Again, this is easy to do if you follow these guidelines...

STAGE ONE: 

Start your title with one of the following POWER words/phrases...

Discover
Free
How to
Here's How To
Would You
Magic
Save
Winning
Announcing
Proven
Guaranteed
Now
Easy
Fun
Exciting
Fast
Why
Introducing
Breakthrough
Wanted
The Facts
Amazing
Instant
Revealed
Secret
Quick
Winning
New
Here are
Are You
Exciting
Right
Natural
Healthy
Success


STAGE TWO: 

Use the keyword in your title to increase click throughs It's been proven that including your keyword in your title and description increases the number of targeted clicks. Therefore, make sure your keyword is included in your title. Please Note: Yahoo! won't allow you to enter your title or description if they don't include your keyword in them - it's that important.

STAGE THREE:

Now combine your targeted visitor, your POWER word, and your keyword together and keep within 40 characters. If you're familiar with Microsoft Excel you can add a column to your Keyword list after the title to measure the length of your title.

Here's what to do...

Your title should be in column C. Insert another column in D and call it "Length." Then simply enter the following equation...

- LEN(C2)

C1 will be the heading of the column. Then just click on the cell and copy the equation to the bottom of your last keyword.

Here's how it would look...

Keyword (A1) Frequency (B1) Title (C1) Length (D1)
accountant 20106 =LEN(C2)

Using a spreadsheet this way will save you time having to count the characters in your titles and descriptions. So here's what our title looks like for the keyword "accountant."'

Introducing the accountant for start ups

STAGE FOUR: Capitalize the first letter of each word. This is a direct marketing technique that ads power to your headlines without making them difficult to read. Simply capitalize the first letter of every word in your title. Please Note: Never ever capitalize all your letters - even in one word.

Here's our finished title...

Introducing The Accountant For Start Ups

3. Writing a compelling description

Your description is at least 4 times longer than your title. In effect it's an extended headline. You can add more reasons why the person should click through to your site. Similar rules apply when creating descriptions...

a). Set the length of your description to a maximum of 180 characters. Use the same techniques described above when you created your title.

b). Add POWER to your description.

Apply the same POWER words to your description as you did your title, but this time try and use 2 or 3 different power words. Again, include your keyword once or even twice in your description, and again make sure you say who you want to target. Only capitalize the first letter of each sentence.

Here's what our description looks like...

For all new start ups - Discover how to set up your business within 5 working days, for less than a meal for two. Accountant specializing in start ups offers free report...

Secret Technique:

Notice the three dots (...) at the end of the description. This secret technique "forces" the visitor to click on your link. Make sure you use it at the end of every description.

STEP 3: Select your PPC search engines

There are hundreds of PPC search engines. The good news is we've tested many of them and identified the ones that you should use.

Here's the list of the PPC's we found to work and work well, complete with their URL, length of title/description and the minimum bid allowed...

PPC's Address Title Desc. Min Bid
Yahoo! www.yahoo.com 40 190 5 cents
7 Search www.7search.com 40 190 1 cent
E-Pilot www.epilot.com 60 255 1 cent
Go Click www.goclick.com 50 190 1 cent
Find What www.findwhat.com 40 250 1 cent
Kanoodle www.kanoodle.com 75 325 1 cent
Ah-ha www.ah-ha.com 40 200 1 cent
Search123 www.search123.com 40 225 1 cent


Yahoo! is the biggest by far, but that means your bids will be higher for the competitive keywords. For example; at the time of writing, the #1 spot on Yahoo! for "accountant" is paying $1.55, but on 7Search, it costs just $0.05 - that's a massive difference. Depending on what you can afford to bid you'll find Yahoo! may be out of your league. But that's okay. The other PPC's still deliver considerable amounts of traffic.

4: Place your bids for each keyword on each PPC search engine

Now we've reached the crucial stage. Bidding for your keyword placement is very easy, but you must never bid more than you can afford, or the PPC's will be a costly exercise.

So here's how to set your maximum bid...

a). Work out your existing sales conversion. You should instantly know what your sales conversion is on your web site. It's one of the most important metrics you need to analyze. Very simply, sales conversion is the percentage of sales you get from unique visitors to your site. If you get 100 unique visitors and you sell 2 products that means your conversion rate is 2%.

What if your site acts as a content based affiliate site where you don't sell products or services, you just make money from your visitors visiting your affiliates? Well, your conversion rate is similar only you need to monitor the unique visitors on your site to the sales generated by your affiliates. So, if for every 100 visitors you make 1 sale your conversion is 1%.

b). Calculate the average order value. This is easy. Just add up the total sales value and divide this figure by the number of sales units. So, if you sold 8 products totaling $600 your average order value is $75.

c). Set your break even point. If you have a sales conversion of 2% and an average order value of $75 this means for every 100 visitors you make 2 sales with a total income of $150. Your visitor value is $1.50 - total income divided by 100 visitors. Therefore, you know you can bid up to $1.50 and still break-even.

Actually, it will be less than this because you need to factor in your other costs such as web hosting etc,. but to keep the figures simple we'll ignore these figures for now. So, now you have a peg in the ground. You know how much you can afford to bid. Unless you have a system that generates more sales from each new customer. We urge you not to spend more than this break even figure.

But, of course you want to make money, not just break even. So decide how much you want to make from your PPC campaign.

Is it 50%, 60% or 70% - or whatever?

Well, let's look at what your max bid should be for a profit of 50, 60, and 70%...

Profit Wanted Max Bid
50% Profit $0.75
60% Profit $0.60
70% Profit $0.45

Because you've created a large targeted list of keywords where many will get you a number one ranking for 1 or 5 cents, you'll actually find that your average spend will be much less than your maximum bid.

Once you become more proficient with the PPC's you can raise your maximum bid for some keywords and still keep well below the break-even point.

d). Start creating your keyword bid list. Now you know what limits you need to work to, you can start to bid for each keyword on each PPC search engine. Here's what you need to do...

STAGE ONE: Add a column for each PPC search engine in your keyword spreadsheet.

If you've followed our advice so far, your Yahoo! column should be immediately after the "Length" column of your description.

STAGE TWO: 

Simply go to each PPC search engine and type in each of your keywords and enter the bid amount you want depending on where you want to be ranked. There are a number of factors you need to consider...

1. Stick to your max bid amount - especially in the beginning while you're learning.

2. The higher ranked you are the more traffic you get. The top 3 positions get by far the most traffic. If your bid doesn't get you in the top 25 don't bother, you won't get any traffic. A top 10 ranking is recommended, but top 5 is obviously better.

3. There's no point in bidding higher than a non competitor. Just bid one cent more than your competitor, while obeying point one and two above. For example; if your nearest competitor is ranked 21 don't place your bid to become number 20. As long as you are within your max bid secure a top 10 or top 5 position.

4. Only bid 1 cent more than the site below. What you'll notice is that "price gaps" exist on almost all the PPC's. For example; if you go to FindWhat and do a search on "accountant" the following results are shown

- Accountant
(Advertiser Paid: $0.23)

- Find Accountant At Ask
(Advertiser Paid: $0.22)

- Accountant Career
(Advertiser Paid: $0.20)

- Dallas Accountant
(Advertiser Paid: $0.07)

Notice the price gap of 2 cents between advertiser 2 and 3 and the price gap of 13 cents between advertiser3 and 4. These price gaps are created because people change their bids or they simply decide to stop their PPC campaign. The site at #3 could reduce their bid to just 8 cents and still retain their #3 ranking, saving a lot of money - $13 every 100 clicks.

- Enter your bid in your spreadsheet in the correct column. Now you're ready to submit.

5: Submit to each PPC search engine. The good news is that every PPC search engine except Yahoo! has what's called a "Mass Submission Template." 

This saves you hours. Simply go to the member area in each of the PPC search engines where you opened up an account and download the Mass Submission template. If you can't immediately find the template send them an email requesting it. Then all you do is cut and paste your keyword spreadsheet you've already prepared into the Mass Submission Template for each PPC.

You'll have to move your columns around to comply with the PPC submission guidelines, but this only takes seconds. And make sure you only include the bids you made for the specific PPC search engine. Once you've done that simply send the Mass Submission Template as an attachment back to each PPC search engine, and in a couple of days your keywords will be LIVE!

6: Monitor to save money and maintain/increase your traffic

As we explained earlier, price gaps will appear on all the PPC search engines that don't have "Auto Bidding." You must monitor your bids and placements for each keyword on each PPC search engine. Again, this takes time, but we urge you to do this at least once every two weeks, preferably once a week. There is software available that will help you do this, but unfortunately none of them include all the main PPC search engines.

In conclusion, You can now start to generate thousands of targeted visitors to your web site and make more money than ever before, using the PPC search engines. Admittedly, it does take time to get your campaign up and running, but it's well worth the effort. We hope you've realized the potential of using the PPC search engines. By giving you these simple steps and proven tools, you'll get more traffic than you thought possible. More traffic for you means more click throughs to any site you are promoting - resulting in more sales for you.

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