Pay per click advertising is a vital internet marketing tool, yet how can you measure the results of PPC marketing strategies? With basic understanding of SEO and PPC plus the use of web analytic tools, you can measure the effectiveness of your Pay per click campaign. Here is the process to learn so that you can know how effective your PPC campaign really is:
1. PPC has to be integrated with web analytics tool. The author of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day", Avinash Kaushik, adviced the use of many web analytic tools and to incorporate the PPC data into it so that its effectiveness can be measured. Kaushik specified that access to the backed of web analytics tools is vital to know what is happening behind the scenes (instead of hiring an SEM service for this task).
2. Define your key performance indicators. The next question you need to answer is what exactly generates a 'sale' for you? Is it the click to a sales page (a lead capture)? Is it the payment and transaction itself? Defining what is the performance indicator for your particular campaign will help you narrow down your focus and track user behavior that is getting the conversions you need.
3. Keep track of your unique visitors. Unique visitor counts will vary significantly by campaign, and you will need to know exactly how much it cost to attract these visitors, even if they didn't complete a purchase or submit their information. The reason why this is important is because you need to know if the campaign is working. If people are only clicking through to the site but not converting, you may be targeting the wrong keywords.
4. Apply a split test. Online marketers have a technique known as a split test that can identify what are keywords or keyphrases that are bring them the maximum conversions in their respective target markets. A split test can be conducted by running the same advertisement using three different ad service providers at the same time. This will enable your to track clicks, see from where the most clicks are coming from, and pinpoint how your target market finds your website. This data is used to decide which ad service provider will be retained exclusively based on the highest yielding return.
5. Know the cost of each acquisition. When you know how many visitors your website has and how many of them actually generate you income, you can accurately compute the individual acquisition cost of your campaign. This will tell you exactly how much you have spent to get a sale. Then, you can calculate the average selling price and study your ROI.
Measuring the effectiveness of your pay per click marketing strategy can take time and you will need to tweak it as you go along. Still, it's a process that every savvy marketer needs to go through in order to optimize their ads and get the highest conversions from each and every campaign.
1. PPC has to be integrated with web analytics tool. The author of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day", Avinash Kaushik, adviced the use of many web analytic tools and to incorporate the PPC data into it so that its effectiveness can be measured. Kaushik specified that access to the backed of web analytics tools is vital to know what is happening behind the scenes (instead of hiring an SEM service for this task).
2. Define your key performance indicators. The next question you need to answer is what exactly generates a 'sale' for you? Is it the click to a sales page (a lead capture)? Is it the payment and transaction itself? Defining what is the performance indicator for your particular campaign will help you narrow down your focus and track user behavior that is getting the conversions you need.
3. Keep track of your unique visitors. Unique visitor counts will vary significantly by campaign, and you will need to know exactly how much it cost to attract these visitors, even if they didn't complete a purchase or submit their information. The reason why this is important is because you need to know if the campaign is working. If people are only clicking through to the site but not converting, you may be targeting the wrong keywords.
4. Apply a split test. Online marketers have a technique known as a split test that can identify what are keywords or keyphrases that are bring them the maximum conversions in their respective target markets. A split test can be conducted by running the same advertisement using three different ad service providers at the same time. This will enable your to track clicks, see from where the most clicks are coming from, and pinpoint how your target market finds your website. This data is used to decide which ad service provider will be retained exclusively based on the highest yielding return.
5. Know the cost of each acquisition. When you know how many visitors your website has and how many of them actually generate you income, you can accurately compute the individual acquisition cost of your campaign. This will tell you exactly how much you have spent to get a sale. Then, you can calculate the average selling price and study your ROI.
Measuring the effectiveness of your pay per click marketing strategy can take time and you will need to tweak it as you go along. Still, it's a process that every savvy marketer needs to go through in order to optimize their ads and get the highest conversions from each and every campaign.
