Five Ways to Instantly Improve Your PPC Campaign- By Anthony Green on www.technorati.com

I couldn't stop myself from sharing an important and useful advertising tips by Mr. Anthony Green on www.technorati.com

Author: Anthony  Green 
Published: March 28, 2011 at 4:18 pm

I want you to run a quick experiment: look at the results for the search term "Worst SAT Tutoring Company in America."

Kaplan, Princeton Review, and all the other biggest firms are PAYING for ads to show up under this search, and if someone clicks on their ads, those companies are coughing up about $2-6 a click. That, my friends, is called "Paying The Idiot Tax."

You may have heard of the Idiot Tax before- it's how Google makes more than half of its money. The idiot tax is a fine leveraged on those who don't take the time to learn about proper PPC advertising.

Pay Per Click advertising is effective - people who tell you otherwise have no clue what they're talking about. But you can't just turn on a PPC campaign and expect to get instant, high-quality leads for cheap - you need to put in work. Think of PPC as a treadmill - buying it isn't going to get you a six-pack; you need to use the damn thing if you're looking for results, and you need to use it correctly.

Following are five tips that will keep you from paying the Idiot Tax yourself. None of them will take you more than 5 minutes, and all of them will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the long term.

1. Add negative keywords to your campaigns. Negative keywords are words that block your ad from showing up in searches that contain them - for instance, if you're trying to sell an expensive product, block out "free" and "cheap." Don't pay for clicks you don't want. And definitely get rid of "worst, sh*tty, terrible," etc. - not a good idea to pay for those.

2. Run two ads at a time (and ONLY two ads), tweaking one variable at a time. If you want to get great results, you need to "split-test" your ads. Change one thing about the ads (title text, body text, etc.) and keep everything else the same, and then axe the one with the lowest click-through rate. Then create a new ad with a different variable tweaked and repeat this process. The higher the click-through rate, the less money you'll pay for ads and the more relevant they'll be to the people searching for you. If you switch more than one variable at a time, you'll never know what people are and aren't reacting to and what's most effective.

3. Match your ad headline text to search terms. Don't be lazy - if you're running an ad for computer monitors, and you're bidding on the keywords "PC Monitors" and "PC Screens," make TWO different ad campaigns, one with "PC Screens" in the headline that only shows up for searches containing "PC Screens," and vice versa. Give the people what they want. If you don't do this, you'll pay more for your ads (because Google will see them as irrelevant) and your Clickthrough Rate will drop through the floor. People always click on ad headlines that contain the exact keywords they searched for.

4. Address the reader with your text. Studies consistently prove that ads with "you" in them are more effective than ads without the term. No one gives a crap about your company - they care about themselves. "Get your car cleaned!" is going to be way more effective than "We clean cars well!" "Get the results you're looking for" is way more effective than "We get our clients results." Tell your readers why THEY will benefit - leave yourself out of it.

5. Repeat after me: "Line 1: Keyword Match. Line 2: Benefit. Line 3: Offer." All successful PPC ads follow this formula. Tell your readers what you are (relevant to their search), why they'll benefit, and why they should click. A perfect ad served to someone searching for "Best Salsa in NYC":

The Best Salsa in NYC!
Get Your Favorite Chip Topping Today
20% Off for New Customers!

See what I did there? Matched the keyword, then expressed the benefit, and then made a special offer.

Here's a great ad for "Scary Halloween Mask"

Scariest Halloween Masks On Earth
Scare the Crap Out Of Your Friends!
Free Fake Mustache With Each Purchase

Same formula.

Follow these tips and you'll pay less money for more, better clicks. Stop paying the idiot tax and start using PPC correctly.