I am going to be honest, pay per click advertising(PPC) can be downright frustrating. It seems like most times I use PPC I end up getting killed. The reason I am thinking this way at the moment because this was a particularly expensive week for me using PPC to no avail.

The late Gary Halbert, copywriter and direct marketing maven was once quoted as saying something to the effect of “whatever business you think you are in you’re wrong. You are in the business of arithmetic.” And of course, after thinking about things for any length of time, or being in business for yourself you quickly realize the truth in Halbert’s statement.

I never did well in math, and I will admit that I have suffered in business at times because of that. Well, perhaps  my poor math skills aren’t really to blame, but rather the problem of allowing my emotions to override my better judgment when I have done the math accurately and the numbers don’t add up to what I think they should.

There’s a lot that can go wrong with pay per click advertising, and this is really a topic that could easily fill a volume. That said, I will tell you some of my successes and follies with pay per click in hopes you will find some value in them.

• PPC is great for testing things. That said, it is hard to be unemotional when your tests don’t work out the way you want them to. In this last test I was getting high click through rates (CTR) but my offer wasn’t converting. That was particularly disappointing having written and revised the sales copy on the page several times.
• PPC is great for generating opt-ins on a landing page and building a list. It’s important to make sure that the traffic is very targeted if you are going to do this though otherwise you can build up  an unresponsive list.
• Do the math, in my experience (in a sales situation), even high converting offers only convert between one and two percent. So, for every 100 visitors one or two will convert. This is where it is very important to have a strong backend and a good understanding of the lifetime value of your customer. For instance, if you were paying an average of ¢.50 per click and you drove 200 people to your site for a cost of $100 and two percent of them (4 people) bought your $27 product. you would have made $8. Now remember, two percent is a high converting page. So, without a backend you will probably lose money.
• Many of the keywords in profitable niches have gotten too expensive. There are exceptions if you have time to sit and think hard, and get creative.
• I have had good luck with newsy keyword strings but you have to tie them in with your content to avoid quality score issues.
• Pay Per Click is demanding and requires a significant commitment in terms of time and money.
• I am not going to say I am the most creative person when it comes to keywords, I use Micro Niche Finder and Google’s Keyword tool. I have bought all kinds of courses and I still have had only minimal success promoting affiliate offers using PPC (I will also say that I don’t spend all my time trying to figure out PPC either). Courses and information I have found useful have come from the following sources. Howie Schwarts and Anik Singal.

You can probably tell, that I am no expert when it comes to PPC. Sometimes I have good luck with it and sometimes I don’t. I know there are lots of people making plenty of money promoting affiliate offers and making money with PPC. I still use it and I definitely feel it has a place but I prefer to include it as part of my larger marketing strategy.

In my next post I will talk about 10 ways to drive traffic to your sites, landing pages, and affiliate offer’s without pay per click.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Pay Per Click advertising?

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