Can you Afford Adwords? 5 killer tips to make PPC work!

If you’ve got a website, you may consider setting up an Adwords account. Google Adwords can come with a significant price tag, but the results can be incredible. Some of my business partners have had tremendous success. One of them owned a local cleaning company, and after he started using Adwords, his business has grown into a multi million pound organisation. He has even managed to sucessfully launch a nationwide franchising scheme, all of the back of Adwords.

Can you do the same thing for your business? Maybe, let’s find out! First you have to figure out if Paying Per Click is worth the investment. Every sale has an acquisition cost. Whether you pay for someone to work the phones, pay another business to provide you with leads or walk the streets yourself, there is a cost for every lead. Simple maths allows you to work out how much you can afford to pay for a lead. What is your profit margin?

Do the maths
PPC advertising is no different. You just have to know how to do the maths in order to find out if it’s worth it. First you have to know how much an average “click” costs. Depending on your industry this can be pennies or big bucks. You can find the average cost per click by using Google’s keyword tool.

Next step is to work out what the conversion rate of your website is. Install Google analytics and divide the number of unique visitors by the number of leads you got over a certain period of time.

Now you know your conversion rate, you know roughly how many clicks you need in order to get a lead, and if you multiply this figure by the average cost per click, you have your average cost per lead.

Expectations
The internet is for browsing. How many times do you visit a website and realise it doesn’t have what you are looking for? The same will be true for people visiting your website. People may misinterperate the information in the advertisement, or maybe they’re just “window shopping.” Typically, a website converts around two per cent, so two out of one hundred people that visit your website will actually give you a call.
So how do you make adwords work for you?

Here are the five tips:

#1 make sure your advertisement describes your service as accurately as possible. Don’t be vague about what you do and don’t over promise. Everyone that clicks on the ad should be a potential client.

#2 make the landing page as relevant as possible. If you offer a wide range of services, don’t send people to your home page, send them to a page that is relevant to the service you advertise instead. You don’t want to confuse people with too much information and you want them to see the information that is relevant to them straight away.

#3 Have plenty of “call to action” on your landing page. Your conversion rate will go up dramatically if you add an enquiry or call back form to that page. Make sure the form is short and easy to fill out. Name, company, email and phone number is all you need.

#4 Let an expert company manage the account for you. Let’s face it, we’re all busy. Often too busy to give our adwords account the TLC it really needs. Not to mention the lack of knowledge we have in this field. A good PPC managment company will charge up to 15 per cent of your monthly expenses (not your budget!). They will be able to get you a far better return that you would on your own.

#5 Prepare for succes! Make sure you have the processes and the infrastructure to deal with a high volume of leads. How long does it take you to prepare a quote? How many calls can you follow up on? If you spend X and get Y leads and it is worth it, why not up the Adwords budget if you can handle the volume?

My advice? If you can afford the ride, get on the wagon!

Questions:
What is your cost per lead?
What is your experience with Adwords?
Do you know the average cost per click for your industry?