Posts Tagged CPCs
The 5 Benefits of Long-Tail Keywords
Posted by Alan Mitchell in Techniques on August 6th, 2009
There’s been a lot of talk about long-tail keywords in pay per click (PPC). You could say it started in the entertainment industry with Chris Anderson’s influential Long Tail article in 2004, but it wasn’t long before the concept became mainstream among search marketers.
Long-tail keywords are those low-volume, obscure, infrequently searched-for keywords that turn up in your search query reports. ‘Cheap remortgage for bad credit history’ is one example of a long-tail keyword. ‘Remortgages’ is not.
The theory goes like this:
- Long-tail keywords, en masse, can provide significant search volume (high impressions)
- Long-tail keywords have less competition than generic keywords (lower cost per click (CPC), higher click-through rate (CTR))
- Long-tail keywords are more specific than generic keywords, so ads can be better tailored to match the searcher’s needs (higher CTR, higher Quality Score, less wastage from irrelevant searches)
- People making long-tail searches are often further along in the buying cycle and more willing to buy than people making generic searches (higher conversion rate)
- These lower CPCs, higher CTRs and higher conversion rates mean long-tail keywords can be extremely profitable (lower cost per acquisition (CPA))
So are long-tail keywords all they are cracked up to be? Are they worth all the time, effort and commitment they require?
Budget Time for Budget Checks
Posted by Alan Mitchell in Techniques on July 30th, 2009
Daily campaign budgets in Google AdWords are great. You simply enter the maximum you want to spend per campaign per day, then sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that your monthly Google bill will not cause any nasty surprises.
But despite the reassuring nature of campaign budgets and the ease at which they can control your spending, they should not be used to control your spending. Instead, cost per click (CPC) bids should be your tool of choice for spend management.