Pay Per Click Marketing is an increasingly effective Web marketing tool, both as a compliment to other marketing tactics and as its own online advertising technique. Higher Education Marketing founder Philippe Taza took some time to discuss the advantages of Pay Per Click Marketing.
Compared to other Web marketing tools and techniques, how important would you say Pay Per Click Marketing is today?
Pay Per Click Marketing is an important tactic to include in your overall Web marketing mix. One of the main benefits of any electronic marketing channel is that it’s measurable. If your school is spending money on newspapers, TV and radio, you don’t have the same ability and flexibility when it comes to measurement. You don’t know just how effective those campaigns are, whereas with Web marketing, and Pay Per Click Marketing in particular, you can know the exact effectiveness of a Google Adwords marketing campaign.
Essentially then, schools should be allocating an equal, if not greater, amount of money to online advertising, and PPC Marketing is a very powerful and ROI efficient option.
What are the advantages to Pay Per Click Marketing? Is it just that it’s measurable?
The fact that it’s completely measurable is one major advantage. Another advantage is speed on the search side. There are two main components to search: organic search, or SEO, and Pay Per Click. If you’re trying to get traffic for a specific keyword, but your website doesn’t rank for it, in a Pay Per Click Campaign you can be ranking for that keyword within an hour.
A major advantage, therefore, is to have visibility for neglected keywords almost immediately.
How does a Pay Per Click Campaign work exactly?
PPC Marketing is auction driven. Advertisers bid on keywords they want to trigger specific ads. Depending on their maximum bid, an ad will be displayed in the sponsored display ad area, which is typically at the top or on the right hand column of the search engine results page. A school, then, can control the keywords, the copy of that ad, and the landing page once a person clicks on your ad. By using a PPC Campaign, a school can therefore control almost every aspect of the advertising message and experience, including the pre-click and post-click environment and experience. You control it all.
What is the process involved in starting a PPC Campaign?
Above all, you have to look at what it is you want to market. PPC Campaigns need to be set up in a structured way, so you would start with keywords that best describe the program, faculty or cluster of programs you’re marketing. You would then align these keywords with the ads and the landing page.
An important thing to keep in mind, however, is the goal of the campaign. What are you trying to achieve? Is it an e-registration, do you want an inquiry from a prospective student? This should be the most important thing to start with. When you set up a campaign or you’re thinking of setting up a campaign, always start be defining the goals for that campaign.
Are there common mistakes to avoid?
The most common mistakes relate to the previous question: the lack of clearly defined goals. Schools need to know what their ultimate goals are for any Web marketing campaign.
Another common mistake to avoid is to have multiple keywords lumped up in one campaign. For example, some schools make the mistake of marketing multiple programs together, with accounting programs, web design programs, culinary arts, etc, all lumped together into one category or campaign. Working this way provides bad results, and generally a poor ROI.
Is Google Adwords needed for PPC Marketing? Can you have PPC Marketing without Google Adwords?
The Google Adwords channel is defined as CPC, or cost per click, and it has the most market share, so if you do not include Google Adwords, you’re actually not taking advantage of the biggest and best tool out there for this Web marketing tactic.
To find out more information about Pay Per Click Marketing and how Higher Education Marketing can help you set up an effective PPC Campaign, contact Higher Education Marketing today.
