Putting a Price on your Traffic: Pay Per Clicks

Updated June 10, 2008

To many, the very notion of a 'pay-per-click' search engine is ludicrous. Even criminal. Basic ethics dictate that search engines should be free, period, end of story. If you want to get high search rankings, there should be a little artistry involved, right? Right. High ranking should be about page optimization, meta-tag strategy, keyword density, content relevancy, building link popularity, and then coordinating it all to land the optimal position on search queries.

But not with pay-per-click search engines. Nope. With pay-per-click you simply bid on keyword ranking to land the position you want. Basically it works like this: you open an account with a pay-per-click engine like Google AdWords, you select keywords relevant to your product, and then you bid on each term for where you would like your site to appear on search rankings. The higher the position, the higher the cost.

If you want top rank on a specific keyword, simply out-bid the current highest bidder. When an online shopper types in that keyword, your website is position #1 on the search result listings.

Some pay-per-clicks are more attractive than others since the search results are not restricted to one's own site. Rather, top search results are pipelined to other major search and meta-search engines. And if your bid position is for rank #3 or above, you show up on AOL, Lycos, and Alta Vista search queries. That sweetens the pot for bidding on these higher, more expensive positions. It also increases the chance of becoming entangled in a spiraling bidding war with invisible competitors for a top-three keyword ranking.

Sure, pay-per-click search is a vampiric commerce model bent on draining e-businesses of their precious marketing resources. (And then there are the paranoid visions of your competitors clicking your listings all night in order to drain your account). On the other hand, the prospect of cornering a high position in search results is mighty alluring - especially when you consider the increasing complexity of landing a high ranking the old fashioned way.

The key is to develop a unique pay-per-click strategy that works for your specific business model and marketing budget. One strategy freely promulgated on the web is to select hundreds of keywords, as many as possible, with a wide band of relevancy, and bid relatively low amounts on each one. However, I don't understand any tactic that sacrifices effectiveness for a (presumed) cost-efficiency.

Clearly, the primary objective is not to magnetize traffic, but to maximize the volume of exceedingly qualified traffic to your site (while minimizing click-through costs). And that means filtering unqualified traffic so your visitor-to-customer conversion ratio is high.

The cornerstone of smart pay-per-click theory is to avoid abstract - or 'umbrella' - keywords. Indeed, they're the most popular, but they're also the most expensive and, in all probability, semantically nebulous enough to attract a wide range of low-relevancy looky-loos. Instead, select the same specific keywords and niche terms that your paying customers would use to find you. Then select variations of the keywords - phrases that delineate, qualify, and increase relevancy. The more specific they are, the cheaper the bid price, which means you can bid higher (grab the top spot) on increasingly targeted terms. This way you get a wider venue across other major search engines. Select as many of these terms and variations as possible (Goto has a keyword generator that can help you brainstorm) and bid high, cheaply. And remember, when picking keywords, be your customer.

The next way to attract qualified visitors - while inhibiting the random click-through - is to write a meticulously crafted title and description for your search listing. Write it for your target audience. Make it attention getting, persuasive, and tell pay-per-click users exactly what it is you provide. And include enough detail and specificity so that interested parties click - and uninterested parties stay away.

Another tactic is to see where your keyword competitors are bidding and bid as high as you can to get a respectable ranking while simultaneously dodging exorbitant costs. Often, it's possible to acquire a number three ranking that is substantially lower in price than the top two bids - and if you are bidding on a pricey, popular keyword, try to locate the position that maximizes visibility while softening click-through damage.

Of course, pay-per-click search engines demand frequent monitoring and bid updates. Analyze the click-through reports and weigh them against your leads and/or sales results. Then scheme ways to optimize your unique pay-per-click strategy, usually by increasing or decreasing bids, adding or deleting keywords, or choosing a different pay-per-click search engine (there are many, though none have the clout of Goto - or the escalating costs).

Above all, put a price on your traffic. Literally. That means knowing your bid limitations and understanding if - and how - you are generating a solid ROI. And by all means, don't fall in love with traffic for traffic's sake.