How Not To Blow Your PPC Budget

When I wanted to get aquainted with Pay Per Click advertising with Google Adwords a few months ago, I figured that I would practice by getting involved with PPC – Affiliate Marketing.

This is the practice of promoting an affiliate program using Google Adwords. Basically, you buy traffic to the affiliate site and if you have done your research, you make more money from the affiliate program than you spend on advertising it.

The one hurdle that I had to overcome with this is that I didn’t want to lose my initial start up capital for the project. I knew that if I did, that it would not really matter as it would be money spent on learning. However, It was proving to be a really psychological barrier for me.

Yesterday, I read that Brandon Hopkins of Pay Per Click IQ wanted people to ask him questions about PPC, so I emailed him to ask him – What Are The Top 10 Ways to Lose Money With PPC? – And you can check his answers at this link.

So now I will give a quick run down of his tips, but I’ll turn them around into what you should do so as not to blow your budget.

1. Do pick your affiliate program carefully. If you already run affiliate programs on your content sites, then maybe choose one that is converting well.
2. Do use appropriate tools to choose your keywords. Try this tool for free or Wordtracker if you don’t mind paying. Also, give Good Keywords a try for managing your keywords.
3. Do start with a low Cost Per Click (CPC). Increase it as you need to depending on your Click Through Rate (CTR) and Return On Investment (ROI).
4. Do learn PPC with Google Adwords before branching out into !Yahoo and MSN Adcenter. But do investigate other PPC programs when you are getting good at it to increase your Market Reach.
5. Don’t take advice from just anyone on the internet. Do read plenty and then do your due diligence.
6. Do use negative keywords – It will target your ads better and can bring your CPC down.
7. Do monitor your stats. You need to keep on top of your ads performance and constantly improve your campaigns.
8. Do guage your ROI. You need to know if you are making money and to cut your losses if you are not – this is basic risk management.
9. Do use multiple ads for each Ad Group. This is called split testing and will show you what performs best.
10. Do create landing pages. They are statistically proven to increase conversion rates as long as they are done right. I don’t know why – it’s just the way it is.
11. Do ask questions. This is Brandons bonus tip. If you are a newbie, it is one of the best ways to learn.
12. And here is my bonus tip: Constant Improvement. In The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords, Perry Marshall talks about Kaizen, a Japanese phrase that refers to improvement. Perry states that Kaizen should be applied to your campaigns at all times and that it is imperitive in the application of constant split testing. With constant improvement comes serious unbeatability.

So there you go. By (not) following Brandons advice you should be on the way to successful PPC campaigns.

Also be sure to check out the rest Brandons website for more great advice on PPC.