Pay per click (PPC) advertising can be very costly, especially if you are not getting the most for your money. Simply defined, pay per click marketing promotes your website on search engine results pages through paid placement. PPC can be very effective but can be tough on small businesses as it can become costly very quickly, if you do not know what you are doing you can end up wasting a lot of money on clicks which do not convert to sales. If you are interested in refining your ad campaigns, take a look below:

1. Use Keyword Tools:

Although this method is not 100% fool proof, you can get some great keyword suggestions by using programs such as Google Suggestion Tool. Google Trends also provides data on popular and seasonal keywords. These types of services measure the popularity of keywords over particular timeframes. Other places that you may want to check out for keyword research is SEMRush and eBay Pulse. Although these tools can be very helpful, it is always best practice not to heavily rely on the data provided as it is constantly changing. Try out some keywords for a while and see what is working (and what is not working) for you.

It is also advisable to try not to pick too many of your own keywords. You may be tempted to use your own company name for an example? But will your company name be an affective keyword? What you think may be a good keyword may turn out not to be so always keep an open mind with regard to the selection process.

2. Track Your Results:

When you have decided what keywords you are going to test out, it is important to track your results. You should sign up for Google Analytics or Yahoo! Web Analytics and ensure that your keyword program is connected with your analytical tool. For example if your have ad campaign running with Google AdSords, you will need to connect your Google Analytics account to monitor your pay-per click data.

3. Get Your Readers Attention:

You have very little time to get your potential customers attention, so make sure that your ad content grabs peaks their curiosity. Make sure you get to the point very quickly and there are no spelling or grammatical errors. You can also research other advertisers’ ads on search engines such as Google or Yahoo, who are marketing same or similar products to you. This can give you a good indication of what ad copy works well and what does not.

4. Filter out Unwanted Clicks

When starting a new business we often think that it is better to have quantity over quality, however, considering you have to pay for everyone who clicks on your ad, whether they make a purchase or not, it is usually better practice to pick highly relevant keywords and restrict your ad to only be shown to a particular group of potential customers. In other words, if your website sells clothing for pets, you may decide that you only want your ad to be shown to people who have pets but also who make over a certain salary, as opposed to just everyone who has pets.

Although there are many factors which will affect whether PPC is actually making you a profit, considering these points above may help your overall success rate in PPC marketing.