Imagine if you could hand-pick competitor’s sites and then have your landing page/ad open up right in front of the visitors’ eyes when they went to any of those web sites.

Talking about pipping someone at the finish line!

This is just one of the advantages that pay-per-view (PPV) marketing has over pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.

In fact, there are a number of reasons why PPV marketing might be your cup of tea:

1. You can target precisely, even to the point of singling out specific web sites to target eg. If you were marketing insurance, you could display your ad in front of geico.com
2. It’s relatively cheap – pay-per-view bids are often far cheaper than pay-per-click bids
3. You can reach millions of people that you may not get in front of otherwise
4. This target audience has specifically opted-in so they are more receptive to the offers
5. There’s no such thing as a Quality Score rating
6. And for affiliate marketers, there is nothing to prevent you direct linking to a merchant’s landing page if you wish
7. You can reach different target audiences beyond Google and other search engines

Now, I’m not saying that PPV marketing takes the place of PPC marketing – not at all.

While I love PPC marketing as a means to target potential customers in volume – it’s not the be-all-and-end-all. No search engine is.

There are other advertising networks out there, with other customers whom I’m not going to reach through Google AdWords, however high my Quality Score and bid prices are.

This article is for those of you who want to place their eggs in more than one basket, and perhaps save some money in the process. Let me introduce you to PPV marketing…

What is Pay-per-view Marketing?

PPV marketing expands your reach into PPV networks that have target audiences in the millions, all of whom have agreed to be shown ads in context with what they’re looking for.

However, it works quite differently to search engine marketing, where the audience is comprised of searchers and web surfers.

A PPV network is comprised of advertisers and target audience, with the PPV network then giving advertisers a means to connect with their target audience.

How it works is that a person downloads software from a provider in exchange for freebies, eg. games, toolbars, screensavers, shopping tools, emoticons, ecards.

This is more commonly known as Adware, but not to be confused with Spyware, which doesn’t have the user’s consent and is usually nefarious or even harmful to the person’s computer.

Adware is not harmful and it’s permission-based, so users ‘opt-in’ so to speak. Because they’re aware of being presented ads, it’s not as intrusive as advertising to someone without invitation.

Also, because the ads are targeted contextually, they usually appear when the person is on a related site or looking for related keywords. It’s a “if you like this, you might like this….” concept of advertising.

Once a person downloads the Adware, they are then part of the PPV networks target audience, and potentially yours.

Who should try PPV Marketing?

I mentioned affiliate marketers just before, however PPV marketing can be used by both affiliate marketers and direct marketers.

PPV marketing is not always suitable for all products and services, although finding out usually requires some testing on one or more networks.

If you’ve got an offer that can be piggy-backed onto another relevant site, again along the lines of “if you like that, then you may like this”, then PPV marketing could be worth a trial.

What type of targeting can you do with Pay-per-view Campaigns

There are usually four different ways you can target an audience (depending on the PPV network):

1. Keywords – specify the keywords relevant to your offer, and what the user may be searching for
2. URLs – list the URLs of sites that you want your ad to appear in front of
3. Categories – specify the category of site that your product may be relevant to, eg. Shopping
4. Run of the network (RON) – very broad approach that markets to the whole network (not usually recommended)

For the uninitiated, I’d recommend starting with URL targeting, then once you’re proficient, expand onto keyword-targeting and maybe category-targeting, depending on your offer.

URL-targeting is one of the most exciting capabilities with PPV marketing. Here’s a scenario of what you can do:

Let’s say you’re marketing travel insurance – you could:

• Compile a list of keywords relevant to travel insurance and people looking to travel – create a keyword-targeted campaign for anyone searching on those keywords or visiting contextually relevant sites
• Create a broader category-targeted campaign based on Travel and Accommodation
• Compile a list of URLs, then create a URL-targeted campaign
• These URLs could be competitors’ sites or similar sites to your offer eg. travel insurance sites. They could also be sites where people would go that would be interested in what you have to offer, eg. people making travel bookings may be interested in travel insurance
• By choosing the top ranked free and paid listings on Google, these are likely to be sites that are highly trafficked, highly relevant and successful
• When any of those travel web sites are visited by someone who’s joined to the PPV network, your ad or landing page appears in front of them
• Eg. a traveller visits www.insuremytrip.com or www.tripology.com and is also presented with the option of your web site
• Conversion rates can be higher with URL-targeted campaigns because you are offering them another product that is directly relevant and helpful to what they’re looking for

NB: Porting PPC campaigns from your search engine accounts is not recommended. Treat PPV marketing as a different beast, with different research, ads, campaign set-up, reporting and tactics required.

How do you sign up as a PPV Marketer?

PPV Networks are very similar to PPC networks, although usually there’s less to fill out.

You can sign-up by going to the home page of the network, then clicking on the registration link. You’ll then be able to fill in your business details, billing details, initial deposit if required and occasionally provide proof of identity.

With many networks, you can be signed up and good to go within a matter of minutes.

Different Pay-Per-View Networks

Here are some of the main networks to check out for your campaigns:

TrafficVance

TrafficVance serves ads to people who’ve installed their Game Vance software, so it can be successful for the younger demographic, although the vast majority of their 50 million or so users are aged between 25-44.

According to TrafficVance, the majority of users earn in excess of $100+ a year, have a college education and are married with kids, most of them are also online every day. You can also target international traffic.

It is one of the most popular PPV traffic sources due to the audience size, so the competition and the bid prices are a little higher than the others (although still lower than PPC bids).

The user interface is more developed than some other PPV networks, with customer service to match. The main downside is that you are required to open an account with a minimum of $1,000 deposit.

Media Traffic

Media Traffic serves ads to people who’ve installed their Vomba screensaver product.

Traffic volumes and correspondingly bid prices can also be higher, though generally not as high or as competitive as TrafficVance. This is a slightly older demographic to TrafficVance as well as being US and international. The initial deposit is lower, currently only $200 to start advertising.

LeadImpact (formerly Zango)

Lead impact is another of the bigger networks behind Traffic Vance. For the traffic volume, the bid prices aren’t too bad. This targets an older demographic of 35+ with a majority being female. The minimum set-up deposit for LeadImpact is $200, the same as Media Traffic.

AdOn Network

AdOn gets serves ads to people with the My Geek Shopping Toolbar installed. It has lower traffic volume, and accordingly cheaper due to less competition. Ads are also shown in pop under windows, rather than pop ups and you’ve got different options besides pop-unders, such as banner ads, full page ads and search listings.

DirectCPV

DirectCPV are still a growing network, currently 12m strong, mainly from the US and Brazil, although other countries are steadily growing. The traffic volumes are on the increase and the bid prices are quite good.

The new interface and the tools available are also a lot friendly. DirectCPV only requires $100 deposit to get started.

Linksador

Linksador is currently in beta phase, so it’s quite a small network, but it’s one to watch. There’s not a huge amount of traffic at the moment, which is not usually an indicator of how well a network converts.

This does mean that there’s not a lot of competition either at the moment and the service and approvals are faster.

Adoori

Adoori is another growing network that offers pop-unders and contextual advertising. It’s fairly cheap with some good starting packages. You can target by keywords,URLs and geographically because they have an international user base. The minimum deposit is $100.

The following networks are commonly referred to as pay-per-view, however they work slightly differently to the traditional PPV networks listed above. Instead of serving ads based on Adware being installed, they serve ads based on the publisher’s web site content.

• Clicksor
• AdBrite
• Megaclick
• CPVMarketplace

Pay-per-view Ads

Each of these networks offers a variety of different ads, ranging from text, banners, toolbars to simply opening your landing page directly in front of the viewer.

• Pop-ups – these aren’t the usual garden-variety pop-ups. A new browser window is actually opened on top of the web site, usually contextually based when a match is made between the user’s browsing location and your targeted keyword, category or URL. Pop up blockers don’t stop these due to the technology used.
• Pop-unders – while they sound similar to pop-ups, pop-unders appear in your bottom tab where the “Start” button is, so it appears like a minimized window. A person might bring it up straight away or later on.
• Banner Ads – size may vary for display ads across networks.
• Full Page Ads – this could be an ad or your landing page opening in front of them.
• Text Link Ads – these are simply text ads that link to your landing page.
• Custom Sliders – These are like pop-ups, but they slide in from a particular area on the page. The user can then click on it or if they don’t, it disappears are 30 seconds or so.
• Toolbar ads – custom toolbar ads.
• Mobile Ads – ads specifically for mobile devices with full html browser capabilities.
• Inline Ads – these are hyperlinked keywords within the text, that then open to an ad.

This adds a new element to split-testing, because not only will you be testing different ad copy, you’ll be monitoring which types of ads perform the best for you on each PPV network.

Tracking, Testing & Optimizing PPV Campaigns

Each PPV network and campaign should be tested on its own merits.

PPV Networks have their own reporting, which can vary in quality. For any marketing, it’s great to have an independent report that gives you the conversions vs spend, so you can measure ROI properly.

Ideally, you also want to see which ads and landing pages are performing the best, so you can improve your PPV campaigns. Similar to PPC, you want to keep increasing views, click through rates and conversions.

Pay-per-view networks do allow you to insert tracking tokens in your destination URLs, so if you’re already using another tracking tool, it’s usually easy to integrate.

Different PPV networks will perform better or worse for different offers that you promote. Eg. some offers perform well on Lead Impact, but the same offer loses money on Media Traffic.

Success or failure on one network, doesn’t mean you’ll get the same result on another network. Each network has different software installed by different users and new people for you to market to. However, please test each network on its own merits.

To optimize your PPV campaigns means adjusting your targeting. For example, you could:

1. Try another demographic
2. Try a different network
3. Change your frequency capping
4. Cull the targets (either keywords or URLs) that don’t work and more aggressively promoting those that do. If you see URLs that are getting loads of traffic but not converting then get rid of them.
5. Use a different landing page – Direct linking the landing page or dedicated landing page (depending on what was tested)

Similar to Google’s Content Network, you can take the most successful URL/s, create a dedicated campaign for that URL, then create ads and landing pages targeted for that site, to increase your conversions yet again.

Pay-per-view Marketing with SpeedPPC

Because many PPV networks offer a bulk upload tool, you can use SpeedPPC to smoothly and quickly upload your pay per view campaigns.

SpeedPPC has a list of established PPV campaigns that you can target, and if you come across any more that aren’t listed, you can easily create a custom output to suit that particular network as well.

PPV marketing is new to SpeedPPC version 4.5, so SpeedPPC members should check out the Members Area for the tutorial video on how to create four PPV campaigns simultaneously and save even more time!

PPV Marketing Summed Up

If you’re already familiar with PPC networks, you’ll adapt to PPV marketing very easily.

Pay-per-view networks can be a very exciting and profitable medium to market through. Just remember that each network is very different, and more so than different search engines.

Test carefully and measure your profits, comparing different networks (audiences), different ads and different landing pages to find the sweet spot for your offer.

We’ve just put together an amazing sale to celebrate SpeedPPC turning 3.

As part of this celebration we’re releasing the latest Version of SpeedPPC (version 4.5) as well as a brand new Advanced PPC Bootcamp Video Training.

Aside for lots of small additions and tweaks under the hood, this new version also adds support for other new emerging PPC networks (and killing off the ones that have since folded). The biggest addition has been the inclusion of a number of PPV networks.

So we’re currently supporting the following outputs:

• Google AdWords
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Microsoft adCenter Desktop
• Microsoft adCenter
• 7Search
• Advertise.com
• AffiliateRadar
• Ask
• eClickz
• Looksmart
• Marchex
• Miva
• ValidClick
• LeadImpact/Zango
• Media Traffic
• AdOn Network Pop-under
• AdOn Search Listing
• Direct CPV Keyword-Targeting
• Direct CPV URL-Targeting

Plus of course, we also have the custom output that allows you to build pretty much any output you like!

This is the best offer we’ve ever put together for SpeedPPC. If you don’t have it already, now is the best time to grab it. This deal only lasts for the next couple of days.

Over the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve consumed a lot of training materials on Pay Per Click advertising. I’ve seen some really great stuff and a lot of not so great stuff too.

One thing that has bugged me is the constant rehashing of the same material. Just to get everyone up to speed. However, I felt like most people who’ve done a fair bit of PPC in the past would already know 90% of the course material. It’s the 10% they don’t know that they are buying the course for.

Which is why we’ve created a 14 part (2 week) Advanced PPC Bootcamp.

We set out to create a course that tries to switch these numbers around. So giving you more of that 10% part, and less of the stuff you already know.

Each video is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour plus long. We’ve designed them to be thorough and cover the material with specific examples. However, we’ve tried to ensure that they are fluff free and cut to the chases as quickly an efficiently as possible.

These are designed for intermediate to advanced users.

Tomorrow we’re putting together a big package to celebrate SpeedPPC turning 3. We’re planning on giving this course away during this birthday week as a free bonus (plus some other stuff). Look out for more details soon!

Here is the course outline if you are interested.

Day 1: Advanced keyword research techniques to find profitable keywords with lower competition

Learn what makes a profitable keyword and how to find money-spinning keywords that reach the customers that are ready to buy from you. This in-depth video will give you a guide to different keyword methods, including a practical demonstration on keyword research. See how you can multiply your long tail keywords in SpeedPPC with its powerful keyword mixing features. You’ll learn simple techniques that you can apply across any keyword tool. Find out what pitfalls to avoid with your keyword research and come out ahead!

Day 2: How to improve Google’s Quality Score to decrease costs and increase ROI

Google AdWords Quality Score is the single most powerful influence on whether your campaign makes it or not. With a poor quality score rating, your campaign will be stopped in its tracks. Find out the different types of quality scores, how they’re calculated for Search and Content Networks and most importantly, how you can harness it to significantly cut your costs and increase your return on investment. If your Quality Score card is currently low or needs improving, then pick up some practical tips on how you can get back into Google’s ‘good books’. Make or break your campaigns now.

Day 3: How to split-test your pay per click ads for peak performance

Split-testing your pay per click ads has never been easier! If you’re not sure how to split-test PPC ads how many to split-test or what to split-test, then watch this video and get a comprehensive guide to split-testing, You’ll see how easily you can start testing your ads using SpeedPPC and AdWords. You’ll also become skilled at analysing the relationships between your account statistics so you can diagnose the root of the problem and fix it straight away. Start testing like a pro in less than a hour.

Day 4: Advanced ad strategies to position your business for better profits

Which ad position would you like? After this video, you’ll be able to work out which ad rankings are most profitable for you, then target these positions specifically. Invest more money in the highest turnover positions and spend less money on the positions that are not as profitable. Using a combination of Google AdWords and Google Analytics, this tutorial will show you how to create a special custom report to give you information that is not readily available, then use it to set position preferences in AdWords. Rank consistently where the best profits are.

Day 5: Insider’s Guide to combining SEO and PPC in a powerful, integrated strategy

Whether you’re an SEO Expert, a PPC Guru, or neither, you’ll pick up straightforward tips that you can combine to benefit both your organic rankings and your PPC performance. While still powerful separated, this video shows you how to integrate your strategy and maximize the joined forces. Spend more time at the top of the search results, while saving time and effort getting there. If you’re interested in dominating more search engine real estate, this video will show you how.

Day 6: Advanced landing page techniques to boost your quality score and conversion rates

This video is a great all-round guide to creating powerful landing pages that pave the way for more conversions. See what makes a great landing page and gather tips on the content and design of your landing page. Learn what to avoid and what to include on a PPC landing page. Get the rundown on Google’s Landing Page and Web Site Quality Guidelines and how to implement them for greater success. Also learn about dynamic landing pages and how to create them, so you can promote your quality scores and increase conversion rates. Get your PPC landing pages converting now.

Day 7: Powerful techniques to build targeted email lists for long-term profit

A common saying among salespeople is that “you’re only as good as last month’s sales figures”. This can be a precarious way to run your business. Wouldn’t you like to have long-lasting profits that keep increasing? This video is all about creating long-term profits that grow and grow. Discover what list-building can do for you and learn how to build targeted email lists that you can sell to, time and time again. Learn a variety of methods to qualify your prospects, so you can market to high quality lists that want to hear all about your products or services. Start building your email list now with these clever tips.

Day 8: Essential Guide to PPC display advertising on the Content Network

What’s one of the quickest ways to get brand new customers that would never have found you otherwise? Google’s Content Network of course! Learn the ins and outs of advertising with a variety of different ad formats on Google’s Content Network. This video will give you a guide to what the Content Network is, how quality score differs for Content, why targeting is different for Content and how to set-up targeted campaigns directed at Content Network partners. Not sure how to measure it? You’ll also be given a guide on different reports to use so you can optimize your campaigns effectively. As well as setting-up your campaigns, you’ll fast-forward your knowledge to pick up different tricks of the trade to making money on the Content Network. Expand your reach and learn about Content Network marketing now.

Day 9: Get what you really need to know out of Google’s reports

How many of Google AdWords’ reports do you use? This video will take you through each report and the customizations available. You’ll learn which report to use for what, including a quick list guide that gives you the best reports to suit each purpose, so you can spend more time doing what’s important, instead of chasing data. By the end of this video, you’ll know where to look and how to troubleshoot account problems, uncovering information that may have been hidden from you before. Get the most out of Google’s free reporting now.

Day 10: Advanced Google Analytics – How to customize your analytics and turn it into more income

Ever wanted information that you thought Google didn’t give you? Chances are it’s there, and you just need to learn how to dig it out. Enter Advanced Google Analytics. Learn how you’re really performing with customized analytics reporting, segmentation and filtering. Following a quick introduction to what Google Analytics has to offer, you’ll then be taken on a tour through setting up your Google Analytics account so it returns the information you need to generate more income. If you’re new to Google Analytics or an experienced user that wants to get more out of it, tune into this video for more.

Day 11: How to conquer Local Search for your business

Local Search has been around for some time, but never before has there been so many ways to take advantage of it. Given that in 2009, there were 400 million local searches made per month, you should learn what local search is, the different types of local search and how to use it to impact conversions. Use this video to get your business listed for Local Search, learn great tips for local search optimization, and learn how it fits in with your SEO and PPC strategies. Even learn how to take advantage of the new Local Search for Mobile tab in Google. Everything you need to know about Local Search is here in this video.

Day 12: Master mobile marketing in an hour

As we get busier and busier, our lives are lived more on the go with mobile devices providing much of what used to be in home research. Learn all about how you can reach your audience wherever they are and whenever they want you, with mobile marketing. There are a lot of ins and outs with mobile advertising, so this video will take you through keyword research for mobile ads, the different mobile ads in Google, geo-targeting mobile campaigns, how to use ad extensions for mobile, tips on mobile-specific landing pages and how to measure your mobile search performance. It won’t take you long to get across Mobile AdWords marketing with this comprehensive video.

Day 13: Introduction to Pay-Per-View Marketing

Ready to try your hand at something new? We were, so SpeedPPC is now geared for Pay per view marketing across several networks. This video guide will give you a solid introduction to what PPV marketing is, what the differences are, where you can do it and most importantly – how to do it. Similar to Google’s Display Network, PPV marketing is another channel to get your ads in front of the right people. Whether you’re affiliate marketing or marketing your own goods and services, learn more about pay per view and how you can use it to get new leads for your business.

Day 14: How to advertise and optimize on Bing

If you’re not using Bing to its full potential, or not using it at all, then this video is for you. Learn the difference between MSN and Bing, where to sign-up as an advertiser, how to research your campaigns using MSN intelligence and create your campaigns specifically for Bing. You’ll also learn how to use the reports to get actionable data. As part of this video, you’ll also learn more about the current transition as part of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search alliance and how to prepare your Yahoo campaigns for integration with MSN.

Last week I was interviewed by Josh Dreller, a columnist for Search Engine Land. In the interview he asked me a bunch of questions about Quality Score, and why we created SpeedPPC in the first place.

Upon reading it back, and chatting with a few people it struck me that a lot of people in some ways don’t really “get” why quality score is so important. Not only that, they don’t understand how it’s actually an amazingly positive thing.

Put simply, if you know what you’re doing you can make a killing.

Glass half full or half empty

It seems that most advertisers tend to frame quality score from a negative perspective and as a result, it negatively impacts their results.

They keep asking questions like “Why the heck are so many of my keywords getting quality scores of 1 or 2?”

This is a fair enough question, and they are obviously doing something seriously wrong. A subject I’ve covered (and will continue to cover) in other posts.

However, where the bigger opportunity lies is not just getting your keywords active, it’s NOT settling for mediocrity. Don’t see 6′s, 7′s and 8′s in your account and be happy enough. This is a costly mistake.

The Disconnect

If you have a look at the main video on the home page at SpeedPPC.com you’ll see how by doing things in a smarter way, we were able to improve our QS by 56.5% with just a few minutes work.

The problem is, many people don’t connect the dots on how much of a good thing this is. It’s looked at through this glass half empty mindset most of the time. So people think “Oh.. that’s good. I’ll be able to get my ads showing now”. Yeah. . . well that’s nice, but you’re settling for mediocrity.

Here’s why creating high quality campaigns (easily created with SpeedPPC) REALLY matter. You need to read this stuff slowly to let the full impact and exponential nature of it sink in.

1) More Traffic

• In rough terms, if you can improve your QS by 56.5% you can improve your ad position by 56.5%
• Ad position #1 gets 8 times more clicks than ad position #5. So by moving from position 5 to position 1, you get 8 times the traffic for the exact same cost per click.

2) More Profitable Keywords

• In rough terms, if you improve QS by 56.5% you can lower your costs by 56.5%.
• So you can now activate more keywords at the same ad position for 56.5% less. So you have more keywords working profitably for you. Again, dramatically increasing your reach. You could have thousands instead of just hundreds of keywords driving profitable clicks.

3) Better Conversion Rates

• With well structured PPC campaigns, you can drop people onto pages that more accurately reflect what they were originally searching for.
• As a result, you’ll increase the conversion rate and can afford to pay more per click in 1 & 2 above. Creating for yourself a exponential profit snowball.

Can you see the magic of this stuff?

Don’t fall into the trap of settling for mediocrity with you PPC. Go for the throat and you’ll reap the rewards.

We’ve just launched the new SpeedPPC website.

We need your help. If you happen to spot something that doesn’t look quite right or if you come across a broken link or the like, would you kindly help us by
letting us know and we’ll sort it out pronto.

Thanks heaps!

The SpeedPPC community is made up of people from different walks of life, living in different parts of the world, who do a variety of different things online. Amongst all the differences the commonality is a great love for SpeedPPC. This is because it’s changed what was once a boring process called ‘normal PPC campaign building’ forever!

It’s great to hear from our end users who work the coal face mining for increased profits using our suite of tools.

As you read this series you’ll gain insight regarding the ins and outs of how and why they use SpeedPPC.

In part one Scott Clark who manages several million dollars in PPC spend says he couldn’t do without productivity tools like SpeedPPC. This is a great read for those of you who are dealing in big dollars and need to rely on the advanced functionality that SpeedPPC also provides. Enjoy!

Quick! We’re running a sneaky 72 hour sale on SpeedPPC. Grab it at 30% off now.

People often say that PPC is too expensive. Well, for some it’s true.

Many guzzle through their ad budget like there’s no tomorrow with little, if any return.

But a little applied knowledge can make a major difference.

In part two of this series, Blase Des Marais tells in his own words how he built a SpeedPPC campaign for a client that generated thousands of dollars in sales for less than $40 with Google Adwords.

Sounds too good to be true? You be the judge.

Quick! We’re running a sneaky 72 hour sale on SpeedPPC. Grab it at 30% off now.

For those of you who manage PPC campaigns for clients you’re probably already aware of how difficult it can be to create improvements and increased profitability in already successful campaigns.

Regardless, most clients demand it… More profits for less and they’re always on the outlook for someone who can deliver.

In this interesting read you’ll discover how Jamie achieved these aims fairly effortlessly as he shares some great ideas that may be of assistance to you.

Quick! We’re running a sneaky 72 hour sale on SpeedPPC. Grab it at 30% off now.

Looking for champagne results on a beer budget?

This is a great way to drive massive, highly relevant PPC traffic without the normal associated price tag.

When the adwords system was first introduced back in 2000, pay per click (PPC) marketing was in its infancy.

This meant that it didn’t require a big budget or too much know how or creativity to enjoy good ROI.

Back then you could bid on generic keywords such as “bicycle“, “notebook” or “credit card” and with a simple ad and landing page, good profits would start to flow.

Today, a decade later, the industry has come of age and with this growth has come the growth of cost per click.

Nowadays, competitive keywords can be costly. Check out the average Adwords CPC on these phrases:

school loan consolidation $69.16
college loan consolidation $68.35
car insurance quotes $66.88
school consolidation $66.29
auto insurance quotes $65.90

Unfortunately, these figures came from 2008 and like inflation, they aren’t coming down.

Some New York professionals have ascended into the 3 figure click cost category. Hey, take it easy on your click trigger finger if you’re looking for a lawyer in New York! Well, I guess they can afford it.

Let’s have a look at some figures from today. We’ll assume that you’re spying out the often lucrative credit card offerings market.

OK, $11.86 ain’t too bad. But if you’re tight on nickel or your conversion rate and/or profit ratio isn’t out of this world, it probably wouldn’t pay to gamble here.

But this is what many newbies do. They start bidding on the most common and expensive keywords and wonder why their ads won’t show up. Frustrated, they boost their bid price and blow their budget without any return. Perhaps you’ve heard a few of those “Adwords chews you up and spits you out!” rumors floating around the traps?

Let’s try and get into something a little less savage on the wallet. We want to try and make money, not throw it away!

How about, “credit card new york”?

Hmmmmm $7.62. Well, at least it’s heading in the right direction.

With a little bit of sniffing around and a little bit of digging, look what we found today:

You little beauty! Please forgive our unbridled enthusiasm but at 5 – 9 cents a click we can pull 100 times the traffic for the same 100 bucks that would have gotten us 10 visits bidding on “credit card“. It’s 10 visits or 1000…. Your call.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize there’s something here but whilst these gems exist, they can be a little hard to find.

This is where a tool like SpeedPPC can help. “Oh no, this is a sales pitch after all” I hear you groaning. Hang on, there’s great value here. You can do this manually… If you’ve got a few free months to spare.

What’s wrong with this picture? The thing with these keywords is that they are low in cost but also low in search volume. As in the pic above, these guys pulled approximately 58 – 140 searches in the USA during December 2009.

Now let’s round them off by supposing that they each average 100 searches a month. Can you handle that? We’ll also assume a CTR of 5% (quite possible with relevant ad text in this often forsaken environment).

To get your 10,000 visits for just $700.00 (based on your 7 cent CPC average), you will need… Hang on, we’ll need the iphone to figure this out….

That’s…

5 clicks a month per ad so …

10,000 divided by 5% = 2000.

What’s that? 2000 ads? This means setting up 2000 bid prices with different match types, creating thousands of unique ads that mirror the keywords used by the user and let us not forget, 2000 landing pages parroting the users search terms in the page title, meta tags, keywords and body content. That’s best practice. Not much fun for 5 clicks a month hey?

By the way, it’s been determined that relevant, descriptive phrases tend to convert better than the general, generic phrases do.

When you think about it, a home recording studio buff searching for a new set of speakers would more likely search “yamaha ns-10 studio monitors” than “stereo speakers”. Why? Not because they sound good, they sound lousy but because they’re an industry standard studio monitor.

A relevant PPC ad is going to appeal to his or her click finger before ‘loud speaker‘ ever could. This is probably why descriptive, relevant ads tend to pull better CTRs.

With our recent focus on effective keyword research, Fabian Lim, a top internet marketing coach has added to the pot in this training-focused webinar.

He discusses both PPC and SEO methods for keyword research, with very practical tips to help you research the right keywords for profit, while spending less of your precious time digging them out!

Now you can download the webinar here (90MB) or watch the webinar recording below:

Fabian’s kindly given us a copy of his slides that he used during the presentation as well. You can download those here.

*Special Offer – Keyword Research Pro

Fabian Lim has also offered a special discount for SpeedPPC members – you’ll save $20 off the regular price of $97 (SpeedPPC-ers just pay $77).

• Just enter coupon code: ‘speedppc’ (without apostrophes)
• This is a one-time payment (not a subscription product)
• Free upgrades for life
• Free membership to the Keyword Research Pro community

Fabian’s also giving the special bonus below to SpeedPPC members, so to make sure he’ll know who you are, clear your cookies and order through this link.

Additional Bonus for SpeedPPC Members

Fabian Lim will conduct a 1 hour specialized training webinar for SpeedPPC members. As well as advanced training, Fabian will answer any questions you have on keyword research, SEO or PPC. (real value $1,000 USD)

Check out Keyword Research Pro here