Why Pay Per Click Advertising Is Better Than Print Or Radio

According to data released by the UK Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), total online advertising expenditure in the UK totaled £1.4 billion ($3.4 billion AUD) in 2005 – a huge 65.6% increase on 2004.

The UK figures almost mirror the Australian industry which shows that online advertising will overtake the amount spent on print and radio advertising by the end of the year.

Why Online Advertising Works – No More Pot Luck

It’s very easy to understand this incredible growth – online advertising is fully accountable, flexible and it works.

No more do advertisers have to take pot luck with ad campaigns based on nothing more than readership or viewers who have no interest whatsoever in what is being advertised.

How Online Pay Per Click Ads Work

Pay Per Click advertising is without doubt the biggest revolution in advertising since television.

What Is Pay Per Click Advertising?

Pay Per Click advertising is simply ads that appear on large search engine sites. When you type in a term to search for, the results you get back contain a mixture of ads and ‘normal’ results.

If you click on an ad the person advertising is charged a certain amount—depending on how much they bid to be in the position they are (the higher up the page the more the ad costs).

Can You Give Me An Example?

Sure. Type ‘gold coast holiday’ into Google. On the right hand side of the screen you’ll see a row of ads similar to the one below.

If you click on that ad you are taken to the advertisers’ web site and he is charged by Google.

Where Can I Buy Ads?

The major search engines all run Pay Per Click advertising – it’s the way they make their money.

Google AdWords are the most well known and, in our experience, the best performing.

You need to create an account with Google and then set up your ad campaign.

How Much Do The Ads Cost?

The cost per click (visitor to your site) varies. Some legal sites in the US pay a staggering $50 per click/visitor! The minimum is 10 cents per click.

Generally, we pay 70 cents per click on average (it depends on your industry and how many other people are bidding on the ads.

How Can I Tell If The Ads Have Worked?

This is the beauty of Pay Per Click advertising. It is perfectly accountable. When you set up your advertising you get full access to all statistics.

Actual Case Study

One of our clients has a resort in Surfers Paradise. We’ve implemented Pay Per Click advertising with Google AdWords. We target a range of keywords/phrases (approx. 160 phrases).

$7,000 In Sales From $86.07 In Advertising!

Search key phrase - surfers paradise accommodation
Maximum bid per click: $1.23 per click
Average Cost Per Click: $0.83 per click
Average position: 5.4
No. of times ad seen: 4,642
Clicks: 104
Click Through Rate: 2.2%
Total Cost: $86.07
Conversion rate (Visitors who book): 9.62% (10 sales)
Cost per conversion: $8.61 (Average sale is $700)

2 Ways To Make Even More Sales

So every booking made by people clicking on the resorts’ ad on Google costs my client just $8.61 in advertising costs.

The average position on Google for my client’s ad when someone types in ‘surfers paradise accommodation’ is 5.4.

1. If we increase the ad bid amount from $1.23 we would increase his position on the Google page to be higher. If he made position number 1 it might cost $4 per click (for example).

The ad would most likely get more clicks. We will be testing and implementing this over the next few weeks – we are testing 160 phrases at present.

2. The best way to get more clicks is to have the ad clicked on by more people – currently 2.2% of people who see the ad click on it – rather than pay more per click to get a higher position.

This is where creative comes into play – a well written ad with a catchy headline can make all the difference.