The simplest way to drive additional traffic to your website is most likely online advertising.
Although a simple concept – Online advertising is a bit trickier than you might think.
It’s easier to blow thousands of dollars than make back thousands of dollars if you don’t know what you’re doing.
What kind of Ads
Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Google Adwords, Display Ads, etc etc
The list is long but figuring out what is best for your business or campaign can be confusing at times. Here is a quick breakdown of the primary options.
**Twitter – The latest and currently most effective way to pay for clicks. You can get your message to a really targeted list of people for a relatively low price.
I would suggest using the “promoted tweet” to get your tweet to as many people as possible and getting them to click on a specific link.
But here is the really great perk. You can have that tweet only be promoted to a very specific list of people. Want to target your competitors followers? You can do that. It’s a great way to get in front of very specific groups of people with very specific messages. Your effectiveness (and ultimately ROI is going to definitely go up)
Facebook – You would probably be doing sidebar ads with an image, headline, description. You can target your ad to specific types of people and interests. We’ve all seen them when using Facebook – maybe it’s time to start using them for yourself.
Linked In – Very similar to Facebook. Although the effectiveness has been a bit lower in my experience.
Adwords – You’re getting people who are searching for terms. “remodeling” “dentist” “chiropractor” and then you’re showing up above or to the side of the “organic” search terms. If you’re already showing up on the first page and then you also have Adwords you’re just multiplying the chances of someone clicking on your link.
Display ads – Images, maybe flash (moving images). You’ve probably seen them on a news site you’ve been on recently.
With most of these are you’re paying on a Pay per Click basis. That means you don’t pay anything until someone clicks on the link and goes to your page. The other option is Cost per Impression. Paying a price per 1,000 impressions (people viewing your ad)
The Ad
You can’t be content with one or two ads. You have to be constantly working to improve on what you have.
Different Headlines, different images.
Always trying to improve the click through rate.
If you’re using Google Adwords you need to have different ads for different audiences. If someone is looking for Kitchen Remodelers. You’re going to have an ad about kitchens.
If they’re searching for bathrooms – an add that addresses that and then sends people to a landing page that addresses bathroom remodeling.
You get the picture.
If you’re using Facebook ads you’re targeting types of people.
Age Groups, Gender, Interests.
If you’re looking at females between 20-30 that ad and image needs to be drastically different than for a male aged 40-55.
It’s all about targeting and testing.
The Landing Page
When someone clicks on your ad where do they go?
If your answer is your home page – You’re wasting money. I guarantee it.
For each ad you need to have a different landing page and a specific call to action.
Why – For one so you can understand if you’re making money instead of just spending.
And secondly so you can talk directly to the “type” of person that is landing on the page. Earlier we mentioned someone looking for “kitchens”. This is pretty obvious but we’re going to want them to land on a page talking about kitchens. Not the home page for the business. But there are thousands of businesses doing just this.
The next issue is what is the call to action we’re getting that person who clicks on the ad to take?
If you say “call us” – that’s not enough.
Although I would definitely recommend having that on a page. (not prominent but there) You need to have another call to action. Something that gives people value but not as “difficult” as calling you. Most commonly you’ll see something like a free guide, ebook, or consultation. It doesn’t have be fancy but you’ll convert 5-10% of your traffic into that offer instead of the less than .5% into a phone call.
Running an online ad campaign takes work and expertise to get right.
It’s not something that should be taken lightly. If you’re spending $500-$1500 per month investing an additional $500-$800 per month in testing, copywriting, and improvements will drastically improve the ROI of your campaigns.
