Online Marketing Questions and Information 

Pay Per Click Advertising (Sponsored Links) Q) What happens if my competitors click on my links and waste my budget? A) This was a big problem in early search engine marketing. Modern technology allows for monitoring IP addresses of “clickers.” If the same IP address is recorded continuously clicking on your ad, you are not charged for the multiple clicks, largely eliminating this problem. Q) Which search engines are utilized by 1Degree for client pay per click advertising? A) There are many different search engines available for advertisement. Your budget and market will determine how and where your campaign budget is spent. Our online marketing experts have proven themselves capable of choosing pay per click advertisement investments wisely. The most popular and widely used search engines are, in order, Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Q) What level of increased traffic will I see from a pay per click campaign? A) Pay per click listings will increase traffic to your website. However, the amount of increased traffic is variable. For one, sponsored listings are auctioned off according to a demand-driven bidding model.  There is no way to determine upfront amount spent per click.  Beyond that, your (monthly) budget will determine the maximum amount of clicks possible.  Q) I never click on sponsored links on search engine results. How many people actually click on the links? A) 39.2% of Yahoo surfers and 27.7% of Google surfers use sponsored links. The below image is the “Google eye” for the search terms “digital camera.” It demonstrates the visual scan pattern undertaken by the human eye when presented with a Google results page.  The image indicates that while the first few organic results are given priority, PPC (sponsored listings) are also given due consideration, therefore valuable.   Q) What is pay per click advertising (“sponsored listings” in Google-speak)? A) Let’s use Google as an example.  A keyword search generates and displays two types of results listings. The results on the left side of the page are known as “organic” or “natural” listings. Search engines such as Google use complex proprietary indexing patterns and algorithms to determine ranking of organic results.  (Elevating website ranking within the organic results can be accomplished by undertaking Search Engine Optimization.) There are also website listings on the left side of the page. These are known as “sponsored listings” or “pay per clicks.” Pay per click advertising provides business owners the opportunity to generate quality traffic to their website by bidding on keywords. For example, if you are a carpet cleaning business serving the Seattle area, you might bid on the keyword string “Seattle carpet cleaning.” A web user in the Seattle area who is in need of having their carpets cleaned is likely to input the keyword string “Seattle carpet cleaning” (or some variation thereof) into a given search engine.  When this is done, your “ad” will likely appear on the corresponding “sponsored listing” section of the results page.  This will, all else constant, result in increased traffic to your website, leading to higher sales volume. Q) How do you decide what keywords to bid on? A) Prior to campaign launch, 1Degree will produce a keyword research and analytics report. We have the experience and tools to find what keywords your target market is using when searching for your product or service.  The keyword research and analytics report begins with a consultation in which we gain a sound understanding of your target market.  This understanding serves as the foundation of the campaign throughout its duration. Still have questions? Call us--425-274-0710. Q) How much will each click cost me?  Is pay per click a worthwhile investment for me? The cost per click (CPC) will vary depending on many different factors. For one, search engines like Google and Yahoo don’t reveal how much advertisers are paying per click. However, even though exact costs remain a mystery, we do know that PPC cost is an indirect function of competitive market pressures. The more companies going after a given target market and “bidding” on the same pool of relevant keywords, the higher it will cost for each click.  PPC, like other investments, should be measured by return on investment. The below examples may help. A real estate agent in Seattle is trying to find buyers for homes she is selling. Average home value is 1.75 Million. The agent knows when the home sells a commission of $52,000 will be awarded.  In order to be #1 on Google, for the keyword string “Seattle homes for sale” the agent will likely have no qualms about paying $15 (or more) per click.  If she sells even one house through PPC, ROI is high, the campaign is certainly worth it. Now let’s look at a carpet cleaning business. The average job for carpet cleaning in the Seattle area costs $350. In this case the advertiser needs to be a little more frugal with their advertising money—the margins are much thinner than those of the real estate agent. The advertiser figures out the maximum dollar amount they can afford to spend is, $20 to get the $350 job —this is their break-even zero ROI.  Say an average of 3% website visitors who access the website through a PPC ad, buy the service. The maximum cost per click is $.60 (.03 x $20).    In the above carpet cleaner example, both generating an increased rate of sales per click (beyond the 3% calculated break even), or paying less for clicks (due to lower market competition) will, all else constant, result in positive campaign ROI.  Still have questions? Call us--425-274-0710. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Q) What is Search Engine Optimization? A) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the act of making tweaks and changes to a website in order to garner higher search engine rankings.  SEO is fundamental in maximizing quality traffic to a website. Common Search Engine Optimization services are  Keyword Research  Meta Data Writing  Content Writing  Link Building  Analytics Q) What is Meta-data? A) Meta-data is information found in website Meta tags, and is essentially a distillation of content on a given page. Meta tags are a website’s voice box to search engines. Meta-data must be spoken via meta tags in a language that is understood by the various search engines. Each webpage within a given website corresponds with a certain concept (or concepts).  Therefore, each page within a website must have corresponding Meta-data written and generated in order to communicate effectively with search engines. Q) What guarantee do I have that my website will appear on the first page of search engine results? A) Unfortunately, there are no guarantees with Search Engine Optimization. In fact, be leery of companies that say they can guarantee a given result. There are simply too many variables involved.  Please contact us for a better, more in-depth explanation. www.1degree.com