PPC Strategies for When You Don't have an Unlimited Budget

PPC Strategies: Go Wide, or Go Deep?

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is without exception, the single fastest way to get directly in front of consumers who are looking for your products and services. However it’s not without limitations and risks. 

One of the biggest issues I see with poorly run PPC campaigns is under-budgeting. Sure, sometimes an overzealous entrepreneur over bids past the point of diminishing returns, but face it, you…and everyone you know is trying to scrape by with less.

Assuming that budget is an issue (and it’s always an issue) you need to bid smart. You need to pony up with enough budget, and you’ve got to have realistic exceptions. With Googles latest move of removing the entire right side of the paid search listings (the sidebar) you need to bid enough to show up in the top 4 search results. Otherwise you get banished to the dungeon…the bottom of the search page where advertisements go to die.

So how do you parley a finite budget into a profitable PPC campaign? Here’s a hint; you have to compromise. Yep, sorry to break it to you but you have two choices; go wide…or go deep.

It’s all about the eye balls

Pay-Per-Click, is just what it sounds like. You pay every time someone clicks on your search ad on Google, and goes to your website. Understand that PPC is a competitive, real time market bid system. You are actually competing with other companies that sell the same products and services as you for that precious real estate on the Google search results page.

The more keywords you are bidding on, or the larger the geographic area (more competitors), the larger the budget that you need to be competitive. You’re going to get a finite amount of clicks before eventually depleting your budget.

Trying to bid on too many keywords across too big of an area dilutes your ability to compete consistently for each of those keywords. You either have to cut down on the keywords, or cut down on the area. In other words, go wide, or go deep…

Suppose you sell glass and mirror products, such as glass shelving, shower door enclosures, bathroom mirrors, etc. Your service area is all over Southern California. You have several major categories (ad-groups) that you want to promote:

• Glass Shelves
• Bathroom Mirrors
• Shower door enclosures
• Storefront windows
• Commercial glass doors

Those categories add up to a lot of keywords spread across a lot of area. It would take a fortune to compete against all those other glass & mirror companies throughout all of Southern California. If you have a sufficient budget you could dominate the market, but that would be quite an investment. 

2 Strategies when you have a finite budget:

Suppose you identified your growth markets with the highest margins in the residential area as Shower Door enclosures, and your highest margin items in the commercial sector as Storefront Windows. Unfortunately you don’t have enough budget to bid on all those keywords for both product lines across all of Southern California. What do you do?

Scenario #1: Go Wide:

Perhaps you made the decision that you need to grow the residential area of the business and expand your service area. You might opt to “go wide” by focusing your budget on just shower door enclosures and put the Storefront Windows on hold for now (or just advertise locally). Because you are not diluting your budget across all those “Storefront Window” keywords, you now have enough budget to bid higher and get top placement for the “Shower Door” keywords.

This strategy allows you to expand geographically while promoting your chosen high-margin growth product. You can then roll some of the ROI into promoting your next product(s) in this expanded area.

Scenario #2: Go Deep:

Suppose you’re committed to growing both the residential and commercial sectors of your business and product expansion is more important than geo-expansion. Then you might opt to run a balanced campaign that promotes multiple product lines…but in a more localized, concentrated geographic area.

This strategy allows you to market more of your products and services in a smaller, local area. You can then roll some of the ROI into expanding your geographic reach.

The key to parlaying a modest budget into an effective advertising campaign is to be strategic, patient, and to not bite off more than you can chew.

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New Research Reveals Paid Social Media Effectiveness

Do you know where to spend your social media marketing dollars?

Wondering what works for other businesses?

In this article you’ll discover recent insights on the effectiveness of paid social media marketing.

Discover insights revealed by new research on the effectiveness of paid social media marketing.

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#1: Majority of B2C Marketers Find Promoted Social Posts and Ads Effective

In fall 2015, the Content Marketing Institute (with MarketingProfs) surveyed 3,714 marketersfrom around the world about content and other digital marketing successes. While just 263 identified as B2C marketers and business owners, their insights are still instructive.

As revealed in the chart below (from eMarketer), 76% of B2C respondents use promoted posts (for example, boosted Facebook posts and promoted tweets and pins). Sixty-one percent of these users found promoted posts effective, rating them either 4 or 5 on a 5-point effectiveness scale (3 is neutral).

The majority of B2C marketers rate promoted social posts and ads second only to search engine marketing (SEO and SEM) for all marketing tactics.

As for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other ads (as opposed to the more editorial-style posts), 59% of respondents rate these 4 or 5 on the 5-point effectiveness scale (74% of those surveyed report using them).

More interesting is the jump in marketers’ perception of effectiveness from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015.

Perceived effectiveness stayed mostly even for offline promotion, online banner ads, andnative advertising. Conversely, the number of marketers viewing social ads and promoted posts as effective leapt by 20% and 30% respectively for each tactic. Still, given the small sample size, smart marketers must explore the experience of B2B marketers and others when considering paid social ads.

B2C marketers surveyed by the CMI also put Facebook at the top of the heap in terms of effectiveness, with YouTube coming in second.

B2C marketers and businesses report they most effectively reach their audiences via Facebook.

Key Takeaway: That only 263 of the CMI’s 3,714 survey respondents identified as B2C suggests that B2C lags behind B2B in adopting the more sophisticated social marketing tactics of promoted posts and social ads. These early adopters find them effective (worth 4 or 5 on the scale) at rates of 64% and 59%.

A satisfaction rate 10% to 15% higher than what B2B companies report (see below) could reflect that the B2C space for these two marketing tactics is not as saturated. B2C is getting better results because with less competition, each campaign draws more eyeballs.

#2: Fewer Than Half of B2B Marketers Find Promoted Social Posts and Ads Effective

The CMI data came from one survey, but it divided the numbers into two reports. With the majority of its respondents in the B2B space (1,521), the Content Marketing Institute had a robust sample from which to draw insights for this vertical.

Of the 93% of B2B marketers and business owners using paid social media, 52% use promoted posts and 51% use sponsored ads. Forty-eight percent of promoted post users and 45% of sponsored ad users rate these tactics 4 or 5 on the 5-point effectiveness scale (again, 3 is neutral).

To compare tactics, B2B marketers pinpoint search engine marketing tactics like PPC or paid search advertising as the most effective paid marketing tactics, with 55% rating them 4 or 5. At the other end of the scale, traditional online banner ads disappoint with only 29% of respondents finding them somewhat or very effective.

Breaking it down further, B2B marketers do have favorite social media platforms.

Twice as many marketers find LinkedIn effective as those that find Facebook effective.

A darling of the B2B world for years, LinkedIn has become the salesperson’s hunting ground. The platform has always enjoyed a more serious reputation than Facebook with its memes and fun apps that appeal to a diverse audience.

Key Takeaway: When using social media channels, keep in mind that consumers go to Facebook and LinkedIn with different goals and mindsets. Facebook provides a fun and entertaining diversion from work. Marketers and companies that provide lighthearted content there generate goodwill with engagement following from that.

B2B marketers, on the other hand, must recognize that LinkedIn users’ goals have more to do with career advancement. In turn, they should provide content that helps users build skills for their current job, find vendors to solve business problems, or get another job. In LinkedIn’s case, providing critical, career-building information creates the goodwill that could lead to a sale down the line.

#3: Advertising Executives Rate Facebook and Pinterest Highest for ROI

Advertising executives get to survey a variety of clients’ ROIs from an enviable height. Recent check-ins with industry experts add another dimension to the evolving picture of social advertising possibilities and limitations. While this study doesn’t analyze specific marketing tactics like promoted posts and social ads, it does provide a general idea of which platform drives ROI the best.

eMarketer’s report Social Advertising Effectiveness Scorecard: Industry Execs Grade the Leading Platforms surveyed executives at 29 companies. While the report didn’t look at B2B versus B2C, in general, executives graded Facebook higher than Pinterest, which earned the second-highest scoring of the contenders with a solid B.

Advertising executives are most pleased with Facebook’s potential to drive ROI.

Key Takeaway: Snapchat received a C– grade, but it only recently brought down its minimum advertising budget from the $700,000 mark. This means few companies have any experience on the platform.

While Instagram scored only a C+, the Facebook-owned platform just recently opened advertising to the masses with APIs that make self-service advertising as easy as it is onFacebook. Snapchat is in talks with developers now about creating the APIs that will eventually allow businesses of all sizes to advertise on the platform without the interference of third-party developers and agencies.

Advertising agencies, marketers and business owners are still sorting out which industries do best on which social platform. With best practices proven more anecdotally than quantitatively at this point, the burden rests on each business to measure all leads and sales resulting from social media to truly understand their own ROI.

#4: Sponsored Social Posts Are Another Marketer Favorite

A few years ago, average everyday people from around the world began sharing their video-gaming, makeup, and fashion tips on YouTube or via their blogs. When they became sensations, a new type of brand advocate was born.

Recent research suggests that sponsored posts are selling products. Creative online marketplace Izea, along with research firms Halverson Group and The Right Brain Consumer Consulting, surveyed 511 marketers with experience in sponsored social efforts.

Sponsored social posts are one of the most effective traditional marketing approaches.

Users admit to being influenced more by messages coming from their social heroes than almost any other person or platform.

Grading on a curve, sponsored social posts are just 0.5 points behind the winner, content marketing, which scored 7.75 out of 10. More interesting, sponsored social posts are 1 full point ahead of celebrity endorsements. Of the companies that Izea and Halverson surveyed, 52% reported that they had a stand-alone budget just for sponsored social in their marketing mix.

The social media users who graded how well they responded to messages from their favorite bloggers, podcasters, and YouTube sensations back up this finding. The chart below, created by eMarketer, visualizes data from the same study mentioned above. This time, the chart reflects the study authors’ survey of 1,003 social media users.

Users admit to being influenced more by messages coming from their social heroes than almost any other person or platform.

Sponsored social posts on all of the channels beat out SEO (#15), PPC (#18), and print ads (#19). Only television ads and sponsored television programs could compete with sponsored social posts in effectiveness, according to consumers.

Key Takeaway: While sponsored posts can be one of the more expensive social marketing tactics, a good return justifies any expenditure. If consumers admit that they’re most influenced by social media stars, companies must adjust their tactics accordingly. Again, however, the relative newness and lack of saturation for sponsored social posts also give them an edge.

Conclusion

According to the Global Alliance of Data-Driven Marketing Associations, social media management and content enjoyed the biggest spending growth and performance change in 2015. While other marketing elements look poised for an influx of dollars in 2016, social media’s latest marketing tools and paid advertising opportunities clearly have marketers’ attention.

What do you think? Does your company have a sponsor, social ads, or even a new platform in its future?

Have you had robust results from any of these tactics? Let us know in the comments below!

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3 Reasons CPM is Still a Viable Revenue Stream for Bloggers

In 2015, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that 2014's total ad spending reached a record high of $49.5 billion - a 16% jump over the previous year. Two-thirds of that revenue was attributed to performance based advertisements and 1/3 to the CPM model.

With $16.5 billion being spent on CPM advertising, the CPM model is still hanging in there as a viable revenue model for bloggers who wish to monetize a project that probably started out as a hobby launched in an insomnia-induced fog at 1:00 am.

Here are three reasons CPM advertising is still a viable revenue stream for bloggers.

#1. Predictability

The CPM model is a more predictable revenue-generating advertising model than CPC and affiliate marketing because bloggers most likely know their average monthly page views. And, for advertisers who are most interested in brand awareness than the immediate sale, bloggers who offer CPM advertising are the best fit.

Advertisers who choose CPM do so because they prefer the predictability of a fixed campaign. Affiliate marketing and CPC - both performance based models - do not allow advertisers the same predictability.

The CPM advertising model provides brands with fixed pricing, fixed placement, fixed timings (the length of time the ad will run) and fixed delivery (the amount of impressions the ad will receive based on the blog's average monthly impressions). This type of security is not always available with CPC or affiliate marketing. Some marketers argue that advertisers benefit best when they operate on a dynamic CPMmodel instead of a fixed CPM.

What is the trade-off for advertisers between predictability and performance?

In the predictable fixed-pricing ad model, it is assumed that advertisers have a specific parameter they want to optimize. Let's assume that brands want to use CPM to optimize brand awareness. ­­The desired final result of their fixed-priced campaign (optimized brand awareness) can't be predicted; therefore, even though the budget for their CPM campaign is predictable, the results are not.

#2. Low expectations

Bloggers who blog often, create highly-engaging content and generate a high volume of traffic will find that adding CPM ads to their blog is one of the easiest ways to generate revenue.

But, the CPM model requires very little of bloggers. Advertisers provide the script that delivers the creative. The blogger adds the script to her blog and ensures the code displays correctly. If all is well, blogger's obligation has been fulfilled.

CPM encourages very little cooperation between the blogger and the advertiser because the nature of this ad model doesn't require it. Bloggers don't concern themselves with click-through rates for any CPM ads on their blog. They don't have to. With performance-based ad models, bloggers are more likely to work with advertisers to ensure that their ads perform well because they are paid for performance, not impressions.

#3. Ad quality not an issue

Bloggers who rely on performance-based ad models rely heavily on many factors that are out of their control. The quality of the service or product, the price and even the ad creative are all factors that determine how much money the blogger makes. Poorly designed ads have a relatively low click-through rate. Since the CPM model pays bloggers for impressions, not clicks, poorly designed ads are not the blogger's problem.

Harmelin Insight predicts the following for 2016: "Search CPMs are expected to increase 3-4%, about the same as 2015. While digital ad spending is forecast to increase by double digits in 2016, mobile, online display, and online video CPMs are expected to remain relatively flat due to a seemingly endless supply of inventory, combined with efficient programmatic buying, and both factors will work to keep CPM growth in check."

Even if this prediction is true, because it's so easy to generate revenue by offering CPM advertising on their blogs, I doubt bloggers will ditch this ad model any time soon.

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5 Advertising Alternatives That Bypass Ad Blockers

Ad block usage is on the rise. In their most recent report, PageFair found that 198 million people worldwide now use ad blocking software—representing a 41% increase year over year. Though that number only represents 6% of the global internet population, estimated global revenue loss as a result of ad blocking proclivity was $21.8 billion in 2015—14% of the global ad spend. In 2016, that number is expected to inflate to a startling $41.4 billion.

Is it any wonder that digital marketers and advertisers are feeling nervous about the future of their advertising campaigns?

To combat the rise of ad blocking, companies are turning to a variety of solutions, including pleas (sometime incentivized) to be whitelisted, anti-blocking software, and even lawsuits. Others are diversifying how they advertise, which is what we will discuss below.

NOTE: Different software offers different degrees of ad removal—some are more merciless in their removal than others (even blocking out helpful ads). While the advertising channels listed below are generally more effective, there is no 100% foolproof way to bypass ad blockers.

1. Native Advertising

Native ads are paid media which feel like a natural extension of a publisher’s website. They match the form and function of their host website, mimicking the look and feel of the host site’s other content as closely as possible.

PROS: Native advertising has an easier time getting in front of consumers, because they blend so well with a host’s website. These ads are usually long-form, and their purpose is brand promotion. Generally, you want your advertorial to persuade an audience—which means your ad includes a distinct call to action (CTA) and clear links to your promoted brand.

Native ads have been advertiser’s go-to solution for “banner blindness”, since before we had banner blindness (or internet, for that matter). The most famous example is the 1951 Guinness Guide to Oysters by David Ogilvy, which detailed nine types of oysters and how they taste, before ending with a CTA to wash those oysters down “with drafts of Guinness”.

CONS: While native advertising might be the advertorial of the internet age, be warned: the FTC published new advertising rules as of December 15, 2015, which might result in serious penalties for native advertising that’s disguisedtoo well.

Specifically, they’ll be penalizing “deceptively formatted advertising … that are closely integrated with and less distinguishable from regular content so that they can capture the attention and clicks of ad-avoiding consumers.” (Source: FTC Enforcement Policy Statement)

This policy crackdown isn’t limited to the US, either. On January 13, 2015, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK censured BuzzFeed for a Dylon-sponsored ad. While their ad was clearly identified as a sponsored post, the verdict was that ads must be “obviously identifiable as marketing communications, including by using labels other than ‘Brand Publisher’ for advertorials.” (Source: ASA Ruling on Henkel Ltd)

2. Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is another form of native advertising. As with advertorials, you want your content to blend seamlessly with a site’s native content, so that it feels like a natural part of a user’s experience.

PROS: The difference between a native advertorial and sponsored content is nebulous, but generally sponsored content has a softer touch. While native advertorials include a distinct CTA or a heavy brand bias, sponsored posts aim to inform your audience, not persuade them.

One of the best examples in recent years is the New York Times’ article “The Surprising Cost of Not Taking a Vacation” (sponsored by MasterCard). MasterCard’s logo and the permalink URL extension “paid post” makes it hard to miss that this is an ad, but the content is well-written, well-researched, and exceedingly informative.

From my personal experience, sponsored content may be quite successful for advertisers if the topic resonates with the audience and the author puts effort into writing it. Many of you might have seen sponsored content of SEO PowerSuite’s (I’m the founder) here at Search Engine Journal. The most successful articles were these two: Avoid the Next Penguin Update: A Guide to Identifying and Removing Bad Links (2.2k reads) and 5 Steps to The Most Efficient Keywords With Rank Tracker (3.5k reads).

CONS: In addition to the FTC policy change (which affects all native ads, including sponsored content), it’s vital that you understand your audience and select your venue wisely when purchasing sponsored ad space. One of the most spectacular sponsored content failures was the Atlantic’s post advertising Scientology in January 2013. Blowback against the Atlantic was instantaneous and brutal—even though they quickly pulled the article, it’s now been immortalized as a cautionary tale.

3. Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads are full-screen advertisements, typically appearing in smartphone apps at timed intervals, on a pause screen, or between levels on a mobile game. These ads completely cover the host app, forcing the user to either close the ad or follow it to its destination.

PROS: Though mobile ad blockers exist, consumers don’t seem to mind mobile ads nearly as much as they mind browser-based advertising. Stats from PageFair show that mobile activity accounts for 38% of all web browsing, but only 1.6% of ad block traffic was from mobile devices. Perhaps this is because consumers are often given the choice to download a free version of a game or app that includes ads or a paid model without ads—the choice rests in their hands.

CONS: Until this past year, ad blocking apps didn’t block interstitial ads—only ads on mobile browsers. This all changed recently. Other changes also make the future of mobile advertising uncertain, such as iOS9’s prolific support for ad blocking apps, where virtually none had previously existed on Apple devices.

As more and more companies optimize their advertising for mobile viewership, mobile users, fed up with ad-riddled browsing experiences, might turn to the same solution as desktop users. Current predictions state that 2016 might see the rise of the mobile ad blocker.

4. Email/Newsletter Advertising

Newsletter advertisements are self-explanatory—you purchase ad space in another company’s newsletter. These can either be dedicated sponsor messages, or ads that run alongside their newsletter’s content.

PROS: Email advertising has many benefits, but the biggest and most important is that you get advertising targeted specifically at your niche market, if you choose your partner carefully. This means that your ads always find your audience, and when they do generate leads, they tend to be of higher quality.

Another benefit of newsletter advertising is that it’s generally cheaper, and will get you past the spam filter far better than a cold email.

CONS: Seeing meaningful results from a newsletter advertising campaign can be difficult, especially when studies show that open-rates and click-through rates are usually low to begin with.

To get the most from your email advertising campaign, the most important thing you can do is leverage another company’s reputation. Make sure that you offer appeals to the target audience they’re already engaged with, or else your email ad campaign will be nothing but a waste of time.

5. In-Stream and Video Overlay Ads

In-stream and video overlay usually play before a video on YouTube or other streaming services, though sometimes they’ll interrupt a longer, continuous stream. These ads allow you the flexibility of the visual medium, offering more interactive and creative possibilities.

PROS: YouTube is the internet’s second largest search engine, so it’s hard to overstate the value of video ads. With interactive cards, CTA overlays, and shopping cards, YouTube’s made it easy to get in front of your customers.

You also have the benefit of knowing that Google’s in your corner—most of their revenue stems from advertising, and YouTube is one of their most lucrative platforms. In September 2015, an update made YouTube ads appear even through ad blocker.

CONS: This is by no means a perfect bypass. Ad blockers continuously match Google tit for tat with updates, meaning that video ads are, quite often, still blocked by ad blocking software.

Even when you do get through, advertisers on YouTube also have to contend with the “skip” feature. You only have five seconds to hook your audience and compel them to keep watching, meaning that your advertising had better be at least as interesting as the video they came to watch.

The Only Permanent Solution

The truth is that all of the above bypasses actually address symptoms—they don’t cure the real problem. If we subject our consumers to more of the same content that they’re trying to escape from, we’re more likely to alienate them before we convert them.

All of our digital content has always been at the whim and mercy of our consumers. We tailor headlines to capture their attention, we carefully monitor length and brevity to best convey our messages, and we’ve even exhaustively studied where consumer attention lingers on a webpage to maximize design and on-page SEO. We do this to better understand and appeal to our consumers.

Today, our consumers are telling us that they use ad blocking software as a result of the misuse of their personal information (according to 50% of consumers) and because they’ve been bombarded with a higher volume of advertising than ever before (according to 41% of consumers).

Given this, the only sure-fire way to get in front of our audience is to rethink our strategy: instead of crafting ads designed to deceive or annoy, we should be focusing our efforts on content-rich advertising.

As JR Little from Carat writes, “Instead of trying to regulate ad blockers out of our industry, why don’t we innovate around them? Make them irrelevant by outsmarting them. In the end, our work will be more effective and more interesting as a result.”

When customers find quality content that genuinely entertains or informs them, they don’t mind knowing that they’re being advertised to—as BuzzFeed and Friskies proved earlier last year, with their hugely viral “Dear Kitten” ad campaign.

As with all digital content, our focus in advertising should be on value first, and landing sales second. 
Image CreditsFeatured image: Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock.comIn-post image: Georgejmclittle/Shutterstock.com

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How to Identify Click Fraud and Minimize Wasting Your Ad Budget

While a targeted PPC campaign can certainly help boost your traffic, it's not immune to click fraud, which can waste up to one-fifth of your budget.

How would you feel if up to 20 percent of your pay-per-click (PPC) budget was being regularly wasted as a result of fraudulent activity? Most marketers today know that PPC advertising is a useful, and effective marketing tool that can drive traffic towards your website, improving search visibility and enhancing customer conversion. In fact, almost all websites and businesses online today that engaged in serious online marketing schemes will take advantage of PPC programs like Google AdWords at some point. 

Unfortunately, although a targeted PPC campaign can be an ideal way of boosting your online traffic, it is not immune to the unscrupulous marketers out there that abuse the PPC model to sabotage competitors. Click-fraud is a serious issue to anyone unlucky enough to encounter it, and unnoticed click fraud can drain money from your marketing budget, while providing the false impression that your schemes are successful - thereby creating an even bigger problem.

So what is click fraud? In simple terms, it is a method that competitors use when they're frustrated with seeing other company ads appear above their own. By employing bots or people to commit click fraud, these competitors aim to spend up your daily budget before you've even had the chance to reach your real potential clients. Click fraud can also allow advert display networks to generate large amounts of false commission. In a fair world, ad networks would be paid according to only the natural clicks they generate, but by utilizing bots in collecting data about adverts, then using other bots to click these adverts, huge amounts of fraudulent revenue can be generated.

Either way, the company paying for advertising efforts is left seeing a huge number of clicks without the results they should expect from actual conversions. Unfortunately, completely eradicating the risk of click-fraud today is unlikely, but that doesn't mean you can't take steps to minimize the damage and make more out of your PPC budget. Here are some useful tips that should help.

1. Select Targeted PPC keywords

The first, and often most useful, way of dealing with click-fraud is to minimize the amount of potential damage false clicks will have on your campaign. If you want to yield the highest possible ROI, then you should only bid on the most industry-specific and targeted keywords, as these high-value words will generate more traffic and ensure that the majority of the clicks you receive will be from customers - not bots. Tools like AdWords Keyword Planner can be particularly useful when researching PPC keywords.

2. Monitor Your User Behavior

Remember, minimizing click fraud starts with being able to identify it. If you want to weed out false clicks and maximize your ad value, you should make a habit of checking your PPC program each and every day. This should be something that you do anyway if you want to see which keywords and ads are yielding the most positive results, but don't forget to check for click fraud at the same time.

If you use Google AdWords, then you can start by looking at dimensions, as well as frequency and reach. Measuring reach and frequency should give you a good idea as to whether the majority of your clicks are coming from a single IP address or browser - which can be a sign of click fraud. Try to cross-check the repeat click-through against the bounce rate for the day - this should help you to determine whether you have become a click fraud victim.

3. Establish Your Budget

Once you have built an appropriate range of long-tail keywords for your campaign, you're going to need to establish a bidding strategy that fits your budget. If you're new to the concept of PPC - it involves paying a certain amount for each time someone clicks one of your ads, and this amount generally depends upon the desirability of your chosen keyword.

In order to reduce your chances of falling victim to click fraud, it's a good idea to set a maximum cost-per-click bid so that you can ensure you won't accidentally end up spending more than you intended. You should also consider setting up a maximum daily PPC budget so that you are never charged more than a certain amount each day.

This should help to reduce the damage of fraudulent clicks, and help you to analyze your AdWords campaign more appropriately. For example, a large influx of clicks in a particularly short time period could be a sign of click fraud, and by setting a daily budget, you may be more capable of containing the damage.

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How 6 Pro Marketers Would Spend $10/day Buying Website Traffic

I know what you’re thinking…

…you want to know how to get traffic on a limited budget.

We asked 6 of the world’s best paid traffic experts…

“If you had $10/day to spend on traffic, how would you spend it?”

Their answers may surprise (and inspire) you.

Let’s meet the panel:

Molly Pittman – Vice President and Traffic Manager of Digital Marketer. Created a traffic system used by hundreds of businesses and is in the process of creating a mastery course that will certify business owners in the paid traffic landscape.

Keith Krance – Founder and President of Dominate Web Media, and the co-author of Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising: How to Access 1 Billion Potential Customers in 10 Minutes.

Ralph Burns – Managing Partner at Dominate Web Media, manages a portfolio of Facebook advertising client account spend in excess of $5 million and leverages that experience to teach business owners how to do the same.

Justin Brooke – Owner and CEO of IMScalable. Assists companies in scaling their businesses with multi-channel strategies.

Brian Moran – Found of SamCart and Get 10k Fans, Brian uses his years of online sales experience to make SamCart the go-to tool for self-described “non-techies”, like himself

Jason Hornung – President and Creative Director of the Jason Hornung Agency. Specializes in getting his clients results in three major areas of online marketing: traffic, conversion and optimization.

Have a limited spending budget for traffic? Check out these expert strategies and start utilizing $10 in the best way possible.

Molly Pittman, Digital Marketer

If I had $10/day to spend on paid media, I’d use it to acquire as many customers as possible for Digital Marketer.

How would I do it? I would start by promoting a piece of content.

I spend $6/day to run traffic to this blog post on Facebook Advertising Pixels.

I would run a Facebook ad campaign for website clicks and target interests such as:

• Ad Age
• Search Engine Land
• Website Magazine
• Mediabistro.com
• EMarketer
• Social Media Today
• Adfreak
• Social Fresh
• Search Marketing Expo
• Allfacebookcom
• PPC
• Mediabistro
• Qwaya
• Wishpond

I’m trying to target cold prospects who are interested in or are currently running paid traffic, specifically Facebook ads.

Here’s what the ad would look like:

The goal here is to send as many clicks to the blog post as possible. Why?

1. Introduction/Indoctrination: By sending them to a blog post we’re able to introduce them to Digital Marketer and establish ourselves as an authority by giving value first. We’re building up relationship equity so that when we ask them to opt in or buy later in the relationship… they’re more likely to do so.
2. Pixelling: Because they’re visiting our site, we’re able to pixel and add them to our retargeting audiences so that we can run ads to them later.
3. Segmentation: Because they clicked and showed interest in content about Facebook Advertising, we know something SPECIFIC about this user. We know that they’re interested in Facebook advertising, not just a broad topic like digital marketing. Now, we can follow up with a specific offer that aligns with their interest…

I would then have a campaign set for $3/day to retarget the visitors of the blog post. We’ve already introduced ourselves, given value first, and we know that they’re interested in Facebook advertising… so, we will make them a related offer.

This ad will ask visitors to opt in in order to download our Facebook Ad Templates lead magnet. The purpose of this ad is lead generation, and…

…now that they’re in the funnel they’ll be made offers like a $7 Execution Plan on how to create a high converting Facebook ad campaign and a $38.60/mos membership to Digital Marketer Lab.

I would then spend $1/day on a retargeting ad for people who opted in for the Facebook Ad Templates but did not by the $7 Execution Plan

This ad is there to remind people to take the next step in the marketing funnel. By using the copy…

“Did life get in the way? You forgot to take advantage of this deal?”

… we’re assuming that they didn’t say “no” to begin with, that for some reason they just couldn’t complete the action.

For only $10 we’ve built an automated system for building relationships with cold prospects and converting them into leads and sales for your business!

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Keith Krance & Ralph Burns, Dominate Web Media

With $10/day, the first thing we would do is set a $7/day budget to amplify a high-value,un-gated blog post using Facebook ads with interest-based targeting.

I’d target our ideal audience whose interests are related to Facebook and the social media niche.

Using this simple strategy, we can warm up these audiences potential future customers and leads with ungated content and capture them in our website custom audiences. Here is an example of one we are doing right now to this page here.

Although the majority of the content is “ungated” (Check out this post we wrote for Digital Marketer on “Ungated” content here), there is the option to get more. If a visitor wanted to get the PDF of the checklist, there’s an opt-in button (LeadBox) right under the video.

Next, we would run a $3/day Facebook Video Ad campaign targeting all visitors of that blog post, excluding all opt-ins & customers, driving traffic to a webinar.

(If we didn’t feel like doing a webinar we would send the traffic to our Facebook checklist Lead Magnet landing page or Free physical book plus $4.95 shippingTripwire offer. All three options will work depending on your situation.)

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Justin Brooke, IMScalable

I always start with creating a customer persona (boring, I know, do it anyway).

This gives me the insight to know:

• Specifically who my campaign is talking to
• What they like/dislike.

If you decide to guess instead of actually do the work of creating a persona, God save you, because I can’t.

Once I’ve done my due diligence it’s time to put together the puzzle. Which is my target customers desire, a blog post topic that would attract them like moths to a porch light, and a call to action that makes buying what I’m selling their obvious choice.

If I do it right… they’ll think they discovered me and it was their idea to buy my product.

You ever see the movie Inception with Leo DiCaprio? Yep, just like that.

We are planting a thought in their head, based around knowing their already established desires, to buy our product.

Ok, that’s a lot to take in, let’s unpack it a bit…

For sake of conversation let’s pretend we are selling luxury watches. But really it could be butt lifts for all I care. This process works for all products and in all markets. Don’t believe me? I’ll pay you $1,000 if you prove it doesn’t work for you, I’m that confident.

Ok, watches, we are selling luxury watches.

Who buys luxury watches? Male C-level execs, salesmen, drug dealers, rappers, and porn stars.

Image courtesy of: Hodinkee

Why do they buy them? It’s actually not because they are vain. They worked hard to get to the level they are at and they like to buy nice things that others can’t afford to reward themselves and remind themselves of their effort.

(And, yes, there is a little vanity in it, too.)

Now we need a blog post that attracts them like moths to a porch light or like middle class American kids to pop tarts.

How about…

“6 Rare Watches Fit For a King”

or…

“The 1 Watch James Bond Should Have Worn.”

If we put a link to that blog post in front of our target audience, it’s irresistible bait. That’s why we use a blog post. It drives your click through rate through the roof, attracts your perfect audience, sets up the sale, and they aren’t aware that they just dropped into a sales pitch.

After we write the post and plug our watch favorably (and liberally), we jump over to ads.twitter.com. Wait, not Facebook? Truth is, the ad network doesn’t really matter. Adwords, Gemini, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, they all have good traffic at affordable prices and the ability to laser target your ideal audience.

Since this is my story, I’m going with Twitter Ads. I love them. I’ll target followers of Seiko, Tag Heur, and other luxury watches. This makes sure they’ll love my blog post and be very likely to buy my watch.

To make sure I don’t waste those precious clicks, I’ll offer a Lead Magnet inside and around the blog post (sidebar, header, footer). The Lead Magnet will be something like…

“Free Spreadsheet Ranks Top 100 Watches In The World by Price and Rarity.”

That insures I’ll get some leads that I can follow up with later. Because chances are, they might not buy right away. Some will, some won’t, I just want to maximize my chances.

That’s not only how I would do it… It’s actually how I do it and have been selling my own products the same way since 2009. It works. For everyone. Do it. Just Do It.

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Brian Moran, SamCart

If I only had $10 a day to spend on paid media, I would retarget people who have seen the sales page for my product, and have not bought yet.

Because it’s easy to setup, I would use Facebook’s retargeting pixel by placing the pixel on my sales page and on the “thank you” page after they bought.

Then, I’d use Facebook’s “exclusion” feature to exclude anyone who hit the thank you page from seeing the ad. This would make sure that anyone who bought the product does not see the retargeting ad.

To stay within my $10 per day budget, I might narrow down my targeting even more, by retargeting visitors who not only have seen the sales page and haven’t bought, but also users who are fans of certain fan pages.

For example, the ad below is only being shown to people who have seen our SamCartsales page, have not bought, and who like Infusionsoft’s fan page.

Because of this, the audience is very small, which allows to me stay within my $10 budget, and my ad can speak specifically to those people, which increases my click-through rate, which in turn drives down the cost of my ad.

(Not to mention…conversions skyrocket)

Take a look at this screenshot showing the performance of this ad.

We’re spending $10.25 per day, and generating new customers for $47.81 each.

The product we’re selling is SamCart, a shopping cart software for online marketers that costs $99 per month to own.

So, not only are we making 2X what we’re spending, but our product is a subscription, so we continue to rebill these customers month after month, which makes these ads even more profitable.

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Jason Hornung, Jason Hornung Agency

That’s a pretty easy question for me to answer.

I would spend that money running a retargeting ad on Facebook that pushes people back to my initial front-end offer.

I use that exact strategy in my business right now and I’m doing it on just $5/day budget (although my ad is off at the moment while I fix some issues in my funnel).

See attached screen shot below:

I run this as a desktop newsfeed only ad as I’m sending people to a secure page where they place an order for my Tripwire offer.

I’ve found that desktop newsfeed ads convert the best for this purpose. You’ll see in the screen shot that I get sales at $15.26 with this ad, which works out really well for my business.

The type of copy strategy I use here is called “reason why” copy.

What I do is give the viewer multiple reasons why they should come back to my site and buy my product.

Each of those reasons is positioned to overcome the viewer’s biggest objections while providing solid benefits for taking action.

I use the “so you can” language pattern in the benefit statement to really drive home how it helps them.

You can see that in the screen shot of my ad below:

I also use a picture of myself to create branding for me and because people buy from people, so I want them to see me and feel like they’re having a conversation with me on Facebook.

All of these options are unique to the Facebook platform and are the reason why I would use it in the scenario posed.

The experts have weighed in and now it’s up to you go to optimize your next $10. How will you spend it? Tell us in the comments!

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