Pay Per Click [Archive] - Wanna Network Real Estate Forum

Realicity

04-11-2008, 08:55 AM

Hi Wade,

Let me start by saying that I have been running Pay Per Click campaigns for over 8 years and I believe 100% in recommending them as viable advertising solution. You just have to be careful with them.

Pay Per Click campaigns are in fact very easy to start and difficult to master. Because of this many advertisers waste a good amount of their ad budget with either poor targeting or excessive spending. Here are some things to consider before starting a PPC campaign:

1. If your total budget for a PPC campaign is less than $500 per month, then you will probably not want to hire a company to do this for you. The reason for this is that a large percentage of your budget will go to develop and manage the campaign. Example: if you have a $400 monthly budget, it is reasonable expect to use $100 to $300 per month of that to hire a company to develop and manage any where from 1 to 3 of the major PPC search engines. The major factors in cost will be the scope of a campaign that you want to pursue. I will get more into that later...

2. If your total budget is $500 per month or more AND you are new to Pay Per Click and internet advertising, then I would recommend hiring a professional.

The 3 major PPC search solutions that I recommend are:
#1 Google - Offers the most web reach and some of the best tools.
#2 Yahoo - A good 2nd choice as they get a lot of traffic.
#3 MSN - A good 3rd option under the right circumstances.

Google is the #1 search engine and of course the #1 provider of PPC traffic. They have some great Geo-targeting and site-targeting tools that greatly help increase traffic levels and narrow campaign targeting. This is where I recommend starting a PPC campaign.

Yahoo is another PPC platform that I recommend to almost anyone. There are just a few things to consider before jumping into Yahoo.

MSN gets a lot less traffic then the other options, but is still recommended if you either have a large budget or are willing to do it yourself. The reasons for this are the development & management time/costs as compared to the traffic you will generate.

What To Do & Where To Start Based On Your Budget & Experience:

1 - If you are new to PPC, have a budget less than $500 per month and are going to do it yourself, get your feet wet with Google first.

2 - If you are experienced with PPC and have a budget less than $500 per month is is reasonable to start with Google and Yahoo and then see if you have room left in your budget for MSN.

3 - If you have a budget less than $500 per month and are looking to hire a professional; I recommend that you consider only starting with Google as to keep your development and management costs down so that you still have a good portion of your budget left to purchase traffic.

4 - If you are new to PPC and have a budget more than $500 per month, you should strongly consider hiring a professional so that you do not completely waste you budget in the first 2 weeks. Yes I do have clients that have done this, and yes that is why they became a client. In this case, the scope of your campaign really depends on your budget and the area(s) that you are looking to target.

If you are still not sure what is right for you, just send me an email (http://www.realicity.com/company/contact_us.html) with your location(s) (city & state), budget and PPC experience and I will give you an honest recommendation for free. And I promise, no sales pitch, just an honest recommendation!

Good Luck!

James Svoboda
Web Administrator
Realicity Real Estate Marketing (http://www.realicity.com)
www.realicity.com (http://www.realicity.com)