Pay Per Click Ads
Typical pay per click ads consist of a heading, a short summary and the URL where customers who click on the ad will land. Some pay per click providers allow more words per ad, some allow less. The rules regarding terms and descriptions used vary from provider to provider.
With some pay per click providers, your ads will appear instantly. With other providers, you must wait until your ads have been approved.
Once you've written an ad, try creating different versions of it. Don't be afraid to tweak ads and try them again.
ROI, or return on investment is what matters. To determine the ROI of an ad, subtract the cost of running the ads from the amount earned from the ads. If the ROI is low or is a negative number, it's time to stop the ad and change or delete it.
Keywords
The success (or failure) of your ad relies very much on your selection of keywords. Keywords, the words customers will use to find your ad, should be as focused as possible. The more focused the keyword, the more the ad can potentially earn.
Keyword Do's
Do Choose Keywords Carefully.
Do Use Specific, focused keywords.
Do use more than one keyword tool to build the best selection.
Do Set Negative Keywords.
Keyword Do Not's
Do Not Use broad keywords.
Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) operates much like Google and other pay per click programs. Ads appear on pages in the Yahoo Search Marketing directory area. Yahoo's help section features frequently asked questions and topic search options.
Cost to get started is a $5.00 deposit (used as bid credits). Although the fine print states that you may be charged 10% more than the budget amount that you set, this rarely happens. Yahoo does automatically charge your credit card every time you run low on funds. Other pay per click providers do not charge your credit card and add more credit to your account until you choose to do so.
When signed in to Yahoo Search Marketing, you'll see id ranges, estimated clicks and estimated share of clicks. You can change your maximum bid to see how this affects expected traffic and anticipated costs.
Remember that it isn't necessary to be in the #1 position. It's often better to be at #2 or #3 than it is to be at #1. What matters is that you are on the first page of search results. Relevant, well-written ads can result in a high click through rate (CTR) and a higher quality scoring. Ads that score higher often get discounts on click costs.
Where Google lets you choose exact, broad or phrase matching, Yahoo offers standard and advanced. Ads set for standard match will show when keywords match the exact terms being searched, in addition to singular, plural and misspelled versions of your keywords. Advanced matching displays ads for broad range matching. Yahoo offers standard and advanced match listings. Standard listings can actually appear above advanced ones when the standard listing search terms more closely match the words being searched.