Welcome to our new and current subscribers! This newsletter is published monthly by Haas Consulting. It is here to be a source of information for anyone who would like to learn about webpages, marketing, and other business related topics. Please feel free to email us with topics you would like to learn more about. You may view past issues at www.thaas.info/articles.php. Enjoy!

The Pay-Per-Click Option

Business owners beware! Marketing opportunities are everywhere! There are so many different ways to market a business today it can make your mind tighten up into a little ball and HURT! We are all familiar with the old standards like newspaper advertising, the yellow pages and so-fourth. Now that the internet has arrived, there are many additional avenues you can follow to pursue an increased market share.

One of these new concepts is pay-per-click advertising. Well OK, it isn't exactly a new concept; when measured in internet years it may seem a bit old. You know how it is today, by the time you lift your new computer out of the box it is already outdated! But setting all that aside; a well planned pay-per-click campaign can be very beneficial, under the right circumstances.

Let's start with an explanation of what pay-per-click advertising is. The most basic and simplest explanation is that you pay for every person that finds your website through an online advertising program. The ad has a link to your website in it; when someone "clicks" on the link they go to your website and you pay for the click. These most commonly are the ads that appear above and to the right of the Search Engine Results when you do an online search.

There are several pay-per-click advertising programs available today. Yahoo!, Google, and LookSmart offer three popular ones. They all have their own little quirks about them, but they all work something like this:

1. They display your ad on their own site as well as affiliate websites. (These are called impressions.)
2. People read the ads, if they are interested they click on the link and view your webpage.
3. You are then billed for the "click"

Keep in mind that the process above is very simplified. An effective campaign can be a bit difficult to manage and that is where the true trick to all of this lies. There are several key areas to consider in managing your pay-per-click campaign; they are keyword selection, budgeting, and conversion rates.

When you set up a campaign you will need to do some research. You need to know what keywords are going to produce; well at least which ones you think will, at first, it is a shot in the dark. Your campaign can be as simple as one keyword, but I would suggest having many more. You will need to study some reports and examine each keyword's productivity. Then it is decision time; drop keywords that do not produce for you and ad others, then start studying them again.

I hope it all makes sense to you so far, at this point it starts to make dollars and cents. Your budgeting will determine how many clicks you can get. You control how much you are willing to pay for each click, how much you are willing to spend on the campaign each day, and how much you are willing to spend each month. A poorly set up campaign could run out of money a week into the month, which of course means three weeks out of the month you have no exposure at all. I have seen campaigns where people pay as little as a dime per click and others that pay $2.00 per click or more! The monthly budget can be modest at $50.00 per month or rather hefty at $15,000.00 per month. The key to successful budgeting is in balance. You need to balance the cost against the result.

Which brings up the third area of successful campaign management, conversion rates. There is one thing you must have in order to make effective use of a pay-per-click campaign; a way to measure the results! Funny thing, as important as this is, it is often the most neglected part of the whole process. You may receive 30,000 impressions and out of those you may receive 500 clicks. The most important number to know is how many of the 500 clicks convert into a paying customer. This can be accomplished by having your programmer place some code into the page where you expect action. In some cases it is the contact us form and others it is the last step of the shopping cart. The code is there to count the number of visitors that come from a paid ad and take the desired action.

If this seems like it could be a challenging process to manage, you will want to consider having a professional manage it for you. This is where the difference is between a web developer and a web designer. The web designer does just that, they design websites. A web developer goes beyond designing and helps you make the most of your website. Lets talk briefly about how a pay-per-click campaign can be used.

1. The most common use of course it to generate additional traffic for your website. This doesn't really need any explanation.
2. Another use is to generate the initial traffic needed for your new website to get started during the process of being cataloged by the search engines. A brand new website can take several months to start showing up well in search engines. The pay-per-click will not put you into the organic search results, but you can place yourself in the paid advertising area.

Wow! That is a lot of information to digest! So let me sum it all up. A pay-per-click advertising campaign isn't something to be afraid of. A well thought out and managed plan can increase not only traffic to your website, but put some additional dollars into your pocket as well; after all, that is what marketing is all about. The cost is something that needs to be justified. Whether you spend $50.00 per month or $15,000.00 per month doesn't matter in itself. It all depends upon how much additional profit the money spent generates. You must measure the results of any advertising campaign to know if it is working for you.

• Marketing Management
• Marketing Plans
• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• Printing Services
• & More!

We are a full service Marketing Firm. From creating a marketing plan to layout, design, and seemless execution, our goal is to help you make the most out of your marketing!

Some of Our Current
Clients

• 3-D CNC *
• ATHC
• BigBoysBid.com
• Dominion Realty
• Fitzloff Photography
• Szachowicz, MD - Facial Plastic Surgery*
• Girl Scouts Peacepipe Council*
• Gull Lake Campground
• Hutch Sport Shop
• Innovative Audio Inc.
• Jay Malone Motors
• Marceau Drafting
• McLeod Alliance for Victims of Domestic Violence*
• Minnesota Valley Investments
• Name Your Frame & Photography*
• Oakdale Golf Club
• Peterson Juergensen
  Hemmerick & Co.
  (In development)
• Picture the Pages
• Platinum Media Design*
• Professional Training Services
• Rental Link.com *
• Schweiss Bifold Doors*
• SpamKillerNow.com
• Storms Welding

Note: Clients without a link are
under construction.

*Denotes Clients using our hosting services for websites previously designed with another developer.

Get to Know Your Neighbors

Girl Scouts Peacepipe Council   Have you gotten your cookies? The Girl Scouts have been an important part of our communities for a long time. Check out their website and see what they are all about.

Additional Links of Interest

BusinessKnowledgeSource.com  Several articles that are worth reading. The first few on the page are a bit outdated, still talking about Christmas. But browse down the page, you may find something of interest.

Inc.com  How many of us have fallen behind on keeping our business plans up to date? Here is a good resource for some guidelines.

HowStuffWorks.com This looks like a fun site. Learn how building a business identity works. Take a look at all the other things you can learn about while you are there.

Did someone forward this newsletter to you?

All you need to do to subscribe is complete this Contact form

Anti-Spam Policies

Plain and simple; Haas Consulting does not condone or participate in the use of spam e-mail. You have received this newsletter at your request. If you wish to remove yourself from this mailing or feel that you have been included by mistake; contact Haas Consulting and ask to be removed from the list. All requests will be honored with no questions asked. Please include the email address you wish to remove within the request.

Statement of Copyright

The contents of this newsletter are the property of Haas Consulting. You may use all or part of the content of this newsletter provided you follow these requirements:

• You provide credit for where the information came from.
• You provide a link to Haas Consulting's Home page at http://www.thaas.info
• You do not use the material in a way that will harm the image or reputation of Haas Consulting.
• You do not violate any laws in anyway shape or form.
• You agree to hold Haas Consulting free of all liabilities in relationship to the use of materials gathered from this or any other newsletter.

Please contact Haas Consulting with questions regarding reproduction of the contents of this newsletter.

2005 © Haas Consulting all rights reserved