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FAQ for China PPC
What’s PPC?
PPC are also known as sponsored links and appear normally on the Google organic result page or anywhere on the content page. It is one of the most effective ways of attracting visitors but it will work well only if you choose the relevant or target keywords and keyword phrase. In short, by the system of PPC search engine internet marketing, a website can achieve better positions on recognized search engine pages conveniently.
How does PPC advertising work?
Simply, ads are typically served based on a bidding system. The more paid per click for and ad, the higher the ad is positioned in search engine results pages (SERPs). In some cases (e.g., Google AdWords), the more successful your ad is in attracting clicks and other actions, the higher the ad is positioned, regardless of your cost per click.
How does paid search(PPC) differ from natural search(SEO)?
The primary differences are:
- Paid search can be launched quickly. Natural search generally takes months to show a return.
- Paid search focuses on a large number of keywords. Natural search needs to be focused on a few high-return keywords.
- Paid search is highly measurable. Tracking results on natural search is more difficult (although not impossible).
Why use PPC services?
- Using Pay per Click can bring you more targeted traffic in long run or short term
- PPC is easy to run and increases ROI at a very less time
- You don’t have to depend on organic results
- Easy tracking of ROI
- You can get traffic for many keywords at one time
- You can choose your favorable keywords and can get traffic from them
- See Flow of Traffic on your site in less then 48 hours
- Advertisements on the basis of daily budgets
Should I start with paid search(PPC) or natural search(SEO)?
We strongly recommend that you start with paid search. This allows you to test a large number of keywords, and to measure the results on a keyword by keyword basis. This information can then be used to target effective, high-impact keywords for your natural search efforts.
Unfortunately, much of our industry doesn’t agree. They tend to focus on untested, often ineffective keywords. This may be due to the fact that natural search services tend to be more profitable than paid search services, as most of the money in paid search goes to Google and Yahoo.
In our view, the only legitimate reason a business should focus on Natural Search before proving out keywords on Paid Search is that the company is in an industry niche that is not hypercompetitive and has fairly obvious primary keywords with significant search volume.
Do you work on adult/gambling-related sites?
No, I don’t work on adult or gambling-related sites, or any site related to those industries.
What impact will your campaigns have on my web site?
Unlike with search engine optimization, pay per click campaigns are non-intrusive and require no changes to your web site. If you use Google Analytics to track your web site traffic, you will need to place a small snippet of JavaScript code at the bottom of each page. The code is provided by Google and is invisible to your web site visitors.
In time, Google Analytics will give you tremendous insight into how visitors find and interact with your web site. As a result, you may very well want to make changes to the content and structure of your web site, to provide your visitors with a better experience and improve conversions.
How much should be spent on PPC?
When an advertiser realizes a positive return on investment (ROI) from PPC advertising, every Yuan spent increases profits. The advertiser then, should not seek to limit the budget, as every additional Yuan spent generates additional profits. In short, the more spent the more the advertiser can reap the profits from PPC advertising.
Why is a management firm necessary?
A professional SEM firm enables companies, even with already good in-house PPC management, to increase profitability, save time and human resources, and substantially enhance search marketing knowledge.
Our dynamic team of professional SEM engineers have several years experiences in the field and have developed methods which are proven to make a difference.
How long does it take to launch paid search accounts?
Once all paperwork is in place, we can usually launch paid search advertising within three weeks.
How long will it take to receive results?
Once the accounts are created and activated, traffic should be received by the website within hours, if not minutes. Generally, traffic will ramp up over the first few days of the campaign.
How many keywords can I bid on?
We will advertise on as many keywords as are necessary to adequately cover your particular marketspace. We would generally prefer to have too many keywords, rather than too few.
How do you track the results?
Most notably, we track results beyond the click. An increase in website “visibility” doesn’t pay the bills.
The first step is to determine what is being measured on the site. In most cases, a site is either attempting to sell directly, or to generate leads for an offline sales team to work. We refer to these actions as online “transactions.”
Once the transactions have been defined, there are a number of third-party technologies that allow one to connect such transactions with their original source. The amount of information given is quite limited, and there is no way to ensure that transactions are not being counted multiple times.
What about the tracking systems built into Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing?
We are not big fans of the tracking that Google and Yahoo offer, although we have used them on occasion. The amount of information given is quite limited, and there is no way to ensure that transactions are not being counted multiple times.
What is a bid limit?
A bid limit is the maximum you can spend per click for a particular keyword. While receiving clicks for less than the bid limit increases profitability and is very much welcome, it is extremely important to have an upper boundary.
What is click fraud and how concerned should we be about it?
Click fraud is the act of sending fraudulent clicks to PPC advertisers. The clicks can either be generated by automated technology or via actual manual clicking on advertisements. The goal is either to generate revenue for affiliates or to increase the costs of a competitor.
Click fraud is certainly a problem, but the degree of problem is difficult to determine, as the search engines have not been forthcoming with real data. Given that they make money from click fraud, this is unacceptable and will likely be remedied in the courts (the lack of data, that is).
To their credit, the major search engines seem to be working hard to fight click fraud. We’ve seen them issue refunds to our clients before we were even able to ask.
Third party fraud detection tools can also help. When shown evidence of click fraud, the search engines generally will issue a refund.
In the meantime, it’s something of a cost of business in the paid search game. One should certainly keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, but realize that all one can do is lower it, not remove it entirely.
Will PPC attract competitors fraud clicks? If will, what can we do about it?
It’s part of game, can always happen in reality, as your cost of PPC campaign. However, this may be detected by search engines if it goes to another level, with certain clicks fraud.
How about PPC service, and PPC-to-Leads conversion rate?
It depends and this conversion rate varies greatly based on many factors. We can discuss this tomorrow morning. Generally speaking, 1-2% sounds acceptable as said, in terms of conversion rate.
Must we spend SEM/PPC?
No. It is the client’s own sales and marketing goals, and, level of market competition that decide when to engage in a active spend campaign. It varies across industry sector but approximately half of our clients are engaging in SEO with PPC whilst the others are quite happy with ongoing SEO. For newcomers to China, then some SEM/PPC allocation is recommended however to help assist gain some “market traction” and raise brand awareness.
How long does it take to launch paid search accounts?
Once all paperwork is in place, we can usually launch paid search advertising within three weeks.
How long will it take to receive results?
Once the accounts are created and activated, traffic should be received by the website within hours, if not minutes. Generally, traffic will ramp up over the first few days of the campaign.
How long does it take to get active online?
Baidu and registration paperwork takes 2-3 weeks, once your Chinese pages are up and viewable online. The pages and content copy are assessed by China regulators before your PPC account is approved. China SEO assists with all paperwork and SE applications.
Must we spend SEM or PPC?
No. It is the client’s own sales and marketing goals, and, level of market competition that decide when to engage in a active spend campaign. It varies across industry sector but approximately half of our clients are engaging in SEO with PPC whilst the others are quite happy with ongoing SEO. For newcomers to China, then some SEM/PPC allocation is recommended however to help assist gain some “market traction” and raise brand awareness.
Are there minimum SEM or PPC amounts required on Baidu? Is there a minimum activation period or time required?
No and No. The only minimum amounts are the account set up fees and SE set minimum credit deposits paid to open your SE account.
If your company already has a Google PPC account you can transfer and we can use that credit with Google HK, Baidu will require your own unique account opened and clients have the option to pay Baidu directly or via ChinaSEO.
Once deposited your account is registered and active and you then have up to 12 months to utilize your minimum credits.
SEM/PPC campaigns can and often are switched on or off as the market moves. Good SEO managers react with the market accordingly.
What is a “Landing Page”?
A Landing Page (LP) is a web page specifically designed and SEO engineered to be the best “traffic catcher.” LPs are highly Search Engine friendly, and are designed to attract search-bot attention and increase your hits.
We like to use the example of a sporting stadium, where a few people have “super-flags” that are 10x larger than those in the rest of the crowd. These flags can be seen from all around the ground, and really stand out from the other supporters. These “super flags” are the equivalent of a LP on the internet.
They are built to attract attention, to be found and viewed and direct traffic through to your main web pages.
What’s the difference between landing page and home page? And why do we need a land page?
According to Wiki, a landing page, sometimes known as a “lead capture page” or a “lander”, is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement, search result or link.
Landing pages are often linked to from social media, email campaigns or search engine marketing campaigns in order to enhance the effectiveness of the advertisements. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales leads.
A home page, or main/front page is a page on a website, whose main purpose is to guide visitors to specific page within website.
In a word, landing page is a sales copy for leads generation while home page acts as a site guider.
What is ChinaSEO SEM/PPC Campaign Management service?
ChinaSEO manages client SEM/PPC spending according to KPIs and with account teams tracking and reacting to market volatility.
As Key Word pricing is set by daily market, it is not uncommon to see PPC pricing move -/+ 500% over 30 days for certain “hot” key words and phrases.
ChinaSEO works closely with clients accounts to ensure the most effective ROI for their spend.
For example: the key word “澳洲地产投资” “Australia Property Investment” the average PPC price paid on Baidu in September 2012 was 68 cents $USD, per click through. In October the market heated-up and the average PPC price paid was $2.09 USD, per click through. This was an increase of 207% in (just) 30 days, so professional KPI driven PPC management is required in order to ensure best ROI over the campaign period.
Your ChinaSEO account manager will track and follow the market on your behalf, and engage or pause campaigns according to your set KPIs. Thereby ensuring SEM/PPC spend is not “wasted” but spent when and how the client needs it and according to set KPIs and fit client campaign budgets.