How To Screen Your Visitors When Using Pay Per Click Advertising

By Rich Hamilton, Jr
Posted Friday, July 23, 2004

If you are using pay per click advertising, I don't need to tell you that it can get very expensive if you have a lot of unnecessary click throughs. In this article I will explain how to screen your visitors and how to apply it to your pay per click advertising campaign, so that you can screen your visitors before they click through.

How It Works

To minimize the amount of unnecessary click throughs, we are going to talk about a screening technique that is used in copywriting. A good copywriter has the ablity to screen the serious individuals from the test pilots, before the sale is initially made.

By using this screening technique you will dramatically decrease the amount of refunds that you could be receiving. In this case, you need to be specific about your product or service without giving too many details, this will eliminate unnecessary click throughs.

When it comes time to develop an ad that best describes your offer, you need to use precise wording. If you use any ambiguous words, phrases or statements in your ads, you will confuse the viewer, making them either click through or leave. You need to keep in mind that every click through is costing you money, so you need to make sure that you are targeting your market and that each of your visitors are qualified.

Applying The Headline

When placing a pay per click advertisement there are two things that you need to pay attention to, the headline and the description. The headline is used to grab their attention, build their curiousity and force them to read on. The difficult part is that the pay per click ads only allow you a limited amount of characters, usually up to 50. Your attention grabbing headline will end up being only three or four words. You need to make your headline jump out at the viewer, but at the same time, you need to be specific.

One of the biggest mistakes I often see, is that people use their business name for the headline of their pay per click advertisement. A business name is not going to grab their attention or motivate them to read the description. For example, let me ask you which headline would grab your attention and motivate you to read the description, "Elites Marketing" or "Earn $47 - $270 Per Sale". Do you see the difference between the two headlines and how specific the second one was?

Applying The Description

As far as the description goes, you have a little more to work with, unless you are using Google's Adwords. Google's Adwords gives you two lines and each line only allows up to 35 characters. You will need to be as specific and descriptive as you can. The description is very crucial, and it will determine whether or not your visitor will initially click through.

Let me give you another example, now which description is precise in wording and is descriptive enough to screen your visitor, "You can join our Two Tier Associate Program at no cost or obligation", or "Snowball in cash by promoting info-marketing products. Join for Free!" I hope you picked the second description!

The first description, "You can join our Two Tier Associate Program at no cost or obligation" is vague and wide open. This description does not describe what kind of product or service they would be promoting or kind of associate program I am offering is, pay per lead, pay per click, pay per sale, or two tier. You don't want to use a description that is too vague, that is how you get a lot of unnecessary click throughs.

On the other hand, the second description, "Snowball in cash by promoting marketing info-products. Join for Free!" is very clear and concise. Even though the description did not say what kind of associate program it was, in the headline it was clear. It said, "Earn $47 - $270 Per Sale." Moreover, I was able to tell my visitor that they'd be promoting information marketing products and was free to participate. I was also able to hit them with a couple psychological triggers, "Snowball" and "Cash".

To screen your visitors more effectively, you need to choose keywords that are relevant to your product or service and that target your market. If you select keywords or phrases that are too general, you will still have a lot of unnecessary click throughs. You can only screen so much, so don't select inappropriate keywords or phrases when starting your pay per click advertisement campaign. Take your time and brainstorm for the appropriate keywords and phrases that best desribes your product or service.

About The Author
Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of (http://www.ElitesMarketing.com). You can start earning cash today by joining our FREE Two Tier Associate Program and make $45 - $270 per sale (http://www.ElitesMarketing.com/assoc/).