Confabulations

Pay per click (PPC) can be a highly advantageous tool for any business looking to bolster their income from ecommerce sales. PPC campaigns are something which is best left to the professionals in the field of search engine optimisation (SEO) but I think there are a few general tips which can be remembered to help ensure the success of your PPC endeavours.

As with all search engine optimisation activities, it is important to stay on top of the latest trends and developments – and this too is true with pay per click projects. In my opinion some of the best methods of ensuring the success of a campaign include:

• Eye Catching Ads – There’s little point getting your pay per click ad to the top of the Google listings if it doesn’t stand out from the crowd. The best thing to do is write a compelling and punchy ad to go alongside your PPC to ensure that people click on yours as opposed to your competitors.
• Rely on Professionals – When it comes to setting up PPC campaigns it is, in my experience, something which is best left to the professionals. They will perform all the intricacies of the campaign, such as carrying out keyword research and will be able to yield the best results from pay per click projects.
• Keep Track of Results – Obviously, it is imperative to actually track how a PPC campaign is performing which, again, is another reason to leave it to SEO and SEM experts. They will use the latest analytic tools to see which terms are leading to the most conversions and thus be able to maximise the return on investment (ROI) potential of the campaign.

Pay per click is a good addition to any SEO campaign but should rarely be relied upon in isolation. It can be an extremely good way of driving traffic to a website and, if done correctly, will be cost effective.

SEO is, of course, a speciality and PPC definitely falls under this umbrella – so, if you’re looking to utilise PPC to boost your revenue in 2010, I would suggest seeking out professional assistance from a digital media agency.

PPC campaign

Any ecommerce company worth their salt should at least be aware of the notion of search engine optimisation (SEO) but may not be quite as familiar with the concept of social media – and how this phenomenon can help their rankings in major search engines. Marketing companies across the UK are now tapping into the resource of social media – but how does it specifically differ from SEO techniques that are presently being utilised?

In my opinion, it is important to see SEO and social media as two peas in a pod and not as separate entities because the merits of one certainly overlap with the other and vice versa. It goes without saying that SEO staples such as sensible use of keywords, long-tailing, unique content and building good quality links will long continue to play a role in propelling websites up the search engine listings – but social media has been invited to the top table now as well and definitely has its own role to play.

The best way of explaining how SEO and social media differ is probably to suggest that SEO deals with those people who are looking for a specific product or phrase and, through the use search engine optimisation techniques, it becomes possible to rank highly for any given search term. From the social media perspective, however, it is more about reaching out to demographics and revealing listings and products that they may not have actively been seeking.

Essentially, optimising a website should be seen as a big picture comprising of many different parts – two of the most important of which are SEO and social media.

Social media site Facebook

Ever since the release of the iPod, all new offerings from Apple are awaited with baited breath – and this was no different when they announced the Apple iPad a while back. It was with great fanfare and to an eager audience that Steve Jobs revealed the next big thing from the Apple stable.

Pricing of the iPad wasn’t mentioned at the time but, if reports are to be believed, a recent slip up by a number of leading websites may just have given the game away! Electricpig shouted a purported price leak from the rooftops after a search on the website Play.com revealed that the 16GB version of the iPad would be priced at £499 with the larger 64GB version setting consumers back a cool £699.

Personally, I’m not sure I’d be too keen on shelling out that much on what essentially looks like a giant iPod Touch – but I am in no doubt that there will be millions of consumers that beg to differ! In most cases, a product will merely need to have the Apple logo located somewhere upon it in order to be successful and it would be a foolish man (me?) to suggest that the iPad will be anything other than a resounding success.

Apple iPad

It was only a matter of time before the behemoth that is Microsoft dipped their foot into the online video-on-demand market and it has now fully arrived in the UK after a seven trial of the technology. We all know that Microsoft are synonymous with all things computer related and it stands to reason that they are now trying to get their share of the action – after seeing the success of the likes of BBC’s iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4OD.

Watching our favourite programmes on the internet is becoming more and more commonplace as streaming technology has improved a whole heap over the last few years – so, if we miss our favourites, such as Eastenders, Mad Men or Peep Show, we can just head online and watch it at our leisure.

Microsoft seem to have taken note of people’s love of watching their favourite programmes online and have recently rolled out MSN Video Player. Apparently, it won’t just be television shows that can be caught on this video-on-demand player – it will also boast everything from movie trailers to the latest news bulletins.

Personally, I think it may be difficult to dislodge internet viewers from their favourite online video services, such as the iPlayer – purely because they are now fully used to the way it operates and may not want to learn a new way of doing things. Or perhaps that’s just what an old dog like me thinks!

But if anyone is capable of winning over consumers, it is Microsoft. They have experienced domination in the software world for decades now and if they think their online video-on-demand player can be a world-beater, who am I to argue?!

MSN Video Player