I LOVE paid advertising. So today I am going to give you 4 keys to paid advertising that you must know if you want to maximize your results from your investment. There are many ways to drive traffic to your website; paid advertising is by far the fastest, the most scalable and the most controllable. Paid advertising is a science and if you get these 4 things right you can almost predict your results from your paid advertising. In addition to these 4 keys be sure to read my post on “What you need to know about paid traffic” to understand how to be profitable

The first important factor of these 4 keys to paid advertising is determining whether your cost is a fixed cost or performance based cost. Fixed cost advertising has a one-time fee for your ad regardless of performance. This includes things such as banner advertising, classified ads, text links and newsletters or solo ads.

Performance based advertising includes things such as pay per click marketing, Google AdWords, Facebook PPC, YouTube PPC, paid lead generation and other advertisements that charge you based on responsiveness to your ad. Most performance based advertising charges per click, website visitor or lead.

Once you have identified your cost the next step is determining your strategy. If you are using fixed cost advertising then your strategy is to generate as much response as possible. If you are using classified ads or solo ads your ad should primarily drive curiosity. Since you are not paying per click or per response you want to drive as much traffic as possible. A great way to do this is to bribe people with free giveaways, valuable tools or resources and stress the ultimate benefit the people can take from what you have to offer. Advertisements that push emotional triggers or desires work great in a fixed cost environment. Your ad’s main purpose should be to drive enough curiosity for people to take action to learn more.

If you are using performance based advertising the strategy is almost the opposite. You do not want mass traffic; your goal is quality traffic. Since you are paying for everything visitor, click or lead, you only want to pay for quality visitors. You only want to pay for traffic that is most likely to buy you product or take your offer. The best way to do this is to qualify people through your advertisement. Doing things such as stating a cost or even qualifying criteria on your ad will discourage freebie seekers and attract the right people.

The third factor in these 4 keys to paid advertising is finding the right audience. Your success in paid advertising heavily relies on who is exposed to your ad. This might be one of the most challenging parts for advertisers. A few tips that have always help me have been to talk directly with the advertising vendor when possible. Most vendors want to make you happy in hopes of repeat business. So explain your offer and ask them how receptive their audience has been to similar offers. If you cannot contact a vendor then start with a test budget instead of a full blown marketing campaign. Another option is to talk to other people who have advertised with your vendor of choice. There are many sites such as Directory of Ezines that offer advertiser reviews before you buy advertising with any listed vendor. This allows you to see other people’s experiences and know what customers say about their service before you decide to work with them for advertising.

Finally, the last of these 4 keys to paid advertising is your offer. Your landing page must be congruent with the advertisement. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes people make. Your ad MUST have the same message as your advertisement. Having a headline to your landing page that matches the headline in your ad is even better. Similar color schemes, font type and images will all tell your visitor “you’re in the right place” and keep trust established.

Keep these 4 quick tips in mind when looking for advertising and you will have the slight edge that makes all the difference.

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