Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
viral marketing, which I
ll cover later in this chapter. Although you
can find some cases of the cost reaching up to $100 per click in
certain industries, most terms will fall in a lower range under a
couple of dollars.
When you talk about the actual price of a search term, there
are a few factors that come into play. For example, if you
'
re
looking at buying a very broad term that is more likely to be
searched more often by more people, you
'
ll have to pay more
money. However, a very specific search term is going to cost less
money. Let
'
That term could
apply to an extremely wide range of results, and the reason for the
higher cost in this case is because your microsite will be included
in the results of everything from
'
s say you purchased the term
“
code.
”
“
computer code
”
to
“
morse code
”
to
“
state code
”
(law). However, a more specific term like
“
Action-
Script
is going to be searched by a smaller group of people and,
therefore, your site will be included in fewer results. You may be
wondering why it costs more for the broad term when you
”
'
re
going to end up in less relevant results. The reason for the higher
rate is the popularity of the term itself and how many other
companies have also purchased it. Although it would sometimes
be smarter to spend less money to reach a more targeted search
audience, there are times when the broad term will be worth the
extra dollars. For instance, if within 1 month the targeted term
yields 30 clicks that result in 5 conversions (the user purchased,
signed up for e-mail, and so on) and the broad term yields
300 clicks resulting in 50 conversions, it was probably worth
spending the extra money.
Targeting Your Search Terms
When you purchase your search terms, you
ll have other options to
choose from to further define your target audience. Some of the
options will make the target more refined and narrow and some
others will widen the target to reach even more people. How you
choose between them will change from project to project and client
to client.
'
Matching
When people do searches, they are less likely to search for a single
word than they are for a phrase. For that reason, you will want to
look at some of the matching options for your terms. One of those
options is called
broad matching
, and it basically watches for your
word to be used in any search that is performed. If you have
purchased the word
then broad matching will return your
site in the results of searching for everything from
“
car,
”
“
car dealer
”
to