ant ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if yo

With the rise of Google's Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter and the ease of which you can start a PPC campaign a lot of companies and individuals have taken to advertising online. In recent years they have greatly improved their PPC models and usability and the ease of which you can get in front of your potential customers. Now more and more companies advertise online, but how effective are they?

Here are a couple of best practices to get the most out of your online ad budget.

Use Geo Targeting features

For many businesses they generally operate in a specific geographic region. It does not make sense to advertise world wide or even throughout the US if you only serve a particular area.

An example of this would be a business that offers free delivery within a specified distance from their office. You could target that specific area to show your "Free Delivery" ads and not waste any of your important advertising budget blanketing an area that you don't even serve.

Other businesses have several locations but want to pool their advertising dollar. It makes more sense to segment out each location and set up specific landing pages for them. This way you can use special promotions and discounts for each location and target the things that matter most in your area.

In this scenario you would set up your ads to target specific things that happen in your town. Like if your local sports team made it to the finals and you wanted to run a special in support of them. It would not make sense to show it in any location that did not strongly support your local team. Another type of use for this would be if your business had locations in the north and south and you wanted to run a "Winter Special". If you lived in Florida and saw an ad for Winter Clothes it would not make a lot of sense to you and neither would a "Hurricane Special" make any sense in Kansas.

Even if your business does make its product or service available state our country wide it makes more sense to target your ad and and try to tie it into a specific geographic event.

Use Exact Match features and negative keywords

Having a large keyword list is not the only important thing for your online PPC ads. Using the keywords in a way that will produce the maximum result is key. All the major PPC search engines will let you select some type of exact match feature. By not using this handy tool you could be losing important ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if yo

region. It does not make sense to advertise world wide or even throughout the US if you only serve a particular area.

An example of this would be a business that offers free delivery within a specified distance from their office. You could target that specific area to show your "Free Delivery" ads and not waste any of your important advertising budget blanketing an area that you don't even serve.

Other businesses have several locations but want to pool their advertising dollar. It makes more sense to segment out each location and set up specific landing pages for them. This way you can use special promotions and discounts for each location and target the things that matter most in your area.

In this scenario you would set up your ads to target specific things that happen in your town. Like if your local sports team made it to the finals and you wanted to run a special in support of them. It would not make sense to show it in any location that did not strongly support your local team. Another type of use for this would be if your business had locations in the north and south and you wanted to run a "Winter Special". If you lived in Florida and saw an ad for Winter Clothes it would not make a lot of sense to you and neither would a "Hurricane Special" make any sense in Kansas.

Even if your business does make its product or service available state our country wide it makes more sense to target your ad and and try to tie it into a specific geographic event.

Use Exact Match features and negative keywords

Having a large keyword list is not the only important thing for your online PPC ads. Using the keywords in a way that will produce the maximum result is key. All the major PPC search engines will let you select some type of exact match feature. By not using this handy tool you could be losing important ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if yo

s and discounts for each location and target the things that matter most in your area.

In this scenario you would set up your ads to target specific things that happen in your town. Like if your local sports team made it to the finals and you wanted to run a special in support of them. It would not make sense to show it in any location that did not strongly support your local team. Another type of use for this would be if your business had locations in the north and south and you wanted to run a "Winter Special". If you lived in Florida and saw an ad for Winter Clothes it would not make a lot of sense to you and neither would a "Hurricane Special" make any sense in Kansas.

Even if your business does make its product or service available state our country wide it makes more sense to target your ad and and try to tie it into a specific geographic event.

Use Exact Match features and negative keywords

Having a large keyword list is not the only important thing for your online PPC ads. Using the keywords in a way that will produce the maximum result is key. All the major PPC search engines will let you select some type of exact match feature. By not using this handy tool you could be losing important ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if yo

neither would a "Hurricane Special" make any sense in Kansas.

Even if your business does make its product or service available state our country wide it makes more sense to target your ad and and try to tie it into a specific geographic event.

Use Exact Match features and negative keywords

Having a large keyword list is not the only important thing for your online PPC ads. Using the keywords in a way that will produce the maximum result is key. All the major PPC search engines will let you select some type of exact match feature. By not using this handy tool you could be losing important ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if yo

ant ad budget dollars to wasted clicks on unrelated items. You also need to include negative keywords or words that do not relate to your specific campaign.

A common use for this would be to exclude specific model numbers for common items. If you carried printer cartridges and did not carry a specific brand or model number then you would include them in your negative keywords. So if someone searched for "hp 100 printer cartridge" and "printer cartridge" is one of your key word but you don't carry "hp" then you would include "hp" in your negative keywords to make sure that your ad did not show up.

Now if you were bidding on the term "car parts" then by using the exact match for this term you would eliminate coming up for terms like "toy car parts" or "antique car parts" if those terms don't relate to your product.

By doing these technique you can significantly reduce the amount of irrelevant clicks to your web site. For the best results you would use a combination of both techniques.

Use Specialized Landing pages

Nothing is worse than clicking on an ad and then having to try and figure out where on that webpage or web site the information you want is located. When someone clicks are your ad you do not want to send them to just any page on your web site. Take the time to make a specific web page for each keyword grouping. If you don't have that much time or money then make sure that your landing page is customized with the information your ad is running toward the top of the web page, preferably easily visible without having to scroll.

By making your landing page specific to the ad you will then increase your chance that the visitor will take the action that you want him/her to do. This little extra effort on your part will make a huge difference in whether or not your ad is successful.

Now that you have your ads up and running using these 3 simple techniques you will be able to run your own effective ads and not throw your important ad budget down the drain.