If you are trying to drive targeted traffic to your landing pages, do you think it’s better to do that from one source or multiple sources? If you answered multiple then you get an A in this class.

Pay per click advertising is a challenging proposition and the more limitations you place on yourself the more challenging the game. That’s why we always recommend using more than just one PPC provider. You may start your advertising at one provider and branch out from there. Test your landing pages and your ad content at that one provider. The great thing about pay per click ads is that you don’t get penalized for duplicate content. You can use the same ad multiple times as long as you aren’t duplicating the same ad run at the same time at the same provider (that goes without saying, doesn’t it?).

Landing pages are a different matter. You don’t want the same landing page content unless you are driving traffic to the exact same landing page (which is encouraged, although you might want separate landing pages for tracking and measurement purposes).

When it comes to driving targeted traffic, the more avenues of approach you give your clientele the more likely you are to get the sale.

One of the most important aspects of pay per click management is conversion tracking. But that entails more than just counting numbers of sales. If you truly want to know how your campaigns are working out and whether or not they are deliver ROI, you’ve got to measure more than how many widgets you’ve sold.

Whether you are measuring conversions through Google Analytics, MSN adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing, or a third party solution, you want to include some other statistics in your tracking results. Here are a few things to look at to see how well your advertising campaigns are working:

• Where your traffic is coming from (important to know your most effective conversion sources)
• Navigation patterns of your visitors (do they land on your sales page first or come to it from other pages on your site?)
• Demographic target
• Keywords that helped your visitors find your content
• CTR and conversion percentage

You may have special conversion information you want to track. For instance, does landing page A work better for demographic B or is landing page C a better fit for that market? Specialized reports can help you track the information that you need to track and get to the bottom of your advertising results much more quickly.

Branding is one of the most important concepts in business. Online, it takes an entirely different flavor as companies scramble to ensure that their names and brands aren’t massacred by unscrupulous competitors. One pay per click advertising controversy is the practice of bidding on competitor brands and redirecting traffic to one’s own website. So far, courts in the U.S. have not ruled this practice out as illegal. Many advertisers consider it immoral or unethical, but many more take just the opposite view. Until the law decides that the practice will not be tolerated, advertisers can use pay per click to destroy or pollute the brand of their competition. But can you save your brand’s reputation with PPC?

Yes, I believe so. It isn’t easy, but it can be done. You have to be willing to spend the money.

One of the most important ways to protect your brand using pay per click is to bid on your brand name. Find out if you have competitors already doing so. If not then you should bid on your brand name now while your click prices are lower. Another thing you should do is in your advertising copy use the copyright symbol in associations with your brand. If you own a trademark, try using the TM symbol, though I don’t think it’s proven that PPC providers will accept it. It’s worth a try, though.

Also, on your landing pages, make sure mentions of your brand name is accompanied by the appropriate TM or copyright symbol. Make sure you go through great pains to protect the ownership of your brand both in your ad copy and on your landing pages. If necessary, consult an attorney that specializes in intellectual property rights and be vigilant in protecting what you own.

You are testing, right?

You should constantly be testing your landing pages and your ad content. You should test them separately and against each other. And, to answer the question in the title, you should never stop testing.

Testing is the advertiser’s paradise. This is where you figure out where to make your money. Without testing you can’t measure what is working and what is not. You also can’t make important decisions about the effectiveness of your advertising. Testing is the one absolutely essential ingredient to every advertising campaign. You can’t do without it without damaging your entire campaign. Just be sure to proceed in your testing smartly.

Pay per click advertising budgets are on the decline and people are blaming the elusive economy. It’s understandable. In uncertain economic times people are more watchful of their money. As it should be. But don’t stop advertising altogether. Now, more than ever, you need to get the word out about how you are different than your competition. How should you spend your advertising dollars in a downward falling economy?

Here are a few tips to help you make the most your money in today’s advertising climate:

• Set a budget. Make sure you know where your money is going and be able to account for every dollar.
• Track and measure everything. Only online can you track every eyeball. Print advertising can’t do that. But you have the ability to see how many people are viewing your ads and responding. Take advantage of that knowledge.
• Maintain tight ad groups. Target, target, target. Make sure you are advertising to the right crowd.
• Quality, quality, quality. Write quality landing page content, quality ad content, and test, test, test.
• Test everything. Keep what works, toss what doesn’t.

Online advertising doesn’t have to be expensive. Take advantage of every opportunity to save a dollar and make a dollar. Test, implement, test again.