Vertically Adjusting Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

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As the pay-per-click (PPC ) advertising landscape becomes increasingly multifaceted, it's important for affiliate marketers to capitalize on emerging trends. Among the trends already starting to impact how affiliate marketers run online ad campaigns is vertical pay per click. An increasing number of PPC engines have divided their networks by "vertical" or business category. This development enables advertisers to tap in to more targeted traffic focused on their particular sector.

When developing a vertical advertising strategy, there are a few tips to bear in mind. Simply picking up a campaign from a network with a "broad" focus and moving it to a vertical network won't yield the best results, as different networks have unique traffic patterns, bid landscapes and searcher behaviors. Here are three tips for vertical PPC success:

• Adjust Bidding Strategies: Generally, broad ad networks have higher-volume, lower-cost traffic, while vertical networks have lower-volume, higher-value traffic. Keep this in mind when developing your bidding strategy, as you may have to increase PPC budgets to secure these higher-value vertical leads.
• Revise Ad Copy and Landing Pages : Ad copy and landing pages should be optimized based on the vertical network's traffic trends and top-performing keywords. For example, many vertical networks receive the highest volumes of traffic (with the best conversion rates) on a very finite number of search terms. Including these terms in your keyword portfolio, ad copy and on relevant landing pages will help to increase conversions.
• Leverage Vertical Expertise: Take advantage of vertical networks' industry-specific expertise. C lose working relationships can give affiliate marketers access to a wealth of valuable information on the traffic trends, bid landscapes, top-converting keywords, etc. Vertical networks can also provide affiliates with industry-specific insights they otherwise might not have had exposure to, such as policies or business regulations established by the industry or parent company.

Overall, using a vertical strategy can provide better targeting and increased control over ad distribution. This can help increase conversions from PPC campaigns and ultimately boost online adverting ROI.

Tiffany Guarnaccia is marketing and communications manager at MIVA Media.

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