Pay-Per-Click Advertising Profits Without All The Work
The busiest marketer at the smallest online retailer now has access to an inexpensive, automated ad serving and tracking system that can become a real cash machine.
This system automatically "serves" inexpensive "ads" by using a product data feed (or datafeed) to send product information to comparison shopping search engines like PriceGrabber and Froogle. Comparison shopping search engines (CSSE's) list product information from data feeds in their search results. Online shoppers are increasingly using CSSE's to find products online.
The system also automatically tracks conversions from Internet users who click on your CSSE product listings. Since CSSE's (except for Froogle, at the moment) charge per click, you'll want to identify and eliminate unprofitable product listings.
Better Value for Your Time and Money
By contrast, if you want to advertise in Google AdWords or Overture, you have to spend a lot more time and money. You have to choose keywords, create ad titles and descriptions, enter links to your Web site and set up conversion tracking. Also, Google AdWords and Overture generally charge far more per click than do CSSE's.
Let me explain how this automated advertising system works. I’ll start off with some statistics about the growing popularity of CSSE's and an overview of data feeds. Feel free to skip ahead and learn about optimizing your data feed product listings to help your product listings rank high in the CSSE search results.
Comparison Shopping Search Engines are Increasingly Popular...
A DMNews article dated November 24, 2004 stated, “The 13 leading comparison-shopping services tracked by Hitwise, New York, saw traffic rise 22 percent for the week ended Nov. 20 versus the same week a year ago. These sites accounted for 5 percent of all shopping visits last week…”
According to eMarketer, in June 2003 28% of online retailers advertised in CSSE's.
...But You Need A Data Feed
Yahoo! Store owners can have their products appear in the Yahoo! Shopping comparison search engine. Otherwise, without a data feed (or datafeed), your products cannot appear in any CSSE except Froogle.
Nevertheless, I recommend you use a Froogle feed. If you don't, Froogle might not list your products' most up-to-date information, and it might not list your products at all.
A datafeed is a text file containing the retailer’s products, URLs, product image links, categories, prices and descriptions of the products. You need to transfer (feed) this text file to the CSSE's Web server.
You can purchase an integrated data feed and conversion tracking service. Or, the Froogle site has information on how to create a data feed for Froogle, and other CSSE's offer similar information. You’ll need to code your feed so that it dynamically creates proper URL’s for conversion tracking.
Search Engine Optimization for Comparison-Shopping Search Engines
When Internet users type keywords relevant to the products you are listing in a CSSE, you want your products to appear at the top of the search results. A higher position means more clicks and potential buyers visiting your Web site.
As with all search engine optimization, to be listed higher in the search results, you need to include the relevant keywords in your product's name and description. "Relevant" keywords are ones frequently used by Internet searchers.
You can discover relevant keywords using WordTracker or Overture’s keyword suggestion tool. You can also review your own Web logs (or use specific keyword tracking software) to see what keywords lead Internet users to your Web site.
Then, use the relevant keywords in your datafeed's product name and description fields. If you are using a datafeed service provider, you can simply include relevant keywords in your own product description on your Web site.
Conclusion: Small Businesses Can Cash In on CSSE's
Once you identify and remove all the unprofitable product listings from your data feeds, you've got a cash machine. Since CSSE's are growing, your cash machine will as well.
And the best part is, you don't need to be a big business with a multiple-person marketing team to cash in on CSSE's. Try this automated ad serving and tracking system, and you won't have to hire anyone, and you'll spend hardly any time managing the system.
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