The Supreme Court in British Columbia has refused to grant an injunction sought by the province’s Private-Career Training Institutions Agency (PCTIA) to stop Vancouver Career College, CDI College, and Vancouver College of Art and Design  from using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. All 3 schools are owned by Eminata Group, the largest private provider of post-secondary education in Canada.

The injunction was trying to claim that PPC marketing was in some way trying to mislead prospective students, since it ensured that links to the 3 institutions’ websites appeared at the top of search engine results page whenever competitor schools were searched.

Thankfully, the Court didn’t see things this way, saying, “In assessing the likelihood of confusion, the court ought to give the average consumer a certain amount of credit. Consumers are not generally completely devoid of intelligence or of normal powers of recollection, nor are they totally unaware or uninformed as to what goes on around them.” They ultimately compared PPC marketing to a business paying to have its name placed alongside a competitors in the Yellow Pages. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

This was the first time Pay Per Click marketing has been involved in a Canadian court case. Let’s hope it’s the last time!

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Pay Per Click Marketing

The Internet was abuzz last week with a Pay Per Click ad that appeared in a Google search results page:

Whether or not this humorous ad was intentional or not, it does illustrate the importance of ad copy and keywords for any Pay Per Click campaign you undertake.

With that in mind, here are some tips to writing great Pay Per Click ads:

• Keep keywords separate.
Keep your keywords focused and specific. Grouping together multiple keywords can backfire.

• Create keyword-rich ads.
This probably seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people slip up. Make sure your keywords appear multiple times.

• Write a great headline.
The headline is probably the most important part of your ad, so make sure you take the time to craft (and test) a headline that best grabs attention.

• Use capitalization.
There are no hard rules as to how you should capitalize, but playing around and testing different uses may help you find a winning combination.

• Use call-to-actions.
Because space is limited, call-to-actions may not always be possible, but test them anyway. Sometimes just asking people to do something can be very effective.

• Check spelling and grammar.
Nothing can undermine your ad’s credibility like poor spelling and grammar. Take the time and double check the copy.

• Ensure that the ad and landing page correspond.
Make sure that your ad is relevant to your landing page. If someone clicks on an ad, they expect to find it when they click through. Give people what you promise and your conversions will rise. Confuse people and they’re out of there.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Education Marketing Tips, Pay Per Click Marketing

Pay Per Click Marketing is an increasingly effective Web marketing tool, both as a compliment to other marketing tactics and as its own online advertising technique. Higher Education Marketing founder Philippe Taza took some time to discuss the advantages of Pay Per Click Marketing.

Compared to other Web marketing tools and techniques, how important would you say Pay Per Click Marketing is today?

Pay Per Click Marketing is an important tactic to include in your overall Web marketing mix. One of the main benefits of any electronic marketing channel is that it’s measurable. If your school is spending money on newspapers, TV and radio, you don’t have the same ability and flexibility when it comes to measurement. You don’t know just how effective those campaigns are, whereas with Web marketing, and Pay Per Click Marketing in particular, you can know the exact effectiveness of a Google Adwords marketing campaign.

Essentially then, schools should be allocating an equal, if not greater, amount of money to online advertising, and PPC Marketing is a very powerful and ROI efficient option.

What are the advantages to Pay Per Click Marketing? Is it just that it’s measurable?

The fact that it’s completely measurable is one major advantage. Another advantage is speed on the search side. There are two main components to search: organic search, or SEO, and Pay Per Click. If you’re trying to get traffic for a specific keyword, but your website doesn’t rank for it, in a Pay Per Click Campaign you can be ranking for that keyword within an hour.

A major advantage, therefore, is to have visibility for neglected keywords almost immediately.

How does a Pay Per Click Campaign work exactly?

PPC Marketing is auction driven. Advertisers bid on keywords they want to trigger specific ads. Depending on their maximum bid, an ad will be displayed in the sponsored display ad area, which is typically at the top or on the right hand column of the search engine results page. A school, then, can control the keywords, the copy of that ad, and the landing page once a person clicks on your ad. By using a PPC Campaign, a school can therefore control almost every aspect of the advertising message and experience, including the pre-click and post-click environment and experience. You control it all.

What is the process involved in starting a PPC Campaign?

Above all, you have to look at what it is you want to market. PPC Campaigns need to be set up in a structured way, so you would start with keywords that best describe the program, faculty or cluster of programs you’re marketing. You would then align these keywords with the ads and the landing page.

An important thing to keep in mind, however, is the goal of the campaign. What are you trying to achieve? Is it an e-registration, do you want an inquiry from a prospective student? This should be the most important thing to start with. When you set up a campaign or you’re thinking of setting up a campaign, always start be defining the goals for that campaign.

Are there common mistakes to avoid?

The most common mistakes relate to the previous question: the lack of clearly defined goals. Schools need to know what their ultimate goals are for any Web marketing campaign.

Another common mistake to avoid is to have multiple keywords lumped up in one campaign. For example, some schools make the mistake of marketing multiple programs together, with accounting programs, web design programs, culinary arts, etc, all lumped together into one category or campaign. Working this way provides bad results, and generally a poor ROI.

Is Google Adwords needed for PPC Marketing? Can you have PPC Marketing without Google Adwords?

The Google Adwords channel is defined as CPC, or cost per click, and it has the most market share, so if you do not include Google Adwords, you’re actually not taking advantage of the biggest and best tool out there for this Web marketing tactic.

To find out more information about Pay Per Click Marketing and how Higher Education Marketing can help you set up an effective PPC Campaign, contact Higher Education Marketing today.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Pay Per Click Marketing

PPC Marketing Campaign Checklist

When setting up a Pay Per Click Marketing Campaign (an increasingly effective search marketing tool) there are a few things your school should keep in mind. Here is a quick checklist to make sure you’re getting off on the right foot.

1. Define your goals.

We at Higher Education Marketing often feel like a bit of a broken record, but the fact remains, one of the most common Web marketing mistakes is to not clearly define your marketing goals.

What are you trying to achieve with your Pay-Per-Click Marketing campaign? Is it an e-registration or sign-up to a newsletter? Do you want to generate online leads from prospective students and measure the amount of information forms requested? Regardless of what your goals are, they need to be clearly defined before starting a PPC Marketing Campaign. Without them, it severely hampers the planning, execution and results of the campaign.

2. Compile a list of relevant keywords.

Draft a list of the keywords that best describe and sum up the programs, faculties or clusters of programs being marketed. There should be nothing wishy washy or vague here. Find the most descriptive keywords you can come up with.

3. Make sure your keywords and ads are focused and specific.

A common and easily avoidable mistake when setting up a PPC campaign is to lump different keywords in one campaign. Combing ads and keywords for engineering programs, fine arts programs and web design courses, for example, will only hamper your overall results and Return on Investment.

4. Set up Google Adwords.

With a majority of market share, Google Adwords is the biggest and most popular for a reason: it works. Use it.

To sum up:

• As always, clearly define your marketing goals before starting your PPC campaign
• Take the time to compile the most descriptive keywords possible for your programs or faculties
• Do not lump keywords together, focus ads and keywords
• Take advantage of Google Adwords. It’s the biggest and most popular for a reason: it works

PPC Marketing Campaign Checklist

When setting up a Pay Per Click Marketing Campaign (an increasingly effective search marketing tool) there are a few things your school should keep in mind. Here is a quick checklist to make sure you’re getting off on the right foot.

1. Define your goals.

We at Higher Education Marketing often feel like a bit of a broken record, but the fact remains, one of the most common Web marketing mistakes is to not clearly define your marketing goals.

What are you trying to achieve with your Pay-Per-Click Marketing campaign? Is it an e-registration or sign-up to a newsletter? Do you want to generate online leads from prospective students and measure the amount of information forms requested? Regardless of what your goals are, they need to be clearly defined before starting a PPC Marketing Campaign. Without them, it severely hampers the planning, execution and results of the campaign.

2. Compile a list of relevant keywords.

Draft a list of the keywords that best describe and sum up the programs, faculties or clusters of programs being marketed. There should be nothing wishy washy or vague here. Find the most descriptive keywords you can come up with.

3. Make sure your keywords and ads are focused and specific.

A common and easily avoidable mistake when setting up a PPC campaign is to lump different keywords in one campaign. Combing ads and keywords for engineering programs, fine arts programs and web design courses, for example, will only hamper your overall results and Return on Investment.

4. Set up Google Adwords.

With a majority of market share, Google Adwords is the biggest and most popular for a reason: it works. Use it.

To sum up:

• As always, clearly define your marketing goals before starting your PPC campaign
• Take the time to compile the most descriptive keywords possible for your programs or faculties
• Do not lump keywords together, focus ads and keywords
• Take advantage of Google Adwords. It’s the biggest and most popular for a reason: it works

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Pay Per Click Marketing