One of the easiest and fastest ways to start generating traffic to your website is by using Pay Per Click advertising.  You can have a campaign set up and sending traffic to your site in a matter of minutes.  Sounds perfect, right?  It can be if done correctly, but it can cost you dearly if you set up your keywords incorrectly.  I am going to show you the biggest pay per click trap  how to avoid it.

If you don’t know what pay per click (PPC) advertising is, it is exactly as it sounds.  You pay by the click.  Google, or more formerly known as Google Adwords, is the biggest venue running PPC ads.  You create a small 3 line ad.  The ad shows up when one of the keywords you assigned to the ad is searched in Google.  When someone clicks on your ad they are linked over to your web site.  Google then charges you for that click. 

Pay per click can get very expensive if you don’t know what you are doing.  For example, if you set up a pay per click campaign for your guide on GAS EFFICIENCY AND YOUR CAR, and you use the keyword GAS for your campaign you could be in for a shocker. 

If you use the word gas, you will get people looking for a lot of different things, and most of them won’t looking for your product.  People searching for gas may be looking for a place to buy propane gas.  They may be looking for ways to save gas heating their home.  They could be looking for gas prices. They could be looking for information on how to treat a gassy stomach.

None of those searchers are looking for anything close to what you want to sell.  Those clicks will result in charges to you without generating any sales.  You will end up spending hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars on clicks, and not sell any product.

Using a word like gas, is too broad of a search term.  If you are trying to sell a guide on how you can save gas driving your car, you want leads that are specifically looking to save gas for their car. Instead of gas, which is way too generalized, you want to use a more targeted keyword.  You want to use what are called long tail keywords.

SAVE GAS CAR is a good example of a long tail keyword that is specific to your niche. You can be sure that anyone one who searches on SAVE GAS CAR is looking for information on how to save gas for their car.

If you are using pay per click to drive traffic, you need to be sure that everyone who clicks on your ad is specifically looking for what you are selling. Make sure you use long tail keywords that are specifically targeted to make every click count. Don’t fall into the trap created by using broad  keywords that don’t define your niche.  Avoiding this PPC hazard will save you a lot of money.