Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Leads

Leads
 
A GUIDE TO SEARCH ADVERTISING TERMINOLOGY
 
In this series of articles titled "leads," we will explore in more detail the different aspects of search engine optimization and search marketing.  These terms are essential into the knowledge of Internet advertising.  This article is reprinted in part from the authority Google.
 
When you advertise on a search engine, you choose keywords that relate to your product or service. Internet users type in your keywords and see your ad on the same page as their search results. Most offer space alongside the search results, or below the editorial portion of the page. These paid placement options are distinguished from paid inclusions.
 
Query A request for information, usually to a search engine or a database. The user types in words or topics, and the search engine returns matching results from its database. A query is at the center of every search engine interaction.
Keyword A specific c word, or combination of words, entered into a search engine that results in a list of pages related to the keyword. A keyword is the content of a search engine query.
 
Text ad An ad designed for text delivery, with concise, action-oriented copy and a link to your website. Because they are not accompanied by graphics, text links are easy to create and improve page download time. Also known as a sponsored link.
Call to action Ad copy that encourages users to take a defined action. Examples range from "Click here" or "Buy
now" to "Enter now to win a free trip to Hawaii" or "Click to download a free white paper."
 
Landing page An active web page where Internet users will "land" when they click your online ad. Your landing page
doesn't need to be your home page. In fact, ROI usually improves if your landing page directly relates to your ad and immediately presents a conversion opportunity — whether that means signing up for a newsletter, downloading a software demo, or buying a product. Also known as a destination URL or clickthrough URL.
 
Paid placement A guaranteed listing that appears next to search results, usually in relation to specified keywords. In response to recent Federal Trade Commission guidelines, many search engines clearly identify paid placements
as "sponsored links" and run them separately from the editorial portion of the page. Paid placement programs are typically based on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand (CPM) pricing, and the cost is higher than paid inclusion ads. Also known as pay-for-placement.
 
Paid inclusion Guaranteed inclusion on a search engine's results in exchange for payment, without any guarantee of how high the listing will appear. A paid inclusion appears to the user as an editorial listing rather than as a sponsored link. Pricing is typically based on a fl at fee or index fee.
 
Search advertising enables you to target your ads to the right customers at exactly the right time: when they are seeking information about your product or service. Advertisers choose which keywords they want their ads associated with, then their ads appear on search results pages or on content pages of sites related to those keywords. Targeting works hand in
hand with relevance to improve the effectiveness of your ad campaign.
 
When you begin to explore the whole category on Google of leads, you begin to realize that education and enlightenment about the core of Internet Marketing should be a priority.  Unless you have the basics of marketing effectively online, you, like 95% of people in the home business industry, are simply rolling the dice to try to make money from a home business.
 
The questions enter here.  Should I buy leads to promote my business?  How much do sales leads cost?  What is the ROI that I can expect from purchasing leads from a leads company?  The entire scope of building successful businesses on Google requires essential elements be in place, before you can expect to gain any type of notoriety or presence for your website.
 
I have purchased leads in the past to attempt to build an online business.  One of my first experiences with buying leads was from a company called Xooma Worldwide.  They are the originators of the excellent ph raising sachet, that when ingested, naturally raises the ph of your body.  The product was, and is excellent.  Dan Putnam, co-founder of Xooma, had a system called the X2O builder.  It was a lead management system.  The whole program was designed to load leads, which you purchased from Dan, into the lead management system, and then call the people, take detailed notes about your call, and hopefully, close sales.  The problem with this was the fact that the cold calls that I made were to people who did not know me, and certainly did not like being pitched on a deal.  This is the results of buying leads that most have.
 
The second instance with my purchasing leads was with Herbalife International.  I joined them some years ago.  Here again, Herbalife is an excellent weight reducing system.  The products are top level and many distributors make money with the business.  I joined a new conceptual plan whereby you purchased wheel slots.  A wheel slot was 100 leads.  The cost of these leads was $350 per.  The leads were supposedly fresh, telephone surveyed leads.  When I would make cold phone calls to these people, I learned that the only thing fresh about the leads was that I used fresh money to put yet another notch in the belt of the leads brokers.
 
I could go on, but you get the overall picture that I have of buying leads to build a Google business.  Leads that you buy are costly, and basically will be non-productive.  In my professional opinion, you would be much better served in spending your money for a real Internet education, than buying leads.
 
The new business concept by Tom Prendergast, well respected online marketer, and the founder of Veretekk, the state of the art search engine optimization training system, is geared towards never buying leads.  In ItsGoodBusiness.net, we simply buy customers.  We have many astute business leaders that are liquidating their stocks, to reinvest that money into this venture as the payout is more substantial.  Personally, I like the idea of never having to put money into a leads broker again.  I find these people are ruthless in their desire and hunger for your money, and I simply choose to not be associated with them ever again.
 
View Tom's insight and perspectives on the MLM industry and the aspect of buying leads:  http://itsgoodbusiness.net
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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