PPC (Pay Per Click) paid for success

""A PPC pioneer, American Meadows (www.americanmeadows.com) started its first PPC campaign with Goto.com in 1999, when there were perhaps 5 or 6 competitors online. Now a large PPC buyer on both Google and yahoo!, owner Ray Allen found PPC a revolutionary idea giving a business of any size a reach that was otherwise unattainable. 

"From very first click, I was an avid user" he says. Allen takes full advantages of conversion tracking and relishes the ability to change copy easily in real time. Allen stresses the importance of fresh copy, rather than stay with the same ads. "Look at your competitors' ads... Then write something that competes with what they're offering. This is a great way to pay for only the number 2 or 3 position, and have number 1 traffic."

He prefers Google for its "exceptional" customer service staff and ease of use. Running the campaigns himself with up to 5000 keywords, Allen finds that Google takes less times to manage. American Meadows has dropped its catalog and other print advertising altogether, finding the return on PPC to be far greater.  With the catalog now online only, Allen supplements PPC with banner ads on other gardening Web sites. As the company grows, so, too, has its PPC spending, roughly doubling every two years.

"We have new product introductory sales, promotions, even one week sales... This takes work to do all the ads, prepare the site, and then when the sale is over, change all the ads again. But believe me, it works, and almost none of your competitors are doing to it.""