It’s pretty easy to see the updates on the LinkedIn’s new iPhone app. You might even get confused at first and think you’ve opened your Facebook app. The two have a very similar layout.

I don’t want to hold it against LinkedIn for designing a new app like Facebook’s current app. The Facebook app is  popular and very efficient. So why not design one that is similar to it? It makes it easier for users to understand the update which is a far cry from the bar navigation at the bottom.

Out With the Old

One of my favorite new features is In Person. The feature uses your Bluetooth connection to exchange contact information with another LinkedIn user. Sadly this feature is also taken from another iPhone app: Bump. Another nice change is making profiles a separate category. From there you can add profiles to your favorites for easy reference later.

In With the New

Pay-per-click is the most effective way to direct traffic to a particular website. BOALT has created many successful pay-per-click campaigns for our clients and from our many years working in pay-per-click we’ve learned a few things about creating a successful campaign. I’m going to share the five most important:

1. Keyword Analysis: Make a comprehensive list of keywords and phrases that best represent your product or service. This list will grow and change daily. Constantly monitor the success and failure of a particular keyword. Ad words to describe your product or service but know the keywords your customer will use to find what you’re offering.
2. Curb the Creativity: A lot of people might disagree but given the space restrictions for pay-per-click ads it is best to tailor your copywriting to more specifics and less abstract creative copy. Tell your customer what you are selling and for how much. Don’t try to wow them with creativity.
3. Place Ads Everywhere: Google provides the most successful platform for pay-per-click advertising with Google AdWords but don’t forget about Bing and Yahoo and especially LinkedIn. All target a specific taste and market. You would be doing a disservice to yourself if you focused only on one platform.
4. Negative Keywords: A comprehensive list of keywords are essential to success. But don’t forget to create a negative keyword list. That is a list of keywords or phrases that your ads won’t appear when searched. For example, if you aren’t giving away anything for free then ad free to your negative keyword list This will ensure that people looking for free things don’t click on your ad. Because when they do you won’t convert them to a sale because they’re not looking to buy. Get several hundred people looking for free stuff on your site and you’ve just wasted a large percent of your ad budget on visitors who never intended to buy anything.
5. Examine Your Stats: Each of the pay-per-click platforms from Google to Yahoo provide a plethora of statistical information about your ads. Obviously look at your clicks and conversions but don’t stop there. Look at everything and do it everyday, throughout the day. Pay-per-click campaigns must always be changing and adapting to be successful. You can’t just post some ads and forget about them. You have to stay on top of them to be successful.

Your success with pay-per-click is directly related to the amount of work you put into it. Follow these steps and put a particular focus on number five.