The Awesome Power of Google Ad Words

and Pay-Per-Click Advertising

 

By Ben Hart

An approximate transcript of a seminar I conducted in Washington, D.C. for marketing professionals.

(Soon also to be a book)

Pay-per-click advertising is the primary way I drive targeted traffic to my websites.

 

The 800-pound gorilla in this space is Google AdWords.

 

But first, what are pay-per-click ads?

 

Well, if you type keywords describing what you are looking for into Google, Google gives you a list of sites that best match your keywords.

 

Google gives you two categories of listings.

 

One is the organic  search results of sites that run down the center of your screen. “Organic” means free to the websites listed in the search results.

 

The other category is the pay-per-click ads that run down the right side of your screen, plus also a few ads along the top of your screen.

 

It’s the pay-per-click (PPC) ads that we are focusing on here.

 

Why is pay-per-click advertising so interesting to me and potentially lucrative for you if you do it right?

 

Well, I’ll show you with one example.

 

If you type “guinea pig” into Google, a big list of sites on guinea pigs will comes up in the “organic” search results list.  If you look at the top of the page on the Google list, Google tells us it’s found 3,130,000 sites and pages on the Web on the subject of guinea pigs.

 

But if you look at the pay-per-click ad section on the right of the screen, there’s only one PPC ad on the subject of guinea pigs.  It’s an ad for things guinea pigs need -- such as food, a cage, toys and the like.

 

So there are more than 3.1 million sites about guinea pigs that come up in the free or organic search results, but on one pay-per-click ad.

 

The fact that there is only one PPC ad for “guinea pig” on Google means you can be at the top of the first page on Google for 5 cents a click.

 

We also know that guinea pig owners love their guinea pigs. 

 

Yahoo’s Keyword Selector Tool shows there are more than 46,000 searches for “guinea pig” every month on Yahoo and on search engines powered by Yahoo.  Triple that number for Google and engines powered by Google.

 

So if you are selling products related to guinea pigs, you could have a little gold mine here.

 

If you are guinea pig lover, this would be a wonderful little online business for you.

 

I’ll explain why and how in a moment.

 

The big point I want you to see now with this example is that you can either be competing to be noticed on the organic search results list with more than 3,000,000 sites about guinea pigs, or you could be at the top of the first page of a Google search for “guinea pig” and have just one other  competitor in the pay-per-click ad arena.

 

I don’t know about you. But I like my chances of success if  I have just one competitor instead of 3.1 million competitors.

 

So that’s one of the big benefits of pay-per-click advertising.

 

Even for a high-traffic keyword such as, for example, “marketing plan,” I count just 63 pay-per-click ads on Google.

 

That’s compared to 226,000,000 listings for “marketing plan” in the organic search results. 

 

226,000,000 pages or sites on organic search vs. 66 pay-per-click ads. 

 

Which arena do you want to compete in?

 

That’s why I’m such a big believer in PPC advertising – especially Google AdWords.

 

If you are looking for a lot of targeted traffic fast, Google Adwords is vastly superior to the #2 pay-per-click ad program, which is Yahoo Search Marketing, formerly Overture.

 

Overture actually pioneered pay-per-click advertising.  Overture was then bought by Yahoo.  Once Google saw the brilliance of  pay-per-click advertising as a money-making model, Google quickly moved into the pay-per-click arena and now dominates it.

 

Pay-per-click advertising is a big reason why Google now has a market cap of $143 BILLION as of this writing.

 

Google dominates the pay-per-click arena because it is by far the largest search engine.  About three times more searches are done on Google than on Yahoo.

 

About 90 percent of all searches are done on Google and Yahoo or on search engines that are powered by Google or Yahoo.

 

Because Google AdWords is the biggest and the best pay-per-click ad program, I am going to focus here almost entirely on Google.

 

But the principles and strategies I will explain here apply to all pay-per-click advertising programs.  All the search engines now have pay-per-click ad programs.

 

So do the online Yellow Page, Super Pages and many other online directories.

 

Let me explain why pay-per-click advertising is so powerful and so cost-effective if you know how to use it correctly.

 

Now, I built my reputation over the last 20 years in old-school direct mail marketing.

 

In fact, over the years, my sales and marketing letters (the old fashioned printed kind) have generated well over $500,000,000 in sales and donations for all kinds of businesses and non-profit organizations.

 

But a few years ago, I started my intense studying of online marketing.

 

I made this commitment because I saw the direction the world was heading.  And I knew I would quickly become a dinosaur if I did not understand how to market and sell on the Internet.

 

I read every book out there on the subject of Internet marketing.  I knew I just had to make that investment in my Internet marketing education if I was going to survive and prosper in the 21^st Century.

 

About two years ago, I started playing with Google’s pay-per-click ad program. I chose that advertising vehicle because it seemed the closest in concept to direct mail marketing.  That is, you spend a relatively little amount of money to test an idea and wait for the results to come back.  You then modify your idea based on the results.

 

If an idea fails completely, you try something else.  If it works okay, but not great, you make adjustments and try it again.

 

With old fashioned printed direct mail, this trial-and-error process of testing an idea and waiting for results can take months.  What’s great about pay-per-click advertising on the Internet is you can test an idea and get results back in minutes instead of weeks or months.  The feedback is instant.

 

With pay-per-click, I can test different headlines, different offers and different products, and within hours (instead of weeks or months) know if I have a winning product or winning idea.

 

And I can collect this market research for about $50 instead of the thousands of dollars I would need to spend on a test using printed postal direct mail.

 

Why is this trial-and-error process of testing so critically important?

 

Because your test results are your market research.

 

I would never go to the expense and effort of creating a product before I knew for certain the product will sell.  The way you find out if a product will sell is to conduct tests – a direct mail test . . . or a test on Google AdWords.

 

The absolute cheapest, fastest way to test an idea is to invest $50 in a pay-per-click ad campaign on Google AdWords and see if people will buy the product before you invest a lot of time and expense developing your product.

 

But if the product is not ready yet, how can you sell it?  How can you sell something you cannot yet deliver?

 

Good question . . . because it’s against the law to advertise and accept payment for something that you have no intention of delivering.  The law considers this fraud.

 

There are two ethical ways you can get around this.

 

You can design your order page so that when someone hits the order button, a page comes into view telling your buyer that this is a market research test and the product is not yet ready. You then explain when the product will be ready and give your prospective buyer two options:

 

1) They can give you their email address so you can alert them when the product is ready.

 

2) Or they can buy the product now for half price.

 

The way you track orders that would have been made is that you have tracking code on this page that pops up after your buyer hits the order button that tells you how many made it to this page.  Anyone who makes it to this page is counted as an order.

 

I’ll explain a little more how to do add tracking code to your key “conversion” pages later.

 

But this procedure I’ve just outlined for you basically takes care of your market research.

 

Most businesses start by “putting the cart before the horse.”

 

They develop a product and then try to sell it.

 

What they should do first is market research, just like what I describe here.

 

Find out first if people want the product or service you are thinking of offering.

 

If the answer you get back from your test is yes, then move forward with the rapid development of your product or service.

 

That’s how you guarantee your success in business.  Do your testing and market research first, before you develop your product.  Then develop your product or service based on what your market research tells you people want.

 

If you do it in that order, there really is no way to fail.

 

Businesses fail because they invest a lot of money developing a product that it turns out people don’t want.  There’s just no excuse to make that catastrophic mistake.

 

Launching a pay-per-click ad campaign on Google is the cheapest, quickest form of true market research you can do.

 

And by the way, this is extremely critical.

 

Market research does not mean polling people and asking them what they would buy or if they would buy the product you are describing.

 

That’s what many market research firms do.

 

Sure, a survey can give you some valuable information and some nice insights.  Surveys are fine to do.  I conduct surveys of my prospects and customers all the time.

 

But there is no better market research than trying actually to sell the product -- even though you have not developed it by following the procedure that I just outlined for you.

 

If you describe the product in a survey and then ask someone if they would be interested in buying a product like that, many will say “yes” just to be nice or to get you off  the phone.

 

But there’s a huge difference between saying “Yes, I would be interested” and actually hitting the order button and pulling out your credit card.

 

That’s where the rubber hits the road – when people hit that order button and pull out there credit card.

 

But in this market research test I just described, once they hit the order button and before they actually can give you any credit card information, they are greeted with the explanation page saying this is a market test.

 

Don’t let them actually give you their credit card information.

 

The point is, you can conduct not just one market research test, but several market research tests for about $50 using Google AdWords.

 

A simple market test like this can save you tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollar by stopping you from developing products no one wants.

 

After all, the foundation of building a successful business is making sure you are offering products that people will buy.  The easier your products and services are to sell, the more successful your business will be.

 

It’s really no more complicated than that.

 

So, at a bare minimum, you should be using Google AdWords to conduct super-cheap, super-accurate market research that will stop you from making big, costly product launch and marketing mistakes.

 

So start using Google AdWords this way – as the world’s best, most accurate and cheapest market research tool.

 

This is also the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to get an education in direct marketing. 

 

As you launch your little pay-per-click ad campaigns and track the results, you will begin to develop a sixth sense about what people want to buy, what offers work best, and how to write headlines and copy that sells.

 

You will learn through trial and error how to write killer direct marketing copy – a skill that will carry you through the rest of your business life.

 

There is no more valuable skill in business than knowing how to write winning sales letter copy and ads – because your sales letter and your ads are your proxy sales force that can go out there across the Internet and can talk to thousands or even millions of people without you every having to leave your office, your sofa or your beach chair.

 

Gaining this skill and then combining this skill with pay-per-click advertising is really the crown jewel of the “Automatic Marketing” system that I teach in the Inner Circle program.

 

So a big part of what’s great about pay-per-click advertising is that you can get started with very little money and almost zero risk.  That’s what I did.

 

Then once I figured out how to use Google AdWords effectively through trial-and-error and once I found a product and theme that worked (again through trial-and-error), I then just gradually ramped up every month. 

 

Like a rolling snowball my Google AdWords bill grew as my online business grew – and as I staked out new keywords and keyword phrases to dominate.

 

The lynchpin of pay-per-click advertising is keyword research and selection. More than 80% of all transactions online begin with a keyword search.

 

You have heard me say that “content is king” on the Internet.

 

If your content is great, you will be successful on the Internet.

 

But if “content is king,” than your keyword selection strategy is queen.

 

That’s because when people search for what they want on the Internet, they type in keywords and phrases that best describe what they are looking for.

 

Keywords represent categories and markets.  They describe the needs and wants of billions of people conducting searches on search engines.

 

Your job as a marketer is to anticipate what keywords and phrases your target market is typing into search engines in order to find what you are selling.

 

If you do this correctly – that is if you selected the right keywords and phrases  that your future buyers are typing into search engines – you can then literally put yourself in the path of a charging stampede of people who are desperate to buy what you are selling.

 

Doesn’t that sound pretty good?

 

Kind of eliminates the need for salesmanship, doesn’t it?

 

So your success in the pay-per-click arena starts with your skill at selecting the right keywords and phrases that match what your target market is typing into search engines.

 

In a way, it’s a lot like you are a contestant on “Family Feud.”

 

Do you remember that game show?  Maybe it’s still on I don’t know.

 

What’s the object of that game show?

 

It’s to guess what others are thinking.  It’s to guess the answers to poll questions that people are asked.

 

That in a nutshell is how you select keywords that are tied to ads on Google for your product or service.

 

The good news is, you really don’t have to guess what your keywords and phrases should be. 

 

Wonderful tools have been developed (many of them free) that will help you zero in on exactly what keywords and phrases you should pick for your Google PPC ads.

 

More about these tools in a minute.

 

As I mentioned, my 20 year reputation was built in direct mail marketing.

 

I’ve only been doing Internet marketing in any serious way for about two years.

 

But the more I get into Internet marketing, the more I find that the skills I learned in old-fashioned direct mail, snail mail marketing, are transferable to online marketing.

 

I’m pretty relieved about that.

 

Really the basic principles are almost exactly the same.

 

For example, for your direct mail campaign to work, you need to be mailing your letters to the right people -- the right target audience.

 

80% of direct marketing is all about who you are marketing to.  Are you selling to the right people?

 

Remember, a great direct mail letter to the wrong list will fail.  Whereas a poorly written  letter to the right list can be successful. 

 

It’s all about the list in direct mail marketing.

 

Same with the Internet.

 

For your internet marketing campaign to work, you must bring the right people to your website and landing pages.

 

Your website is the equivalent of your sales letter in direct mail marketing.

 

Your little text ad on Google is like the envelope for your postal direct mail campaign.

 

Job #1 in direct mail is to get people to open your envelope to see what’s inside.

 

Job #1 of your Google PPC ad is to get people to click on your ad to see what’s on your website.

 

Now . . . just getting a lot of clicks on your Google ad and getting at lot of traffic for your website won’t do you much good.  In fact, that would be a good way to go broke fast.

 

The analogy in direct mail is that you don’t want to mail your direct mail letter to everyone in the phone book.

 

You want to mail to people with a proven track-record of  buying products or services very similar to what you are selling.

 

Same idea on the Internet.

 

If you are selling exercise equipment, you want to bring buyers of exercise equipment and fitness buffs to your website.

 

The biggest difference between Internet marketing and direct mail marketing is that direct mail marketing is more like hunting and internet marketing is more like fishing.  With direct mail, you know where your likely buyers are. They are on lists that you rent and they reside at physical addresses.

 

You then mail packages into people’s homes or offices and you bring customers in the door that way.  You can almost drag customers in the door with direct mail and telemarketing.

 

Internet marketing is more passive.  What you need to do here is put bait on your hook and let the customers find you.

 

Let your customers swim to you.  And the way they find you is by typing keywords and phrases into search engines.

 

The keywords and phrases are short descriptions of what the searcher is interested in. So if the searcher wants golf clubs, she might type “golf clubs” into the search engine.

 

More likely, she will type a a particular model or type of golf club in the search engine – say “Callaway driver” or “Ping putter.”

 

That’s how a searcher will do her shopping.  Search results will then come up on the screen of exactly what the shopper is looking for. Search results will include both articles on the subject and websites that sell the item.  She can then begin her study of the subject.

 

A big reason I love pay-per-click advertising is that I don’t pay for anything vague -- such as impressions.  I only pay when people actually click on my ad.  The reason this is good is because I only pay when someone actually expresses interest in what I’m selling.

 

And my ad only appears in the search results list when someone types in the keywords and phrases I’ve decided to connect with my ad.

 

You can actually pay by impression on Google, but don’t do that.  You want to pay only by click because a click represents an actual visitor to your site.  A click represents active interest by that person in what you are saying or what you are offering.

 

Just having your ad seen is meaningless.  Hundreds of millions of people see a Super Bowl ad.  Unless you are Coca Cola building a brand, that’s not the way you want to go – not if you need to make every marketing dollar count.

 

In the PPC arena, only pay for clicks, not impressions.  Pay for people who are specifically looking for what you are selling and who then make an active and conscious decision to click on your ad and visit your site.

 

The other dynamic I love about this kind of marketing is that it’s not what I call “Interruption” marketing. 

 

I did not coin that term.  I learned it from marketing guru Seth Godin.

 

Just about all other forms of advertising are Interruption advertising.

 

When you are watching your TV show and an ad comes on, you are being interrupted by the ad.  The reason you are sitting there watching the TV is because you want to watch the program.

 

But then an unwanted ad pops up that interrupts what you want to be doing.

 

Same with radio advertising.

 

One reason people are now more willing to pay for radio (i.e. Sirius) is that they are willing to actually pay money not to be interrupted by ads.  Same principle with HBO and the movie channels.

 

People are willing to subscribe to those services in order not to have their movie interrupted by an ad.

 

Pop-up ads on the internet are more examples of the kind of interruption advertising that people hate.  But search engine marketing is different.

 

With search engine marketing (whether it’s PPC or organic), the only way people find you is if they are looking for you, or if they are looking for what you have to offer.

 

That’s why I like it so much.  I’m not interrupting anyone.  My ads only appear to those who are actively looking for what I am offering.

 

In this respect, it’s a lot like the old-fashioned “Yellow Pages.”  You go to the Yellow Pages when you are looking for something specific.  Search Engines on the Internet are like the Yellow Pages on mega-steroids.

 

I now generate about 70% of my targeted traffic and online business with pay-per-click advertising.  And I generate about 70% of that with Google AdWords.

 

Okay, so let’s get into the nitty-gritty now of how to make Google AdWords work for you – not just as a market research tool, as I described earlier, but as an extraordinarily powerful lead collection and selling tool.

 

Here are the four basic elements you need to start your pay-per-click ad campaign on Google:

 

1) You need an ad.  Google will walk you through the steps on how to create that.   Go here to set-up your account: http://adwords.google.com

 

2) You need a landing page.  A landing page is the fist page on your site your visitor sees.  This is where you take those who click on your Google ad.   A landing page can either be designed to capture leads with a sign up form, or it can be a sales letter designed to go straight for the sale. Or it can be a hybrid landing page trying to do both.

 

3) You will almost certainly need to offer your visitors something free on your landing page in exchange for their name and email address – which they give you be filling out the sign-up form on your landing page.

 

4) You will need to select keywords and phrases for your ad . . . so that when people looking for what you are selling type in these keywords, your ad comes up in the Google list for the search.

 

What you do is bid on the keywords and phrases you have selected to connect with your ad.  You set the maximum bid you are willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad.

 

As a general rule, the higher your bid, the higher your ad will appear in the search results that come up.

 

It’s actually more complicated than that.  If your ad is getting lots of clicks, your ad can appear higher than another ad that is bidding more for the same keywords.

 

Or you could be bidding more than anyone else on keywords you’ve selected.  But if no one clicks on your ads, you’re ad will end up at the bottom of the rankings – perhaps even deactivated by Google.  That’s called getting “Google slapped.”

 

Whatever ads are making the most money for Google are the ads that appear highest in the listings.

 

It’s actually even a little more complicated that that because Google wants to make sure it’s delivering content the searcher is looking for.  So Google also does an analysis of your site.  If your site stinks or does not appear to be a good fit for the keywords you’ve selected, Google will also drop your ad’s ranking or deactivate your ad.

 

More on this key point later.  Let’s not focus on that yet.

 

I’m not going to do a step-by-step presentation on the mechanics of how to use Google Adwords.

 

That would be incredibly boring -- and not all that useful to you.

 

Google does a fine job of walking you through the mechanics with visual prompts that are easy to follow.  Google does a good job of describing to you all of Google’s capabilities.  You need to study and learn them on the Google AdWords site. Again, here’s where you go to get started: http://adwords.google.com

 

I’m going to focus here on your marketing strategy.

 

My focus here is how to use Google AdWords to bring the right traffic to your website so that you make money – I hope a lot of money.  Because  that’s not something Google will explain.

 

In fact, what Google (in many instances) will do is tell you to do almost the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

 

The reason Google will do that is not because Google is stupid.  Quite the opposite. Google is brilliant – perhaps the most brilliant company on the planet.

 

But the way Google makes money is when someone clicks on your ad.  What Google wants is for you to buy lots of clicks – the more expensive the clicks the better for Google -- because each click means more money for Google.

 

If you follow Google’s advice, what will happen is that you can quickly max out your credit cards and you’ll likely have very little to show for all the money you’ve spent.

 

When you set up your ad campaign in Google, your first step should be to turn off or disable many of Google’s default settings.

 

You don’t want Google to decide how your money is spent.  Nor do you want Google to make your marketing decisions.

 

You want to be in complete control of your money and marketing strategy yourself.

 

What Google wants you to do is to buy a lot of clicks and a lot of expensive clicks.

 

You don’t want that.  You want to buy only highly targeted clicks.

 

Every click costs you money.

 

You want to weed out all potential clickers who really have no interest in what you are offering.  You don’t want the tire kickers, as they say in the car selling business.

 

You want the clicker who’s serious about buying what you are offering.

 

So how do you weed out the tire kickers – all those empty clicks that are just costing you money?

 

Well, Step #1 is to turn off most of Google’s default settings – which are all aimed at generating the highest number of clicks on your ads.

 

To show you how expensive Google’s default setting can be, a client of mine, Bill, decided to launch a Google AdWords campaign on his own after hearing about how great this tool is from me.

 

Bill set up his campaign and then left on vacation.  He did this without consulting me.  Bill took the “set-it-and-forget-it” approach to Google.

 

Wrong approach.

 

He bid too much per click and selected keywords that are too broad.  He wanted to ramp up fast and be on Page One of Google’ search results list for the keywords he selected.

 

He also left all Google’s default settings in place.

 

When he came back to the office five days later, he had more than $10,000 in Google charges on his American Express card.

 

And he had nothing to show for all this money he spent, because he did not set up his PPC marketing system correctly.

 

One big mistake he made was to funnel his clickers to the home page of his general website.

 

Another mistake was not to have a sign-up form on his home page that visitors could fill out to get on his email list.  Nor did he have a valuable free offer as incentive for people to fill out his sign-up form.

 

This is not the right way to conduct a Google AdWords campaign.

 

But sadly, this is how most people do it – especially beginners.  And then they are quickly blown out of the game by their first credit card statement.

 

Yikes, there goes the house.  There goes my car.

 

So don’t start that way.  Start the smart safe way.

 

Start by turning off and disabling Google’s default settings.

 

Google has three levels of search – that is, three basic levels where your ads can run.

 

The first level is for your ads to run on Google and Google alone.

 

The second level for your ads is the Google Search Network.

 

Remember, Google powers other search engines, including AOL, Netscape, Ask, Hot Bot, Earthlink and others.  So your ads can run on these search engines as well.

 

The third category is Google’s Content Network which runs what are called Google AdSense ads.

 

These ads run on websites that are enrolled in Google’s AdSense  program. 

 

As you go through the Internet, you run into these little AdSense text ads all over the place – on news sites, on blogs, on ezines, etc.

 

Owners of these sites are paid a commission by Google whenever someone clicks on an AdWords ad that’s running on their site.  In other words, the owners of these sites are being paid to generate traffic and clicks for Google AdWords customers.

 

Your least targeted traffic comes from Google’s Content Network.

 

The Content Network is enormous.   You will even find AdSense ads embedded in emails from Gmail users (Gmail stands for Google Mail).

 

AdSense ads are everywhere on the Internet – including on some huge sites such as The New York Times, About.com and Wikipedia.com.

 

Most of the big news and information sites are enrolled in Google’s AdSense program so they can get paid everytime someone clicks an AdWords ad that’s running on their site.  This is a big part of how news sites, information sites and portals make money.

 

So you will see a lot of traffic coming in from the Content Network if you have not opted-out of the Content Network.

 

This can be good and it can be bad.  It depends on what you are selling.

 

But if you are just starting, turn off the Content Network in your “Edit Campaign Settings” section.

 

Remember,  Google has that turned on as the default setting.  That’s how you get the huge bill on your American Express Card.  Turn that off before you launch your first ad.

 

There, I might have just saved some of you $10,000 with that piece of advice alone.

 

Also turn off the Search Network setting. 

 

You just want you ads to run on Google for now.

 

That’s plenty big enough.  Once your ad campaign is working well and making money, then you can turn that setting on so your ads also run on AOL, Ask, Hot Bot, Netscape, Earthlink and the many other search engines powered by Google.

 

But turn that off for now until you know you have a winning ad campaign.

 

Google also gives you a choice of how to match keyword search terms.

 

I’ll just give you Google’s description of your three choices.  Your options are:

 

Broad Match - This is the default option. If your ad group contained the keyword tennis shoes, your ad would be eligible to appear when a user's search query contained tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations. For example, you ad might show on tennis shoe or tennis sneakers. Run a Search Query Performance Report to see what keyword variations trigger your ad.

Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in "tennis shoes," your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and possibly with other terms before or after the phrase. For example, your ad could appear for the query red tennis shoes but not for shoes for tennis, tennis shoe, or tennis sneakers. Phrase match is more targeted than broad match, but more flexible than exact match.

Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets - such as [tennis shoes] - your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query. For example, your ad wouldn't show for the query red tennis shoes or tennis shoe. Exact match is the most targeted option. Although you won't receive as many impressions with exact match, you'll likely enjoy the most targeted clicks - users searching for your exact keyword typically want precisely what your business has to offer.

 

Start by selecting “exact match.”  Then branch out to “phrase match” later.

 

Only move to “broad match” once you have a winning ad and really know what you are doing.

 

Under “broad match,” Google uses its own criteria in deciding when to show your ads.  You have no idea what that criteria is.  You just let Google decide to show your ad whenever Google wants to. 

 

And yes, that is the default setting . . . unless you actively click the option that says “exact match” only.  Again, that’s in your “Campaign Settings” section.

 

Other than the actual keywords you select and the maximum bids you set for each keyword phrase, the “Campaign Settings” section is the most important section in the Google Adwords system.

 

Study the Campaign Settings section carefully.

 

When given a choice between broad and narrow, always start with the narrowest option.  Just one little option clicked or not clicked in the Campaign Settings section can mean the difference between a $100 bill on your credit card and a $10,000 bill on your credit card.

 

By keeping your settings narrow, not only will you be cutting your cost geometrically, you will also be getting much more targeted traffic (which is what you want).

 

You’ll be weeding out 90% of the non-serious tire kickers and people who really are not looking for what you are offering.

 

So this is really critical advice I have just given you.

 

People have disasters on Google AdWords by leaving all Google’s default settings turned on and selecting keywords that are too broad.  I love Google, but Google does not make it at all obvious how to turn off these key default settings. It requires knowing where they are.

 

Even at 10 cents a click, you can run up a huge bill fast if your ads start off right away running on all Google search engine partners and on Google’s AdSense Content Network.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.

 

I love the Content Network.  My ads are running all over the Content Network – which is why my monthly Google AdWords bill is running now at about $25,000 and going up every month.

 

You would not see so many AdSense ads all over the Internet if they were not working.

 

But you need to know that having your ads run on the AdSense Content Network will bring in much less targeted traffic than people who found you on Google by selecting the exact keywords you have chosen that best describe what your searcher is looking for.

 

People who click your ad on an AdSense site just happened to bump into your ad while they were looking for something else – perhaps while reading an article on the New York Times site.  Their interest was the article, not your ad.

 

So clickers on your Content Network ads are not nearly as qualified visitors to your site.

 

The Content Network is great for the right kind of product or service – those that appeal to a more general audience.

 

You will find a much lower “click-through-rate” for your ads on the Content Network – also a lower “conversion rate” for those who do click on your Content Network ads. My “click-through-rate” from the Content Network is about one-tenth my rate (or less) than what I get from my ads on search engines.  And my conversion rate for visitors from the Content Nework is about half what I get from people actually using a search engine and clicking on my ad when it comes up in the list of what they are searching for.

 

But the Content Network is still enormously profitable for me.

 

Just don’t start there.  Start just on Google.  When you have success on Google and Google alone, then broaden out slowly.

 

First Google only.  Then Search Network.  Then maybe Content Network – depending on the kind of product or service you are selling.

 

There are also three ways you can set bids for your keywords.

 

1) You can set a maximum bid you are willing to pay-per-click.

 

2) You can select your “Preferred Position” (or ranking) on Google’s listings.

 

3) You can use Google’s Budget Optimizer program.

 

I recommend selecting the maximum bid you are willing to pay-per-click for each keyword.   The other two options (Preferred Position and Budget Optimizer) essentially give Google control over your money and puts Google in charge of your marketing strategy.

 

I certainly don’t want that. 

 

For example, the goal of Google’s Budget Optimizer is to maximize your traffic from the keywords you’ve selected.  That’s not necessarily good because some of your keywords and phrases will not be productive in terms of leading to sales.

 

You want to zero in on the keywords and phrases that are leading to sales – not necessarily the keywords that generate the most clicks.

 

As you go along, you will find that the 80/20 rule applies also to your keywords.

 

That is, 80 percent of your traffic will come from 20% of your keywords.  80% of your conversions and sales will also come from 20% (or less) of your keywords.

 

You will be constantly weeding out and “peeling off” keywords that are not performing – either not generating clicks, or not generating sales.

 

So don’t use the Budget Optimizer or Preferred Position option.

 

You want to be in control of every aspect of your marketing campaign.

 

The way you adjust your ad position and the amount of money you are spending is by manually setting your keyword bids . . . for each keyword and phrase.

 

To keep your Google bill to a minimum, simply start by bidding very low.

 

Start with your maximum bid at 5 cents-a-click and see what happens.

 

If traffic is too light, raise your maximum bid for the keyword  to 10 cents a click, and so on.

 

Depending on the keywords you are selecting and the niche you are competing in, what you will find is that you might be getting  very little traffic at first for your low conservative bids. You then increase a nickel at a time.  You will then hit a tipping point where that nickel-increase starts to generate a lot of traffic.

 

You will see almost no traffic at one price. Then if you raise your bid a nickel, lots of traffic will suddenly start pouring in.  That’s why you must watch it carefully – especially if you are a beginner.  Even if you are an expert, watch it carefully.

 

This is your money.  You want to maximize your result with a minimum amount of money.  This requires constant fine-tuning of your Google AdWords campaign at every level and every point.

 

What Google wants is for you to “set it and forget it” – like my friend Bill did who spent $10,000 on AdWords in his first five days when he went on vacation.

 

That was an expensive vacation.

 

Don’t do that.  Check what’s going on with your account at least once a day.

 

It’s the details that matter here.  This is a precision instrument, like a scalpel.  You’re not running a Super Bowl ad.

 

This is the exact opposite of broadcast advertising.  This is narrow-cast advertising.

 

This is extreme target marketing.  To be successful with AdWords, you must be like a surgeon with scalpel.

 

But it’s not all that tough.  You just need to pay close attention.  Those Google defaults can kill you. Letting Google decide how to spend you money can kill you.  Keywords that are too broad, and allowing “broad content” match instead of “exact” keyword match, can kill you – especially if you are a beginner.

 

One decent piece of advice that Google gives is to set a daily budget for how much Google can spend on your ads.

 

This is probably the one piece of advice Google gives you that can save you money.

 

I don’t have a strong view either way on this.

 

I personally do not like to set a daily budget. But I’m not going to tell you not too.

 

If you are inclined to “set-it-and-forget-it,” daily budget is the way to go.

 

The reason I don’t like it is that as soon as you hit your daily budget, your ads come down.

 

I would rather bid lower on my keywords and have my ads run in a lower position than to have my ads come down and to have Google decide when my ads run and don’t run.

 

That’s yet another reason to start your keyword bids low and increase them slowly.  If you do that and watch it closely, you won’t exceed your budget.

 

Here’s something else to be mindful of.

 

Google’s reports on what’s happening in your account are about three hours behind.  So three hours more activity has occurred on your account than what is actually showing on the report.  So if the report shows you’ve spent $50 that day, it might really be $75.

 

Okay, so now that I have scared the heck out of you, let’s get onto the fun stuff – making Google AdWords work for you and your business.

 

We have actually just gone a long way toward doing that already by turn off most of Google’s default settings.

 

Remember what good marketing is.

 

Good marketing is as much about marketing to the right people as it is weeding out the wrong people.  Marketing to the wrong people is very costly.

 

Your goal is to find exactly the right people to market to – those people who are looking exactly for what you are selling, those people who are typing in the exact keywords and phrases you have chosen that best describe what you are offering.

 

Keyword Research and Selection

 

This brings us to the next piece of the puzzle – getting your keywords right.

 

This now is the lynchpin of your success – anticipating the keywords and phrases that your target audience is typing into search engines to find what you are selling.

 

Keyword research is a big part of your market research.

 

So, how do you begin?

 

You first start with a little brainstorming. And then you move on to more formal research and testing.

 

The first step is to ask yourself: “What keywords would I type into a search engine if I were looking for what I am selling?”

 

You must always put yourself in the place of the customer.  You must think like your potential buyer is thinking.  You must learn how to walk in the shoes of others.  You must be a kind of amateur psychologist.

 

Now remember, we have told Google only to show our ads when a searcher has typed in the “exact” keywords and phrases we have selected for our ad.  We have selected either “Exact Match” or “Phase Match” that at least requires your exact keywords to be part of a phrase the searcher is typing – but not “Broad Content.”

 

It safest just to start with “Exact Match.” 

 

This means you will need to do a lot of work on your keywords and phrases.

 

You will need to come up with every possible keyword combination that describes what you are selling – or you won’t get much traffic . . . because your ads are only showing when there is an “exact keyword match.”

 

Fortunately, there are some wonderful tools that can help you.

 

The simplest keyword research tool is Yahoo’s Keyword Selector Tool. You’ll find it at:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

 

It’s free and it’s very good.  I always go here first when I start my keyword brainstorming. 

 

If you plug in a keyword, Yahoo will give you the number of searches for that keyword, in a recent month plus the number of searches of every term that includes that keyword.

 

Google also has a Keyword Selector Tool at

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

 

But I don’t like it for this purpose because it does not give you the actual number of searches for the keywords you are researching – just silly bar graphs.  So that’s pretty useless to me.  I want the actual number of searches for keywords.

 

Yahoo gives me the number for searches on Yahoo (and its search partners).  Then just roughly triple that number for searches on Google.

 

So Yahoo’s Keyword Tool is much better than Google’s for initial market research. 

 

Let’s say I’m thinking of starting an online business related to tennis.

 

I plug the word “tennis” into the Yahoo tool to see what comes up.

 

I find that there were 216,000 searches for terms with the word tennis on Yahoo in January 2007.

 

Yahoo then gives me the entire list of terms, with the number of searches for each term.  I see there were 20,479 searches for “tennis racket,” 12,631 searches for “tennis shoes,” 11,734 searches for “tennis elbow.”

 

My criteria for a promising niche market to potentially get into is there must be at least 6,000 searches a month on the keyword phrase on Yahoo.  Less than that, the niche probably is not big enough to make any real money.

 

With more than 11,000 searches per month on Yahoo, “tennis elbow” looks like a promising market.

 

Because I have studied marketing, I also know that the two primary motivations for people to buy are:

 

1) To stop pain

 

2) To find pleasure

 

Of these two motives, stop pain is by far the stronger motive to buy.

 

I also notice there that Google shows 2,100,000 sites and pages on its organic search results for the keyword “tennis elbow.”  But there are only eight pay-per-click ads for “tennis elbow.

 

Anyone who has had tennis elbow knows how painful that can be.  And it ruins your ability to do what you love, which is play tennis. 

 

So those who are suffering from “tennis elbow” will try almost anything to get rid of their tennis elbow – are likely to try all the cures offered on all eight pay-per-click ads.

 

So this looks like a very promising niche to target.

 

That’s what a little keyword research can do for you.

 

I never would have thought of “tennis elbow” as being the basis of a business until I saw it so high up on Yahoo’s list of what people search for under the broader category of “tennis.”

 

Do you see how your market research can take you in a whole new direction?

 

Your mindset should be to go where you market is telling you to go.

 

People are telling you with their keyword searches exactly what they want. You then adjust your product offering accordingly.  This often requires just a minor adjustment – called “positioning.”

 

One of the big keys to success with PPC advertising is to have a specific solution to a very specific problem.  The more specific the problem and the more specific your solution is to that specific problem, the stronger your “message-to-market-match” will be.

 

Achieving a “message-to-market-match” is just about the most important principle in marketing.  Without that you have nothing.  Specificity is the key to it.

 

That’s why a  headline aimed at golfers such as “Cure Your Slice in Five Swings” is much stronger than “Improve Your Golf Score.”

 

One is specific.  The other is too general.  People have specific problems they want solved.  That requires specific solutions. 

 

“Think niche, and grow rich!”

 

Now, Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool does not tell you how many searches there have been for a keyword, but it will give you an avalanche of synonyms for your keywords.

 

This can be very useful.  It will save you hours of digging through your thesaurus.  Synonyms are different words that mean the same thing, or nearly the same thing.

 

When people type keywords and phrases into search engines, they don’t just type in one phrase and call it a day.

 

They type in many combinations in an effort to find exactly what they are looking for.

 

Google tracks these combinations and gives them to you as suggestions for keywords and combinations to try.  You can then head back on over to the Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool to get the exact number of searches for your new batch of synonyms Google has just given you.

 

Good market research requires you to mix and match your use of these tools. 

 

All these keyword combinations that describe your product or service are important because, remember, you have told Google only to show your ad when there is an “exact” keyword match to your ad.  You are not giving Google the latitude to show your ad when there is a “broad content match.”

 

So this might require you coming up with hundreds of keyword combinations.

 

According to Google, 16% of all searches on Google are unique and have never occurred before in the history of Google.

 

In other words, people are typing all kinds of keyword combinations into engines to find what they are looking for -- including all kinds of misspellings

 

Now if you invest the time and develop ads that include the more rare and unusual search terms, this can create a strong message-to-market-match for those using those search terms. 

 

Yes, your traffic will be much lighter than for a more general obvious search terms.  But you’ll get much more targeted traffic.

 

If you see a 3% “click-through-rate” on your ad for your keywords, this is an indicator you have a good message-to-market match.  That is, these keywords line up well with your ad and your searcher.  Your ad is what your searcher is looking for.  A 3% click-through-rate is pretty good.  That means 3% of those who saw your ad (that’s an “impression”) actually clicked on your ad and went to your site.

 

When I have picked an unusual keyword combination and then tailored my ad to that unusual keyword phrase combination, I sometimes see a 50% click-through-rate and a near 100% conversion rate.

 

If your keywords, ads and landing pages all line up and match for the rare keyword combination that your searcher has just typed, your searcher almost won’t believe his eyes when your ad pops up in the Google listing with their search term in the headline.  Your searcher will wonder, “How did they know what I was thinking?”

 

When you see your exact words and thoughts staring at you from the page – especially if it’s an unusual phrase – it gets your attention.

 

Plus, all these kinds of unusual keyword phrases are always super cheap.  And you find a stronger buyer with a cheaper keyword phrase. 

 

Isn’t that our goal here?

 

We don’t want lots of clicks and expensive clicks if they are not the right clicks.  We are trying to find the most targeted clicks (traffic) possible.

 

The great news is that the most targeted traffic is both your best traffic and your cheapest traffic.  This is how you do target marketing the right way.

 

This is how you can cut your Google AdWords bill down to 5% of what others are paying, while getting almost as many sales.

 

That’s why you need keyword research and selection tools to help you drill down deeply and find all these phrases that accurately describe what you are selling.

 

The two best keyword research tools are www.WordTracker.com and www.KeywordDiscovery.com

 

You pay a monthly subscription to use these tools.

 

I mentioned Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool that will give you all kinds of words and terms related to your root keyword or phrase.

 

But Wordtracker’s Keyword Universe Tool is more exhaustive still.

 

I love it!

 

It will give you up to 300 suggestions for a related term. 

 

You can then do a“deep search” by plugging in these terms and asking Wordtracker again to come up with all the words and terms related to each of those terms. 

 

Wordtracker will then tell you how many people are searching each day on each of those terms across all the major search engines.

 

This is how you drill deeply and go well past the obvious keywords.

 

KeywordDiscovery.com is just as good, better in some areas.  Each tool has its strengths.  I also like GoodKeywords.com

 

Another great tool is www.LexFN.com. This is a web-based thesaurus, but it’s much more than that.  It will help you come up with all kinds of related word and phrase combinations.

 

Again remember, this is especially useful  if you are choosing the “exact” keyword match option on Google AdWords – which you should be doing.

 

Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com all give you the most common misspellings of words. For example, here’s how people often spell restaurant with their searches:

restauraunt
restauant
restauran
resturant
retaurant
restaurent
restraurant
restarant
resaurant
reataurant
restruant
restrauant
restuarant
resturaunt
resturante
restrant
restaraunt
restaruant
resterant
restorant
restaurnat

 

And that doesn’t even take into account the plural version of the word!

 

Go here to see how many ways people spell Brittney Spears:  http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html

 

This will blow your mind.  40,000 people in three months typed in the most common misspelling, which is “Brittany Spears.”  36,000 searched for the second most common misspelling.

 

If you have told Google “exact match” only for keywords, you must include the most common misspellings of words.

 

Other tools that will help you do this include Microsoft’s Keyword Mutation Detection tool and Searchspell’s Typo Generator.

 

Acronyms are another category you must include: FBI, IRS, ACLU, AARP, FEMA, PPC, SEO, CEO along with the actual names signified by the acronyms.  Then there are abbreviations and slang terms. People also put apostrophes in the wrong place.  Is it “drivers license” or “driver’s license”?  You need both if these are your keywords.

 

Then there are words that are sometimes one word, sometimes two words, sometimes hypehnated words.  Is it “click fraud,” “clickfraud” or “click-fraud”?  Is it “fund-raising,” “fundraising” or “fund raising”?  You must have all variations if you have the “exact” match only option turned on.

 

If you are requiring “exact match,” your keyword research must be exhaustive. 

 

And you must have every combination of keyword phrase.  You need Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com to do this well.

 

Here’s another terrific little free tool called www.spyfu.com

 

If you type in keywords, it will estimate your average cost-per-click and how many clicks you’ll get per day.  It will also tell you how many advertisers there are competing for the keyword and how difficult it will be to rank in your preferred position.

 

Other keyword brainstorming resources include glossaries of terms in your field, and indexes of books in your field.

 

By being exact and exhaustive, you will dramatically cut your cost-per-click.  “Aspen skiing” and “helicopter skiing” are much cheaper than just “skiing” by itself.

 

The more exact, the cheaper . . . and the better your ad will do because your message-to-market-match will be stronger.  Having lots of “exact match” keywords is key to getting low click prices, higher click-through-rates and many more sales. This is how you dominate little niche markets all across the Web and drill deeply into untapped markets.

 

Is this easy?  No. I don’t teach get-rich-quick.  This is a lot of work.  But it’s work that will be richly rewarded.

 

Every keyword or phrase represents a type of customer.  Your job is a marketer using Google Ad Words is to meet the customer exactly where the customer is – not to try to pull the customer in some other direction.

 

The “Peel Off Strategy”

 

This brings up one of my favorite strategies of all.

 

I call it “The Peel Off Strategy.”

 

When I start an ad campaign using Google AdWords, it’s always too general.  Like everyone else, I put too many different kinds of keywords under one ad. Then what I find is that maybe 5% of the keywords are really generating any traffic.

 

“What’s the problem?” I wonder.

 

I look at my huge list of list of keywords and phrases under one ad, or a few ads.

 

I then create families of related keywords.  I do all this on an Excel spread sheet.  This makes moving words around and grouping families of words together much easier.

 

So then let’s say I find I have six separate families of keywords and phrases.

 

I will then create new ads that more exactly line up with each separate family of keywords.  I will create headlines for the ads that include the main keyword.

 

I will create separate landing pages for each new ad – landing pages that line up with the new ads.  I then create new free offers – my “ethical bribes,” as I call them – that also line up exactly with the keywords that were not working before.

 

The new “ethical bribe” free offer might actually be the same eBook – just with a slightly different title – again, just a little “repositioning” can make all the difference.

 

Or it might be a chapter from one of my books that I reformat into a “White Paper.”

 

Offering “white papers” as your free-gift incentive to get people to fill out your sign-up form work almost as well as full-blown books – better (actually much better) if the “white paper” is exactly on the subject the searcher is looking for with the keywords in the title of the “white paper.”

 

That’s how you get a sign-up rate of 40% or more on your op-in form instead of the more usual 10-15% for your free offer.

 

If you can triple your sign-up rate on your landing page by slightly changing your free offer, you have just tripled the profitability of your business.

 

Why?

 

Because you have kept your adverting cost constant, while tripling the number of leads you’re getting.  In fact, more likely you have also cut your advertising cost because the more specific your keyword phrase, the cheaper it is.

 

Even a slight increase in your opt-in percentage can have geometric implications for your business?

 

Why?

 

Because every improvement you make is compounding.

 

Let’s say you have a product that has to do with helping people solve their problem with the IRS.

 

Some people will type IRS into the Engine. Others Internal Revenue Service.  Others will type in “tax problem.” 

 

You might need different ads and different landing pages for each of these ways of saying IRS or tax – with the name of one ebook or white paper referencing IRS, the other Internal Revenue Service the other “tax problem.”

 

That’s how exact the match must be to maximize your click-through-rate and your conversion rate (which in this case is your sign-up rate).

 

That’s why spending time on dominating every keyword and phrase – especially the slightly-off-the-beaten-track phrases (phrases no one else is focused on) can deliver such mega returns.

 

You want to play the AdWords game like Bobby Fisher plays chess.

 

So as you move along like this, with your new mindset, you might have many ads – each ad with just one small family of highly targeted keywords connected with the ad.  And you’ll have many landing pages, each corresponding to its own ad.

 

Same with your free offer (your “ethical bribe”).  It must match the keywords the searcher is typing into the engine.  Your keywords, ad, landing page and “ethical bribe” free offer must all line up as one seemless conversion on this one very narrow topic – the topic that is described by the keywords.

 

So yes, this is a lot of work.

 

You might have thousands of keyword combinations and dozens, even hundreds of ads.  Obviously, this is not something you can do overnight.

 

You start out with one ad and one landing page and one free offer.

 

Then you “peel off” the under-performing keywords, and create a new ad and a new landing page and a new free gift “ethical bribe” offer.

 

And you just keep doing that.  You keep fine-tuning.

 

So this certainly is not a the “set-it-and-forget-it” approach that Google encourages.

 

That’s how you win the AdWords game.

 

So yes, it’s true you want to come up with a big list of keywords that describe your product in all its manifestations and permutations.  But you almost certainly need to create different ads for your different families of keywords.

 

In my case, I have a different ad and landing page for the keyword “marketing plan” and “marketing tips.”  A different ad and landing page still for “marketing secrets” and yet another for “marketing strategies” and yet another for “marketing ideas” and still another ad and landing page for “how to market.”.

 

People looking for “marketing ideas” might not be interested in “how to market” or “marketing strategies.”

 

Yes, these phrases might mean just about the same thing to you and me – but not necessarily to the person typing in the search term.  “Exact” matches in headlines are what gets a searcher’s attention.  And exact match instantly signals to the searcher that “this is exactly what I am looking for” – which is a whole lot better than “maybe this is what I’m looking for.”

 

The precision of your message-to-market-match is difference between success and failure on Google AdWords.

 

Negative Keywords

 

Google allows you to select what it calls “negative keywords” for your ads.  That means if someone types one of your “negative” keywords into Google, your ad will not be shown even if the rest of the phrase is an “exact keyword match.”

 

For example, you might want to select the word “free” as one of your negative keywords.

 

Many on the Internet only want to grab free stuff, but will never buy anything from you.  So they will click on my ads offering a free book if they see it. 

 

By selecting “free” as one of my negative keywords, my ads will not show for anyone who uses the word “free” in their keyword search.

 

If you are selling only new cars, you will want to select “used” as one of your negative keywords.  You don’t want clicks from people who are looking for used cars if you are selling only new cars. 

 

If you are selling only certain models of cars, you will want to list all other models of cars as negative keywords.

 

If you are selling sneakers, but don’t carry red sneakers, you might select “red” as one of your negative keywords.

 

Spend a lot of time on negative keywords – especially if you are using “Broad Match” or “Phrase Match” as your keyword match option.

 

This is not important if you are limiting all search to just “exact match.”

 

But you should have negative keywords if you have selected “Phrase Match” as one of your options, and certainly for “Broad Match.”  “Phrase Match” requires an exact keyword match within a phrase a searcher is typing.  So if “cars” is the keyword you’ve selected, your ad will show for “used cars” if you’ve selected “Phrase Match,” but it would not show under “Exact Match.”

 

So having a potentially big list of negative keywords is essential to maximizing the traffic you want and minimizing the traffic you don’t want if you select “Phrase Match” or “Exact Match” as you keyword matching options.

 

For your negative keywords, just select the “Add Keywords” tab for your ad and put a minus (-) sign before the word in your keyword list, so your negative words will look like this:

 

-free

-red

-cheap

-discount

 

Again, a big part of successful marketing is weeding out those you should not be marketing to . . . because these empty clicks just cost you money.

 

Scheduling Your Ads

 

You will find you get different kinds of people at night than during the day; and different kinds of people on weekends than during the week.  Your cost to get a lead or a buyer will also fluctuate depending on the time of day and the day of the week.

 

In the “Campaign Settings” section, Google allows you to schedule when your ad is shown.

 

This further improves your ROI by ensuring that your ads run when it makes the most business sense. For example, if you are a local business, you might want your ads running only during business hours.  

 

You can even tell Google to automatically modify your bids based on time-of-day and day-of-week.  So if you are an online retailer, for example, you might want your ads ranking near the top of  the first page on Google’s search results list during busiest hours for online shopping – such as lunchtime. 

 

Key Tip When Not Using “Exact Match”

 

If you have “Broad Match” turned on, and one of your keyword phrases is, say, “red sleds”, list the phrase this way for your ad:

 

red sleds

[red sleds]

“red sleds”

 

Why?

 

Because brackets [ ] around keywords mean “Exact Match.”  Quotes around keywords mean “Phrase Match.”

 

Even if you have “Broad Match” turned on, Google will rank your ad higher for a keyword phrase if it sees “Exact Match” for a phrase.  Google places more value on “Exact Match” than “Broad Match” or “Phrase Match” when deciding to deliver an ad to a searcher.

 

So if you are using “Broad Match,” be sure also to include the phrase in brackets and quotes.  This can cut your Google AdWords bill 30% or more and improve the ranking of your ads.

 

Testing and Tracking

 

I often chuckle when people ask me if I think their idea will work.

 

My answer is always the same: “I don’t know.  Test it.”

 

People absolutely hate that answer. But it’s the truth.  The only way you can know if something will sell is to try to sell it, and to try different ways to sell it.

 

The most important word in marketing is “test.”

 

You must constantly test ads, headlines, offers, landing pages and products.  This is a never-ending process.

 

I’ve been in direct marketing for 20 years. I have mailed about a billion direct mail letters.

 

And I continue to be surprised by the results of tests.

 

Google AdWords allows you to conduct tests at lightening speed because the feedback is just about instant.  Within a few hours, you can know the results of your test.

 

I am refining and adjusting my AdWords campaigns all the time based on test results.

 

So how do you conduct tests?

 

Well, you could do it by hand with a calculator, a pencil and a yellow legal pad. 

 

But that would be enormously time-consuming.  And even then, you won’t be able to really get all the information you need.

 

Remember, information equals power.

 

The better and more exact your information, the richer you’ll get.  Having the right information is just like having the combination to the vault.

 

It’s super easy to get the money if you just have the right combination.  It’s very difficult if you don’t know the combination.

 

That’s what testing gives you – the combination to the vault.  The purpose of testing is to gather information that allows you to get rich by making all the right decisions.

 

The good news is Google gives you lots of tools to make it very easy for you to test and track the results.  Google even puts the results of your tests on spreadsheets for you.

 

Google has tools that allow you to track not just the performance of your ads, but also your keywords – and not just clicks on your ads, but also how they “convert” on your landing page and move through your sales process.

 

It’s all automatic.

 

You just need to spend a little time learning how these tools work.  But the little amount of time you invest here will save you hundreds of hours – and will allow you to gather key information that you never could have done by hand with a calculator and legal pad.

 

The Split-Test

 

The most basic test is a ­ split-test of your ads.

 

If you turn this option on, Google will rotate the two ads you are testing evenly throughout the day.  Make sure Budget Optimizer is turned off (which it should be if you’ve followed my advice). You will then see the results of clicks on your ad on a Google report, broken down by keyword and phrase.

 

You might see that one ad is the winner with some keywords, but not with other keywords. 

 

When you are conducting a split-test between ads, you must test one change at a time.

 

THE REASON: You can’t know what factor produced the winner if there are many differences between two ads.

 

The most important test for a Google ad is the headline.

 

That’s because your headline is the most important element in a Google ad.  Your headline is what your searcher notices first.  So that’s your most important test.

 

If you have more than one product to offer (and you should), run a head-to-head test between two products. Maybe more golfers want drivers than putters.

 

Test a word.

 

Does the word “free” in the headline boost or depress results.

 

Almost always the word “free” boosts the number of clicks on your ad.  But in some instances I have seen the word “free” depresses the number of clicks.

 

If you need a plumber now, “free” might depress results.  No one believes a plumber is free.  Or maybe the word “free” is attracting the wrong clicks – people who want your free offer, but won’t buy anything.

 

You must always test.  Never ASSUME anything.

 

So that’s the most basic test you can do -- a head-to-head test of ads that Google will rotate for you evenly throughout the day.

 

But that will only tell you how an ad is performing in terms of getting clicks.  This is called your “click-through rate.”

 

Internet marketers are intensely interested in click-through-rates.  No clicks means no traffic for your site. No traffic equals no sales.  So you certainly want clicks and lots of them.  But you want the right clicks.  Clicks from non-buyers just cost you money.

 

So the next element to track is your “conversion rate.”

 

Your conversion rate is what happens on your landing page.

 

I define conversion rate as my “Most Wanted Response.”  It the primary action you want your visitor to take when they reach your landing page.

 

In my case, it’s filling out my sign-up form to get my “ethical bribe,” which is the free ebook or “white paper.”

 

When someone fills out my sign-up form, that’s a conversion.

 

For another business, a conversion might be a sale if the landing page is a sales letter.

 

Clicks that don’t lead to a high-rate of conversion are worthless.  Actually, clicks that don’t lead to conversions are worse than worthless because clicks equal money you have spent.

 

So you need to covert.  You need to either get a lead or a sale. The end result of all your work is to generate sales.  So clicks and leads are no good if they don’t produce enough sales at the end of the marketing process.

 

You must track how your marketing process is doing at each key point.

 

Thank heavens Google has a tool that lets you do this automatically and almost effortlessly.  It’s called “Conversion Tracker.”

 

Google will give you some code that you paste on your “thank you” page.  The “thank you” page is the page that pops up as soon as your visitor fills out your sign-up form or makes a purchase.

 

Each time this “thank you” page or “order confirmation” page is opened, Google tallies the number for you and puts the numbers in a nice spreadsheet for you.

 

Now, this is the imperfect part.

 

Google gives you no automatic way to track the results of landing pages simultaneously.

 

That’s because an ad can only be linked to just one landing page at a time.

 

There are two ways you can overcome this problem.

 

You can let your ad run for a while. Once you collect enough data, you change the landing page, and then collect conversion data on that.

 

This will give you a fairly accurate answer.

 

As a general rule, I don’t like to conduct tests at different times because different times will yield different results.

 

A head-to-head test in direct mail means two different mail packages mailed at the exact same time.  If one package mails on Tuesday and another on Friday, this can skew the test.

 

Another method is to use Google’s ad split-testing tool.  You then create two almost identical ads – maybe one inconsequential word changed in the body text under the headline – a word no one would notice (so that Google does not think they are identical ads and flag them).

 

Then just connect each ad to a different landing page.  This will give you a good landing page test.

 

So that’s how you conduct tests for your Google Ads and landing pages.

 

How much data do you need to know the results of a test?

 

My rule is that I need at least 40 actions on each ad – whether clicks on the Google ad or sign-ups on my landing page.  In most cases, that’s enough data to determine a winner.  If results are not conclusive, you just keep letting the test run.

 

The more data you have, the more accurate your test.

 

If you flip a coin, how many flips do you need to achieve a statistical 50/50 ratio?

 

Certainly more than 10. I’ve seen flips of a coin come up tails 5 times in a row, even 10 times in a row.  If you flip a coin 50 times,  you will get closer to the 50/50 ratio. 100 flips will get you closer still. 1,000 flips and you will have a near-exact 50-50 ratio between heads and tails.

 

That’s how casinos make their money.  They know the exact odds of the games they’ve created.

 

That’s what polling is.  If you test a big enough sample of people, you will have a good measure of what public opinion is on an issue.  The bigger the sample, the more accurate the poll.

 

So that’s what you are doing with your tests.

 

You are conducting a poll of your Google ads and landing pages.  Your clicks and your conversions are your answers to the poll you are conducting.

 

Ad testing and polling are really the same science.  But a test of your Google ad and your landing page is much more accurate than a poll you read about in the newspaper.

 

Why?

 

Because an opinion poll is just asking people their opinion – let’s say about political candidates many months before an election.  How they actually vote on Election Day can be an entirely different story.

 

But with this test of your Google ad and your landing page, you are measuring specific actions that people are actually taking.  It’s the difference between asking people what they think of your product and asking them to buy your product.

 

This is why testing is so key to your success.

 

If your test results show success, your marketing campaign absolutely will be successful – no doubt about it.  It’s as certain as knowing the combination to the vault.

 

What’s truly awesome about Google’s tracking technology is that it not only tracks your ads’ performance and the conversion rate on your landing pages, it also tracks the performance of each of your keywords.

 

What you will find is that some keywords and phrases deliver lots of clicks, but then don’t covert on the landing page.

 

Those who are not converting are just costing you money with their clicks.  Very likely you will want to weed out certain keywords that generate lots of clicks, but few conversions.

 

And Google gives you all this data, by ad campaign and keyword in a nice spreadsheet that you can read and absorb at a glance.

 

Sure beats the heck out of tracking it all by hand!

 

You don’t want to be spending your time entering data and creating spreadsheets.  Let Google do that.  You want to focus on running your business.

 

But don’t make the mistake many make and put Google’s conversion tracking code on your landing page. Or your report will show a 100% conversion rate.  Paste it on your “thank you” page or “order confirmation” page.

 

If you have several levels of conversion or actions you are tracking, you will want to paste Google code on each page that comes up after your visitor has performed the action you want.  So, for example, you would paste tracking code on both the “thank you” page that comes up after they sign up for your free offer and again on the “order confirmation” page that comes up after a purchase.

 

Google will then give you reports on how your ads and keywords are doing – both in terms of generating leads and generating sales.

 

The Power of Google Analytics

 

Far more powerful than Google’s Conversion Tracker Tool is Google’s newer Analytics Tool.

 

Analytics does everything Conversion Tracker does, plus a whole lot more.  Analytics can tack the keyword source and pay-per-click ad source of your visitors just like Conversion Tracker.  But Analytics will also track visitors from all your other advertising sources.  Analytics will even track your traffic coming from your organic traffic and your offline advertising.  If you have PPC ads on Yahoo, Analytics will also track those for you.

 

Analytics will measure all levels of conversion you are interested in.  Analytics will also tell you how long visitors are spending on each page of your website and which page seems to be triggering exits from you site.

 

Analytics will also track the productivity of your traffic by geographic location.  You will find that traffic from some regions are much more likely to buy than traffic from other regions.  For example, your traffic from a wealthy area such as Scarsdale will be more likely to buy than traffic from Newark.

 

You need to know not just what sources (i.e. your ads, keywords, and organic search) are bringing traffic to your site, you need to know where your buyers are coming from. 

 

Google Analytics will slice and dice information all kinds of ways and give you a myriad of reports on exactly what your traffic is doing on your website, broken down by keyword source, ad source and geography.

 

The information on how your site is performing Analytics will give you is extraordinary, and very useful as you fine-tune your website and selling process.

 

Just like with Conversion Tracker, Analytics is very easy to set up.  You just copy and paste Analytics code on each page of your site you want to track.  If you know nothing about HTML and how to do that, just ask your web guy to do it. 

 

If you want to track just simple conversions, go with Conversion Tracker.  If you want much more elaborate reporting on what’s happening on your website, use Analytics.

 

With both tools, Google puts a cookie in the computer of your visitor that lasts up to 30 days.

 

So if someone signs up to get your free offer, and then come back to your site five or ten days later to buy something, both Conversion Tracker and Analytics can track that and spit out great reports for you.

 

What you will learn from both Conversion Tracker and Analytics is where the problems (and successes) are in your selling process.  If you are getting a lot of people signing up for your free offer, but you are closing few sales, then you know you have a breakdown.  Either your sales presentation is no good, your offer is not compelling, or people don’t want what you are selling.  Or maybe there’s something wrong with your order form.

 

Google Conversion Tracker and Analytics will show you exactly where people are bailing out of your marketing funnel. 

 

Remember, information is power.  The first step to fixing a problem is know where and what the problem is with your conversion and selling process.

 

You can use Google Analytics even if you are not an AdWords customer.  You can also have Analytics and Conversion Tracker running at the same time.  The two methods of tracking activity on your site do not interfere with each other.

 

I like to run both because the reports are different.

 

I don’t always need the Ferrari-level tracking that Analytics gives me.  You could spend all day studying data available in Analytics. Often I just want basic tracking information that Conversion Tracker gives me.

 

When you do your tracking and testing of your ads, be sure you are measuring the right data.

 

Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.  Some people go overboard and track too much data.  You will want to know . . .

 

1) How much it’s costing per click.

 

2) How much it’s costing to get a name and email address -- a lead.

      

3) And how many names (leads) you need to generate a sale, which gives you your average cost to generate a sales from a first-time buyer.

 

4) Average Long-Term Value (LTV) of finding a fisrt-time buyer.

 

That’s how to track your return on investment (ROI).

 

You should also test and track headlines (both on your ads and landing pages) and what keywords and phrases are the most productive in terms of leading to sales.

 

And that’s about it.  But I can’t emphasize the importance of testing enough.

 

Everything we know about what works and doesn’t work in direct marketing is the product of trial-and-error -- of testing.

 

And much of what we know about what works and what does not work goes against what we would have predicted.

 

For example, you might think short sales letters would work better than long sales letters in direct mail.

 

But testing shows that long sales letters work better than short letters 80 percent of the time -- or more -- particularly in prospecting.

 

Long letters on sales websites work better on the internet also, most of the time.

 

The only way we know this is true is because of testing.

 

Never take anything for granted in direct marketing.  Never assume anything.  Make educated guesses.  But test everything.  Test all your assumptions.  Two different headlines can produce a 1,000% difference in results.  And often the headline you think will work best is the one that pulls one-tenth what the other headline pulls.

 

Which of these two headlines do you think generated the highest “click-through-rate”?

 

Simple Diet Plan, Free

 

Easy Diet Plan, Free

 

The headline with the word “simple” generated 72% more clicks than the headline with the word “easy.”

 

That’s what a change of just one word in a headline can do – even when the meaning of the word is almost the same.  You can never do enough testing.  The more testing you do, the more profitable your marketing will be.

 

But I also don’t want to overwhelm you with information here -- or make marketing with Google AdWords sound more difficult than it really is.

 

Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.

 

What I urge you to do is to just get on Google AdWords and start playing with it.

 

If you don’t have your tracking and test matrix’s set up perfectly, don’t worry too much.  Just start trying things. 

 

You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly what’s working and what’s not working, really just by eye-balling your clicks and conversions.

 

Overall Strategy

 

Okay, now let’s move out of this mechanical stuff, and back to the fun stuff – the “stratgery.”

 

Yes, you must get these mechanics right and this technical stuff right to make the machine work.

 

But your overall strategy must be right as well.

 

As we have seen, the cornerstone of success for you is picking the right keywords and phrases -- keywords and phrases that are exactly in line with what you are selling.

 

I have shown you some great tools that can help you – such as Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com

 

The mistake many make is to rely on these tools alone.

 

These are just tools.  A human mind telling these tools what to do is required.  Tools cannot make your strategic decisions.  Only a human mind can do that job. A human mind must tell the tools what to do.

 

As you begin your keyword brainstorming, at first you will have to take educated guesses as to what good keywords are for you.   Your guesses will likely be the obvious choices.  That might be good or it might not be good.  Trial and error -- testing -- will give you the answer.

 

As we have also seen, the obvious choices are everyone’s choices.  So these will be your more expensive keywords, and they won’t be as targeted as less obvious keyword phrases.

 

But the other problem with the obvious general keywords you might select is that, not only are they your most expensive keywords; very often these expensive broad category keywords are bringing in the wrong traffic entirely.

 

Let me give you an example.

 

I wanted to find realtors because I thought realtors would be perfect candidates for buying my marketing coaching programs, seminars and books.

 

But the keyword “realtor” is expensive if you want to be on the first page of Google.  In that case, I am competing against Remax, Century 21 and every realtor in America.

 

But that’s not all.  I’m also drawing a lot of  the wrong traffic to my site because someone looking for a realtor would also type that keyword into a search engine.

 

So I would be getting all those people also -- people who are looking to buy home, not take their real estate business to the next level.

 

So realtors would be the wrong keyword to pick if I want to market my materials to realtors.

 

What did work well for me was the phrase “realtor sales letters” and “sales letters realtor.”

 

It’s much more specific. And it’s super cheap.  I’m able to appear on the first page of Google  for about 20 cents a click with the phrase “realtor sales letters” or “sales letters realtor” and similar phrases.  Any realtor interested in sales letter is clearly interested in improving their real estate business.

 

Another keyword selection strategy that I use is that I buy as keywords the names of my big name competitors or big names of people in the arena I’m shooting for.

 

These are always very cheap. Let my competitors spend the big bucks to bring traffic here.  I figure anyone who is looking for what my competitors are offering are also looking for what I am offering.

 

It’s the gas station principle.

 

If you are a gas station, you want to put your gas station where all the other gas stations are . . . because that’s where people know to go to get gas.  You don’t want your gas station off by itself in some odd location where no one knows where to find you.  You want your gas station where the other gas stations are.  You want your car dealership where all the car dealerships are.

 

Same concept here.

 

Add your top competitors to your keyword list.

 

Let’s go back to my “realtors” example.  You can learn from the mistakes that I made and save yourself a boatload of money.

 

I mentioned that I was interested in reaching realtors.  I am also interested in reaching entrepreneurs in other industries and other fields.

 

But the most common keywords associated with those industries are expensive.

 

Keywords like “realtor,” “financial planner,” “CPA,” “attorney,” and “dentists”  are not only comparatively expensive -- they really are not targeted enough for me.

 

Remember, what I am trying to sell are my marketing services.  What I’m trying to sell are my study programs on marketing aimed at helping entrepreneurs in these fields and others grow their businesses.

 

So these are keywords that their customers might type into Google.

 

But I don’t want the customers of these businesses.  I want to reach the owners of these businesses.  I want to reach the entrepreneurs -- not their customers.

 

The keyword phrases that work best for me are simply “sales letters” and “marketing letters.”  Also “marketing plan,” “marketing strategies,” “marketing tips,” “marketing ideas” and “how to market.”

 

Turns out these phrases are relatively cheap.

 

For about a year, I was doing fine building the Inner Circle program for about 20 cents a click with these phrases.

 

I have since ramped it up to about 55 cents a click on average so I can be on the first page of the Google listings. 

 

Well – that’s working great because guess what entrepreneurs and business people need.  They need sales letters, marketing letters, marketing plans, marketing strategies, marketing tips, marketing ideas.

 

They also need websites, autoresponders, merchant accounts, shopping carts and all kinds of other tools to grow their businesses.

 

So if I want to reach entrepreneurs, the keyword “entrepreneur” is useless.

 

Entrepreneurs are not typing “entrepreneur” into search engines.

 

They are typing what they need to grow their businesses into search engines.

 

What do entrepreneurs most want to do?

 

They want to grow their sales.

 

The way they grow their sales is with sales letters, marketing plans and marketing strategies.  So those are these keyword themes I focus on.

 

So if I want to attract entrepreneurs, “entrepreneur” really is not a good keyword.

 

Not only is it expensive, but it’s off the mark.

 

Focus on what entrepreneurs want.  They aren’t looking for entrepreneurs.  They are entrepreneurs.

 

What they are looking for are “sales letters” and “marketing letters.”

 

They want better sales letters, more sales letters.

 

They also want lists.  They want lists of qualified leads.

 

So when you are selecting your keywords and phrases, focus on what you think your customers, your prospects are looking for.

 

My point with this illustration is to try to show you how to think strategically with your keyword selection strategy: How can you reach as many people in your target group for the lowest cost per qualified lead?

 

If you select the obvious keywords and phrases, not only will you spend more than you need to.  Very often your keyword won’t bring in the right people if you select too broad a keyword.

 

Let’s say you sell computers.

 

Usually, people are looking for a particular kind of computer.  Someone is looking for a laptop, for example.  Or maybe a particular model.

 

If you were to use “computers” as your key word, and just leave it as that, not only would you pay too much for that word.  Not only would you be competing against Circuit City, Best Buy, Dell, Toshiba, IBM and many other billion-dollar companies for that keyword -- but you would be reaching too broad an audience.

 

So maybe your ad should just be about “laptop computers” or perhaps more specifically about “Toshiba laptops.”

 

Not only will you pay less per click.  But you will bring people to your site who are looking specifically for that product.

 

Remember, in direct marketing “narrow is the gate to paradise.”

 

The narrower your focus, the better you do and the less you pay for each sale you make.

 

If someone is looking for a Yamaha Motorcycle, take that person to a website that only sells Yamaha motorcycles -- not a site that also sells Harleys . . .  because this person has already told you what he’s looking for. He’s told you by the keyword terms he has typed into the search engine.

 

Let me show you another way to think strategically.

 

Let’s say you are selling golf clubs and golf equipment.

 

What you are trying to do here obviously is attract golfers to your site.

 

But the keyword phrase “golf clubs” is pricey -- because you are competing against Calaway, Ping, Taylor Made, not to mention every golf shop in America for that keyword phrase.

 

Actually, even the keyword “golf club” is not as expensive as you might think because the big golf club companies and big ad agencies that run their marketing don’t know how to use AdWords or even the Internet to market their products.

 

Still, “golf clubs” is a comparatively pricey keyword if you want to be on the first page of search results.

 

But suppose you choose “Tiger Woods” as a keyword phrase.

 

That keyword phrase is actually very cheap.

 

If you pick that phrase, you can be on the first page of search results for about 25 cents a click.

 

And guess what.  As I write these words, 10 times more people searched for Tiger Woods’ name last month than searched for “golf clubs.”

 

Anyone interested in Tiger Woods is interested in golf and probably plays golf.

 

So not only do you have the potential of finding a whole lot more golfers by bidding on the phrase “Tiger Woods” as your keyword, but you’ll get clicks super-cheap.  Remember, a click represents a visitor to you site.

If you want golfers visiting your site, it’s cheaper to get them there with the keyword phrase “Tiger Woods” than it is with the keyword “golf clubs.”

 

So this is potentially a super cheap way to build your opt-in list of golfers.

 

If you are in the business of selling golf equipment, golf devices and instructional programs, this might be a terrific strategy for building your large opt-in email list of golfers who you can then start selling your golf products to.

 

I don’t really know if this would be a good strategy or not.  You would need to test this theory to see if it pans out in reality.  But it seems like a good strategy to me – certainly worth testing.

 

My point here is that you’ll need to be creative in how you reach your target audience to get the biggest bang for your marketing dollar using Google Adwords. 

 

Your strategy will also depend on what your goal is.

 

My goal is always to build a very large list of opt-in email addresses who have expressed interest in what I am selling -- or at least, in the topic I’m addressing.

 

The reason I want as large a list as possible of targeted opt-in email addresses is that it’s almost free to send follow-up email offers and communications with those on my email list.

 

It’s not like postal direct mail where its expensive to follow up.

 

With postal direct mail there’s the cost of the postage, the paper, the inserting, etc.

 

But once someone is on your email list, it’s almost free to follow-up with more emails.  That’s why I want a very large email list of people who have at least expressed some interest in what I am selling.

 

The big cost in internet marketing is acquiring the name.  My biggest online marketing expense is my Google AdWords bill.

 

After that, almost everything else I do in terms of follow-up marketing to my opt-in list is just about free.

 

That’s my business model.  And it works very well for me.

 

How to Write Effective PPC Ads

 

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their Google PPC ads is to have the ad be about them and not specifically about what their potential buyer is looking for.

 

So their Google Ad will look something like this:

 

Virginia Lawyer Bill Smith

Specialist in traffic law, family law, small business law.

www.BillSmithVALawyer.com

 

I see ads like this all over Google’s PPC listings. I call it this a “business card ad” because that’s basically what it is.

 

What is this ad about?

 

It’s about the lawyer.  It says nothing about the prospective customer – the searcher.

 

What is the searcher looking for?

 

Well, if the searcher is looking for a lawyer, he must have a specific legal problem he’s worried about.

 

In fact, let’s take my case.  I received two reckless driving tickets in one week.

 

I really was not driving recklessly.  But I was driving 72 in a 50.

 

More than 20 miles per hour over, the speed limit is automatic reckless driving in Virginia.  Twice in one week, that’s a license suspension and possible jail time.

 

I needed a lawyer – someone who specializes in reckless driving charges, or at least who is expert in Virginia traffic law – specifically Fairfax County traffic law.

 

So, what do I do?

 

I go to my computer and start typing in keywords like “reckless driving fairfax county virginia lawyer.”  Lots of terms like that.  Very specific.  Terms that precisely describe my problem.

 

I did not want a lawyer in California.

 

I did not want a family law specialist.

 

I have a reckless driving legal problem in Fairfax County, Virginia.  I’m due in court in three weeks. If my lawyer is not damn good, I could end up in jail or with my license suspended or both, plus a heavy fine and higher insurance rates.

 

So I see lots of PPC ads for lawyers.  Lots of lawyers on the organic lists as well. 

 

Only 8 ads come up on the PPC list for the keyword phrase “reckless driving fairfax county virginia.”

 

More than 1,000,000 people live in Fairfax County, which is right outside Washington, D.C.  It’s one of the wealthiest areas in the country.  There are more than 1,500 prisoners in the Fairfax County jail – many of them for traffic offenses.

 

Yet only 8 PPC ads come up in my search results.

 

One ad has the headline Dan Miller & Associates. 

 

That certainly does not appear to be about my problem. 

 

Another says Quality Respected Firm. Ughh!

 

Another has the headline Leesburg Traffic Lawyer.  That’s not bad, but wrong county.

 

Another says Virginia DUI Attorney.

 

That’s better because maybe he also knows something about reckless driving, but it’s not exactly on target, is it?

 

Another ad says VA Traffic Defense.

 

That looks promising, so I click on that ad.  But it turns out this is not a lawyer or a law firm.  It’s just a database of lawyers from all over the country.

 

I click on some of the other ads, and also some of the organic search listings.

 

I can’t find anything like what I need.    When I click on most of these links, I am taken to a general website of the law firm with photos of lots of lawyers.

 

“Who the heck do I call here to solve my reckless driving problem?”

 

I can’t tell from any of the ads and listings I see here – even though I specifically typed “reckless driving fairfax virgina lawyer” (and various word combinations along these lines) into Google.

 

That’s how people search for what they want or need on the Internet.

 

They are very specific with their searches.

 

I don’t care that Bill Smith is a Virginia lawyer – which is what his ad is telling me.  What I want to know is: “Can Bill Smith solve my reckless driving legal problem? Can he keep me out of jail?”

 

Your ads and all your marketing must be about solving  your prospect’s problem.

 

Your prospect is telling you exactly what his problem is with the keyword search terms he’s using.  No one is searching for “Bill Smith Virginia Lawyer.”

 

A good AdWords ad would say:

 

Reckless Driving Charge?

Consult free with Virginia lawyer on your

reckless driving charge in Fairfax County.

www.RecklessDrivingFairfaxVA.com

 

Google will highlight all my keywords in the ad to make sure I don’t miss them.

 

Google will want to show me I struck paydirt.

 

Bingo!

 

“That’s exactly what I’m looking for!” I would think . . . if I ever found such an ad.

 

Notice this ad does not mention the lawyer’s name or the name of the law firm.

 

It’s all about the problem the searcher is looking to solve – in my case a panicked searcher.

 

I don’t care what the lawyer’s name is – or the name of his firm.

 

All I care about right now is “Can whoever it is solve my specific problem?  Is a solution to my problem even being proposed . . .  by anyone?”

 

“Is there someone out there who can help me?” is what the searcher wants to know.

 

We can get to credentials and all that later  – even though 70% of people will hire the first lawyer they can get on the phone without even bothering to check out their credentials.

 

That’s how thrilled people are to find someone (almost anyone) who at least says they can solve their problem.

 

There really is no excuse for failure if you do your marketing correctly.

 

Mostly, marketing is about putting yourself in the path of a thundering stampede of people who are frantically looking to buy what your selling.

 

It’s really not a whole lot more difficult that that.  You just need to know how to find the stampede of your buyers.

 

Focus not on you or even on getting your customer.  Focus on what your customer wants.

 

Emphasize that.

 

But don’t feel silly or embarrassed if you’ve written ads like the bad ads I’ve shown you here.  Even the pros make this mistake all the time.

 

We are always tempted to talk first about ourselves in our advertising instead of about what our customer wants.

 

Let’s take me as an example.  I made exactly this mistake when I launched my first Google AdWords campaign.

 

You might think this is incredible because I have a 20 year background in direct marketing. 

 

But I made an amateur’s mistake with my first Google AdWords Campaign.

 

Here’s what my ad said:

 

Direct Mail Copywriter

Ben Hart’s direct mail letters have generated $500,000,000 in sales.       

 

What’s wrong with that ad?

 

The problem with this ad is that it’s all about me.  It’s not about anyone else but me.

 

Stunningly, I did get business from this ad anyway – showing that bad advertising is better than no advertising; and showing that even a terrible ad can be reasonably successful on Google AdWords -- which is why I see the same bad ads running on Google every day.

 

And the keywords I selected to connect with this ad were just as bad – words like “direct mail copywriter,” “copywriter,” “direct mail expert.”

 

Again, what’s the problem with these keywords?

 

Same thing.

 

The keywords were all about me – not about what businesses actually want or need.

 

I began to think about this.  Not many people were actually hiring me to write copy.  Some were, so the ads were still profitable.  Mostly I just had my stable of clients.

 

But what I noticed was that people were buying my books.

 

People did not necessarily want to pay me thousands of dollars to write direct mail letters and ads for them.  But they were willing to plunk down some money to buy my books and learn how to do it themselves.

 

Hmmm.

 

I started to think.

 

What people want is not a “direct mail copywriter.”  What people want are “sales letters” and “ads.”  What businesses want are more “sales.”

 

So I canceled, or drastically scaled back all my “Direct Mail Copywriter” ads, and I started to focus on what businesses really want – and that’s more sales.

 

Hiring a copywriter might be a means to that – might be a necessary expense, a necessary evil.

 

But hiring a copywriter is not the end result they are looking for.  The end result business owners want is more sales, more money.  They want a growing business.

 

I figured this out in large part by noticing how well How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters was selling.

 

I was selling 200 copies per month or so – with just my little Google AdWords campaign that wasn’t even advertising the book.  It was advertising my copywriting services.

 

So I retooled my ad, my marketing strategy, and my entire marketing approach.

 

What do the great generals do?  They make adjustments to meet reality.

 

They had a plan.  The plan isn’t working, or it’s not working as well as it could, so they adjust.

 

My results were showing me that what entrepreneurs want are sales letters and marketing letters.

 

They do not really want a copywriter.

 

So I built an AdWords campaign that just focused on the keywords “sales letters” and “marketing letters” to sell my book – How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters.

 

The headline on the ad just said:

 

Great Sales Letters

Top direct mail copywriter reveals

secrets of writing killer sales letters.

 

This ad would take the clicker not to the home page on my general website, but to a webpage that was just about the book.

 

The page was essentially just a big display ad for the book.

 

Well, that worked like gangbusters.  For the same advertising cost, I was now selling about 500 copies of the book a month for $32 each, plus shipping.  It was costing me about $10 to find a buyer using Google AdWords.

 

It was costing me $3.80 a piece to print the book. So I was clearing about $18 profit per book sold.

 

Not bad.

 

Once people bought the book, they were added to my email list.  They started getting my e-newsletter on marketing.  From this, I also got quite a few very good clients.

 

Google only allows 25 characters for your headline.  So your headline must be very brief.  No room here for creativity.  You must be very brief and exact about what you are offering – or, more precisely, what the big benefit to the searcher is for clicking on your ad and going to your website.

 

This is actually great training for headline writing.  You must be super-focused and to-the-point.  Nothing fancy.

 

Always ask: “Does the headline on my ad deliver a big immediate benefit to the searcher for clicking on my ad?”

 

Headlines that have worked well for me are “Great Sales Letters, Free” . . . “Model Sales Letters, Free”,“Free Killer Sales Letters” or just “Free Sales Letters.”

 

That’s what anyone typing “sales letters” into a search engine wants.

 

My early AdWords headlines that were not successful tended to talk about me.  Headlines like, “Direct Mail Copywriter” or “Copywriter for Hire.”

 

But then something else happened that caused me to make yet another adjustment.

 

Quite a few people who bought my book wanted one hour of coaching.

 

So I started offering that.  For $250, people could buy one hour of coaching over the phone on their marketing.

 

That’s how my Inner Circle program was born.

 

This is a training program for small and medium-sized business owners who want to grow their businesses faster, bigger and with less effort by improving their marketing.

 

There seemed to be a big lack of places people can go to really learn how to market effectively.  And there seemed to be a big demand for marketing advice, training and coaching.  So why not set up an affordable marking training program designed for entrepreneurs?

 

So I gave that a try.

 

Bingo!

 

It worked great.

 

What I found was that it was much more profitable to take How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters and just give it away free as a lead generation piece (an “ethical bribe” to get visitors to fill out my sign-up form) than to sell it.

 

I was able to collect 10 times more email addresses that way than by selling the book.  This then increased the ultimate productivity of my Google Adwords ads by many orders of magnitude.

 

It’s much better to have people paying me $38 a month for an ongoing training program than $32 once for a book.  I’m still near the top position on Google for the keywords “sales letters” and “marketing letters.”

 

I then did the same with my book Automatic Marketing.

 

Instead of selling it, I’d give it away free as an “ethical bribe” to get people to fill out my sign-up form to get on my email list.

 

I would then be able to covert 10% of these leads to Inner Circle members or trial members.

 

The result as of this date: 2,200 Inner Circle members are paying me $38 per month.

 

And this program is only a year and a half old as a write these words. 

 

Yes, I have a big Google AdWords bill – about $25,000 per month.

 

That’s certainly a lot of money.

 

But I don’t mind one bit, because I am able to double my money about every 65-75 days.

 

I don’t know many investment gurus on Wall Street getting a better return than that.

 

But I did not start my Google AdWords campaign at this level.  I started by just spending about $50 a week until I started to get the hang of it.

 

So how am I about to double my money every 75 days using Google AdWords?

 

Well, by getting about 25% of those who click on my Google ads to fill out my sign up form to get the free book . . . and then through my marketing process, converting about 10% of these leads into Inner Circle members or buyers of some kind.

 

Some Inner Circle members have also become clients who are paying me thousands of dollars per month.

 

I’m not even counting this business as part of my overall business model – because my goal is to completely get out of the business of having clients at all.

 

I just want members and product buyers.

 

I am paying about 54 cents per click on average – a click representing a visitor to my site.  I started off paying just a nickel a click, but ramped up slowly as I got my ads to work.

 

So that’s my business model in a nutshell.

 

The headline on one Google ad says this:

Great Sales Letters, Free

 

This ad takes clickers to a landing page that gives them a free digital copy of How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters if they fill out my sign-up form.

 

Another ad says this:

Marketing Plan, Free Book

 

This ad takes the clicker to another landing page that offers a free digital copy of my book Automatic Marketing.

 

They have to fill out the form and get on my list to get the book.

 

That’s the “ethical bribe” part.

 

I am betting that my sign-ups will be so blown away by the quality of the free gift, that they will be curious to find out what they will get for something they’d have to pay for.

 

In other words, I’m betting that I will be richly rewarded by exceeding expectations by a mind-bogglingly wide margin.  That hypothesis is certainly paying off.

 

Exceed expectations with the first transaction (even if its a free transaction) and you will have no trouble getting people to buy from you again and again.  Exceed expectations, and your selling job is then over.

 

This is even more true today with all the scam artists out there on the Internet.  People almost expect to be scammed these days.

 

So when people find something that’s really good, that really OVERdelivers on what it promises, you get fiercely loyal customers.  That’s certainly proven true for me.

 

The Critical Importance of the Landing Page

 

This is key.

 

Do not take your clickers on your Google ad to the home page of your general website.  Take them to a landing page that is exactly on the topic of your Google ad (not even a little off).

 

Be sure to include the keywords the searcher is typing in the headline of your Google ad also in the headline on your landing page.

 

The keywords the searcher is typing, your Google ad and your landing page should be one seemless conversation.

 

When a searcher types your keywords into the engine and your ad then comes up with those same keywords in the headline of the ad, the reaction of the searcher will be “Great. This seems to be what I am looking for.”

 

The searcher then clicks on your headline to check out your site.  For you to be successful, your landing page must be a continuation of your Google ad, with the same keywords again in the headline.

 

Your searcher will be confused if you take him to the home page on your general site, which might have all kinds of other items, features and links.  This creates confusion and frustration for the searcher.

 

Keep it simple and seemless.

 

Think about how people behave on the Internet.

 

They wiz from one website to another, frantically searching for what they are looking for.   If your message is not super clear, if your visitor cannot instantly see that “yes, this is exactly what I am looking for,” they will go on to the next site.

 

You have at most three seconds on the Internet to deliver your main message and to show your visitor that you have the solution to their problem.

 

Never present your first-time visitor an array of choices and options.  Present him with a crystal clear solution to his problem.

 

He’s already told you exactly what he’s looking for with his keyword search.

 

His keyword search brought him to your ad.  He has clicked on your ad and is now on your landing page.  You are now half way home.

 

Your job now is simply to deliver what he’s looking for.

 

If he’s looking for strawberry ice cream, don’t give him chocolate ice cream.

 

Don’t give him cheesecake.  Don’t try to offer him something else.

 

Get him his strawberry ice cream.

 

If someone has typed “Yamaha motorcycle” into Google, do not bring that person to a site that sells all kinds of motorcycles.  Take this person to a site that sells only Yamaha motor cycles.

 

Remember, people want to buy from specialists.  If you are looking for a plumber, you look in the Yellow Pages under plumber.

 

You are not interested in a jack-of-all-trades handyman.  You want an expert, a specialist, to fix your plumbing problem.

 

So if someone is looking for a Yamaha, sell him a Yamaha.  Don’t take him to website or landing page with lots of choices.  You’ll just confuse your visitor and create frustration.

 

You can introduce choices later -- after you’ve sold him exactly what he is looking for.

 

It’s no different in the offline world.

 

If someone comes into your hardware store, he’s looking for something specific.  Maybe he needs a hammer.  Get him his hammer.  Don’t just say “Come into my store and take a look.  Hammers are in here somewhere.”

 

No, take him to the hammer section. Ask him if he is looking for a specific kind of a hammer is he looking for.

 

Once he has his hammer in hand -- then you can introduce other products to your now happy buyer.  But get him his hammer first.   Same principle in Internet marketing.

 

First deliver to your searcher exactly what he is looking for.  Then after that job is done,  you can start selling him other things.

 

Should a landing page try to sell, or just capture leads?

 

The answer to this question depends on the kind of product or service you are selling.  It’s a question of what will deliver the best return on investment (ROI) for you.

 

That can only be answered by testing.  I’ve done both and had success with both.

 

For my program, I have had much greater success by just getting the name and email address first and then following up later with email, cultivating rapport before trying to close sales.

 

But that’s for me.  Other kinds of products or service are different.

 

For a “need it now” service, such as a plumber, people need the service right now.  The pipes are leaking all over a kitchen and I need a plumber now.

 

A marketing training program, such as what I offer, does not fall into the category of an emergency service.  It’s an educational program.  I am selling seminars, books and marketing consulting services.

 

I need to build rapport and trust before people are going to pay me to give them marketing advice or hire me to oversee their marketing campaign for their business.

 

So one-shot marketing does not work as well for me.

 

But people need a plumber right now.  Very often people need a lawyer right now.  Guys need flowers for their wife right now (after they’ve messed up).  If someone has just had a car accident, they might need emergency medical treatment -- not information, not an ebook.

 

So whether you should collect the lead first, or just go right for the sale depends on what you are selling.

 

The big advantage of collecting the lead first is that once you have the lead on your email list, you have an unlimited number of opportunities to close the sale in the future.

 

But if your one-shot sales letter approach fails the first time, there’s no second chance, at least with that person.  They are on to the next site and you have no way to follow up.

 

I’m a big believer in building a list.

 

I believe the most valuable asset a business has is a list of hot prospects and happy customers.  So that’s what I focus on – building targeted traffic and collecting names and email addresses so that I have a big list of prospects and customers.

 

My philosophy is, if I have a list, I can always come up with new things to sell to my list.  But if I have no list, I could have the greatest product in the world, but no real way to sell it.

 

Google’s Unreliable Traffic Estimator Tool

 

Here a side note that can be important.

 

Google’s Traffic Estimator is suppose to estimate your ad’s position based on you maximum bids for your keywords.  It’s completely and utterly unreliable. Almost always it’s too optimistic.  If the Traffic Estimator Tool forecasts your ad in position #3 on the first page, the reality is it could be on page 3, not position 3 

 

Traffic Estimator is usually way off the mark.

 

One reason is that your maximum bid for a click is only part of Google’s formula for ranking ads.  The other part has to do with the quality of your ad and the quality of your website – which Google also measures.  Plus, Google really has no idea how many clicks your ad will get until your ad is up and running.

 

So don’t rely on Google’s Traffic Estimator Tool to make projections.  It’s almost useless.

 

The only real way to know how much you will need to bid to achieve your desired rank for your ad, how much traffic your ad will generate, and what your daily expenditure will be is to launch a live campaign and track it. 

 

Content Network

 

So when should you start running your ads on Google’s Content Network?

 

Again, this will depend on the kind of product you are selling.  If you are selling the kind of product that is of interest to a more general audience, you have a good chance to make it work for you.

 

It also depends on how well your ads are working on search engines.  If you are having trouble making your ads work on the Google Search Engine Network, your ads won’t work on Content.

 

Click-through-rates are always lower (much lower) on Content. And those who do click covert at lower rates also.

 

My Google ads are working so well that I also run my ads on Google’s Search and Content Network.

 

I know that the leads I’m getting from the Content Network convert at only half the rate (or less) than the leads I get from Google’s search engine.  But I don’t mind because the leads coming from the Content Network are still plenty profitable.

 

And I get more traffic from the AdSense sites than I get from the search engines.

 

If it’s costing me 60 cents to make a $1, I’ll take it.

 

Sure, I’d prefer to spend 20 cents to make a $1.  But I’ll also trade 60 cents for a $1 all day long.

 

So for my ad campaigns, both Search Network and Content Network are turned on full bore.

 

But this is hugely important.

 

Google lets you set separate maximum bids per click for its Content Network.

 

If your maximum bid-per-click is $1 on Google, you should start out making your maximum bid on content 10 cents a click and see how that does. 

 

If you forget to do this, you risk ringing up a big bill fast because the Content Network is so huge.  If your ads on Content Network are doing well, you can ramp up your bids to bring in more traffic . . . gradually.

 

Google also lets you track Search Nework results and Content results separately.

 

For my Inner Circle program, the Content Network works fine even though the leads covert to trial members at only about half the rate.

 

Super Bowl ads are not targeted either.  But they can work for the right product – a product that has broad general appeal.

 

The Content Network is a little like that.  It’s not as broad as a Super Bowl ad.  But it’s more of a broadcast than the kind of hyper-narrowcasting I favor.

 

The most cost-effective advertising is always super narrow and targeted.

 

You are aiming to please a niche.  You are aiming to meet the need of that person who is looking specifically for exactly what you are selling.

 

Once you’re able to achieve that, branch out from there.  But grab the low-hanging fruit first.

 

Don’t start by running Super Bowl ads.  And don’t start with the Content Network turned  on – which it is by default.  You need to turn it off to start or you’ll be shocked by your next credit card statement.

 

Protecting Yourself from Click Fraud

 

One problem on the Content Network is click fraud.

 

The reason this is a problem is because the owners of sites in the AdSense program are paid a commission from Google on every AdWords ad that’s running on their site. 

 

So there is strong incentive for AdSense site owners to engage in click fraud.  Theoretically, a crooked site owner could sit there all day clicking on your ad that’s running on his site and run up your AdWords bill to stratospheric proportions. 

 

The good news is Google is doing a good job of policing this.  This was a much bigger problem in the old days, not as much of a problem now.

 

Google is doing a better job everyday of limiting its Content Network to truly good sites.

 

Sites that Google believes are engaging in click fraud are booted out of the AdSense program.  Google is the world’s expert at tracking people’s activity and behavior on the Internet.  No one is better at this than Google.

 

Few AdSense site owners want to be banned for life from the AdSense program and risk prison time.

 

Nevertheless, there is a great tool that will protect you from click fraud and, more importantly,  help you dramatically improve the results of your ads running on the Content Network. It’s called PPSeer – The Content Network Tracker.

 

You’ll find the tool here: http://www.ppseer.com/

 

PPSeer tracks the results of your Google Content Network ads site by site.

 

The reason this is crucial to your success is that Google allows you to say “No” to specific sites.  

 

Presto!

 

You can then cherry-pick the AdSense Content Network sites that are delivering results.  You can stop your ads from running on poor performing sites. 

 

Google also allows you to list the specific sites where you want your ads to appear. Quality sites such as The New York Times, About.com, Wikipedia and many other name-brand information sites are part of Google’s Content Network.

 

So there really is not much of a reason anymore to hire an ad agency to handle placement of your ads on the Internet.  Google and you can handle most of it.  My latest report shows my ads are running on 10,346 sites on the Content Network. How will an ad agency help me get a bigger, better audience for my ads on the Internet than this?

 

But I would not do this without PPSeer.

 

PPSeer is a tracking tool that works a lot like Google’s Conversion Tracker and Analytics. It gives you code you paste on your “thank you” pages for your  sign-up form and “order confirmation”  pages.  And it does not interfere with Google’s Conversion Tracker or Analytics. 

 

You can have all three tracking tools running at the same time, as I do.

 

With PPSeer, you can track clicks and see what percentage of clicks from each AdSense site leads to conversions.  PPSeer is an indispensable tool for my Content Network ad campaigns.

 

Demographic Site Selection

 

Google now allows you to use demographic criteria when you tell Google what kinds of sites you want your ad to appear on in the Content Network.  Criteria options include age, gender, income, ethnicity, children or no children, subject of interest, and other categories.  Google is always adding more categories to help you more accurately target your ads.  It’s up to you to take advantage of them.

 

There is, of course, no way Google can accurately know for certain what demographic characteristics describe a particular person who is looking at a computer screen at any one time.

 

Google makes a best guess at the kind of people who visit a site.

 

If you are showing your ads on the Content Network, you want to make sure you carefully review what sites your ads are running on. This is another tool that will help you achieve better targeting for your ads.  

 

Here is how Google describes this tool:

 

What is demographic site selection?

 

Demographic site selection is a way to find and run your ads on sites with the right audience for your AdWords campaigns.

 

A demographic group is an audience that shares a particular trait or characteristic. This trait might be age, gender, income, or some other factor. If your product appeals to young women, for instance, you might want to target sites popular with the female demographic, the 18-24 age demographic, or both.

 

With the AdWords site tool, you can pick your preferences in up to three different demographic categories. The system will analyze your preferences and create a list of available Google Network sites that are popular with that audience. If you select multiple demographics, the AdWords system will look for sites that match all of your preferences. For instance, you might ask the site tool to look for sites popular with users who have children, or for sites popular with men earning a high income. The site tool will then return a list of sites whose audience tends to match those demographic descriptions.

 

The demographic site selection option is found on the 'Identify sites' page when you create a new site-targeted campaign, or on the site tool in an existing site-targeted campaign. In both cases you'll also be able to use two other options to find sites: listing site URLs and describing topics that match your ad. We recommend using those methods along with demographic site selection to identify the very best sites for your ad to appear. For more detailed instructions, please see this Help Center entry: How do I use the site tool?

 

The demographic website data used by AdWords comes from comScore Media Metrix, an Internet audience measurement provider. At this time, AdWords has demographic information on users from the United States only. For this reason, demographic site selection is available only for campaigns which geo-target users in the United States. If your campaign doesn't geo-target the United States, you will not see the demographic option on the site tool.

 

Please remember that demographic site selection cannot guarantee that your ad will reach only the exact audience you select. Most public websites get a variety of visitors. However, demographic site selection will help you choose sites where you're very likely to find the people you want to reach.

 

 

Getting “Google Slapped”

 

“Dang, my ad’s just been Google slapped!”

 

I hear this frustration all the time.

 

What happens is Google disables your ad for certain keywords you have selected.  It happens to me.  It happens to everyone. Sometimes Google will not approve or disable your entire ad, not just individual keyword selections.

 

Google might also tell you that you need to bid a higher amount for your keyword to reactivated; or that you need to improve the quality of your ad.

 

Google is telling you one of two things:

 

1) Everyone else is bidding $1 or more for the keyword because this is a highly competitive and popular keyword and Google is not interested in your maximum bid of 10 cents.

 

2) More likely, Google is telling you the keyword you’ve chosen has very little to do with your ad.  There’s no match, or not enough of a match.

 

Don’t get mad at Google when this happens.

 

Google is doing you a favor by disabling your ad.

 

Google does not want to deliver ads to searchers that have little or nothing to do with the topic being searched for. 

 

Now, there is a third surprise that can happen.

 

Sometimes Google disables keywords and gives you the option of activating these keywords for an exorbitant price – such as $10 per click, or even higher.

 

What Google is telling you here is that there is a problem with your landing page and website.

 

There seems to be no match between the ad and the landing page and site.

 

Google wants to take its customers (the searchers) to sites that are directly related to what they are searching for – not to sites that do not have what the searcher is looking for.

 

Again, Google is doing you a big favor by disabling your keywords.  Google is saving you money.  Business owners and advertisers get angry when Google slaps them like this.  But they shouldn’t. Google is helping us when it slaps down one of our ads or disables our keywords.  Google is telling us, “Your ad is no good.  Or your site is no good.”

 

Google wants to deliver its customers (the searchers) quality sites with lots of valuable information.

 

Google really does not want to deliver folks to just one page sites -- that is, to sites that are just landing pages.

 

Google wants to see a lot of relevant content on your landing page.  Google also wants to see links going out of your landing page to other pages on your site.

 

Google would also like to see links from other sites pointing to your site – especially from sites that are on the same topic.  This indicates to Google that your site is respected by those who should know.

 

Google looks at all these factors in deciding how high to rank your ad.

 

It’s not just about how much you are willing to pay to get a click.  And it’s not just about how good your ad is at getting clicks.

 

It’s also about the quality of the information on your site.  Is your site a site that Google will be proud to serve up to its customers?

 

Google does not want to deliver sites that are just ads, and ads only – even for its PPC ad program.  Google wants to deliver quality sites to its customers.

 

Google has all kinds of ways to measure that.

 

Google’s spiders crawl through your site.  They see if the right keywords are on your site, in the right places and in the right distribution.  They check the links on your site to see where they lead, and links coming into your site.

 

Most importantly, Google tracks visitor reaction to your site.  How long do your visitors stay? Do your visitors click the links to explore your site and then come back to the page where your ad took your visitor?

 

Google tracks all this and more.

 

So that means the landing page for your website needs to break some of the rules of effective landing pages that I outlined earlier in the “landing page” chapter in this book for your other ad campaigns.

 

The best landing pages have no outgoing links – and frankly very little content – just a sign-up form and the offer, plus some explanatory text.

 

But that doesn’t pass muster with Google – and for good reason, from both the perspective of Google and Google’s search customers. Because what is it that makes Google so valuable?

 

What makes Google valuable to searchers is if Google delivers great information and great websites to searchers in its search results lists.

 

So you need to take that reality into account as you develop your Google ads and landing pages.

 

Turn Off “Budget Optimizer”

 

Do this unless you want to turn control over your finances and marketing decisions to Google.

 

With “Budget Optimizer” turned on you will no longer see you bids at all.  You just pick your keywords for your ads, tell Google you budget, and Google takes over from there -- managing your account for you.

 

Don’t allow that.

 

My exception to this rule is if you would like to see how you do compared to how Google does managing your account.  That can be interesting.  Kind of like seeing if the human can beat the computer in chess.  The difference is, Google has no way of knowing what your goals are.

 

What budget optimizer does is maximize the number of clicks on the keywords you have chosen for the money you want to spend.  The problem is, not all clicks are equal.  Some keywords produce a lot of clickers and few buyers.  Other keywords produce fewer clicks, but more buyers.

 

If you can’t even see what Google is bidding on your keywords, if Google is keeping all this secret, than that’s not even of much use to you as a research tool.  Google is keeping its bidding strategy secret because it does not want to reveal its algorhythms.

 

Still, it can be fun to see if you can beat the machine.  If you find that you can’t, consider leaving Budget Optimizer turned on.  I do far better with it turned off.

 

Here’s something else to be careful off.

 

If you turn “Budget Optimizer” on to see if you can beat the machine, Google erases all your old bids and keeps no record of them for you.  So all your history will be lost simply by checking the “on” switch for “Budget Optimizer.”

 

What will also happen is that whatever budget you give Google, it will max-out on your budget.  So you will spend more money then you would have managing your own budget.

 

Why?

 

Because you probably won’t max-out your budget every step of the way. Google will.

 

That’s not Google’s fault.  You’ve told Google to spend the money.  So Google will spend it, every penny.  Every time I’ve tried it, I have increased my spending and decreased my Return on Investment (ROI).

 

Will AdWords Work for Local Business?

 

Heck, yes!

 

More than 60% of Internet searches are for local business!

 

Real estate is one classic example.

 

When you are first setting up your campaign on Google, you can select countries, language, regions and cities.  You can even customize your campaign so that your ads only appear within a certain distance from your business.

 

Google uses IP address and some other tricks to track where searchers are searching from.

Keep in mind that this level of match is only available on Google, not for ads running on it’s AdSense Content Network sites.

If someone in New York is looking for tee-shirts in Los Angeles and specifies that in the search, Google will override its IP address restriction and show the Los Angeles locations selling tee-shirts.

Because of the way Google identifies local searchers, it’s essential that you also set up a national campaign to market your local business.  The second campaign is not actually a national campaign, just configured as a national campaign in Google.

Your locally configured campaign can include more generic keywords, while all your keywords for your national campaign would need to include your state and the names of towns in your local trading area.  The reason it’s important to configure ads both ways is:

 

1. Google identifies local searchers primarily through IP address.  But searchers who are using a large ISP such as AOL will be routed through proxy servers.  So the IP address Google sees might not be anywhere near the location of the searcher.

 

2. Many people search at work and have long commutes.  If they are searching for something near home and not near work, the local businesses Google gives the searcher might not be close to where she’ll be shopping.

 

If you read the Region and City Targeting Accuracy section in the Google AdWords Learning Center, you’ll see the problem.  You’ll find that here:

http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/19167.html#19172

 

Note also that Google adds a fifth line of text to local ads in order to distinguish them from national ads. This helps you if you are a local business.  So you certainly want to benefit from the local business designation – another reason to be sure to set up your business in Google as a local business.  But create a national ad as well, with local area names included in your keyword phrases.

 

To do this, go to a map and make a list of  all towns and locations in your local trading area. Include these locations with your keywords.  If you are a roller skating rink, your keyword list for your national ad will look something like this if you select “phrase match” or “exact match” as your level of match:

                       

                        san diego roller skating

                        roller skating san diego

la jolla roller skating california

other surrounding towns, etc.

 

Start with “exact match”; then expand to “phrase match” and “broad match” if you want more traffic.

 

For your nationally configured ad promoting a local business, you will have a big list of keyword combinations.

 

When you select “exact match” or “phrase match,” you need to think of every possible combination that specifies the service and location.  This might give you a list of 200 keyword combinations, or more.

 

Get Your Local Business Included on Google Maps

 

Local businesses are eligible to appear in two places:

 

1) On the regular ad listings on Google, Search Network and Content Network.

2) Also on Google maps!

 

Google is now emphasizing the importance of collecting data on local businesses. This is certainly going to help Google continue to add massively to its already massive business database.  But it’s also enormously helpful to local business.

 

To have your local business included in Google maps and the enhanced listing, you need to go to Google’s “Local Business Center” and register your business.  Google walks you through the steps on how to do that.

 

Once your business is registered at the Local Business Center for maps, Google will display an interactive map both next to the organic listing and PPC listing. Each local listing for your search category is marked on the map with a red balloon.

 

If someone clicks your red balloon, the map zooms into your location and a big balloon pops up on the map with you and your local competitors highlighted in the balloon.  So if you are searching for Italian restaurants in Boston, Google will show you on a map a selection of Italian restaurants -- including their location, contact information, directions and even reviews by others.

 

When the searcher clicks your business all the information you provide on your business then pops into view.  You can include a ton of information in there – a list and description of your services, your hours of operation, ways you accept payment, address and phone number, directions, links to your website, and more.

 

Google even includes a printable coupon feature.  You decide what the coupon should say.  Your prospective customers can then print them.

 

This tool is becoming more important everyday for local business. 

 

If you are a local business and are not included in Google maps, you are missing the boat in a big way.  So if you are a local business, you absolutely must also register at the Google’s Local Business Center in addition to creating your regular AdWords campaigns. 

 

For your Local Business Center ads, Google wants the name of your business in the headline of the ad.  This violates my rule on what makes a good AdWords headline, but that’s what Google wants for its Local Business Center ads.  Google was to capture the look and feel of a directory (similar to the Yellow Pages) with its Local Business Center ads.

 

But that does not stop you from also creating ads in your regular AdWords account. You must do both.

 

Try Other Pay-Per-Click Ad Programs

 

Google is one search engine. And it’s by far the biggest one.  But there are lots of other search engines out there and they all have pay per click advertising programs.

 

And you can often get keywords for less per click than you can on Google.  You’ll get less traffic, but really what matters most is how much are you paying for a lead.  If you can get the same quality name for less on another search engine, you should do it.

 

Yahoo has the second biggest PPC program. Exact Seek, MSN and all the major search engines have PPC programs.  So do the online Yellow Pages and Super Pages. 

 

I love pay-per-click advertising because I have complete control over my costs.  I can monitor how my ads are doing minute to minute.  I can turn off or change a campaign anytime I want.  I always know exactly how my ads are doing.

 

Pay-per-click gives me more control over my advertising and over my costs than any other form of advertising.   That’s why 70% of my online advertising is in the pay-per-click arena.

 

The best way to learn is just to start doing it.

 

 

Your AdWords Checklist for Success

 

__ Turn off most of Google’s default settings.

 

___ Start by having your ads show only on Google. Turn off Content Network and Search Network to start.

 

__ Start with Exact Match for keyword searches.  Turn off Broad Match and Phrase Match to start.

 

__ Make sure your geographic and language settings are correctly set.

 

__ Pick keywords and phrases your likely buyers are typing into search engines. Put yourself in their place. What is are they looking for? 

 

__ Start by bidding low – perhaps 10 cents a click.  If traffic is too light, ramp up slowly – a nickel at a time.

 

__ Don’t worry about being ranked #1 on the first page for your keyword.  That might require you overpaying for clicks. For competitive keyword categories, a rank around #5 has delivered the best ROI for me.

 

__ For super-competitive keyword categories, I don’t mind if my ad is on page two of the Google list.  Searches who get to page two and deeper tend to be more qualified as leads.

 

__ Do not take clickers on your ad to the home page of your website.  Take them to a landing page specifically designed for your ad.  Your landing page should be a continuation of you ad.

 

__ Include your main keywords in the headline of both your ad and landing page.

 

__  Determine the primary goal of your ad and landing page.  What is your “Most Wanted Response”? Is it to make a sale or collect a lead?

 

__ Do everything in your creative power to capture the names and email addresses of visitors to your site by offering something of value free ( such as an eBook or “white paper” on the subject of their keyword search).

 

__ Build rapport and cultivate relationships by continuing to send your opt-in subscribers a valuable ezine that’s on the subject of their keyword search that brought them to your site in the first place.

 

__ Are you ready to do business when your ad campaign is on? Do you have a merchant account, a shopping cart, a way to take payments?

 

__ Does the headline of your ad stress the main benefit to the read of clicking on your ad?

 

__ Don’t make your ads about you. Make your ads about what your prospective customer is looking for.

 

__ Don’t use technical jargon in your ads. What the heck is a “gigabyte”?  Instead, follow the lead of Apple’s great ad for its iPod: “1,000 Songs In Your Pocket.” What’s the main benefit to your reader of what you are offering?

 

__ Don’t try to buy your way to the top of Google’s search engine for an off-the-mark ad that’s getting few clicks.  Write a great ad, that gets lots of clicks – targeted clicks from people who are looking for what you are selling.

  

__ Read my book How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters to learn how to write killer sales copy.  All the rules there apply to selling on the Internet.

 

__ Specific problems require equally specific solutions.  Offer specific solutions in your ad copy and on your landing pages. “Improve Your Golf Score” is not nearly as strong as “Cure Your Slice in Five Swings.”

 

__ Understand who your customer is and what she’s looking for.  Then provide it.

 

__ Every search and every click represents someone with a need.   Can you fill that need?

 

__ Read my book Automatic Marketing to learn how to become a world-class marketer.  All the rules in that book apply here.

 

__ Have more than one product to offer that’s on the subject of the keyword searches that brought visitors to your site. Have a steady stream of follow-up products and upgrade products. It’s tough to build a business on just one product.

 

__  Make an extensive list of keywords and phrases that you believe your customers are typing into search engines to find the main product or service you are selling.

 

__ Put all your keywords and keyword combinations on a Excel spreadsheet so that you can move them around easily and group families of keywords and phrases together.

 

__ Take families of underperforming keywords and create separate ads and landing pages specifically tailored for those families of keywords.  This can result in you having many ads and landing pages, each with its small family of keywords.

 

__ If your landing page is intended for “lead generation”, is the free ebook, “white paper” or other free gift you are offering of high enough value to your visitor that she will want to fill out your sign-up form to get it.

 

__ Is your free offer that’s designed to get leads to fill out your form exactly in line with the AdWords ad that brought them to your site? (It must not be off the mark, even a little).

 

__ Have an email marketing system (such as Aweber.com or iContact.com) set up before you launch your AdWords campaign so that you can capture leads and follow-up with email.

 

__ Use powerful keyword research tools to help you brainstorm your keywords, such as Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com

 

__ Don’t forget to include Negative Keywords – words that disqualify your ad from being shown where certain words are typed into an engine. A good negative keyword might be “free” if you don’t want clickers who are looking just for “free” stuff.

 

__ Always split-test two ads at a time. “Test” is the most important principle in marketing.

 

__ Use Google Conversion Tracker to track conversions on your landing page.

 

__ Use Google Analytics to track visitor behavior on your site.         

 

__ Test landing pages to see which ones are doing the best job of converting visitors into leads and then into buyers.

 

__Offer one and only one thing with your pay-per-click ad. If you sell more than one product, create different ads, one for each product . . . with each ad leading to a “landing page” also deigned to sell that one product.

 

__ If your ad is working well, turn on Search Network and see how that goes.

 

__ If your ad works on Search Network, test Content Network.

 

__ Start by setting bids low for Content Network. You can set separate bids of Content Network and Search Network.

 

__ Use the PPSeer.com tracking tool to see how individual sites on the Content Network are performing for you.

 

__ Tell Google not to run ads on sites that are delivering a lot of clicks, but few sales.

 

__ If your ads are  running on the Ad Sense Content Network, understand how to use Demographic and Site Targeting.

 

__ Don’t use Google Budget Optimizer (unless you want Google managing your finances and making your marketing decisions).

 

__ If you are a local business, set up three kinds of ads – one configured for local business, one configured nationally but that uses names of local area towns and cities with keywords describing your service, and one in Google’s Local Business Center so that your local business appears with an enhanced interactive listing on Google Maps.

 

__ Don’t ignore the pay-per-click ad programs other search engines and many directories offer. offer.  Yahoo Search Marketing is the #2 PPC program – and well worth using.

 

__ Use Google AdWords to conduct super cheap, quick and accurate market research for all your advertising and marketing campaigns (whether offline or online).