Fri - June 22, 2007

Google's PPA Universe Expands - IMS #125


Google's PPA (pay per action) beta has just been released world wide. (Pay-per-action advertising allows you to pay only for completed actions that you define, such as a form submission, lead, sale, page view, etc.)

There are still some qualifications though. According to product manager Rob Kniaz, "Advertisers who use AdWords conversion tracking, and receive more than 500 conversions from their pay-per-click (PPC), or pay-per-impression (PPM) campaigns in the most recent 30-day period, will be invited to join this beta test, on a rolling basis."

So how do you get invited? "Eligible advertisers will see an alert in their AdWords account, informing them that they can now try the PPA beta."

To learn more about Google's PPA program visit:
==> http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=11635

Posted at 11:51 AM    

Wed - June 6, 2007

The Biggest Mistake in PPC Advertising - IMS #124


The biggest mistake people make in PPC advertising, is that you try to do too much too soon. How can such a tiny ad cause such big trouble?

You've heard it said, that you need a giant keyword list and to dump them all into the ad system. You then bid on as many long tail terms as you can find. It sounds good in theory, but it rarely works.

What does work is a tightly focused little group. Maybe six to ten closely related keyword phrases. These words lead to a single landing page where you bring the prospect into your sales funnel.

One person I heard of, blew over 10,000 dollars in less than seven days, on one single campaign. They choose prescriptiondrugs as their market. And they didn't make a single sale.

Why on earth would anyone do that? Wouldn't you close the floodgates after just 50 dollars and write a new ad. Or better yet, choose an entirely different market?

There is a way to get good at PPC. And it involves study and practice. You need to study the work of someone who's good at it, then practice what you've learned.

Any one of these would teach you what you need to know.

The Pay Per Click Formula ==> http://www.cdzn.com/ppc

PPC Traffic Conversion Seminar ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmt

Personal PPC Coaching ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmc

It's no secret, that you must earn more than you spend. So if you could get a system going where you consistently made double or triple your investment... how much would you invest?

If you're like most people, they'd invest all of it! If you could put 100 in and get 300 back on a consistent basis, you'd want to scale it up as quickly as possible. PPC advertising is a lot like that.

It is consistent and predictable traffic. Relying on traffic from SEO is not.

PPC can have traffic to your site in as little as 15 minutes. SEO traffic could take up to three months... but only if your site appears in the top 10 search results.

Little changes to your PPC ad can make a big difference in how much you earn. Little changes to your SEO can result in a page that loses its rankings.

The point is, PPC is a game. You need to learn the rules and practice the fundamentals, over and over, until you become a master of the art.

You need to learn how to write the ads. All it takes is a headline, two lines of copy, and an url. But how can something so small be so tricky?

When I first started running a PPC campaign, I bid on too many words. It soon became apparent that only certain words were converting.

Some phrases got clicked on, some got clicked a lot. But without that little bit of tracking code supplied by Google for my thank you page, I'd never know which keywords actually converted into customers.

That's the first thing you can do... track the results. Because like the rabbit said, "If you don't know were you're going, then any path will take you there."

You definitely want - at the very least - to track the amount of sign ups and sales you are getting from your ads. The more closely you track each change, the better your conversion process will be.

And don't get discouraged or give up. Sometimes it will take a little time and effort to find your groove. For me, the keywords that I thought I should use, turned out to be way too competitive.

It took a while, but I finally found my keywords and my groove. I now dominate that phrase on PPC ads.

My ad gets as high as 5% clickthrough. My landing page gets as high as 63% conversion. Those are unheard of numbers. But the statistics don't lie, and I can prove them to anyone who asks.

But I didn't get good at this alone. I studied everything that the leading AdSense experts wrote. Got their books, courses, and listened to all the audio files many times.

If there is one thing that I learned, it's that you must start small. And very small things in your ad can make a big difference. Something as tiny as a comma or missing period, can have a huge effect on sales.

But the best part? It's a lot of fun. Way more fun than doing SEO and having to wait three months to see results. PPC is immediate gratification.

Sure it has costs associated with it, but so does SEO. One costs per click, the other takes a lot of time, in content and link building.

PPC is an art form. Some people love to practice it, not because it's easy, but because once you "get it" you can repeat it. You can scale it up.

The amount you make, is in direct proportion to the amount of practice you put in. The amount you practice is directly related to how much you know. What you know comes through study.

So what are you going to do? Sit there and worry about not getting enough search engine traffic... or are you going to do something about it.

If you get good at PPC advertising, it's the only traffic source that you'll ever need. It's consistent and predictable. And the amount of traffic that turns into customers, is entirely up to you.

Posted at 04:39 PM    

Sun - May 13, 2007

AdWords Editor Version 3.5 - IMS #123


Did you know that you can manage AdWords from your desktop?

AdWords Editor is Google's free, downloadable account management application for your computer. Download your AdWords account to your computer, make your changes, then upload your revised campaigns.

This week they released version 3.5, which includes support for image ads, campaign targeting by region and city, plus a drag 'n drop feature that makes it easier to move items from one location to another.

AdWords Editor ==> http://www.google.com/adwordseditor/

Posted at 02:40 PM    

Mon - April 16, 2007

Google Ads Changing Daily


One thing Google changed is the way that it displays PPC AdWords ads, that appear above the organic search results. They changed the background color from blue to yellow.

It makes sense, as blue is a cool color and fades more into the white background. Yellow being a warm color is more visible and draws more attention to it, without being over the top.

In addition, to prevent accidental clicks, the user must click on the link in the headline. Until now, you could click anywhere in the box, including blank spaces.

My tests reveal 3% more clicks for the same ad in the top spot. Conversions have remained the same.

So moral of the story, to avoid "click happy" searchers, and maximize your conversions, choose to be somewhere between positions 3 - 5 for your PPC ads. But as always, your market will be different, so test and track your results.

Another change, was to the way some AdSense ad units are displayed. The border around the ads slimmed down to a hairline, and the block that says "Ads by Google" became a narrow tab. Google did this to make them look "less like" ads. My early test results show no increase in clicks.

And last but not least, they started a series about their TOS or terms of service. The AdSense unit really started cracking down on sites with ad units that were positioned in line with graphics.

So be warned... or better yet, stay informed. If you play with either AdSense or AdWords, you really must visit their respective blogs daily. Or better yet subscribe and have the news emailed to you.

Google AdSense Blog ==> http://adsense.blogspot.com

Google AdWords Blog ==> http://adwords.blogspot.com

Posted at 03:27 PM    

Thu - February 22, 2007

How Long Does a PPC Ad Need to Run? - IMS #119


Question: I'm doing some split-testing on my AdWords ads. My question is, how many clicks do I need to get, before concluding the split test and running a new ad?

Answer: After researching numerous sources, it seems like the oddsmakers and psychologists agree. You'll need to run your PPC ad for at least 30 clicks. It eliminates the possibility of dumb luck or chance.

The trick is to make two ads. You have one ad compete against the other. Both ads must lead to exactly the same landing page. At this point, you're only testing the ads. You can test your landing pages later.

If after three days - or however long it takes - one ad gets 32 clicks and the other gets 24, the test is over. Research has shown, that the ratio between the numbers, will remain roughly the same as more clicks come in.

This means, that the ad with 32 clicks is the clear winner. Now it becomes your "control piece." It is the yardstick, with which you measure all other ads that you create. It's the one to beat.

What you are trying to achieve is maximum clickthrough on your ad. Some people are happy with 1.5% but I always try to get between 2-3%. I keep tweaking and writing new ads until I get there.

(By getting a higher clickthrough, you end up paying less for each AdSense and Panama click. They actually reward "better" ads by moving them higher up in the paid search results.)

Then once I've tested my ad on Google, I'm ready to run the ad on the other search engines. I don't tweak it any longer at this point. I just let it run.

How long do I let the ad run? Well... there is no finite end to an ad. As long as it remains profitable, I'll continue to run the ad.

Your advertising is never finished... it just keeps going and going and...

Posted at 10:59 AM    

Tue - November 28, 2006

Get a High Quality Score and Low PPC Prices


To pay the lowest cost per click, do you use a landing page for Google AdWords? Others claim that you need to build a content site, in addition to a landing page, in order to get a quality score. Does this argument have merit? ~ Mark

From what I've experienced, the Quality Score (QS) is assessed to an entire site. So it really doesn't show up as a problem, until you try driving traffic using AdWords. Then you'll find out.

Sometimes you can send PPC traffic direct to the merchant. If there's no other competition for that url, and they allow you to deep link into their site, it can have a decent conversion.

If however, the merchant's site is banned, or they've participated in questionable practices, or for some other reason the GadBot (Google AdSense Robot) has assigned a low QS to their site, you'll pay a lot more per click.

So it's the site that gets a low quality score. Not the landing page per se.

Same deal with a landing page on a domain name that you own. If your site has been given a low QS, then its better to add more content to the landing page, and a couple of links to additional content.

If none of that works, you may need to send the traffic to a different website. Simply swap out the domain of the destination page in your AdWords ad, and see if that makes a difference.

I've used landing pages with moderate success. I either do a product review, or compare three to five different products. I have affiliate links leading to all of them, so it really doesn't matter which one they choose, I get a commission.

Lately, I've set up a new series of experiments using articles. I start talking about 10 different things, until I conclude the article with an affiliate link as the best solution to the problem. (I'll let you know how it goes as the results come in.)

This time I've targeted business instead of consumers. Businesses tend to order a lot more of an item... think office supplies or catering companies. Big orders...

And yes, a lot of my PPC campaigns are on related keywords, and the landing pages are on the same website. It's slowly becoming a big site - and starting to perform better in organic search results - simply because I'm always adding pages to it.

But you don't "need" a big site to get a good Quality Score. All you really need are good landing pages.

Tell a story, or add information about the product, that the consumer wouldn't already know. Ask yourself, if you would have created the page if AdSense didn't exist.

Make sure you have enough quality content on the page. Stay away from hype words. Include a couple of links on the page. And if you're trying to capture contact information, include a privacy policy. If you do all that, you should be ok.

Then test and track for best results. Keep what works, and always try little things to compete with your control piece, to improve your clickthrough and sellthrough ratios.

Posted at 07:00 PM    

Sat - November 25, 2006

Squeeze Pages Don't Work


Do you use AdWords to send traffic to your landing page where you pre-sell your visitors? Or do you use a name-squeeze page?

It depends on the product and the target market. And if it's easy to understand or if there's a lot of explaining to do.

When I use PPC for everyday goods and services, I always use a landing page. Conversions in my tests run up to 300% higher than linking straight to the merchant. (Which is still allowed BTW.)

Most internet marketing tools and software have a very small market. So it's not really worth the effort of going the PPC route. They are so "market saturated" by all the opportunists with lists, that after the feeding frenzy, everyone whom may have been interested, has already heard.

Squeeze pages??? They don't work. Yes, they get a lot of subscribers, but they're mostly garbage addresses and people tend to unsubscribe once they get their goods. I have done extensive testing on them, but haven't published my findings yet.

They are also very dangerous if the marketer is collecting unconfirmed addresses. They are in violation of the CANSPAM regulations and the whitelisting rules for AOL, Yahoo, MSN, HotMail and others.

If you do try to add a double confirmation process, subbies drop like a rock. You'll get over 60% less according to my tests. But that's an article for another day.

Posted at 03:05 PM    

Tue - November 21, 2006

Learn Successful PPC Advertising


I recently downloaded your ebooks, and they are excellent. I've decided to try the Fast Track AdWords method in the Clickin' it Rich Action Plan. In it, you recommend getting Perry Marshall's book to learn more about AdWords.

I've gotten a bunch of promos for seven different products. It's hard to choose with so many brilliant sales letters! I want something focused on using AdWords for promoting affiliate products. Can you please help me choose? ~ Sandy

Hello Sandy. Glad to hear you liked the courses and have decided on the Fast Track. I'm going to be focusing my energy in that direction as well, in the next couple of weeks.

I like Perry Marshall for his engineering background. He tests everything and doesn't leave anything to chance. He still has the best work that I've read to date, on writing ads for use in AdWords. His teachings are why my ads get higher click through ratios than my competition.

Perry Marshall's AdWords Guide ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmg

Perry Marshall's AdWords Coaching ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmc

There's also Perry's Traffic Conversion Seminar, which includes 14 DVDs on a range of topics, AdWords arbitrage, market intelligence, Taguchi, copywriting, internet video, MP3 downloads, and three months of the Mastermind Club. It's not cheap, but good advice, that's tested and proven to work, never is.

Perry Marshall's Conversion Seminar ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmt

When it comes to writing the landing pages, there's so much info and misinformation that it's truly hard to know what to believe. Unlike some dudes who only write what they heard about, I prefer people who are practicing the craft on a daily basis.

And as you noted, as more "experts" come into the internet marketing space it's hard to keep track of, or "know" everyone. Not to say their material isn't any good, but unless it comes to me with a strong referral from one of my friends, I'm not likely to invest my time in reading it.

Two people I do know from their earlier work, are pioneers when it comes to using PPC and Google AdWords to promote affiliate programs. They are Chris Carpenter and his protege, Jeremy Wilson.

I've been receiving the Google Cash updates and they appear pretty good. I received the latest one just yesterday. So if you are a Google Cash member, you should be getting the updates.

So far I've read the"Google Slap Retort" PDF and his info is very accurate. It reflects the same results I'm getting from my tests. And I just started listening to the audio - there is four hours of it - so I cannot comment fully other than to say it's good so far.

Chris Carpenter's Google Cash Method ==> http://www.cdzn.com/gc

So for my money... and more importantly my time, I limited my AdWords teachers to Perry Marshall, Chris Carpenter and Jeremy Wilson. They were all I needed to get started in the Fast Track to success with profitable ads and landing pages.

Posted at 03:50 PM    

Keyword Elite vs. Nichebot


Just a quick question. Have you ever used the new Keyword Elite? Do you know whether it would offer any significant advantage over Nichebot2 in getting information for AdWords promotions.

It's supposed to be "the thing" right now for AdWords and AdSense. I'm thinking of getting it, but would rather wait for a more experienced opinion, and I trust your judgement. ~ Sam

Hello Sam. I watched all the videos for Keyword Elite and have to say, it's an impressive piece of software that blows away the all others in its class.

I'll be buying it next week when I launch my new landing page campaign. (I want to get my ads rolling and approved before the big December rush.)

I can see it being very useful if you're using AdWords to promote products. It shows the competition, their ads, bid prices and helps you find underutilized keywords to bid on.

It helps with AdSense by showing the highest paying keywords, so you know what kinds of sites to build. It would also help if you go the keyword arbitrage route.

It has very little overlap with Nichebot though. They are two very different tools, focused in different markets. One looks at PPC (pay per click) and the other specializes in finding niches for organic search.

So yes, I think Keyword Elite is very useful when it comes to running and managing PPC campaigns. But when it comes to finding a niche, keyword digging and market research for affiliate revenue, I'll stick with Nichebot.

Keyword Elite for PPC Analysis ==> http://www.cdzn.com/ke

Nichebot for Keyword Research ==> http://www.cdzn.com/nb2

Posted at 02:44 PM    

Mon - April 10, 2006

Quick Market Research for AdSense Publishers


Using the new Online Gold Finder makes AdSense market research easy.

Launch the software, specify how many searches per month, plus the minimum and maximum cost per click. Then press the button and it brings back a list of all the keywords and keyphrases that match your request.

In other words, you don't need to know where the markets are. The Online Gold Finder will tell you. In just a few seconds, you'll know what people are searching for and how much the advertisers are paying. Then once you have this info, you can set up affiliate revenue sites, or plug the keywords into your main keyword harvesting / scraping tool to build portals.

So if you want instant market research without having to do the work, then this software might just be perfect for you. And yes, it works equally well for both niche site marketers and portal revenue models.

Gold Finder ==> http://www.cdzn.com/ogf

Posted at 08:10 PM    

Fri - October 28, 2005

Auto Income Secrets


Neil Shearing has been very busy creating his latest course, Auto Income Secrets. The premise is simple enough... find high paying keywords, put up websites, put ads on the sites, earn money from the ads automatically. But here's what you didn't know...

Until now, no one - not even me - knew Neil's exact system. It is totally original and unique. Even if you already know how to build websites designed to make money from advertising, I promise you, there's nothing like this system online.

In addition, Neil shows you how to side-step the competition and make money from niches that are wide open. How to avoid playing the messy search engine optimization game. How to build hundreds of pages using unbelievably powerful software that makes every page unique!

Neil will also show you how to make all your pages so beautiful, that they look like a true "home grown" website. You'll discover the easiest way to get tons of links and search engine spiders to your site. Plus how to get indexed quickly and get traffic as soon as possible.

He takes you through each and every step. He shows you exactly what to do, how to do it and explains why each step is necessary. This is a complete Auto Income system, from A to Z.

Posted at 06:46 PM    

Sat - June 4, 2005

Low Cost Hosting for AdWords Landing Pages


I'm following the Action Plan in Clickin' it Rich and will be using Google Adwords to promote affiliate programs. Where would you suggest hosting the landing pages?

You can host landing pages wherever you want. Get the cheapest you can find, so long as they've been in business a few years.

Afterall, they are just stand alone landing pages, not designed for regular search engines... they are strictly for PPC (pay per click) ads. Nothing fancy is required.

I find Hostica.com an easy choice for my PPC ads. Their servers are really fast and they've never been down. (Knock on wood ;-) And the one time I had a question, they answered the email support ticket the next day.

They send the set up information within four hours. After you point your domain name to their DNS, all you need to do is enter your host url, username, password, and you're ready to FTP your landing pages up to your server.

Best of all they're only a dollar a month. They also have plans available if you want to host several domains in the same account, but I found the budget account works just fine for landing pages.

And for a few extra coins a year, you can even get fancy statistics like AWStats. (Not that you need it but... when it comes to paying for AdWords ads... you might want to be sure the traffic that comes to your landing page, actually matches the clicks that Google says they're sending.)

by Michael Campbell
Internet Marketing Tools

Posted at 02:42 PM    

Mon - May 30, 2005

A Faster Less Complex Way to Make Money Online


Many students have reported making money online in as little as five hours. It's simple really and I show you how.

Reader Question - I have been online for several years, had a few websites and made no money. Last September I bought one year subscription to an all-in-one site builder, but so far I have not made a dime. I blame myself and nobody else.

I do have to admit though, that there is so much to read to make it work - it's almost driving me insane - hundreds and hundreds of pages to learn how to do everything. Are there other viewpoints on making money online, preferably a little faster and less complex?

Michael Campbell's Answer - For a fast and uncomplicated path, I recommend Clickin' it Rich. Many students have reported making an income in as little as five hours. It's simple really and I show you how to...

1) Do keyword research and identify a problem.

2) Be sure the market is there and people are willing to buy.

3) Find a solution to the problem. (I prefer digital downloadable ones.)

4) Create your landing pages with affiliate links on it.

5) Write your Google AdWords ads.

6) Place your tracking code on your web pages.

7) Activate your Google account and watch the traffic come

8) Track which ads lead to the desired course of action.

9) Split test ads, landing pages, sales letters, keeping the good ones, tossing the bad.

10) Repeat the process investing your profits back into your business.

Believe it or not, some people can absorb the info and act on it in just a few hours. Clickin' it Rich has evolved into a 60 page course, but the real quick way is to follow the Fast Track in the new 30 page Action Plan.

Add to that the Keyword Hotlist and the Top 25 Affiliate Markets and it jumpstarts the whole process so you don't even have to think. Just follow the steps as outlined in the Clickin' it Rich home business training system.

And if you've never advertised on Google, or are afraid of losing money, you don't need to be. Perry Marshall's Definitive Guide to Google AdWords prevents that. Once you do his course, you'll never be afraid of paying for advertising again.

Just as simple and essential as salt and pepper. Clickin' it Rich and the Definitive AdWord guide make a very effective combination.

by Michael Campbell
Author of Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter
Providing Successful Marketing Strategies Since 1988

Posted at 09:10 PM    

Mon - April 25, 2005

How to Make Google AdWords Landing Pages


A landing page is a single web page, that goes in-between your paid ad on Google and the final destination. Getting the visitor to take your desired course of action is both an art... and a science.

Question - Quick question about Google landing pages. Do you have a preferred set of dimensions for landing pages that you use, or do you let them resize to whatever the browser displays?

Answer - (First a little background... a landing page is usually a single web page, that goes in-between your paid ad on Google and the final destination where the purchase is made. Usually the affiliate is trying to pre-sell the visitor, get their email address, a sign up, or some other course of action.)

With landing pages, my starting point is to put my text in a table that’s 600 pixels. I use a Verdana font and try to keep my line lengths between 60 to 80 characters, with short sentences of eight words or less, with no more than three sentences per paragraph.

I try to put as much important information “above the fold” as possible. (That means without the reader having to use the mouse to scroll down the page.) That includes at least one link (usually in the opening headline) and a graphic of the product I’m trying to sell.

I also test the background color. I found higher clickthrough ratios when I used yellow for music pages, grey for computer pages, sky blue for TVs and aqua for insurance. In almost all instances, having a photo or graphic of the item being searched increased clickthrough rates and sales.

The exception was on the insurance sign up page, where clicks went up with no graphic present. The text was centered on an aqua background, with no info below the fold.

Yep, it all boils down the one thing marketers know they should be doing, but nearly all of them fail to do... floss after every meal. No just kidding! It's test and track.

Change nothing but the background color of the landing page. Then wait a few days and check the results. Repeat the process until you're happy with the clickthrough rate.

Finally, when writing content for your landing pages, remember that you are trying to convince someone to click on your affiliate link. Everything you write should work toward that goal. Transfer your confidence to the reader.

You can even leave out the features entirely and focus solely on the benefits. Tell the person the end result they will get... things like popularity, happiness, a relaxing time, saved time, more money, a more successful career, etc.

And don't forget, you can find a full discussion on emotional writing, in the Clickin' it Rich course, for the guitar site, the big screen TV site and the life insurance site.

Posted at 09:42 PM    





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