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�Play the Adwords
Game and Win!�
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Copyright © 2008
ISBN XXXXXXXX
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Printed in the United States of America
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Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 � Keyword Research - Getting Ready For Your Campaign ..........................16
Chapter 2 � Building Your Campaign............................................................................ 28
Chapter 3 � Creating Quality Landing Pages � How to Show Google You Are Relevant......................................................................................................................................45
Chapter 4 � Writing Effective Search Ads � The Rules Have Changed ........................56
Chapter 5 � Bidding Basics � What to do When a Campaign isn�t Working..................59
Chapter 6 � Dealing with Low CTR � How to Tweak Your Ad ...................................... 74
Chapter 7 � Campaign Pruning..................................................................................... 80
Chapter 8 � The Content Network �Placement Ads ..................................................... 89
Chapter 9 � Campaign Optimization � Tweaking Your Campaign .............................. 109
Chapter 10 � Banner Ad Creation � Banner Ads That Work....................................... 125
Chapter 11 � How to Make the Sale � Creating Sales Copy That Works....................130
Chapter 12 � Setting Up Your System � Steps and Elements Involved ......................141
Chapter 13 � Adwords Editor � Managing Your Campaign Online ............................. 145
Chapter 14 � Alternative Ads � Moving Beyond PPC ................................................. 149
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Introduction
For those of you new to Adwords, the landscape has changed. Adwords is not the
same animal it used to be. In fact, it is considered like a new machine. For those new to
it, it does present challenges that were not there before.
Adwords is constantly changing. You have to adopt and change your knowledge of
Adwords so you can learn the way to deal with it. There are new techniques that you
need to learn in order to handle Adwords. These new techniques include keyword
research, writing compelling ads, creating an effective landing page, and learning
bidding basics.
Keyword Research
With keyword research, you will be using tools that will help you search for the right
keywords. You will not only learn keyword research, but also the theory behind it. Some
of what you will learn may just surprise you.
Writing Compelling Ads
In any Adwords campaign, the ad is what drives people to click the link. This is why it
is important for you to learn the concept of writing compelling ads. An example of a topic
will be picked and used to create compelling ads. Our goal is to see if we can take the
sample and make some money off of it. Besides the ads, you will also need to construct
a really good landing page.
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Creating an Effective Landing Page
Not just any type of landing page, but an effective landing page. Between the ad and
landing page, we will have it designed to fit within Google�s rules and scheme. It�s all
about quality score now, so we have to get the ad and landing page so your quality
score is high.
As was stated earlier, Adwords is a different animal than it used to be. Some people
call it a different game. Adwords don�t work like it used to be. For example, �long tail�
keywords don�t work anymore. If you ignore the rules and use �long tail� keywords, you
will find out that Google will make you pay. Google will sock you with high cost per click
that just won�t make you profitable. If you are paying $7 or $8 dollars a click, you won�t
make any money. Play by the rules and pay less cost per click.
Keywords in Content Networks
�Long tail� keywords do work in content networks. You can do this by splitting the
campaign. In the search network, your landing page ad is what people will see first. It
has to be relevant to their search. Your landing page is what they will see next. That
also has to be relevant to their search. If you can get both landing page and ad relevant
to what the user is searching for, your quality score goes up and your bid price goes
down.
Regarding the content network, a lot more shows up. It is a little lenient, so your
keywords won�t be as precise as they should be for the search network. For example, if
you were using Gibson Les Paul guitars as keywords, on the search network, the
keywords you would be buying would be Gibson Les Paul Guitar, or just Gibson Les
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Paul. But on the content network, you may throw in keywords as Fender Ibenez or
Strata Caster, or buzzwords associated with that niche, but not as direct. If the person
was on the content network, and they were searching for Fender guitars, it�s okay for
your Gibson ad to popup there, and if they were interested in it, they could click on it.
But the way to keep your cost down is to split up the ads. So the ads I run that contain
�Long tail� keywords, will go in a specific campaign geared toward content. I�ll be
treating the �long tail� keywords this way, because Google will look at it as for the
content network only.
Keywords on Search Networks
On the search network your keywords will need to be more precise. Your ads will be
drilled down to the point where you will have to be completely precise. On the search
network the keywords I may buy might include Gibson Les Paul, but on the content
network, I might throw in Fender, Guitar, Electric, and Acoustic that are related to the
long tail� keywords.
Getting Quality Scores
Remember it is all about quality scores. You�ve got to get those quality scores up. In
the content network it is okay to get something related to it, something that matches it.
Because after all if they are in the content network, they are viewing something they
would be interested in. If someone is reading something about a Fender Guitar, they
would be interested in your Gibson guitar. It is okay to mix that up. But in search,
Google is trying to give people the most relevant content possible. They are not just
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giving organic content but the actual ads that are specific and relevant to what the user
is looking for.
So in search, if they search for something, like a guitar, at that point you don�t really
want them, because they are not specific enough. The person is still doing research.
You want people who have done their research and they want a Gibson Les Paul.
Those are the keywords you will buy. You are basically saying that you got what they
want. It is right at this location. This way they will click the ad and end up on your
landing page. This is why your landing page and ad have to be relevant.
If you are selling multiple items, you will simply split up the campaigns. You will have
a different campaign for each product you are selling. The biggest mistake a lot of
people are making, including businesses, when creating ads is by sending users to their
home page. For example, if you have an ad for Fender Guitar and you send people to
your home page, when Google goes to your home page, they will see you are not listing
anything about Fender Guitars, since this is not your landing or buy page. Google
realizes you do not have a lot of content on your home page dealing with Fender
Guitars. Therefore, you get slapped.
Using the Right Keywords
What really has to happen is that when you create your ad, it kind of pivots around
the keywords you use. For example, look at the image below to see sample ads created
around the keywords Fender Guitar:
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In the image above, look at the ad in the square box. When you click on that ad, it
takes you to a web page where Fender Guitars are shown for sale.
When using Fender Guitar as the keywords in your ad, the website you will send
them to ends up being the web page where you are selling Fender Guitars. This means
you are sending them to the web page that is relevant to the keyword they used. When
Google checks the site listed in your ad, they notice your site talks strictly about Fender
Guitar and has content related to it. They favor this so much that your quality score
goes up and your bid price goes down. This means people will see your ad more often,
thereby getting more clicks.
Before you actually get into learning how to create ads, you must learn what
keywords are first. Keywords are words that people use to find what they are looking
for. For example, if someone wanted to find Gibson guitars, they would use the
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keywords �Gibson Les Paul�, �Les Paul�, or �Gibson Guitars,� as keywords. See the
image for an example of using these keywords:
People who don�t know what they are doing, end up using thousands of keywords in
their campaign. By doing this they are losing, they are getting penalized by Google,
because Google is checking their ads and landing page and realizing none of it is
relevant. Google ends up charging them more per click and their score drops. When
you create your ad, you will not use thousands of keywords. You will use mainly 10 or
15 keywords. Three or four of them will be top performing ones. When you create your
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ad, you will focus on the keywords that will produce the best. You will spend most of
your money on getting these keywords promoted.
Ways to find deeper keywords, other than what you already have, is by using
synonyms. You can also find keywords that are shorter but mean the same as regular
keywords. Another way to find keywords is to look at your niche language. People miss
this. They set up their landing page with keywords they are bidding on. Google is smart
today. If you set up your landing page with tons of keywords you are bidding on, Google
will think you are spamming them. They know what you are trying to do. You have to
use terminology that is well known inside your niche. Believe it or not, Google can
detect it. Not only do you have relative content for what they searched for but you also
have relative content associated with it. For example, for the keyword �guitar�, the slang
terminology for guitar is ax. So you might include in your ad �if anyone is looking for a
new ax, we got Gibson Les Paul guitars�. The point is you�re mixing up the language.
When doing research you will find keywords that you may not even use, but at least you
will build a list that you can use for your campaign.
When dealing with keywords, there are other factors you can consider when creating
your ads, with the keywords you discovered in your research. Think about this one.
What if you could read the minds of people? Wouldn�t it be great if someone�s thoughts
match up what you are trying to sell? What if you could have an ad pop up that is
pertinent to what they are thinking. It would pop up in locations at the right time. It will
get to a point that they will be thinking to themselves they are tired of playing with their
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own guitars, and just then they will spot your ad, wherever it may appear. As you read
this book, you will learn of this technology and how to use it.
Keyword Research Tools
Now, regarding researching keywords, there are tools you can use online that will
help you in your keyword research. One of these tools is Google�s Keyword Tool.
Google�s Keyword Tool � Adwords Tool
This tool is actually free. Many people use this tool since it is so powerful. It is
cumbersome, but it does have power. The next tool on the market is Wordtracker.
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Wordtracker
You can go with the free trial just to learn how to use it. But go through the training.
This will help maximize your time when using Word Tracker. The next keyword tool is
SpyFu.com.
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SpyFu
This is a paid service. They do give you a free three day trial. Besides searching for
keywords, they also allow you to spy on your competitor. KWBrowse.com is another
free keyword research tool that allows you to find keywords for your niche market.
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KWbrowse
In the upcoming chapters, you will learn how to do keyword research, how to write
compelling ads, and how to set up landing pages. So keep reading, and be prepared for
a journey of a lifetime.
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Chapter 1: Getting Started With Keyword Research
Now comes the time for keyword research. This must be done before you even start
your campaign. Keyword search is even done prior to building your landing page if
possible. If you do have a landing page, it is no big deal. We can go back, apply what
we have learned, and make some changes. However, ideally, you will begin keyword
research before you start doing anything.
In this chapter, you will be shown the tools you can use, along with a spreadsheet, to
help you with your keyword research. I will show you how to use each tool.
The first tool on the list is KWBrowse. This is not a powerful tool, but it is free, and
people like it because it is graphical. You see what I mean in a few moments when you
see screenshots of what the site looks like. Wordtracker is the next tool. It can save you
a ton of time in searching for keywords. You can type in one keyword and use Keyword
Universe. This tool will provide you a ton of keywords that will be related to the main
keyword you entered. The next is SpyFu. According to a survey, one hour on SpyFu
equals 300 hours of research time. SpyFu is a paid service but you�ll benefit in the end.
Lastly is Adwords.google.com. We�ll talk more about that when we discuss it.
KWBrowse
The first tool we will look at is located at www.kwbrowse.com.
Let�s use the keyword phrase �excel training�. Type in the keyword in the search box
as shown below:
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When you click on the kw search button this is the results you will see:
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When you look at the picture, the keywords found on the line at the bottom are less
relevant. The keywords shown at the top are more relevant. On the right hand side you
will see the same keywords shown in the graphic but in a list form. This is how the
system works. Nothing complicated.
Wordtracker
Wordtracker is better. I use Wordtracker for my keyword research.
You don�t have to sign up for a paid account initially. You can just for the 7 day free
trial. Whichever way you choose to go with Wordtracker, you will find it is an amazing
tool.
After you sign up and log in, you will be taken to a screen like this:
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If you click on Keyword Universe a small window will open so you can put in your
keyword or keywords. For example, I clicked the link and when the small window
opened I typed in �excel training� as shown below:
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If you look to your right, you will see a list of keywords that are related to the two
keywords �excel training.� Whenever you are building your campaign, you will want to
accumulate a number of different lists. You will want to accumulate a short-tail list that
may be at least two dozen words, and you will do a long-tailed keyword list. The long-
tailed keyword list will be mainly used for the content network, while the short-tailed
keywords are for the search network.
You will also want to put together a vocabulary list. The vocabulary list are words you
don�t want to be bidding on, which show up in search results, but are not related to your
search term, but are associated with your main keywords. In this case, you will want to
use those words on your landing page. Because if Google goes to your landing page
and sees these vocabulary words somewhere on the page, Google will believe those
keywords are relevant. This is what will make your site good in Google�s eyes, because
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all the keywords on the site are relevant. This means better quality scores and lower bid
amounts.
Also be sure you have Lateral and Thesaurus checked. When you do a search, you
will get more related keywords than you thought possible. Remember the more
research you do, the more targeted your campaign is going to be and the greater return
on investment.
SpyFu
The next tool is SpyFu.
SpyFu is a very powerful tool. So if I do a search on the keyword �excel training,�
here are the results you will see:
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As you can see SpyFu gives you a lot of data. You can get an estimate cost per click.
You also get to see how many advertisers are competing for your keyword term. This
shows how many competitors you have for that particular keyword. It even tells you the
ads your competitors are using. So if you click on the ad you get your competitor�s
actual stats. You see what your competitor is doing. You see their daily budget like you
see below:
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Take a look at this competitor�s daily budget. If this competitor is willing to spend this
much money, this keyword must be working for them. They aren�t going to be blowing
cash like this without results, unless they just launched their campaign and are testing it.
This site does a variety of training, not just one type. For this chapter, we will only
focus on one type of training, so our results will be lower. The principle here is to mimic
what they are doing. This doesn�t mean copying what they do exactly. See what they
are doing and check their landing page. There are people who are spending a lot of
money but doing everything wrong. But seeing this, you will be able to mimic their
model, but instead of doing it wrong, you�ll be able to learn from them and do the right
thing. This way you can come out ahead.
Here is a perfect example. A lot of advertisers are sending people to their home
pages. This is a very bad idea. They are sending people to a generic page. That generic
page is not very big. By knowing this, we can tweak the system. They have a short one
page sales letter. But it is generic. No content that is laser targeted. This means they
are not getting quality scores. They are paying more for their clicks. You, on the other
hand, will pay less but still get a good position in your ranking by getting better quality
scores.
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You look at what is good, but eliminate what is bad. We can contend with the big
dogs without spending that much money.
Adwords
We now come to the mother of all keyword research tools, Adwords.
There are a number of things you can do here. In future chapters, you will be working
with Adwords more extensively. I wanted to give you a heads up to the tools you will be
using, and what you will be doing inside of them, because in the actual training, I want
to try and go as quickly as I can to get you the most pertinent content. On Adwords we
can do the same thing as in other tools. We put in our keyword, use the synonyms, and
click on Get keyword ideas. The results will show up like this:
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If we use �excel training,� we end up with the keywords, the related keywords,
advertiser competition, approximate search volume for the month, and approximate
average search volume overall. If you notice, the keywords �Microsoft excel training� is
a competitive set of keywords. The keywords �training for excel� is not competitive.
This is the new way Adwords is doing things. You are actually getting to see the real
search volume. You can see what keywords are really competitive and what is not. You
may even spot some trends. If you look carefully, you will also notice some keywords
are misspelled as well. All keywords under the category of �Excel training� will be
represented.
As you go through this system, you will build your core list, and then build the long-
tail list. You will also build your vocabulary list. On search you just want one or two
dozen keywords but no more for each campaign. We will be splitting up campaigns.
Each one of your campaign you will create its own keyword list, its own ads, and its own
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landing page. This is what people miss often. They have one generic landing page or
they send all their links to their home page. This is the bad way to do things. Take your
time to customize things and laser target your campaigns, and that will put you above
everyone else. This will also help to boost your quality score.
Another thing that Google keyword tool provides is the ability for you to do website
content as shown in the following image:
You can put your own website content in the Website content field. Maybe Google
can suggest some keywords, based on content you already have. Like for example,
after you have gone through your research and you created your landing page, go back
to Google and have them check your landing page to see if there are any keywords you
may have missed.
We can also put in our competition�s landing page or website so we will know what
keywords they are using. By spying on our competition like this, we can see what works
and mimic it, especially if Google likes it.
Now it is time to look at the Excel spreadsheet. This is a way to track what your
competitors are doing so you can mold how you want to arrange things. You will keep
your competitor�s ads, keywords, your ads, and keywords in the spreadsheet. This is
how you are going to build your own keyword list. The reason you want to track your
ads, is because in Google you will constantly be doing testing, including split testing of
one ad to another and see which one is performing the best. When you make tweaks to
your ads, if you delete an ad in your spreadsheet, and you delete the ad in Google, you
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won�t be able to keep track of the ad�s results. This is why you should keep your ads so
you can refer to them later.
What we want to do is track your competitor�s headline, ad, landing page, and display
URL. This way if they are successful with their ad campaign, we want to mimic that.
In the next chapter, you will start building your campaign.
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Chapter 2:
It Is Time to Build Your Campaign
In this video, I am going to show you how to build your list. But beware; it will take a
long time to do all the steps involved. I made every step short for this program, but
when you do it, you will find the time will be extensive. At this time go to Wordtracker as
shown in the image below.
Now click on Keyword Universe (this is where the circle is located). A window will
open. Pick a term and type in it the Related Keywords area. To make it simple, use the
same keywords as before: �Excel training� as shown below:
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After you enter the keywords, click �Proceed�. A window will open like the following:
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For the list you get as above, you will drill down the list. This is a starting point for
you. Pick one keyword. In this case the first one. Now this is what you will see:
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While looking at the keywords on your right, click each one to add to your list. What
you are looking for will depend on if you are building the list for search, for content, or
just for vocabulary. It depends on what you are trying to build. If you are building for
search, your keywords are going to be more targeted. For content, your keywords will
be broader.
On this screen you will pick all the keywords you want to use for your list. For
example, these are the keywords I picked for my campaign:
Microsoft excel download
Excel training
Microsoft excel tutorial
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Online excel training
Microsoft excel training
Microsoft excel 2007 tutorial
Learning Microsoft excel
Learn Microsoft excel
Excel 2007 training
Microsoft excel 2007 training
Total training for Microsoft excel 2007 advanced
Microsoft office 2007 training cds
Microsoft office 2007 training
After you are done, click the Keywords for Wordtracker and you will get a list like this:
Now highlight all the keywords, copy, and paste it in Excel like this:
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I have already placed the keywords in my spreadsheet to save time here. But you get
the idea. You cannot see this in the image above, but I have 49 core terms, which is a
lot more than the other groups. The reason I have so many is because I will have
different campaigns. Each campaign will be segregated in a sense. Specific keywords
you will focus on will be targeted by those campaigns. My list of core terms are directly
related to my product, but only the ones related will be dumped in certain campaigns.
For example, you may want to create a duplicate landing page but that features
misspellings. You will be focusing on quality scores. The quality score will depend on
how relevant your ad and landing page is. If it is relevant your quality score will rise and
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your bid price will go down. To do this for misspelled words, you will have the
misspelled words on your landing page.
I have put together a list of core terms. You may want to practice this yourself, by
taking all your keywords and placing them in a spreadsheet like I did. You may want to
create landing pages for each set of keywords you want to use. This means each
landing page will have laser targeted keywords that are in a group and related to a
certain category. You will not create a landing page for all keywords. You just will not do
that.
I will divide the keywords into a group that will be placed in one campaign. I will take
these targeted groups of keywords, and place them in my landing page. I will also make
sure to throw in some of my vocabulary words as well. This will help to raise my quality
score.
I will divide more keywords and place them into another group that will be placed in a
new campaign. I will then create another landing page for that set of keywords. This
way every keyword is relevant to what is on the landing page. Google will see this as
being relevant and raise my quality score.
Not all keywords from my spreadsheet came from Wordtracker. I also used SpyFu for
the list of keywords found on my spreadsheet. If we go back to SpyFu, I will show you
how I came up with those keywords. So again, let�s go to SpyFu.
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Next, I will enter the keywords �excel training.� Then after I click Search, here is what
I came up with:
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When looking at the above image, you can see the cost per click max is $3.81. This
is high. The amount of clicks per day is 13.0, and the max cost per day is $50. If you
notice the numbers, you may begin to realize one thing: these people are clueless as to
how to create and run a keyword campaign properly. If they would have done it right,
their costs would be much lower.
As an example, take a look at Video Professor:
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By checking out Video Professor�s budget as shown above, you can see how large
their budget is set for. They definitely get a lot of traffic. If we look at their
advertisements, they have quite a few. If we click CSV under Advertisements, we will
get a list of all the advertisements in spreadsheet format. You can see the term, title,
body of the ad, and full URL. An example of this is shown below:
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If you look at the spot that is highlighted, you will notice the URL points to Video
Professor�s home page. This is a mistake, because if you have other products on the
page, you are not targeting that keyword, so your web page is not relevant to the
keyword used, as �about ms excel� is here. In the above spreadsheet, after I filtered out
what I didn�t want, I took a group of keywords that focused on Excel training and that
had a decent amount of traffic, and I copied that into my spreadsheet. This is how I
used SpyFu to build my keyword list.
Now, let�s go to Adwords itself and begin our campaign. So we begin with the
Adwords screen as before:
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Now you will take a certain amount of selected keywords and place them in the
search field next to �Descriptive words or phrases� like shown below:
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If you notice in the screen above, I copied a number of keywords into the field under
�Enter one keyword or phrase per line�. The keywords I used are shown below:
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All three of these tools give you the data in different ways but are based on the same
thing. You will get similar results, but at the same time, there will be differences. That is
important, because when you get keyword results in one tool, you can go to Google and
check their tool to see if you get similar results.
If you look at the next screen, you will see Adwords new setup. They actually give
you search volume for the past month as you can see below:
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When you look at the image, the results were for June. Again, this is only an example
to show you how Google�s search tool works. If you look at the first keywords �excel
online training� you will notice the approximate number of searches for June was 2,900.
Basically, you are getting the keywords you were searching for. You will get
synonyms, and other keywords you might have considered. Some keywords will work,
some won�t. You will have to go through and decide which will be right for your
campaign and what you are providing on your landing page.
When you look at the report, you may notice a keyword by itself. Take a look at the
image below:
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Look at the keywords circled. If you look at the total volume, it is well over 13 million
searches. That is way too much competition. If you place a bid on such a keyword, your
ad may just not show up. Most people think that by placing all the keywords in their
campaign, they will get a lot of traffic. This may be true, but they will be paying through
their nose, and the traffic will not be targeted.
When you have decided what keywords you want, just click �Add� to the right, and
those keywords will be selected. Now that you have selected your keywords, Adwords
has provided a wonderful tool by clicking on Estimate Search Traffic. When you click
that, Google will show you what to expect from your list of keywords you picked. In the
meantime, take this list and copy and paste into your spreadsheet. Or you can click
�Download these keywords� in CSV format. This list you will want to keep track of as
you develop your campaigns.
At this time, you will want to go into your spreadsheet and brainstorm your five or six
keywords that are the core of your niche. Do the research with Wordtracker, SpyFu, and
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Google with your keyword list. Build that list, and categorize your keywords. Remember
the core terms are your short-tail keywords. Build your core list that is long, like about
54 keywords, but are laser targeted and specific.
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Chapter 3: How to Create Quality Landing Pages That Will Raise Your
Quality Score
In this video you will learn about how to create quality landing pages. Before you start
your landing page, you must create your keyword list. Here�s why. The way you create
your landing page affects your campaign. It is important to optimize your landing page.
You will be giving a landing page template that you can use to create your landing
pages in the future.
How Your Landing Page Effects Your Campaign
Your landing page does have something to do with your quality score. We know your
quality score determines the placement of your ad and how much you will have to bid.
So you want a good quality score as it relates to all the keywords you use for your
landing page. Here are some key factors to keep in mind:
The relevancy of your landing page is a factor in determining your quality
score.
What is the landing page for? You need to have a goal in mind and be very
specific with it. What do you want your landing page to accomplish? Is it for
opt-in? Is it to make a sale? You should try to focus on having the landing
page do one thing. Believe it or not, Google will adjust how well the landing
page scores, depending on what you are trying to get your customers to do.
A highly relevant landing page raises your quality score and lowers your bid
amount.
A targeted landing page will have a higher conversion rate. This means more
people will come to your landing page and become buyers.
Landing Page Tips
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If your landing page was created to build your list, Google is aware that those
contacts have value, and therefore are not free. It is best to stay away from the word
FREE. Let your visitor know they are signing up for a newsletter. Tell the person that if
you are going to get the person�s name and address, just be up front and honest with
them. It is good to have a privacy policy near the form. Better yet, have a web page
dedicated to your privacy policy. Google will see this and give you a higher quality
score.
Don�t try to do more than one thing on a web page. If you are going to sell something,
it is much easier to sell a product that is low price. If you do have a high ticket item, it is
better to produce a low end product and sell that first, then use the high ticket item as a
backend product. You have to establish a relationship with the person first. Get them to
purchase your low end product. Develop a relationship with them. Let them know you
can be trusted. Then you can go after them with your high ticket item.
When creating your landing page, use your main keyword phrase in the page title.
This can help your quality score. Page titles do not have to make sense grammatically,
just use what keywords are the best and place them in your title, as long as they are
relevant to your landing page.
If you are using images, make sure the image names are relevant. You want the
images to have names that focus on the keywords of your website. So if you have
keywords on your site that feature Excel training, you will want your image name to be
Excel training, and not just image.
When putting content on your landing page, put content that is relevant to your
keywords and is not duplicate content. Do not go to another website like an
Encyclopedia or other website and grab content, and just have it pasted to your landing
page. Google will detect duplicate content. So be careful with content. It must be
original and relevant to your landing page.
If you want to sell an item and build your list, do it by creating a graphic that says
�Want more info?� and link them to an opt-in page. This is a better way, because you do
not have both steps on the same landing page. This can make your quality score go
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down. Remember, to only place one step you want the customer to perform on your
landing page.
When you are done with your landing page, you may want to see how Google
interprets your page. You can see this by going to www.edoceo.com/utilitas/google-
dragon. If you go to this website, and punch in your landing page, it will show you how
Google will interpret your page. This is helpful because people may do something that
may prevent Google from seeing information they want Google to see. For example, if
you use commas in tags or titles, this stops Google from reading your web page.
Optimizing Your Landing Page
What you will read here is standard SEO practice; if you want to rank well in
searches you should become familiar with it, since you will be performing these steps.
When working on your landing page, you will place your primary keywords in <H1>
tags. If you don�t know what an H1 tag is you are more than likely unfamiliar with
creating a web page. If this is the case, it would be best for you to learn HTML. This way
you will know these terms and can perform the steps required to build your landing
page. Basically and H1 tag is considered a title.
Here is an example of an H1 text:
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Take a look at the words circled. This is what a title that has H1 tag looks like.
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When looking at the image below you will see large red text. This text was created
using H1 tags <H1>text</H1>. The black text underneath that is smaller, this text was
created using the H2 tag <H1>text</H2>.
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If all this does not make sense, you will have to either take a course in it, or you will
have to hire a web designer.
Notice in the image the keywords I used. I have circled the keywords so you can see
what I am referring to. These are my main keywords. I even used one of my main
keywords in my subhead (H2 tag).
H1 Tag
H2 tag
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Keep in mind as you develop your landing page that the primary keywords will be
placed in your <H1> tags while your secondary keywords will be placed in your <H2>
tags. By using these tags and keywords, you get better ranking, and thus better quality
scores.
Meta tags are not used much by search engines anymore. A lot of SEO people say
Meta tags are a waste of time. In the main search, search engines do ignore them. The
reason they stopped is because webmasters started using sly tricks to beat search
engines to gain traffic. What was contained in the Meta tags was not even on the web
page. However, the search engines realized this, and decided to stop looking at the
Meta tags. They developed trickier algorithms to figure how to list web pages.
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Meta tags may not help with search results but they can be useful for ads. If you set
up your Meta tags, when Google checks out your landing page, they do look at your
Meta tags.
Another factor that can help with optimizing your landing page, and this was brought
out above, are your images. Besides naming your images with keywords, you can also
go a step further and list descriptions. If you ever hovered over an image, you notice a
description pop up. By putting in a description for your image will also help improve your
ranking and quality score.
After you have finished your landing page, use the keyword tool to double check and
make sure there are no non-relevant terms listed. If there is content that is not relevant
you need to know this so you can have this type of stuff taken off.
Sample Landing Page
Here is a look at a sample landing page. This page is straight forward.
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Notice there is a headline and a sub-headline. In the landing page, I scattered my top
six keywords. At the bottom of the page, I listed links to specific web pages. These links
must go to a valid web page. By providing these links, I increased my quality score.
When you design your landing page, you will need to do the same thing as I did when it
comes to structure and format. When designing your website, you may want to put in a
contact page, member login (if required), privacy policy page, anti-spam policy, and
income disclaimer.
When you have finished creating your landing page, you will need to view your HTML
code. If you have an HTML editor, you will have to bring this software on the screen so
you can view the web code.
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Here is what the code will look like:
You may not understand all of this. If you don�t, that is okay for now. But the section
you will have to pay attention to is the area that is highlighted as in the image below:
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What you see highlighted are the Meta tags that we discussed earlier in this chapter.
If you look at the image, you will see the keywords are separated by commas. Even if
you use long-tailed keywords, separate each one by commas.
The Meta description will describe what your website will be about. You can use
keywords here as well.
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Chapter 4: How to Write Effective Search Ads That Follow the Rules and
Give You Continuous Results
For Adwords the rules are simple. The main point here is to separate in your thinking
the idea of search ads, content ads, and placement ads. Keep in mind that Google
changed the way Adwords works, so you will have to become familiar with these
changes.
You will have to know the rules of search, thereby allowing you to create the right
kind of search ads for your campaign. In order for you to follow the correct path, you will
be provided sample ads to follow. What you have to keep focused for this chapter, as
you create your ads, are the following points:
Relevancy is top priority
Don�t get fancy or creative
Just let them know you have what they want
Get primary keyword in every line if you can
Create a different Ad Group and Ad for each of your top 5 keyword phrases
When creating your ads, relevancy is the top priority for you. This is what you must
concern yourself with. The ad that is relevant to your keywords is what will give you
points. When you create your campaign, you will create your Ad Group, and then you
will break your top keywords into little groups of 5 top keywords or keyword phrases.
You will then have an Ad Group for a group of keywords. Each Ad Group will be having
a bunch of keywords that are related to each other. Don�t be creative. Just make it
simple. Let users know you have what they want. When they use your keyword, and
they see your ad, they will click it.
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When you write your ad, place your primary keyword in every line. By doing this, you
will get bonus points. Your quality score will go up.
When you create your Ad Groups, you will have multiple ads within your Group. Each
Ad Group will have ads that are focused on only a few keywords. This will make your ad
campaign better and more productive.
Below is a sample of good and bad ads:
Take a look at the image and notice how Excel is in bold. Google does that
automatically. The bold keyword is the search term. You can see Excel is shown in the
headline, the first line of the ad, and the display URL. If you have a keyword in the
display, Google recognizes it as relevant and you get a better score. So the ads on the
left will get better results than the ads to the right.
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When you examine the ads to the right, you will see why they are bad. There is only
one keyword in the ad and no properly formatted display URL. Obviously, these ads will
not get quality scores, and therefore the user will pay higher bid prices per click.
To wrap up this chapter, remember to write ads that have relevancy, place your
keywords on more than one line, especially the display URL, and separate your
keywords into groups of 3 or 4 per ad and place them under an Ad Group.
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Chapter 5: How to Fix a Broken Campaign
You will need to take what you learned and start doing it. In this chapter, you will
learn how to recognize if it your campaign isn�t working. Bidding strategies will be
looked at. Also CTR will be discussed as well as conversion rates and impressions.
Is it working?
Let�s define what click-thru-rate is. If there are 100 people that see your ad, and out
of those people, one person clicks, the ad has a 1% click-thru-rate or CTR. If two people
clicked on the ad out of the same 100 people, your ad would be pulling up to 2% CTR. If
you can actually get 1%, you are doing pretty well.
Some people are getting really good CTR. Later, you will see a sample ad that is
getting really good CTR. The reason that ad is getting such a high CTR is because of a
very special factor, considering the campaign is targeting misspellings.
The above same concept works with landing pages. If 100 people click your ad and 1
person performs the desired action, your landing page has a 1% conversion rate. This is
actually pretty good. A lot of people would be happy just to get a 1% conversion rate.
The question you have to consider, however, is do I break even from the ad spend
necessary to generate one desired action? If your ad is getting a good CTR and your
landing rate is doing well with conversion, you should consider spending more for more
impressions and clicks.
Here is an example:
Let�s say 100 people have seen the ad and one clicks the ad that is a 1% conversion
rate. Now what if I am paying 10 cents a click? That is only 10 cents. Now what if out of
100 clicks I am getting one desired action? This means for my 100 clicks that cost me
$10. What we have to determine is if we spend $10 to get one action, does that balance
out. In the beginning you may break even. That is not too bad for starters.
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Now what if we have 1000 impressions and have 10 clicks. That is 1% CTR. I will
show you a live example I just set up so you can see how all this is done. For the 1000
impressions I am paying $.67 per click. I get 10 clicks. So the total will be $6.70. If we
had 100 clicks, our ad spend would be $67.
What are the factors we want to play with? We want a lot of impressions. If we
improve our CTR we would have to pay more. So we don�t want to focus on this. We
want to focus on what we are paying per click and our conversion rate. So if instead of
paying $.67 per click, if you could be paying $.47 per click, and you are charging $67,
after subtracting what it took to make and ship your product, you will profit from each
sale.
Bidding
Remember, you want to pick laser targeted keywords. You will take two dozen
keywords and split them up in Ad Group. You will create Ad Groups that will utilize your
keywords. For each Ad Group, you will create a separate landing page. Let�s take for
example the following:
AdGrp1 � We will have a landing page. The landing page will deal with the keywords
that we placed in this Ad Group.
AdGrp2 � In this Ad Group, we will create a landing page that will deal with the
keywords that we placed in this Ad Group.
AdGrp3 � In this Ad Group, we will create a landing page that will deal with the
keywords that we placed in this Ad Group.
Each Ad Group above may have 4 or 5 keywords in it, along with about 3 or 4 ads.
Every landing page in all Ad Groups will be the same structure. The only difference is
the content will be different, because the keywords will be different.
To get your quality score up you have to show your keywords are in your landing
page. So all you are doing is to make a list of your keywords and restructuring each
landing page to fit the keywords of that particular landing page.
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Since we are dealing with excel training, the three landing pages will be excel.html,
excel2. html, and excel3.html.
In the beginning you may have to bid high at first to prove yourself. Why, because the
existing advertisers already have a good quality score. You want to achieve the same
thing, but you can�t complete with them since they are already at the top. To compete
with them, you may end up spending more money.
Let�s look at an example:
When somebody does a search, you will see the ads show up on the right hand side.
The first ad was created by an advertiser who may be paying $.25 a click. The second
ad may be worth $.28 cents per click. The guy at the top has a better quality score,
because he gets clicked on more often. Google looks at his ad and sees historically he
gets clicked on more. With the second ad, this ad may not get that many clicks. So the
advertiser�s quality score is not as high. The only problem is that if your ad shows up at
the bottom, your ad may not get the same clicks as the top ad. This will mean too many
impressions and not enough clicks. This results in a poor quality score. So you may
have to spend more just to get listed higher.
Another factor to look at is to find the �sweet spot.� This is where you want to be
where you are not spending a lot of money. According to studies, it is not good to be in
position one. But it is definitely not good to be in position seven or greater. If you are
forget about it. It may be better to be in spot number four or five. There have been ads
that appeared in position five paid less than what appeared in position four. It is based
on psychology and the way people read pages.
According to the study, there are systems that recorded eye movements when
looking at the computer screen and found that when people look at the screen, the eye
jumps around quite a bit. You don�t want to grab their eye right away. You want to grab
their eye when it ends. If you do research, you may find where the eyes end and can
dictate where your ad will be placed.
On the other hand, it may not matter where your ad shows up, as long as it is position
number six and above. In that case, you want to lower your bid amount gradually, until
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you figure out what that sweet spot is. This way you can make sure you are in position
four, five, or six, because the amount for position four may be 20 cents. Unfortunately,
this is something that will take up some time, because you may stop to analyze
everything, to figure out where your ad could show. Your objective is to boost your
quality score to lower your necessary bid amount. Drop your price a few cents to start
then give it a day to see where it shows up on search results. Go back in and drop the
price again by 20 cents, giving it another day to see where the ad will display. Check
your CTR. If your CTR drops off, then raise it up to your last value. That will be your
sweet spot.
Here is an image of an account I set up specifically for this chapter and to help you in
this training:
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A number of things you need to see here are the number of Ad Groups I have here.
This is only for yesterday as you can see at the circle. If you look at the image below,
you will see stats for all time.
The first Ad Group was for Excel Misspellings. Notice it has more clicks than any
other Ad Groups. Plus look at the CTR. It is near 3%. If you look at the following image,
you will see all the keywords in the Excel Misspellings Ad Group:
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Look at the first keyword and you will see �learn excell� as a keyword. Notice the
clicks and CTR. This is the most popular keyword phrase that is used as a misspelling.
Look at the previous screen again:
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Look at Learn Excel Training Ad Group. Notice it has only 4 clicks but look at my
impressions � only 401. Why are these so low? Check out the position. It is listed at
position 10.1. This is not very good. I�m not bidding enough since the keyword is very
competitive.
Now if I click on Learn Excel Training, you can see all my keywords I placed in this
Ad Group.
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Look at my quality score. It may be okay but this is not what I am pleased with. Look
at my current bid price. It is set at 47 cents per click. The average CPC is high. At 73
cents a click I am showing up at position 10.7. That is unheard of. This means I am
paying more just to show up in a decent position.
The bidding amount can be changed. The way to do this is to put a check on
Keyword. This will select all keywords, next click on Edit Keyword Settings. The result
will be as shown below:
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On this screen we can change the search bid and destination URL, if I choose to. For
this chapter I will bump the Search Bid to .82. I will then select the down arrow to the
sign of the amount, as shown in the image below:
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You can see what I did at the circle. The result is all boxes are filled in as shown
here:
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When you have completed doing this, click Save Changes at the bottom of the
screen. This now changed my max cost per click to 82 cents. I will let this go for a day
and see where my ad shows on search results.
Additionally, because I wasn�t showing up in four, five, or six, my quality score was
not very good. But once my ads show more often, and get clicks, my quality score will
go up, and I�ll be able to adjust the price down to the sweet spot.
When you look at all your keywords, if you find one or more that have high CTR, you
may need to get rid of those that are dragging the rest of your keywords down.
CTR
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Are you getting enough impressions? If not you may have to spend more money to
raise your ad. When you do this, you will soon improve your quality score. You will need
to keep track of your ranking. If your ranking is not good, it doesn�t matter how many
impressions you have, it won�t matter. You will have to go in and monitor the ads and
your ranking on a regular basis. You won�t do well unless your ad is in position six or
above. You may have to add new keywords to another Ad Group, if the keywords you
are using don�t work. Take out those that don�t work. You may have to create a new Ad
Group with a group of new keywords, along with new ads.
Conversion
Things you need to consider if traffic is not converting would include the following:
The traffic isn�t targeted enough � this involves your keywords and the ads
themselves. Make sure all keywords are targeted. Understand your niche and
know who they are this way you can target your keywords to them.
Sales letter copy needs improvement � Your sales letter needs to be written
correctly. If you have the money, spend it on hiring a professional copywriter. If
you do not have the money, no problem, for I will help you by providing a
session on the basics of copywriting. This session will make you a decent
copywriter.
The offer isn�t a good match for the prospect (ad and offer are not matched) �
If the ad is not written to correspond to the offer on the landing page, you will
have trouble selling. If your ad states for you to check out this amazing guitar
training. Now someone clicks on it, and they find the landing page advertises
beginner guitar training this will cause the person to leave the site. You must
qualify the buyer. You must target the individual in your mind and not a group
of people.
Conversion Solutions
To help your conversion rate, you need to do the following:
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Review your keywords � Any keywords that are not working, get rid of them.
Make sure your keywords are targeted and relevant.
Improve your sales letter � Improve your sales letter so it is top notch and
motivates the person to take action. There has to be a conversion.
Restructure the offer � Step back and see if you have a product people want.
If people want your product you may have no problem selling, but if your
product is lousy, you won�t sell anything. Keep this in mind when you create
your product and landing page.
Tracking Keywords
You will want to keep track of your keywords that are giving you a lot of traffic but are
not converting well. Here is how we do this. Look at the below image:
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Take a look at �learn excel 2007� and see the high CTR rate � 6.45%. What I might
want to find out is how many conversions I get with this keyword. Here is the way to find
out. Click Edit Keyword Settings.
Here you will put in a landing page for that keyword. This is where we really get down
to the nuts and bolts. We get the magnifier out. If you have many Ad Groups, the time
involved may be extensive. But if you only have one, it could work for you. Once you
place your landing page in place, you�ll be able to tell how many people have gone to
your landing page and bought from you.
Impressions
You want a lot of traffic. In order to provide more impressions, there are factors that
can affect your impressions.
Is your market really there? Did you do research and really see if you do have
a market or not. If you do, you could have a gold mine.
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Wait at least 48 hours before your freak out. Google does not dump traffic right
away. They spread out the traffic throughout the day.
Look for synonyms. Look for alternate keywords that relate to your main
keywords, but could produce much traffic.
Keep an eye on rates and disqualified words. Google has a lot of words you
cannot use. Learn what they are, because if you do use them, Google will
disqualify your ad. Keep track of your campaign just in case you may
accidentally use them. Because you may be surprised and find your campaign
halted.
Track ad location - 7 or better is the requirement. If you find your ad is
anywhere else, you will lose out. Take steps to correct it. You may have to
raise your bid amount.
Play with the bid amount. You may have to adjust your bid amount, depending
on the position of your ad.
Your daily budget can also throttle you. You must be concerned about your
budget. If your budget is too small, your ad will only be shown certain times in
the day. If your budget is higher, your ad will be shown more.
Your credit score can throttle you at first. If your credit score is bad, then you
will have to play with the amount and pay more, at least till your credit
improves, or until Google gets to know you. Be prepared to pay between $75
and $150 initially. If you do not have the money to spend, don�t get involved.
Because when you put in say $200 and don�t get results, you are blowing that
money and wasting it. Count the cost before you get involved in any Adwords
campaign.
As any businessman will tell you, using PPC is all about the money. The more you have
to spend, the better your ad will show and the more traffic you will get. You will have to
adjust your budget and experiment with it to find the range you can afford, because
when you start using Adwords, you will create a bill.
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Chapter 6: How to Tweak Your Ad and Lower Your CTR
We are going to deal with low CTR in this chapter and how to tweak your ad,
depending on whether you are dealing with search or content. You will learn about ad
structure and the 4 elements that you need to learn. You will also be introduced to two
ad modes which are search and content. We will talk about your mindset regarding
dealing with search and content.
You will be introduced to the search network and the content network and see what
the differences are. By learning these differences, it will help you better understand how
to market to these markets. You will also be introduced to ad types. The ad types you
will need to become familiar with will include:
Distracting
Teasing
Negative
You will be shown tips and tools that will help you in creating ads and you will also
learn about dynamic keywords and how to use them. Lastly, you will be shown a great
website: www.popurls.com. This is a great place to see what is going on the Internet
and get some headline ideas.
Ad Structure � Four Elements
Your Google ad is made up of four elements. The four elements are the following:
Headline � This is the first line of the ad.
Interest � This is the second line or the first line of the body is where you show
the benefits.
Decision � This is the third line of the ad or the second line of the body. This is
where you tell people to take action.
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Display URL � This is where you place the location where the people will go
when they click on your ad.
With search and content, the four elements will be handled differently. The people
seeing the ads will have a different mentality.
The Two Ad Modes � Search and Content
With search, your ads must be relevant. If someone does a search, Google wants to
make sure the search that is performed is directly tied to what you are offering. It needs
to be tied to the keywords, the ad, and the landing page. You have to make sure
everything about your campaign is relevant to the keywords.
On the content network, things are different. This is where your marketing skills step
into action. Here you have to really gear up your copywriting skills, because when they
are doing their searches, they are probably focused on other things at the same time.
So have to get their attention quickly.
Search Network
Regarding the Search Network these are the attributes you must be aware of and
follow:
Ads must be relevant � people are searching, just show them you have what
they want.
Don�t get fancy, it could even hurt you. If you have an ad that pulls people in
who are not qualified, that can raise your clicks for no reason. This is why you
don�t pick keywords that are really broad.
Create a different Ad Group and ad for each of your top keywords.
Keywords get bolded � so use them in the ad.
The Content Network
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Regarding the Search Network these are the attributes you must be aware of and
follow:
Content is different than Search. Content is people who are looking at other
content and they happen to see your ad. I am sure you have seen these ads
on a website and seen a box at the top that says �Ads by Google�. This is
related to the Content Network. It is not important where your ad shows. But
you still have to grab their attention.
Content has 20-30 more clicks.
Content ads are generally cheaper than Search.
Works best with cheap items and lead generation.
Grab their attention � distract them. You will need to know how to distract the
viewer so they will pay attention to your ad and click on it.
Ad Types
There are various ad types to look at. These ad types are laid out below:
Ask a Question � If your question intrigues others, you�ll get a response. Your
question has to be formatted so that no one can answer. This way their
curiosity will be raised. Make sure on your landing page, you give social proof
that your product will work. You can do this with testimonials.
Tease Them � Start with a headline and but end with an eclipse (�). When
people see this, they will be curious and want to see what the answer is, or
what follows.
Negative Ad � If you use this method, you will have to put a spin on it on your
landing page. The main concern is to provide the truth to visitors, so it will get
their attention.
Shock Ad � With this ad you will do something wild or crazy to get their
attention. You may say something to them that you would not normally say.
You can also use question marks in your ad. This gets their attention.
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Tips and Tools
When creating your ad, there are several things to keep in mind:
You can use strange characters (©,?, *, &) but do not use the exclamation
mark (!)
Show specific numbers if applicable. For example: Learn Guitar in 7 Days
Check news headlines to see what is hot � Maybe you can tie your ad to
something hot in the news.
Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion � This does not always work. Because you
have to cater and laser your keywords to a target. It may make your ad look
goofy. If you do your research right, you won�t need this tool anyway.
Ads Diagnostic � If you have an ad but are not getting good results. Google�s
Ads Diagnostics tool will look at your ad and give you results you can use. It
will help you determine why your ad is not getting results.
Dynamic Keywords
Dynamic keywords were mentioned previous in this chapter. But it would be good for
you to understand how it works. When someone goes to Google and does a search if
they do a particular search, you want your ad to pop up for that keyword.
You have five words in your Ad Group. In order for your ad to show up when
someone types in a keyword, you can use dynamic keywords. In your ad, you will have
the keyword that was searched for. For example, here is a typical ad for the keywords
�Get Excel Training.�
Get Excel Training
Learn in one weekend
----
-----
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To make your ad more dynamic you create your ad like this:
Get {keyword: Excel Training}
-----
-----
The problem with this is your ad may look funny. You will just have to work with it and
see what works.
These are tips you can use to help you:
Use Dynamic Keywords in ad copy
- {keyword: default text}
The problem with this is your quality score is not affected by it. So if you are
looking to get your quality score up, using dynamic keywords won�t help you.
Use Dynamic Keyword in display URL � This method will still not give you a good
quality score, but your will appear more relevant because you may end up with
more clicks.
Using POPURLS.com
This place shows you what is hot on the Internet. When you check out DIGG and
other sites to see what topics are hot, and what headlines are working � what made you
click?
Here is what POPURLS looks like:
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All this website is about is what is popular on the Internet for the moment. Go through
and you will see valid content. Stay here for a while and refresh the screen. You�ll
constantly see new content. Look through the website and take note the headlines.
What made you want to stop, look at it, and click it? Everything is dynamic. So the site
is constantly changing.
If you really want to learn what good niches there are, POPURLS.com is a great
place to go. Keep going back. You�ll learn a lot from it.
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Chapter 7: How to Prune Your Campaign For Best Results
To start this chapter, look at the following image:
With this chapter, we are going to get down to bare knuckles. You will see an active
campaign that was just set up for this chapter. You are going to be introduced to
pruning. You will need to get rid of keywords that are not producing. You will see this as
we go through the chapter.
Take a look at the above image, and look at the numbers. Total cost for the one Ad
Group is $193.25. Look at my CTR, clicks, and impressions. Obvious this is not a
popular niche, but I wanted to show you how the campaign and Adwords works.
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The only problem right now is we don�t know which specific Ad Group is working or
not. Which keywords are working? We don�t know. When Google looks at this
campaign, they will say good job. This way your quality score is raised. If you are not
careful, any keywords that are not working will reduce your quality score. When you
start your campaign, give your campaign at least a week. At the end of the week, get rid
of all keywords that have no impressions. After two weeks, you will get rid of all
keywords that don�t have any clicks. If you have ads that have impressions but no
clicks, you just may have to reword the ad.
Take a look at the following image:
The entire process is maintenance. That is just a part of the process. You got to deal
with it.
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Now take a look at the numbers. The total amount I have to pay for the campaign is
$193.25. The total clicks are 379. Look at my impressions. It is 26,393. Obviously, I am
getting a ton of impressions but not as much in clicks. This is why my CTR is 1.44%.
Right now I am making money. I am spending on average $48 per sale. At this point,
everything is doing okay. But I want to prune the campaign so to get my quality score
higher than it is now. Plus, my ROI can be the best it can be.
If you look at the total CTR, this is the average for all Ad Groups. Each Ad Group
has separate keywords that may have higher CTR, but by combining all of them
together, we end up with the average CTR for each Ad Group. All Ad Groups added
together bring the average CTR for the campaign.
Now let�s begin going through each Ad Group to start our pruning. The first Ad Group
will be �Learn Excel Tutorial� because this has the lowest CTR.
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Look at the above image. You will notice keyword phrases that have impressions but
no clicks. Right now we will get rid of keywords that have no clicks. So delete the
keywords that are circled. These keywords have no clicks, no impressions, or none of
both. Click on the square in the front of the keywords and click Delete. That�s it. You
don�t need any keywords that aren�t working. Here are the results after removing these
keywords:
Take a look at the image above and see there are only three keywords left. But look
at the CTR of the third keyword phrase. This keyword phrase has only 1 click and 687
impressions. Not good for what we are trying to achieve. So we delete this one to. The
result:
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Now look what is left. There are only two keyword phrases left. This is okay for now.
If you look at the second keyword phrase, the quality score is poor. This is because the
landing page does not have enough of this keyword phrase on the web page. Once this
is adjusted, this quality score will rise.
Now let�s turn our attention to the next Ad Group � �How to Excel.�
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When looking at the above image, you can see the CTR is too low. But since the
impressions are low and there is one click, let�s leave this one alone for now and get
back to it later.
We will go for the next Ad Group � �Learn Excel Training.�
There are some quality issues here. There are a lot of keyword phrases that have no
clicks and low impressions. We will delete these keywords since they are non-
productive. Here are the results after deleting the five keyword phrases:
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What you see above is what�s left after the five keyword phrases were taken out.
Now take a look at what is left. Those five keyword phrases had to be taken out
because they were not productive. They were hurting my total CTR and quality score.
Now let�s go to the next Ad Group � �Learn Excel 2007.�
When looking at the image, you will see one keyword phrase that has no clicks, so
we have to get rid of it. Although, the keyword does have impressions, it does not have
any clicks. So this keyword is gone.
Now we will turn our attention to the next Ad Group and that is �Excel Free Lessons.�
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By examining the above image, you can see there is only one keyword phrase. It has
a good CTR for the keyword phrase. The impressions and clicks are fine. The only thing
I did for this Ad Group was I changed the bid price by lowering it. If the quality score is
not going to help me enough, I�ll just get rid of the keyword before I pay more money for
the bid.
Finally, we will take a look at the last Ad Group � �Excel Misspellings.�
If you take a look at the image, there is something funny about it. Every landing page
I created for the keywords does not have any keyword misspellings. But yet I am still
getting good quality score. I don�t know why but I am. But if you look at the minimum bid
amount it is between 10 � 20 cents. Not bad.
Right now, every keyword is getting impressions and clicks. Everything is just low
right now. My position for all the keywords is low so no need to do anything to these
keywords. The reason I am leaving these be, is because keyword misspellings are more
of a specialty. And since I am not paying hardly anything for the keywords, it doesn�t
need to be adjusted.
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Keep going back every 7 days to check for no impressions. Every 14 days check for
no clicks. Keep doing this on a weekly basis, because bad keyword production can drag
your quality score down. You also want to look at keywords that are costing you a lot of
money. You may want to get rid of them to, even if they are giving you high traffic. If you
keep them, you may not make profits because of the high amount you are paying for the
keywords compared to what you make with your product.
One way to calculate your conversion is to look at the number of clicks. Take the total
number of sales. By dividing the number of clicks to the total sales, you have the ad
costs per conversion. So let�s say the number of clicks is 379. Your total sale amount is
$268. Your ad cost per conversion will be $48.
If you want to get your ad cost per conversion down, you will need to get rid of your
non-producing keywords. The one thing you must take into consideration is not to let
your ego get in the way over keywords. Also don�t be emotionally tied to your keywords.
If you keep your keywords and pay a lot for them, you end up not making any money.
What good is that? I would rather spend less on keywords that are producing than pay a
lot for those that aren�t.
When you first start doing pruning, it is best to check your campaign every week. You
may notice that certain keywords that did not work one week may start working. That is
the way it goes sometimes. This is why maintenance is required, for it allows you to
control your keywords, and when you see certain keywords are not productive, you
know you have to get rid of them. If you want to be successful with your Adwords
campaign, take the time to do maintenance, and you will find what you are spending
and cut your cost in half.
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Chapter 8: Dealing with Placement Ads in the Content Network
When working with a Content Network, you have to know the rules. These are some
of the things you need to know:
Rules of the Game
What Works on Content
Text Ads
Image Ads
Advanced Advertising
Working with Sites
Hands On
Some of the information in this chapter was stated in previous chapters so you may
remember it. Just look at it as a refresher.
Rules of the Game
In order to play the game, there are rules you need to know. Placement targeting is
totally different than Search- it uses the Content network. Any ads that are placed on
the Content network are usually found on any website. Those are the ads you see at the
top, side, or bottom, where it says �Ad by Google.� Placement targeting is based on you
picking what websites you want to place your ad. You have a choice as to what website
you want your ad to appear in.
Why place ads on Content networks? Because you get a whole lot more clicks than
you would get from searches through Google. If you look at your Adwords campaign,
and look at your Content network, you will find that your clicks are much more than all
your other keywords.
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Other rules you must follow include:
20-30 times more clicks � The Content network provides more clicks than the
Search content does.
Get their attention � whether you use a text or banner ad. All you want to do is
get their attention. You just want them to click.
Content ads are usually cheaper � The CPM (cost per thousands), will depend
on the ad, but usually may be around $5. If your ad is really good, going by the
way of impressions is the way to go. On the PPC (pay-per-click model), the
more clicks you get the more you are going to pay. Sometimes, paying a
thousand for impressions is much better.
It�s all about marketing skills � In order to get noticed in Content network, you
must have and use good marketing skills. Why? You have to be able to catch
the interest of visitors.
With Content you can be anywhere � with placement you pick where you want
your ad to be. If you are doing keyword targeting and the keyword is in your
ad, your ad will show up. But with placement you can decide where you want
your ad to be. For example, if you decide you want to be on Microsoft, you will
be.
It is best to have the Content network, Search network, and placement all working for
you. This way you increase your exposure. In Search your ad must be relevant. But with
Content, there are other tricks you have to perform to get your ad to appear and get
clicked.
What Works on Content
What works on Content? These methods work best when placing ads on Content
networks:
Yell at them!
Use negative ads
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Ask questions
Use symbols $ # % ©
Use numbers 77, 325, 666
Provoke people
Shock them
Make it news related
Tease them
The main point you want to get their attention to the point where they will click on your
ad.
Text Ads
When working with text ads you will get the same space as with the Search network.
There are exceptions to this. When you are setting up your campaign, whether it is
content or placement targeted. If it is placement targeted you have done your research.
Your ad on the content network could be changed if there is not enough room.
In fact, here is an image of what I am referring to:
Take a look at this image. Look at the ads at the top of the screen. Notice the circle
and how the last two URLs are cut off. This happens very often on Content sites. This is
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why it you should investigate some sites before you agree to be listed on them,
especially if you chose the placement feature.
You can also use the power of ad variations. When creating ads, you should vary
them. One ad will stick out better than another ad. Just start out by creating one ad and
create a second and third ad. Make everything the same except the headline. Each ad
will have a different headline.
Let that run for a while. After about 1000 impressions, check the ads. See which one
has more impressions. When you find out which one performed the best, this will be
your winning headline. Then you take the winning headline, and produce three ads that
are just like the winning ad. Now they all have the same headline, but different copy. All
of them have the same display URL. After another 1000 impressions, one will have
more impressions. This will be the winning headline again. Now you know which ad
works the best. You can now delete the other ads.
Image Ads
In order to create a great image ad, you need the ad to blend in. Some websites
show ads by Google. Some sites use ads that don�t look like ads by Google.
Take a look at the following image as an example of what I am talking about as
image ads that look like the site:
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The image that is squared is the ad by Google. Notice how it blends into the rest of
the web page, by way of the colors and scheme. Sometimes, this can be very
beneficial. If you put it in the middle of an article, they won�t know that what they are
reading is an ad. But you have to do it right.
Another way to create images is to create it so it sticks out from other images. You
just want to grab their attention. You may want to try both to see which one works. Don�t
create the ad that it looks to professional, or people will think of it as an ad.
You want to test your ads. Some people find that something doesn�t work and give
up completely. This doesn�t mean the process doesn�t work; it could be what you have
for your niche doesn�t work. Banner ads are good to create. This type of ad will be
discussed later.
If you do decide to create a banner ad, here are the standard sizes you will need to
know about:
- 468 x 60 Banner
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- 728 x 90 Leaderboard
- 250 x 250 Square
- 200 x 200 Small Square
- 336 x 280 Large Rectangle
- 300 x 250 Inline Rectangle
- 120 x 600 Skyscraper
- 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper
All these measurements are in pixels. Remember that.
Advanced Advertising Techniques
Placement is more advanced than Search so do Search first. Once you have Search
network working and you are making money, launch a Content campaign only. It is best
to name your Ad Groups so you will know which one is for placement, content, or
search. After you have launched your content campaign, your next step is to launch a
placement campaign. Once you do this, go directly to the sites showing ads and work a
deal with them. But make sure all the other areas work first.
Working with Sites
After you have your campaigns working, you will want to deal directly with the
website that is not working with the Content network. Do a search in Google using your
top keyword. Click on that site. See if the site has Adsense. If they do, see if they could
work with you. Make a deal to see if you can be listed on that site. Make sure the sites
you pick are in your niche. If they don�t have Adsense, look for any type of advertising.
When you communicate with the website, be direct. Tell the webmaster you want to
advertise on their site, and ask for a rate card. A rate card is basically costs for an ad
placement, along with a particular place your ad may go on the site. When you get the
rate card, don�t think you are going to pay the price from that card. You can always
bring that price down. Be a business person and try to get the lowest cost possible.
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If they try to rush you to take what they offer, suggest you think about their offer.
Don�t accept the first offer they give. Instead, think about it. This way they will realize
you are serious. The next step is for you to ask them for a proposal. Tell them you have
no budget, if they ask for your budget.
Any time you deal with a website, it is always good to negotiate with them. If you
know what you want, and they have already given you a low price away from the rate
card, you need to think about taking it.
When negotiating, don�t forget terms. You may want to ask for their terms. Do you do
net 30 or 60. This means you will buy advertising today but I have 30 or 60 days to pay
for it. This helps you because you can advertise right away, testing the waters. This way
you will be able to tell if your ad will work on their website. If you pay your bill with a
credit card, you can get an additional 30 days advertising before you will have to pay
the bill.
When going with the website, don�t go for the home page. Find a page inside the
website that has good content and website traffic. This would be better for you.
Hands On
We�ll take a look at some sites in the Content network and then we�ll look at a
placement targeted campaign.
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This example you saw earlier. If you look at the ad that is surrounded by a box, and
you place your mouse anywhere in the ad and click it you�ll be sent to another web
page. Notice how the image attracts your attention? Although the ad is clickable, it still
looks like the web page, so the ad does not stand out.
If you look at the top of the web page as shown in the image below, you will notice
Google Adwords at the top of the page.
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This is really not the right place to be with your ads. When people go to websites,
they usually don�t notice the top too much. Instead, if you can get right in with the
content, that would be best.
Now take a look at the following picture:
If you look at right hand side of the screen, you will see an advertisement that is not
well suited to the web page. This ad appears to be light brown in the above picture, but
in reality, it is yellow. Although the University of Phoenix does promote themselves well,
the ad does not look good to the page.
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Now look at this picture:
If you see the Adwords in the picture, it is near the end of the page. This is no good.
The ad should be further up on the page; more in the center.
If you decide to create your own ad, you will want to create the ad so it matches up
with the website the ad will go on. For instance, take a look at the image below:
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When I decide to create an ad, this is the page the ad would show. Once I create the
ad and get the particulars out of the way with the webmaster, the ad will show. Take a
look at the ads I created:
Do you notice the colors of the ad and how the colors fit well with the colors of the
web page? The ad has the right background color and hue. So the image fits well on the
page.
Content Placement Campaign Creation
So now you know where the ads show up. Now you are going to see how a content
placement campaign will go.
We will start with keywords. Let�s name the campaign �Content Only.� So let�s go to
our campaign page and begin this work.
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Now we will create our ad. Here is what the ad will read:
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Now that the ad has been created, we will go to the next screen and add our
keywords like shown here:
Our next step will be to put in our budget:
For now I will keep the budget at $100 and the Maximum CPC bid amount at .01,
since I do not want to spend that much. I also want to keep the CPC Content bid down
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to .01 for the same reason. Now I will save the campaign. Now the Ad Group was
created. I will pause it right away so we can evaluate it.
Now I will edit the campaign:
If you look at the image, you will see I checked off Google Search. This campaign is
for Content network only, so no search will be required. Everything else will be left the
way it is. I will then save the changes.
So now what you see is a Content only campaign as you will see in the image below:
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Since I created the content campaigns, I received 11 more clicks than what I had
gotten strictly from the Search network. So by adding the Content campaign, I was able
to add 11 clicks.
Now I will show you how to set up Content Placement:
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If you are on your Campaign Summary page as the above image shows, you will
click the link where it says �New online campaign� (circle) and click �Start with
placements.�
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When the window opens, you will name the campaign �Placement only� as I did here.
We will focus on graphical ads for this campaign, so just describe what you are using as
graphical when you name your new ad.
Just like above, you can create an ad. For this ad, you will create an image ad. So
click Image Ad as the circle shows in the image below:
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Notice the area in red with the mouse pointer. When clicking this you will see this
window come up:
On this screen you will have choices of the size you will need to use for your
graphical images. Now upload your image and name it. Then add your display URL,
and Destination URL. Click Continue. If everything is good to go, Google will show you
your ad in graphical format. Click the �Continue� button and you will be presented with
the next phase, which will be where you will decide what category to place your ad in.
The browse category is pretty board so you may want to give it a try. Whatever
category you go to you may find a ton of websites. You will get the domain, Ad Formats,
Impressions per day, and Status. Whatever category you go for, don�t choose those
with impressions over 500+. You�ll end up spending a lot of money.
Once you have chosen your category, you will see on the right hand side a little area
that says �Selected Placements� as shown below in the box:
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You can also use �Describe topics�. With this option, you will type a keyword in one
field. When you click �Okay� to run the query, you will see a bunch of websites that
show up as you saw in the previous search results.
Once you find the place you want your ad placed, you will click the Add button to the
right and choose which sites you want your ad placed. You can choose more than one
website.
If you prefer, you can also use �List URLS�. With this option you type in the URL of
the website you want your ad to go into by typing it in the �Enter one URL per line in this
format: www.example.com� field. Then click the button that says �Get Available
Placements.�
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The last option you may want to go for is the �Select demographics� options. Is this
better? Not really. It does give you information about how many people who do search
is either male or female, along with a range of ages, and household income. But the
stats are not 100% accurate.
Basically, every option listed on the page can be used to find your category. They all
work to that main goal.
After you have taken care of all your categories, you will click Continue and will get to
a screen where you will get to choose your pricing method as shown here:
On this screen you will choose whether you want to pay per click or per impression.
In some cases, impressions may be important for you, since you get paid for
impressions even if no one clicks or not. The downside to this is the ad has to appear
on the page, where it can be seen; otherwise your ad will never get impressions. You do
pay no matter whether anyone sees your ad, because when the web page is loaded,
the ad is scanned which gives an impression.
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Chapter 9: Optimizing Your Campaign for Peak Performance
In this chapter you will learn how to optimize your campaign for top performance. I
am not just talking about adjustments, like in the previous chapter; I am talking about
using tools to help you tweak your campaign to make it more productive for you.
The tools you will be introduced to are the following:
Campaign Optimizer
Website Optimizer
Conversion Tracker
Conversion Optimizer
Reports
Every one of these tools will help you be successful with your Adwords campaign.
Google is trying to make it easy and convenient so you can be successful. If your ad is
successful, Google makes money. That is why Google provides these tools for free.
Campaign Optimizer
Campaign Optimizer will suggest changes to your campaign, such as adding
keywords. However, you don�t blindly follow its advice. Some advice is good, but some
advice is bad.
When you log into your account, you will see Tools listed on the menu bar. Click on
Tools, and you will see the following window:
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Click on Campaign Optimizer which will bring up this window:
This screen shows you each of the campaigns you have running. Just click Go for the
one you want to work with and click �Get started.� You will then be taken to a screen
which shows your Ad Groups as shown below:
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These are the Ad Groups you have running at the time. All you have to do is select
the Ad Group you want to look at and click Review. Here is a sample of an Ad Group
that you clicked to review:
When you look at the above image, you will notice it suggests keywords you can add.
Be careful here. Just because Google suggests these keywords doesn�t mean they will
work for you. Don�t be fooled. Only use the keywords if they are in your niche and are
relevant.
Website Optimizer
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The Website Optimizer is very powerful. It will take multiple versions of your landing
page and see which one works the best. What you do is set up the various landing
pages. Website Optimizer creates an A/B experiment with your different landing pages
and tracks their performance.
It requires that you set up variations of your landing page. Google will then alternate
your landing pages and send clicks to your variations, it will track conversions and
ultimately you will know which page converts better.
This is a great tool because when someone does a search and your ad is displayed,
Google will alternate your landing page. The user may go to your original page or to the
alternate page. Google will give you a little bit of code you can put on both landing
pages and Google will let you know which page got the conversion.
When running this for a while, you will get to know which landing page is better.
When you look at your stats, if landing page B had more conversions this is the page
you would use more often. But if landing page A had more conversions, you would use
that one.
Thankfully you do not have to do the tracking because Website Optimizer will do the
tracking for you.
The image below shows how to access the Website Optimizer.
If you look at the image, you will see the main campaign management page. Where
the arrow is located is the link to access the Website Optimizer.
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Next you will click �Get started.�
Then put in your location, time zone, and then click Continue.
Since there are no experiments yet, we click �Create experiment�.
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As you can see form the image there are two ways to go with this. With the A/B
Experiment, if your landing page receives fewer than 1000 view a week, this is the
option to go with. But if you have multiple landing pages and you page receives more
than 1000 views a week, this one would be better. With the Multivariate Experiment you
have a lot more options and flexibility.
For the sake of this chapter I chose to go with A/B Experiment. Now, click Create and
a web page like the below image comes up.
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You first need to enter an Experiment name. I put in the original landing page URL as
well as the page variation URL. The next part is the Conversion page URL. If you have
a page that displays results after conversion is done, that page would go here.
The next step is as shown in the image below:
Here you have a choice as to whether you want to install and validate JavaScript
Tags or you can have someone else do that for you. For the sake of this chapter, I will
go with to install and validate the JavaScript tags myself.
Next you will receive a bit of code as shown in the image below:
The code is in JavaScript so it may be hard to understand for those who don�t know
the language. This is the code that is placed on your web page that you want to test for
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conversions. You just copy and paste the code and paste it to the web page at the very
beginning. The screen has detailed instructions for you so you can�t mess it up.
Once you place the code on your original landing page as shown in the image, you
will next place code on the variation landing page as shown in the image below:
Once you have completed placing all code on your web pages, you will then validate
all code has been entered in by clicking Validate pages as shown in the image below:
After you click Validate pages, Google performs the validation as shown below:
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Click OK. And you will see the results of what you did like you see in the image
below:
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This is all you have to see. The next topic will be Conversion Tracker.
Conversion Tracker
The Conversion Tracker is used to track how many conversions you have received
for a given action. You will specify what constitutes a conversion. You will tell Google
how to track that.
Here is what Conversion Tracker looks like:
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With conversion tracking, you will be able to track what your visitors will do when on
your web page. With conversion tracking you set up a way to track what the user will do,
what action the user needs to take for you to make your sale, if you are selling
something.
Below is an image of where you will put all the action you want to track.
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On this page you will name your action so you can keep track of it for the future. You
will put in what revenue you plan to track. This value is for reporting purposes only and
will not affect your campaign at all. After you fill in the rest of the form, you will click
�Save Action and Get Code�. The code will appear as shown in the image below:
This code gets placed on your conversion or order page. This way when someone
orders your product, that order is tracked by Google. After you do this, a screen will
come up where you will have to verify the page where the conversion will be. By
verifying, this tells Google the code is in place.
Conversion Optimizer
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This helps manage your bids to get your targeted CPA where you want it
automatically. Let�s say you have 100 clicks and they cost you $40, we paid 40 cents
per click. But out of those 100 clicks I got two people to buy, and my product is $67, that
means I would have $134 but each click is costing me $20. So my cost per acquisition
(CPA) is $20. This is not bad. But your goal is to get your cost per acquisition down.
Once the CPA is down, we can always tweak other things to bring our click cost down.
Conversion tracking must be on and you must have 100+ conversions in the last 30
days to use this feature. You also want to have a steady conversion rate. Conversion
optimization does not work with placement targeting, separate content bids, position
preference, or advanced ad scheduling.
Reports
Google has a lot of resources for you to use to analyze your campaign. They have
reports you can run that will show you how your Adwords campaign stands. The report
will tell you your keywords, clicks, impressions, and many other stats you may need.
Basically, reports allow you to see exactly what you are interested and can have it set
up automatically so you can have it run at whatever time you need it to. This is a very
powerful function, but Google gives it to you for free.
Reports help you know what is going on with your campaigns without having to log
into Adwords. An incredible amount of data is available. Try to focus on the things that
are most important.
To access reports you will need to log in and be at the main campaign management
window like shown below:
Just click the Reports tab and a window will open like shown below:
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At this window you will click �Create a New Report�. A window will open as shown
below:
Here you will find a list of reports you can run. Whatever type of report you need, you
just click on the type as shown above and you will get the report you need.
In the second area we will select what to view as shown in the image below:
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You can select a Unit of Time to View or Date Range. You can also view all
campaigns and all their ad groups or manually select a list. It depends on what you are
looking for.
The next screen you will see is shown below:
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This window is pretty self-explanatory. You just go with the fields and choose what
you want and how deep of a report you want Google to provide. After you have
completed this page, you will come to another page as shown below:
In this window, you get to select the name of your report, if you want the report to be
a template so you can use it for other reports later, you can also schedule your reports,
and set up the report to be sent to a certain email address. Once you have filled in what
you require, you just click �Create Report� and you are done.
It�s all about Testing
The main concern for you is to set things up so you can analyze the data, perform
tests, and then watch your campaign. But this takes time to setup, but once all systems
are in place, monitoring and improving your campaign can be much easier.
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Chapter 10: Creating Banner Ads That Are Guaranteed to Work
In this chapter we will discuss how to create banner ads. Some of what will be
discussed will be banner history, banner ad dimensions, different components of a great
banner ad, sizzling tips that you can use to create great banner ads, sample ads, and
resources you can use.
Banner Ad History
Banners started around the mid �90s and became incredibly popular but expensive.
But by the year 2000, they became very cheap. By this time people got a little banner
blindness and avoided them. The reason for that is because the ad had too much
professionalism, layout was perfect, and it had a catchy headline. This is the kind of ad
that would be ignored. Your brain doesn�t want to deal with stuff that is not relevant. To
get around that is to create an ad that would fit in the article, if that is where you are
placing it. Or if your ad is impulsively obnoxious, people will take notice.
Soon, Web 2.0 came around. Now advertisers have become more serious. There will
be people who tell you that banners don�t work anymore. This is not true. You simply
have to adjust and change the way you use and write your ad. You don�t have to spend
a lot of money. As long as you do it right, you can be successful with your ad.
Standard Dimensions
When creating banner ads, there are standard dimensions you will work with. These
dimensions will include:
- 468 x 60 banner
- 728 x 90 leaderboard
- 250 x 250 square
- 200 x 200 square
- 336 x 280 large rectangle
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- 300 x 250 inline rectangle
- 120 x 600 skyscraper
- 160 x 600 wide skyscraper
You probably saw these dimensions in a previous chapter. I wanted to re-show this
again so you will have in front of you the dimensions you can use in creating banners,
without having to go back to that chapter for reference.
Components of a Great Banner Ad
When creating a great banner ad, you must grab their attention. You may need to do
something out of the ordinary. Or you could just place your ad right within the article.
When writing your ad, the only concern you have is to get the person to click. Your goal
is to sell them enough that they will want to click your ad.
You do not have to create a banner with a lot of text. You don�t have to clutter the ad
with much of anything. All you want to do is provide a call to action. You just want to
instruct them as to what to do.
Sizzling Tips
When you create your ad, if you use the following sizzling tips your ad will stand out
better.
Try to stay above the fold on the web page your ad will go. People see the top
first. Go to the sites you want your ad to appear and visit them. Look to see
where AdSense is showing. At the bottom is not really that great. Try to get
your ad above the fold. This way your ad gets more exposure.
When you construct your ad, you tell the viewer what to do. You can use text
since that still works, as long as you use words that capture the interest of
people. You can even create the ad in such a way that the ad looks like a part
of the web page. This way the text may look like part of the message that is
displayed around the ad.
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Banners that look too �pro� can be ignored easily. Just put text together that
will attract the eyes but are not over done. If someone else is doing your ad,
just ask them to tone down the ad, so it doesn�t look to professional. You may
want to have them do both � a professional and an amateur ad.
People end up looking on the right side of the page � make sure to get your
ad placed there. This way your ad gets more exposure than ads placed any
place else.
Your logo means zero so don�t put it in your ad. No one cares about it. No one
knows who you are. Your ad is just taking up space and causing a distraction.
If something hurts you don�t use it. Branding does not mean anything.
To show you what I am talking about, here is an example ad:
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Take a look at the image above. Notice the ads on the right hand side with the box
around it. These may look like different ads, but they are not. They are the same ads.
They all point to the same web page basically.
Sometimes, you may want to create more than one ad and place them all on the
same page. This way you can test the ads to see which one pulls in better. I decided to
place all three ads on the same page. They may all be the same ad, but I don�t care
because I am still getting a click.
If you look at the ads, you will notice the ads kind of fit with the theme of the web
page. This way the ads would look like the rest of the web page. The only way you will
know they are ads is because of the word advertisement at the top.
Here is an ad that is more obnoxious:
Take a look at it. It has a geeky looking man along with a puke green background.
This ad stands out like a sore thumb. When you see this you can tell it is obnoxious, but
people will click on it. They may hate it but they can�t get away from it. So they pay
attention and if they want to learn Excel fast, they will click on the ad. In some cases,
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people will create animations. That is okay to as long as you do it as an animated GIF
and not Flash.
If you want to have someone do the ads for you, you can go to
www.PrivateLabelSales.com or www.Elance.com. May sure you ask for both a
professional and amateur ad. This way you can test both to see which one works best.
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Chapter 11: How to Create Sales Copy That Works
This is the big chapter. This teaches how to make copy that works. One of the most
difficult challenges is to create copy that will help sell your product or service. It doesn�t
matter if your product is great or not, it is the copy that people see that matters the
most. If you can�t convince people to purchase your product your copy will do nothing
for you.
Since I have delved into copywriting for a while and have found what works. I am
going to supply you with what I believe works today. Therefore, I am going to provide
you what you need to know to enable you to produce the best copy.
In this chapter you will learn the following:
What is copywriting?
The Makeup of a Salesletter
Proven Headlines
The Sales Page Body
Testimonials
Your Offer
Attractive Add-ons
Scarcity
CTA
Post Script
Wrapping It Up
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting is a combination of several elements. To me copywriting is:
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Your salesperson: It�s the only link to your product or the person who is
making a purchase. It is not just someone who describes benefits and
features. It is a person who convinces or pressures the person to buy.
A story: Copywriting can sometimes be a story. Generating a story often helps
sell a product. Some people don�t care about your copy, but this is not always
the case. As Internet marketers, you have to show that people need what you
have. So you may need to tell a story to spark interest in what you are selling.
Touching the reader: You have to show the relationship you have with your
reader. You have to connect with them. When they see we understand their
needs and fears that is the goal of good copywriting.
Engaging: Your copy has to be really engaging. This means that if they read
your copy, they will be so engaging, they won�t want to put stop reading it.
I�m going to show you how it�s done: I will show you what I did. But the main
concern for you is to learn the basics so you can do it to.
After your first campaign, learn to outsource, and teach them the basics of
copyrighting. This way you don�t have to deal with it. You can work on other
parts of your campaign, while someone else is working on your copy.
The Makeup of a Salesletter
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The two you see where the arrows point are the most important elements in your
sales copy. The others are still important, but these two are most important. The
headline and sub-headline are the key factors as to whether anyone will read your
salesletter or not. This is where someone will stop and read your copy.
The next tab down will be the Problem Story. This is where you will describe a
problem the reader may have so you can show them you understand their problem and
can relate to it. You will stress how terrible the person�s problem is by telling a story.
This way you get their emotions aroused.
The next part is the Benefits and Testimonials. Here you will list the benefits of your
product. You will not mention your product as yet. You will simply list the benefits of
what your product will do for your customers. For example, when you buy a car with air
conditioning, you are not buying the car because it is cheaper, although this may be one
reason; your primary reason for buying the car with air conditioning is to keep you cool
in the summer.
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You must include testimonials. Testimonials let the reader know that someone else
tried your product and stated how great the product was. People don�t want to be taken,
and by showing proof that others bought the product and did well, the reader will be
convinced it will work for him/her as well.
The next part is the Offer. This is where you list everything you are offering. This
could be a product, along with bonuses, or you could simply provide a link to a FREE
newsletter. This way you get their name and email address in exchange for something.
The main point is to point out what you are selling in detail.
The Guarantee section is where you will take away all risk on the part of the
customer, and let you know you are providing your offer with a guarantee. So you will
remove all possible risk by giving them a guarantee. The main concern is to provide an
unconditional, no loophole, iron-clad, no questions asked, money-back guarantee. You
are telling them they have nothing to lose. You will give them their money back if they
are not delighted.
You will have one person who will take advantage of you, but who cares. By having
the guarantee, you will remove the fear people have when shopping online. You will
have made so many extra sales because of your guarantee. You can look at it this way.
You bought ten people to one person. That is $67 per person. That�s why one loss won�t
matter so much.
Have a long guarantee. Some people provide 30 or 60 or 90 days guarantee. There
are actually people who will give a yearlong or lifetime guarantee. A guarantee is
powerful, so don�t leave it out.
Scarcity is important to have in your copy as well. If you have a product you are
selling, and you are giving a bonus, put in scarcity so people will realize if they don�t
take action immediately, they will lose out on some fantastic bonuses. This will influence
them to buy. For example, one person stated he was selling only 500 copies of his
product, but only until a certain day, this way people will know they have to buy now or
else lose out.
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The Call to Action is where you tell people what to do. The Closing statement is
where you wrap up the sales letter, by including a P.S.
Proven Headlines
Here are some proven headlines that work. All you have to do is fill in the blank with
your own words about your product.
See How Easily You Can __________
How To ___________
They laughed when I _________, but when I _____________
WARNING: Don�t Even Think of __________ Until You _________
_____ Easy Ways To ________
Can you spot these ___ _________ sins?
Do you make these ___ common _______ mistakes?
_____ in __ Days or Your Money Back
Get Rid of _____ For Good
The Sales Page Body
The goal of this part is to impart emotion to the reader, just as is depicted in the
following image:
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Provide something they can relate to. Bring up points as to why it is so bad. Try to go
by the following points:
Identify a problem your reader can relate to.
Tell them the problem and play up on how bad it is. Bring up points about why it
is so bad.
Tell them a story that pulls them into �your world�. You can give them an example
of an experience you had and how you ended up solving your problem using the
product you created.
Search Digg.com or Google.com for niche related stories.
The Sales Page Body
When writing your sales copy, you do not want to write it in huge chunks. This will not
be good for the reader. It will be too confusing for them. Instead, do the following:
Use bullet points and organize them attractively. People pay more attention to
bullet points since they are spread out more and catch the eyes.
Features vs. Benefits: You must provide not just features, but you also need
benefits.
Place qualifying bullet points at the top of your salesletter.
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Features and Benefits show up once you reveal what the product is. Use bullet
points that tell �feature SO benefit�
Recap your bullets just before the CTA. Make it brief.
Some people will read your headline and skip down to your price to see if they are
interested. So having a recap and wrap up will benefit your copy tremendously. By the
way, when you are pricing your product, it would be best to test your product. Keep
testing your product price until you find the highest price you can go before no one buys
your product.
Testimonials
Do you need testimonials? Without them you are dead in the water in a way. Here
are guidelines you can use concerning testimonials:
Testimonials can be very powerful social proof.
Don�t ask your existing customers for a testimonial ask them for �feedback�, seed
them with questions:
�Were you skeptical at first?
�Would you recommend it to others?
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When providing testimonials, ask for permission to place the testimony and picture on
your website, otherwise, they could sue you if you did so without permission. Don�t
place the person�s email address on it. They won�t like getting bombarded with emails
from people.
Your Offer
When providing your offer, there are certain guidelines you can follow that will help
your offer stand out in your salesletter and entice people to buy. These are:
Tell them what they get and how.
The offer can include many elements including, but not limited to:
- Your product
- Trial memberships
- Bonuses
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One point to consider, when you provide your customers with bonuses, please do not
give them junk. The bonuses should be something of value.
Attractive Add-ons
Anytime you provide a bonus, give them something that will sweeten the deal. A
bonus product does NOT have to relate to the niche. You need to show them the REAL
value of what you�re giving. If your product is valued at $49, and you want to entice
them, tell them you are lowering the value to $29. This will really grab them. You can
also work out payment terms. This can often help convince them to buy from you.
You want to make them feel like they cannot pass it up. This is why you have to tell
them the price and why they have to buy TODAY! Give them a no Risk �full refund if
they don�t like it.
Scarcity
Don�t do imagery scarcity. It won�t work. When creating scarcity, stick to your guns.
Tell them you are only selling 100 copies at this price. Or you could tell them the price is
only good for 48 hours. Another way to bring out scarcity is when after 100 copies are
sold, you will take away 1 bonus for EVERY 50 sales, or you can state that your bonus
will be sold separately after this promotion. Only the first 100 buyers get it. When give
them this limitation, you can nearly guarantee people will go to your website and buy
now before they are left out.
Call to Action
I want you to get in your mind that you are having a conversation with your visitor. At
what point is it going to be appropriate to give them a call to action. When you go to a
used car lot, they know when it is time to close the deal. The same goes with you. You
have to tell them what to do.
When creating your salesletter, it would be best to test your CTA in various locations
�bottom, middle, below testimonials, after bonuses. Keep changing until you find your
sales increase. If you notice your sales decreasing, the place where you are is not right.
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Some ways to describe your call to action, you can use �Buy Now� or try �I�m Ready
To Go� or �Let�s Get Started.�
You have to spell out the steps for them like the following:
Have your credit card ready�
Click the order button below.
You�ll be transferred to our secure payment processor to complete your order.
You�ll receive an email with instructions to download your xxxxx.
Post Script
This is the P.S. after the person�s name. This is the 3rd most read element. You have
to include it with every salesletter you write. The Post Script can be broken down in two
types as follows:
P.S. I�ve taken all the risk, do you have any reason NOT to buy?
P.P.S. I�m selling 100 copies at this price, after that it goes back to the normal
price of $xxx.
P.P.P.S. If you have any questions, send me your email address and I�ll
answer them for you.
Wrapping It Up
After you have finished your salesletter, here is what you need to do:
Test your salesletter constantly.
Save previous versions when you make a change. And don�t make major
changes unless you have tested which approach works best (and do it
simultaneously with Website Optimizer). By saving previous versions, you can
always go back to previous copy when the new changes don�t work.
Don�t worry about the size of your salesletter. The size really doesn�t matter.
Some are long while others are short. Some niches work well with short forms,
while some work with long sales letters. The way to find out what size is best, is
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to take your headline and place it in an ad and see if you can get any responses.
If you do, that salesletter would work great as a short salesletter.
Find out who your customer is and write specifically to that customer, not a
general audience. By being personal, the person reading the sales copy knows
you are talking to him/her and they will like that.
This is it. The above info will help you create a salesletter that will work. Of course it
would be good to learn more, but why do that. Learn the basics just to get a good
salesletter up and then outsource the job to someone else.
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Chapter 12: What Is Involved In Setting Up Your System
In this chapter I will show you my system. I am going to give you super insight into
my business. What I am going to show you is probably one of the great mysteries of
marketing. You are going to see the whole system. It is very valuable. This is one great
mystery of all to put everything together.
Look at the following image. This is the steps I used to develop my business:
This seems to be complicated but it isn�t. You may do something like this, considering
I am doing a digital delivery, but again, you may not. This is a whole system. It is a well
oiled machine. We will divide it into three different groups.
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The server is where your landing page will be. This is where your web pages will also
be. The product will be stored here. The other group is the Autoresponder group. I use
Aweber. You may choose to use another service. The last group is PayPal account or
another merchant service company. They all interact with each other in some way.
My System
With my system, I have on my server my complete website. The first page is my
landing page. On this page, I will place a piece of code that will allow people to Opt-in to
my list. On another part of the page, I will place another piece of code that when clicked
the customer will be taken to my order page, or PayPal since I am using that service.
Your model may be different. You may just have an Opt-in or you may have both. That
is your decision.
The next page is my thank you page. This page was created so when someone
places an order, they will go to my thank you page. When you look at the above image,
you will see Delivery.zip. This is just a name I used for the product people will buy. You
can name it anything you want. Then we have Sample.html. I used this to provide
sample videos. When people come to my landing page and read what I offer, I provide
them samples so they can see what the video looks like. These samples are placed on
the sample.html page. But you don�t have to create one if you don�t need it. The next
page is optin-html. This is my Opt-in confirmation page. Anytime someone signs up
using my Opt-in code on the main page, the user will be taken to my optin.html
confirmation page.
With the Autoresponder, I created two lists. One is for those who will opt-in and one
who will order. For your info list, they will opt-in for more information; this will also be
your email list. The info list will consist of their name and email address. The buy list has
been set up to automate the order process. Since these lists were created using an
Autoresponder, everything is done without my intervention.
With PayPal, I created a buy button, and had the button set up so that when
someone clicks on the link, PayPal will automatically send the customer to my thank
you page and the delivery of my product will be done.
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Creating of System
The first thing to do when you create your system is to create a landing page. When
you get to the part about the opt-in and order, you will put in a note, stating the opt-in
and order code will go in that place. You will then finish your sales page. You will go on
to the thank you page. You will create these ahead of time so you can reference them in
future steps. When you create the thank you page, think about what you will want to say
on that page. For example, I have a form on my page so they can fill out their name and
email address. Then they will submit that form which will go to my buy list page. The
next page to create is the sample page. You can do whatever you want with it. You are
merely going to create the page for now.
The opt-in confirmation page has to be created next. This way when people type in
their name and email address in the form field on your landing page, they will ultimately
come to the confirmation page.
As for your product, if you are not going to deliver an info product, you do not need to
create a product. But if you will you�ll have to place it on the same server where your
landing page will be.
The next step you will do is to go to Aweber, if you use that service, so you can set
up your info and buy list. You will create your autoresponder email series and the
snippets of code you will use to put in the landing page where you referenced the opt-in
and buyer code, earlier.
You will then go to PayPal and set up a thank you page. PayPal will give you a bit of
code you will insert into the code area of your landing page. This way when someone
clicks the order form, they will be sent to your thank you page, plus their name and
address will be placed on your buy list, and they will be directed to download the info
product.
The way the Opt-in code works is that when someone clicks on the code, a message
will be sent to Aweber where the user will be sent an email back where their email has
to be verified. Once the user clicks on the opt-in email message, their name and email
address are entered in the info list.
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When you create your system, just follow the image I included again here and you
shouldn�t have any problems developing your system. Remember, you may have to
delete or add pages, depending on what your model will be.
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Chapter 13: How to Use Google�s Adwords Editor to Manage Your
Campaign In this chapter, you will learn how to manage your time better when you don�t have
Internet access. This chapter will deal with Adwords Editor. This tool you can use
offline, right on your desktop.
To download the Google Adwords Editor, just click this link:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
The Adwords Editor allows you to work offline and then upload your ads when you do
connect to the Internet. Adwords Editor:
Allows you to work offline and upload later.
Create Campaigns
Create Ad Groups
Manage Ads
Manage Keywords
Advanced Searching & Editing (not available in Adwords online)
Add Comments to almost anything
Here is a screen shot of what Adwords Editor looks like:
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The above image is the interface to the Adwords Editor. The areas highlighted in
green are updates to campaigns I started previously. The editor shows your Ad Groups,
which you will see to your left in green. In the center of the screen, in green, there you
will see various tabs. If you click on the Keywords tab, you will see all the keywords
associated with your ads. You can also show you your placements, negatives, ads, Ad
Groups, and campaigns. The areas at the bottom show more detail.
When you click on one of the ads in green, a window opens that looks like this:
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In this window you can make adjustments to your ad and see the changes in the Ad
Preview changes area.
Adwords Editor even lets you see and work with your graphic ads as seen below:
All you need to do is click on your image and edit it. After you have completed all
your changes, you just click Post Changes and everything is saved.
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When you do get online, there is a function where you just click to have your ads
submitted and your ads will go live in a matter of minutes.
My Client Center
If you are managing multiple accounts, you would do well to use My Client Center.
Here are the features of My Client Center:
MCC �My Client Center �Makes it easy to manage multiple Adwords accounts.
Designed for someone who manages other peoples Adwords account. Single
login.
Can be used to manage multiple accounts to dominate the market place.
To use this feature, just go into Google and search for �My Client Center.�
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Chapter 14: Advertising Using Radio, TV, or Print Ads By Way of Google
Now it�s time to move past Google�s online advertising. We have been talking about
using Google Adwords, and the entire Google Adwords system. Google does have a lot
more for us than just Adwords.
If you can set up Adwords and it is making money, you can move it to other forms of
media and make a connection, like radio, TV, and print. Google has connections with
other traditional marketing outlets. You can go to Google Adwords and set up a radio
advertisement. Whatever your niche is, you may be able to benefit from other
conventional media outlets, but that depends on your niche.
For this chapter, here is a brief outline of what you will learn:
Ad Preview Tool �for online campaigns
Radio Ads
TV Ads
Print Ads
Closing statements
In order to use the Ads Preview Tool you have to run it. Look at the image below
where the circle is. This is where you gain access to Ads Preview Tool:
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When you click on Ads Preview Tool, a window will open that looks like this:
In this window you will enter a keyword and then select a Google domain, along with
the language you want to use, and the location to preview ads. I filled in the fields as
shown to give you an example of what to type in.
After you click Preview Ads, here is what you will see:
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You can view all ads in your geographical area once you have entered all the correct
data in the previous window.
Radio Ads
Steps involved are simple and straight forwards:
Select your target
o Stations or types of stations
o Dates, bid amount, budget
Do a target test first. Do not go nationwide.
Despite your intentions of paying for an ad, you may get rejected. If the radio stations
do accept your ads, you will pay for the ad, so be prepared. And be prepared to pay a
lot.
Compare
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When comparing radio stations, you may want to compare various radio stations to see
which one gives you the best rate. You will have to consider certain things. For instance
with:
Traditional Radio Advertising
�Multiple contacts per station: Contact various radio states and get a rate
card
�Hard to find the right target: With radio it can be hard to find the right
niche, since they cover a wide territory.
�Limited tracking: Radio stations are not like Google. They don�t offer
much in tracking.
Google Audio Ads
�Adwords interface: You have the familiarity of the interface to work with. �Ad Creation Marketplace: Ad creation is not that difficult. The screens are
easy to understand.
�Real-time air check reports: With Google, you actually get reports you
can check to see how your ads are doing.
�Changes go live the next day: Any time you make a change, it goes into
affect the next day.
It is cheaper to go to radio stations than to go through Google. This is because
Google has to charge as well. So if you want to save money, go directly to radio
stations, but if you want to avoid all the work, pay more and go with Google.
Audio Ad Tips
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If you will launch your campaign, with a minimum of one week, you will want to get a
nice advertisement to get the3 campaign together. Then run the ad for one month only.
When you do start out with your campaign, expect ot pay $1000 per week. When you
do produce your ad, have one call to action. You must have this in your ad. When you
do start out, start with 20 plays per week, per market.
Look at the images below. This will show how to start a radio ad:
The arrows show where you have to click to go to the next screen which is this:
When you arrive at this window, you will simply click �Get started now� which will take
you to this window:
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On this screen, you will notice everything is pretty straight forward. You just pick
where you want the ad to play. So fill this in near the bottom of the screen as shown by
the circle. Once you put in the location you will see this type of window:
If you look at the list, you will find that many, if not post, cities have large populations.
These are pretty much big players. After you have selected the area, you will select the
stations you want your ad run on like shown below:
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Once you have chosen your stations, you will click Continue. In this case, I chose 61
stations as a test for my campaign. Now comes the money you assign to spend, like
shown below:
Looking at the image, you can see the choices you have to work with. You can
choose how much you want to spend. You can dictate how much you are willing to
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spend up to a maximum per thousand listeners. Choose the date to play your ad and
when to play it. After you have done this click �Get estimates.�
Next you can upload your audio head as shown in the image below:
If you rather, you can get someone else to create your ad for you. Next you can
review your campaign like shown below:
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As you can see from looking at the image above, you have everything in front of you
that you selected. If you need to change anything, just choose Edit in the appropriate
locations.
TV Ads
Now it is time to look at TV ads. To be successful with TV ads, you need to go by the
following:
Reaches 13 million households with 30 million viewers
Approximately 95 Networks including Dish Network
National only �not at DMA level
You can target and block day parts, networks, and individual programs
It�s expensive but you can start about $150/day
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Ad variations �15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 seconds
Below are images showing how to set up your TV ad:
On the above screen, you just need to click �Get Started.� When you do this window
will open:
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In the image above, you will select the level of advertising you want, which will
depend on your budget total and budget per day. When you have decided which level
you want, click �Get Started.� You will see this screen appear:
When this screen opens, you will select the network you want your ad to appear and
what days the ad will run. You will also select the time of day for the ad to appear. Once
you have this selected, you will click �Add to schedule.� The next window will now
appear, showing you the next step.
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On this screen you will set your price for your ad per day and how long you want your
ad to run. Once you have selected these two conditions, just click �Continue� and your
ad will begin.
Print Ads
There will be a lot of people who either don�t use computers or don�t look at TV or
listen to radio that much. So how do you reach them? You can do so by way of print.
Take a look at these stats:
Half the adult population reads a newspaper.
Print ads allow you to publish an ad in a newspaper locally or across the country.
Not all newspapers are in the program.
You pick papers from a list.
You pick days, sections, and ad size.
Set your total bid amount.
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Publishers can accept or decline your bids.
Comparison
In order to save money, it would be more beneficial if you were to compare
newspapers and other print media with Google. In fact here are some stats to look at in
your comparison:
Traditional:
�Frequent advertisers get better rates �You must buy each paper individually �You have to deal with different people �You have to manage each account separately
Google:
�Offer-based marketplace �Publish to multiple companies at once �Single Adwords interface �Single invoice monthly from Google
Reviewing these comparisons will help you decide whether to use Google or go directly to print media. Print Ad Tips
When creating a print ad, it would be best to create the ad a certain way. Here are
some tips to make your ad work for you:
Bigger is better
White space is nice
162
Color is best
Use pictures
You can use the Ad Creation Tool inside the Adwords interface �Free and
easy
Google gives you an 800 number to use in the ad �it is redirected to your
number and this is how the campaign is tracked
Closing Statements
This is a wrap. I just wanted to close this book by giving you a few closing statements
and encouragement. By reading this book you have been given the tools necessary to
start, run, and succeed at Google Adwords. You also have the knowledge. All you have
to do is implement what you learned in this book and you will succeed. I know I am
making a ton of money with Google Adwords and you can to. So it is time to conquer
Adwords. Get to it and good luck with your campaigns. I am sure you will do well in your
efforts. After all, you have in your possession what not too many people have, and that
is the tools, knowledge, and foresight into Google Adwords. You can now succeed at it.
Go for it and make a ton of money.