6 Inside Secrets to Google Adwords
By Ron Isaiah
Let's face it... Google Adwords is not the only source of traffic
on the internet, nor is it free. However, if you cannot convert
the traffic you get from the pay-per-click traffic on Google
Adwords, your site surely won't convert the casual visitor who may
or may not be ready to buy what your are selling.
When spending money for pay-per-click (PPC) traffic, whether it is
from Google Adwords, Overture, or a 2nd-tier PPC network, the key
is to track your traffic to see if it converts into sales. There
are many software products and online services that can track your
traffic. For a recommendation, visit:
http://www.superiormarketingpartners.com/adtracking.html
Many people that have tried Google Adwords have lost their shirt,
so to speak. Some keywords on Google Adwords are cheap (keyword
phrases start at a nickel per click). Some keyword phrases on
Google Adwords can cost tens of dollars per click. If you end up
paying high per-click prices on Google Adwords and don't sell a
high-ticket item on your site, even the most enviable sales
conversion rate won't turn a profit.
There are several tricks to advertising on Google Adwords that
unless you know them, it becomes almost impossible to turn a
profit on your advertising.
Secret #1 - Only bid on exact match keywords
Google Adwords has a few different 'keyword matching options'
available. When a keyword is placed in brackets like this:
[keyword], it is called an 'exact match.' This means that only
when someone enters that EXACT keyword phrase will your ad appear.
It might occur to you that by limiting your keyword(s) to only
exact match, you are eliminating all those people that may be
searching for the phrase "cheap widgets" or even "widget"
singular, since only the keyword "widgets" plural is an exact
match. Believe me, this is exactly what you want. Sure, it will
take extra time to create an adgroup within the Google Adwords
system for each keyword phrase you want to bid on, but you will
know with 100% certainty which keyword(s) are converting into
sales this way. If you do NOT use the exact match option in
Google Adwords, then there is absolutely no way to know which
keyword(s) are resulting in sales on your site.
Secret #2 - Bid to be in position #2 or 3
When someone searches on Google for your keyword, the first page
of search results are going to reach the most people. What you
want to do is position your ad in one of the top 3 spots. You
don't want position #1 necessarily, because that position costs
the most and doesn't give you much more benefit than being in
position 2 or 3. You pay less for these spots than position 1 and
gain most of the benefit.
By being in one of these top spots, your ad gets a higher
'click-thru rate' (CTR). This is good is because the Google
Adwords system actually rewards you for having an ad with a high
CTR by charging you less per click! Google Adwords exists to
make money for Google. If they have two companies advertising for
the same keyword, and your ad pulls a 10% CTR and your
competitor's ad for the same keyword pulls a 5% CTR, then Google
Adwords makes more money from your ad. Google Adwords rewards you
for this higher CTR by charging you less per click than your
competitor!
Secret #3 - Negatively qualify your ads
Admittedly, the problem with having an ad that has a great CTR is
that it gets a lot of clicks! Unless your traffic converts into
sales, it's hard to turn a profit on your Google Adwords ads. The
key is to put words in the ad that DISCOURAGE people from clicking
on the ad unless they 'pre-qualified' to convert to a sale. For
example, if you have site that sells widgets that cost $10.00
each, then put something in one of the lines of text in your ad
like 'Widgets cost only $10.00.' The only catch is that if your
ad isn't getting a very good CTR in the first place, then a
negative qualifier is only going to reduce your CTR.
Your next step? There are many more techniques to learn that will
increase the profitability of Google Adwords campaigns. The above
tricks will start you off towards making Google Adwords work for
you. Check back for Part 2 in this series. You can get a
complete course that covers every tip and trick you will ever need
by visiting:
http://www.superiormarketingpartners.com/adwords.html
Has this ever happened to you? You spend hard-earned money on Google Adwords pay-per-click advertising and you lose more money than you make. It seems that Google is getting richer while you get poorer. There are several tricks to advertising on Google Adwords that unless you know them, it becomes almost impossible to turn a profit on your advertising. Part 3 of this series continues the theme of revealing the inside secrets of successful, profitable advertising with Google Adwords.
If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 of this series, simply send a blank email to googlearticle@superiormarketingpartners.com to get a all three parts of this series of articles emailed back to you automatically.
Secret #4 - Track your ads by keyword in Google Adwords
After spending the time setting up separate AdGroups within Google Adwords for each keyword as mentioned above, the key is to know which keywords are costing you money and which ones are profitable. The only way to know that is to track how many people click on the ad and which of those clicks convert into sales (or actions you hope the prospect to take, such as registering for your email newsletter, etc.). There are several ways to do this, including Google Adwords own ad tracking system (which I do not recommend for several reasons that I won't elaborate on in this brief article).
Ad tracking basically comes down to a choice between paying for a subscription to a service or buying software that installs on your own web hosting server. From hard-won experience, let me tell you to avoid the subscription services altogether. Relying on someone else's service for your critical stats is a gamble you do not want to take. There are several good software programs out there that will do the job, but I recommend the one you can find at: http://www.superiormarketingpartners.com/adtracking.html
Secret #5 - Put keywords in your ad text in Google Adwords
Did you know that the keywords that are part of the text of your ads in Google Adwords will appear in BOLD? If someone searches for "plastic widgets" and your ad text reads "50% off plastic widgets", then the phrase 'plastic widgets' will appear in bold when your ad is displayed. This makes a huge difference in the click-thru rate of your ads!
If you don't believe me, simply follow the tip mentioned above for split-testing your ads and create two ads, one with the keywords in the ad text and the other without. You will be surprised at how much better the Google Adwords ad with the keyword(s) in the ad text performs.
Secret #6 - Only run ads on the Google 'Search Network' in Google Adwords
When creating a new campaign in the Google Adwords system, the default campaign settings are configured to show your ads on both the 'Content Network' and the 'Search Network'. Google has a pay-per-click affiliate program called Google Adsense. This program pays people for each click on Google Adwords ads that are displayed on their own web sites. The problem for you, the Google Adwords advertiser, is that you do NOT want your ads showing up on any old website that has relevant content to your ad. You only want your ad displayed to people actively searching for the keyword(s) that trigger the display of your ad. Why? Because these are the best prospects for whatever you are trying to sell!
The power of the Google Adwords system is that you can attract highly-targeted, motivated buyers to your site by displaying an ad relevant to what a person is searching for at the moment that person is looking for what you are selling. By allowing your ads to be displayed on Google's 'Content Network', your ads are showing on all kinds of websites being casually surfed by people that may not be interested at all in what you are selling. This means you are paying for these Google Adsense clicks for less than qualified prospects.
The first thing you should do when creating a new Google Adwords campaign is uncheck the 'Content Network' box in the campaign settings and limit your ads to being displayed only on Google's 'Search Network' to insure only highly qualified and motivated prospects click on your Google Adwords ads.
Make no mistake about it...finding qualified, motivated buyers and getting them to your website when they are ready to buy is what doing business online is all about. There is no better marketplace for this steady stream of valuable traffic than with Google Adwords. By employing the tips and strategies outlined in this series of articles, you will be armed to the teeth to convert those hard earned dollars spent on Google Adwords into profits for your online business!
About the Author
Ron Isaiah is an expert online marketer. Get free eBooks, mini-courses, tips and tricks by visiting Viral Marketing. Get a free audio e-book on no-cost viral marketing strategies by visiting: http://www.superiormarketingpartners.com/audioebook.html
Easy Tips To Avoid Google Click Fraud
By Alden Smith
Many web site owners are getting their Google Adsense account terminated. I read on the forums almost daily posts from people who are bemoaning the fact that Google has terminated their account when they feel they have done nothing wrong to deserve the punishment. In almost every case, click fraud is the reason for termination.
Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the advertiser money. It is simply the same as paying out cash for false leads. Many website owners are aware of this fraud, and share the same sentiment that this is the one big problem that Adsense is facing.
How do you prevent yourself from being involved in this fraud?
The majority of web hosts offer access logs. If you are notified of click fraud and possible termination of your account by Google, it is necessary that you hand over these logs to them to clarify your situation. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is a show of good faith that you want to help Google in any way you can to attempt to solve the problem.
It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. There are many good programs available, but it is important that you get a program that has no limitations. there are free programs available, but I would suggest that you get a script from a certified expert in this field. I highly recommend using William Bontrager's script, available at Click Watch . Mr Bontrager will install this script on one site for you after the purchase of the software, and will show you how to add the script to other sites. Free scripts are also available on the Internet if you are limited in funds. Remember, you get what you pay for. As usual, all the information you will receive from your tracking software should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it.
Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing. Look for large spikes in traffic, and suspicious activity in files and folders where people would not normally have access to. Remember, that when working on your site, that you will access these files and folders. It is suggested you track these by noting the time of activity. A little work on your part will save you a lot of grief in the long run.
You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through the htaccess file on your web site. the process is too detailed to go into further here, but if you do a search on the engines to learn ways to access and disable portions of this log, a lot of information is readily available. By doing this, and showing Google that you have done so, you protect yourself against any possible threat from Google.
Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult or gambling in nature, or promote firearms, tobacco, or drugs of any kind. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.
Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own ads, whether accidentally or intentionally. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.
Don't tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Well meaning family members may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than good by trying it in the first place.
Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser's information, user's session info and pattern recognition. They also have "systems" available that detects fraud, not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds. Google has some of the best brains in the business, and it does no one any good to try to "fool" them. In addition to the algorithms that Google has in place, they also employ regular people to surf the net to find illegal sites.
Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using "negative keywords" can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Add tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.
Don't be caught in the Google click fraud. The opportunity to make a very decent income is readily available if you use common sense, do not try to cheat Google, and follow their Terms of Service If you do these things, maybe some day you too can be a member of the FedEx Club!
Visit our website For The Record for more information on Google Adsense and many other related articles for your growing internet business.
About the Author
Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been
marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz , is loaded with articles and
information for the beginning blogger and internet
marketer.
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