Google Adwords Hub By Lee Brooker

most people just
use the majors. People often don't tend to venture far past
AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and maybe now MSN
adCenter.

This makes sense because they have the highest traffic
volume. Unfortunately due to their popularity, they also
have the most competition. So you'll be paying more per
click as a result.

Here's a quick example.

For the keyword "mortgage" you'll be paying around $15 a
click at Google AdWords to get the number 1 spot. However,
the same term on 7search (one of my favorite smaller PPC
companies) is only around $1. Because it's a popular search
term you'll still get some decent volume, but at 1/15th of
the cost.

It's usually at this point you should be asking me about the
quality of the traffic and how well it converts. If you're
not asking that, you should be.

You can get all the cheap clicks you like, but unless it's
converting you may as well be flushing your money down the
toilet. Before you sign up for any new pay per click
advertising campaign you need to find out where the traffic
comes from and if that traffic is legit.

For example, many PPC companies will buy traffic from
unscrupulous sources like "get paid to click" companies or even worse from some sort of malware software company (think spyware or start page hijacking).

This traffic will never convert and is simply a waste of money and bandwidth. You should be avoiding it like the plague.

Now I certainly don't mean to put you off buying traffic from smaller PPC sources. There are some good ones out there. You just have to know what you are looking for.

Here is a quick checklist before you sign up.

1) Investigate where the traffic is coming from before you sign up. Traffic generated from search engines generally convert best.

2) Send them an email and see how responsive their support is. You might need this to ask for refund requests.

3) If they have the facility to show keyword bid prices, check them against some common keywords like mortgage. They should at least be 20 cents or more. If they are, you know
that others must be converting the traffic otherwise they probably wouldn't be paying that much for each click. Steer clear of ones that are only a few cents for very popular keywords.

4) Ideally use some click fraud tracking software to monitor the quality of the traffic that is being sent.

When I was a teenager I was a keen golfer. I loved the game. However, after playing for a year or so I found I reached a certain skill level and just stopped improving. I quickly
became very frustrated. I turned to a golf expert to ask about my problem.

He quickly helped me identify many small things I was doing incorrectly that inhibited me getting any better. I found when I tweaked my grip and adjusted my stance my game almost
instantly improved. The adjustments were subtle, but the outcomes were dramatic.

I've since discovered that writing high performing PPC ads is no different. Small adjustments can make major improvements. I've regularly tweaked my ad title, and have
doubled my click through rate (CTR) as a result. Amazing isn't it?

So what should a good ad title look like? Well, unfortunately I've found there's no exact answer to this. Different markets will be drawn to different characteristics. You'll need to test this for your own market.

However, here are some of the changes I've made to ad titles in the past that have given my CTR a shot in the arm. You should try them to see how they work for you.

- Try capitalizing the first letter of each word.

- Use buzz words to catch their attention. Words like
"free", "fast", easy", "quick", "now" and "instant".

- Try using shock value. One I have used before is "Kill
Click Fraud".

- Try using the dynamic keyword insertion feature offered by
AdWords.

You can use the tag {KeyWord: Killer Google Ad} in your ad title. It will dynamically insert the keyword phrase the user is searching for in the title. If that title is too long, it will replace it with the text after "KeyWord:".

I've learned a lot of this initially through trial and error. Unfortunately these lessons cost me a lot of money as I learned what NOT to do. I wished I had found out about a guide by Perry Marshall a lot earlier than I did. While the guide focuses on AdWords specifically, you can apply the principles across any PPC campaign.

It was pretty funny as I read through the guide and saw his recommendations. I was thinking, "hmmm... if only I'd read this information months ago I wouldn't have wasted so much money!"

If you have you'll understand how frustrating "tire kickers" can be. You know those people who are just dreamers and will never actually buy anything? They just enjoy shopping around and wasting everyone's time.

Our online businesses are certainly not immune to these tire kickers. In fact I reckon there are more tire kickers online due to the nature of the web. It's so easy to jump from
store to store comparing and researching. Thankfully, in most cases, these tire kickers don't have to waste our time. They generally can get all the information they need from the pages on our sites instead of having to talk with us directly.

However, what they do is waste our money by clicking on ads that we are paying for. So it's important that we use strategies that will detract these people from clicking on
our ads while still attracting the serious punters. This is especially important if we are paying a premium for the clicks in the first place.

So how can we pre-qualify our leads to reduce our costs and improve our ROI?

There are several strategies I have successfully used in the past. Here are a few of them.

1) Use negative keyword matching for words like "free".

2) Include the price in your ad.

3) Watch for keyword overlap. Are there any keywords you are using that could be used in another completely different market? Don't use those.

4) Don't go for number 1 position. (Look out for an email in a few days that expands on position strategy).

5) Use regionalization and local search to get more targeted traffic to your market.

6) Use features like Google's "Ad scheduling" to refine when the ads are showing and how that may match your real target audience. For example if you have a product focused at the
corporate market, then just show these ads during business hours.

I hope they help. Don't forget to let me know if you've some success using these strategies.