Thursday, February 26, 2009

How To Get A Better Clickthrough Rate With Google Adwords

Creating highly effective ads on Google Adwords is an ongoing process, and you'll probably spend weeks and months tweaking analyzing your strategy as you build your campaign. Still, you don't have to settle or a trial and error process every step of the way, especially when it comes to increasing your clickthrough rate (CTR). Internet marketing strategists such as Perry Marshall and countless others have already harnessed the power of Google Adwords by employing several strategies that generate results from the start.

Interested in how you can increase your clickthrough rates? Read on to learn about two proven strategies that, used properly, offer a foolproof path to Adwords success.

Doing Negative Keyword Research

Since Adword ads rely so heavily on the correct use of keywords, you will want to run frequent keyword reports. This can be done using various different software tools, many available online, and some even for free. Wordtracker, one such tool, offers a free keyword selector as well as a subscriptions. By creating a spreadsheet filled in with all the effective and relevant keywords, you can learn a great deal about how best to focus your ad campaign on potential customer. Also important, however, are negative keywords.

Negative keywords and key phrases are those that are related to your specific niche, product or service, but do not offer immediate value. After identifying what your ideal customer may be searching for, you'll be able to conjecture the specific key terms (positive keywords) they may use to find you. For example, if you are selling referral tracking software, you want to identify customers who are typing in key phrases such as 'buy referral tracking software', 'using referral tracking software', etc. Those who might type in 'free referral tracking software' do not fall under your target market radar, and need to be eliminated. You can employ this strategy with every niche and keyword list, paring it down until you have a very refined, highly targeted listing of keywords that apply only to your ideal customer.

Split Test to Create More Effective Adwords Ads

Split testing is commonly used in offline marketing strategies to test the market. For example, a company may send out two different direct mail pieces to select customers to gauge response rates, or they may create two different promotional offers to see which message or campaign is more effective than the other.

Just as in traditional marketing media, split testing proves a valuable ally for marketers developing a Google Adwords campaign. Once you've decided which keywords you should and should not employ in your attempts to reach the ideal audience, you can then turn your attention to the specifics of how these keywords are used, testing slightly different phrasings in Adword ads and seeing which are most effective.

Split testing with your Google Adwords campaign is one of the best ways to maximize your online marketing efforts and steadily increase your clickthrough rate. Perry Marshall, a Google Adwords educator and online marketing strategist explains that this is one of the most effective - if not the most effective way - to increase your clickthrough rate over a short period of time. By continually split testing ads against each other, you'll start to see a noticeable traffic increase and can eliminate the poor-performing ad early on in your testing phases.

Marketing with Google Ad Words is a powerful technique that most online-businesses can use to attract more customers. Creating quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Ad Words - and there are several good training resources available online.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Strategies For Your Google Adwords Campaign's Optimization

Setting up and working with your Google Adwords campaign isn't a one-time project, and many people who just set up their initial campaign and then 'wait' for results fail to make use of the true potential behind the Google Adwords system. Affiliate marketers and Adwords professionals already know how to tweak their Adwords campaigns so that they get results with each and every ad they publish; you don't have to have years of experience to turn your ad into a winning combination of keywords and copy, but you do need to understand the basic principles about optimizing your campaign.

According to Perry Marshall, the writer of The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords, your campaigns need to be monitored, tracked, and analyzed in order to find out what to change in it or when to do it. There are several important strategies to implement this. Many Adwords gurus have contributed tips and measures to developing effective campaigns that may help you get started with your own Adwords program.

So, how do you begin with it? First, come up with landing pages that are rich in content. This means that your pages provide your visitors or readers with the information they need after clicking your ad, have the right keywords and key phrases, and that it reflects what is specifically 'featured' in your campaign. With this in mind, you make it easier for Google Adwords to include your page in its search results. Moreover, it helps minimize the keywords cost-per-click.

Next, make sure to remove all the 'negative keywords' or those that invite unnecessary traffic to your site. You do not want to attract a different kind of market. To illustrate this, if your business involves selling of gardening tools and publications on gardening - naturally, you would not want to magnet people who want 'free tips on gardening' or 'events in gardening' since they are not the ones included in your site. With the help of Google Adwords Keywords Selector Tool, you can remove the words 'free' and 'events' to reach only your targeted market and generate the results you intended to achieve.

You can also start visiting and regularly checking the ads of your competitors. This can ensure that your ads do not look the same or else, you may encounter some traffic issues. A winning campaign entails constant monitoring and improving one's ad, according to the demands of the situation.

Brainstorm some creative ad copy ideas and think of unique angles to present similar information; make sure to use action-oriented words in your headline, and capitalize all the main words in your copy for a high-impact presentation. Monitoring your competition's ads regularly gives you another advantage; this strategy can help you drill down which keywords may be performing better than others.

Always put in mind that optimization and fine-tuning your Google Adwords campaign is an essential and active process. In your niche, your main concern is to achieve higher click through rates than most competitors do. Practice any of these strategies and ensure that your Google Adwords campaign is executing well to have your desired results.

Monday, February 9, 2009

7 Important Things You Should Know Before Starting Google Adwords

Google Adwords continues to be one of the most effective ways to generate high quality traffic to your website, but setting up a campaign can be intimidating if you are just getting started with online marketing. When you know how to set up your campaign correctly, you can focus on fine-tuning and refining your ads for a maximum return on investment.

Perry Marshall, author of The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords offers several tips for beginners and novices who want to maximize profits using Google Adwords. Knowing exactly how to fine-tune your keyword lists, setting up test ads for each campaign, and learning as much about your target market as possible are the building blocks for success with your online marketing strategy.

Are you currently in the process of getting started with your first campaign? Then you must remember these seven significant techniques in the utilization of Google Adwords:

1. Define your location. Google Adwords makes it easy to target different search networks and geographic locations, so you will need to define exactly where you want your ads to run. Do you offer products and services at an international level, or just to a specific region of the country? Where is your target market? Narrow down where you want your traffic to come from and run your ads only in these areas.

2. Be budget-savvy. Since you are new in this business, might as well start with a small budget. Besides, Adwords does not require spending too much money and you are always free to modify your daily ad spending whenever there is a need to. For instance, your CTR gets higher then you can also increase your ad spending.

3. Make use of the appropriate URL. To monitor the progress and effectiveness of your ad, use a landing page or other destination URL aside from the one that directly links to your homepage. This approach also allows you to endorse easily any of your site's section.

4. Use action keywords in the body of your ad. Encourage ad viewers to take action immediately with words such as 'sign up now!' or 'contact us today!'. These can encourage click-throughs to your site and put the viewer in the mindset of taking action in a few short clicks.

5. Keep an eye on the competition. Keep track of your competitors by running simple Google searches on your own keywords and seeing which ads come up first in the search results. What are your competitors doing that you aren't? Have you missed other keyword or keyphrase opportunities? Take notes as you conduct each search so you can monitor your competitors regularly and implement similar strategies for your campaign.

6. Set up separate campaigns for each keyword. Avoid lumping all of your targeted keywords into one campaign so you can track exactly how each word is performing as you run the ads. Setting up separate campaigns helps you determine your return on investment instantly, so you can eliminate what may not be working with ease.

7. Be skillful in the use of Google analytics. Google Analytics translates what viewers are clicking or what they want from your site. Proficiency in its application backs you up in your market research.