Pay Per Click StrategiesBetter Search Engine Marketing / Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

If you’re struggling to increase your AdWords profits, then you can’t afford to miss the upcoming AdWords Advantage Online Seminar. The AdWords Advantage faculty will share the latest mission critical secrets to pay per click advertising success during 18 expert-led classes May 10-19, 2011. Read on to find out how you can learn the Top 10 Most Effective AdWords Strategies to Improve Your Conversion Rates and Maximize Your AdWords ROI, plus find out details about the FREE preview webinar on April 28th…

The AdWords Advantage experts include the industry’s best: Craig Danuloff, David Szetela, Dennis Yu, Fred Vallaey’s, Justin Cutroni, Kevin Lee and many more. These experts will help you learn the quickest ways to get ahead of your AdWords competition with improved website rankings, better Quality Score and lower keyword Cost-Per-Click.

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the AdWords Advantage Online Seminar, You’ll Learn How to:

1. Setup an effective AdWords campaign and grow your business 
2. Apply proven PPC techniques that yield higher conversions
3. Leverage social media to improve your AdWords campaign performance
4. Personalize your keywords to meet the needs of your specific market
5. Utilize the top tools and solutions to save time and cut ad costs
6. Control costs and improve conversions on content campaigns
7. Optimize AdWords and track your campaigns using Google Analytics
8. Develop an effective AdWords and Social Media marketing plan
9. Improve your Quality Score and combat costly mistakes 
10. Properly measure AdWords beyond the last click

Here’s Your Sneak Peak Pass to the FREE Preview Webinar on April 28th 1 PM/EST: PPC Beyond AdWords – Reach More Targeted Customers with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – join David Szetela, CEO of Clix Marketing, covering the Top 10 Simple and Effective Techniques for Getting the Most Out of Social Media Advertising!

This is a great training seminar for all marketers who want to grow their business using AdWords. You can reserve your spot and Save 50% Now–and don’t forget to check out the free preview webinar!

1. It’s the first major online seminar covering conversion rate and optimization for landing pages and websites!

2. No other online seminar connects you with 22 internet marketing authorities - expert knowledge at your fingertips.

3. Learn top secrets from online marketing pioneer Bryan Eisenberg on how to Master the Conversion Trinity.

4. Get the inside scoop on the Top Website Design Tips proven to increase conversion rates.

5. Gain valuable insights from real-world case studies -  Conversion Optimization Testing Increases Lead Generation Success.

6. You’ll learn how the experts avoid the Most Common Conversion Rate Killers.

7. It’s your chance to learn  Keywords & Site Optimization: How to Translate Queries into Conversions.

8. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark will uncover Landing Page Copywriting Tips that Turn Traffic into Money.

9. You’ll discover how to Reduce Your AdWords Spend and Increase Your Quality Score.

10. Learn How to Develop and Execute a Successful Conversion Optimization Strategy.

11. Start Producing High-Quality Content that helps you achieve your conversion goals.

12. Understand Why Your Website is NOT Driving Sales and how you can drastically improve your conversion rates.

13. Discover Marketing Optimization Secrets-Your Landing Page Is Just One Step by Jim Sterne, Targeting.com.

14. Gain immediate sales results from the strategies learned and boost your bottom line profits.

15. Kip Bodnar from Hubspot dishes on Driving and Measuring B2B Conversations, Leads and Sales with Social Media.

16. Hear first-hand from Google’s Trevor Claiborne on How to Really Use Website Optimizer.

17. Did I mention this event is completely online – view it live at the scheduled class time or at your leisure!

18. The direct interaction with the Conversion Experts – ask your questions and gain immediate answers.

19. Take your company’s online marketing to the next level with these optimization secrets revealed.

20. You can’t afford NOT to optimize your website and landing pages and convert more clicks to customers!

These are just a few of the huge benefits you’ll gain from attending the Landing Page Success Seminar on November 30-December 16, 2010. Check it out today!

Hurry, there are only a few passes left– Register and Save 50% NOW!

We hope to see you there,

The Landing Page Success Seminar and PPC Summit team

What do the websites Craigslist and PlentyofFish have in common? They won’t win any design awards. In fact, both can safely be referred to as simple and kind of ugly. When talking about landing page optimization, a big part of the discussion centers around design. Of course, it should be crisp and professional, with cool graphics and all the other bells and whistles that’ll draw visitors in and increase conversions.

And all of this is fine, but there’s something to be said for simplicity. For a second, let’s forget talk of heat maps, eye-tracking and search engine optimization – and focus on creating trust – which “ugly sites” can be quite good at.

Landing Page Optimization: “Ugly Up” to Increase Sales

Before we go further, let’s state exactly what we mean by ugly. Ugly doesn’t mean intentionally horrible design. It means simple, straight to the point and clear of a lot of the clutter we think a good landing page should have.

Sites that are simpler in design put forth an image, just like a site that is loaded with all the bells and whistles a top-notch designer can provide. But what they say to the customer is, we cater to your needs; we’re not a big, fancy, schmancy, company; and we don’t have the time (or staff) to create fluff.

Hence, our product/service is straightforward and to the point, much like our design.

When it comes to landing page optimization, you might call this “site typecasting.” Just like in Hollywood, when you want to convey “trust” you cast one type of actor, and it’s usually not the one that’s drop dead gorgeous, which can confuse, befuddle and intimidate a prospect – much like an over-the-top landing page. Sometimes, simple and homely does the job just fine.

Imagine if you could peer over the shoulder of a web surfer looking for your type of product/service. You could tell them where to go online to find your site and take the desired action. And, you could explain all of the benefits they’d receive and why yours is better than your competitor’s, right?

Since this isn’t possible, your landing page has to do this for you. So one of the first things you should do when you optimize your landing page is ask (and answer) the question, “What is my visitor’s intent?” Frame this in the form of a question.

For example, when a prospect types in “purchase laser printer online”, the question they’re really asking is “Where can I buy a laser printer online?”

When you figure out what questions visitors are asking, then answer them on your landing page, you push prospects further along the sales funnel.

A Common Mistake Many Make When Optimizing Landing Pages

If you do any research on landing page optimization, you’re going to run across discussions on how to write keyword-rich copy. While keywords are definitely important when optimizing landing pages, search engines have progressed to the point where you don’t have to focus so much on repeating a phrase ad nauseam.

Landing pages should be written to connect with humans. And figuring out the intent behind a web surfer’s “keyword searches” can help you ask – and answer – the right questions so they take the desired action.

Did you know that Google can help you design a better landing page? One that converts at a much higher rate? They can, via their Website Optimizer program for business.

Why Trust Google to Help You Build a Better Landing Page

Google is by far the number one search engine. In August 2010, it delivered a 65.1% share of search results, compared to 13.1% for Yahoo! and 13.9% for Bing (MSN) [Source: NielsenWire Blog]. This highlights the need to think about what this search engine thinks is important in terms of landing page design and optimization.

Now that you know why, let’s look at some of the ways Google helps you craft a higher-converting landing page.

Landing Page Design Elements Google Can Help You With

It’s the Little Things That Count: Small changes like color, font and design layout can lead to big conversions. You can test all of these with Website Optimizer. And, speaking of running tests . . .

Testing, Tweaking and Retesting: In internet marketing, you know the name of the game is testing, tweaking and retesting. With Website Optimizer, you can run split tests on your landing pages — on everything from “individual copy blocks and images to complete page layouts.”

Data Mining: After you run tests, then it’s time to comb through the data to see exactly what the numbers mean. Website Optimizer goes a step further; it provides you with what Google calls, “Intuitive Reporting.” Via this tool, you can see exactly how the changes you make to your landing page design affect the bottom line.

If landing page design is new to you, or you’re not getting the results you want, check out Google’s Website Optimizer for some help to get on track.

Interested in learning more about landing page optimization? Check out the Search Engine Marketing Insider email newsletter to learn quick tips for improving your customer conversion rates. Also let us know what you would like to learn in landing page optimization and we’ll cover your top picks on our blog. Feel free to post your comments, questions and ideas.

Social media marketing is a sword that cuts two ways. It’s easy to build a community, but can be difficult to get them to trust you. This is because there is so much garbage on the net – everyone is trying to make a fast buck.

Building trust is key to making sales. So, how do you get your community to trust you? Let’s look at some numbers to gain some insight. According to What Makes Social Media Trustworthy?, a recent study highlighted by eMarketer, a firm that tracks trends in digital media and marketing:

Just over a quarter (26%) of those polled trusted a brand product or company based on its blog posts, Twitter feed and/or Facebook updates.

BUT . . .

Approaching two-thirds (61%) trusted blog posts, Twitter and Facebook updates found on pages from someone those surveyed knew.

Social Media Marketing Message: To Get Trust You Have To . . .

Be a real person, not a company.

Remember, social media marketing is all about building relationships. And, people don’t have relationships with “companies.” People have relationships with other people. So it’s imperative to interact with your community from a human standpoint, not a corporate standpoint.

This can be as simple as signing up using a real name as your “account name,” instead of your company name.

Other Tips for Creating Trust in Social Media Marketing

Stay in contact regularly;

Don’t talk about you so much; send links to information relevant to your target markets’ lives; and

Create conversation by asking your community’s input.

If you remember your old-school social graces and apply them to the new medium that is social media marketing, you’ll have no problems getting your community to trust you – and increase sales.

What social networking sites do you use? Are you reaching your customers on Facebook, Twitter or other sites? We’d love to hear your comments.

Ever heard of hash tags? They can be your secret weapon to getting more traffic from every tweet you send out.  Here’s how and why.

The Language of Social Media Marketing: What are Hashtags & How They Help You Get Traffic

Hashtags are words on Twitter that are preceded by the # symbol. This symbol lets searchers know that there’s a topic (group) around this subject. For example, if you send out a tweet about social media marketing, your tweet might include a hashtag that looks like this: #socialmedia.

Hashtags turn up in search engines like Google much like keywords. Hence, it’s wise to use them in your tweets as often as possible.

Another reason to use them is that if other Twitter users are searching for something on a topic that you’ve tweeted about and it includes a hashtag, it’s much easier for them to find it – and possibly retweet it.

Retweets are akin to backlinks in search engine optimization (SEO) lingo. So the more of them you have, the more likely your results are to show up higher in search engine results – and the more traffic you’ll receive — all from just using one little symbol.

Tip: As tweets can contain only 140 characters, if the message you want to tweet or RT is already close this limit and the phrase you want to put a hashtag in front of is already included, just put the # in front of it. It won’t affect your tweet at all – other than to possibly give it more traction.

The bottom line is, don’t tweet blindly. Remember, there’s an art to tweeting effectively. And, if you use social media marketing sites like Twitter with search marketing tips like this in mind, you’ll be seamlessly increasing your traffic in no time.

Facebook, now known worldwide as a social media marketing site, didn’t start out that way. When it was initially launched in 2004, it was just a site for college students to interact, eg, share photos, send messages, update personal profiles, etc.

It quickly grew to become one of the most popular sites on the web. As of July 2010, it had more than 500 million users worldwide. And of course with numbers this large, it’s one of the premier social networking sites for businesses of all size.

The “Secret” to Standing Head and Shoulders above the Competition on Facebook

Many companies fall into the trap of using the same Facebook setup that casual and non-professional users have. In order to ensure that your presence on Facebook is as professional as it can be, customize your firm’s page.

By customizing your company’s page, you can easily make it stand out from the competition. To do this, simply use Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language). It allows you to not only create unique tabs and content, you can also change where visitors land when they visit your Facebook page.

This can be extremely important in converting mere prospects into customers. Why? Because the default landing page in Facebook is “the wall.” But, if you have a particular product or service you want to feature, you can have prospects land on one of those particular pages instead.

It’s the little edges you gain in business that, over time, make a big impact. And, the reason they do is because most don’t go the extra mile. They stop at “good enough.” To get the edge in social media marketing, go the extra mile – and reap the rewards of doing so.

Let us know what is working (or not) for you in social media marketing. Are you getting a good return on the time and money you’re spending? Are you reaching your customers on Facebook and other sites?

The continued growth of search and social media marketing is creating new opportunities, but Marketers are challenged on how to effectively integrate social media into their search marketing efforts. To address this challenge, PPC Summit presents an all new conference this year “Search & Social Media Success” which will be held at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel on Sept. 21-22, 2010. 

The new sessions will teach expert, trusted strategies, and provide the tools and resources to Marketers searching to improve their campaign results. Registration is open and parties can register now before the full agenda is live to get the $400.00 early bird rate.

The ALL NEW 3 Tracks and 27 ‘How-To’ Sessions cover step-by-step instructions for creating and managing successful search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Over the last five years, PPC Summit has trained thousands of internet marketers how to be smarter and increase their ROI using search engine marketing. Results from a recent attendee survey sent to 3500 Search Marketers, revealed the growing need for further advanced training in these areas: Google AdWords, Quality Score, Keyword Targeting, Pay Per Click, Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, SEO tips and tools, Landing Pages and more.

What Marketers Will Learn:

• Leading-edge SMM (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube), SEO and SEM (Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing) instruction, content and actionable strategies that can be implemented right away to boost ROI.
• Which SMM, SEO and SEM tools, solutions and resources to utilize to achieve higher profits, and take-away comprehensive reference guides to build an effective search and social marketing plan.
• How to get on the fast-track of successful search and social media marketing–gain answers direct from the SEM/SEO/SMM experts and build lasting relationships with peers

 Register today for the two-day pass, only $995–includes three tracks and 27 in-depth sessions, networking, breakfast, lunches, breaks, 2 comprehensive training manuals and more. For more information, visit the
PPC Summit website or call 800-507-2958.

Social media marketing has grown to such an extent that many companies are abandoning other types of marketing altogether. Proof? Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was the first major company to announce that it was abandoning email marketing to focus more on social media marketing.

The real “story of this story” though is not that they did this, but why they did this. As the article states:

“ . . . the iconic Vermont-based premium ice cream maker is dropping its regular email newsletter . . . after customers aired their preference to be contacted via social media channels [emphasis added].”

Only you can decide if social media marketing is the only form of marketing you want to engage in. But, it should definitely be a part of your marketing mix – for it’s a direct line to what your customers want. Following is the number one thing you can do to generate traffic – for years to come.

The #1 Social Media Marketing Tip Every Business Can Use to Get the Most Traffic

Make useful content creation the foundation of your social media campaigns. Following is why.

There are many ways to generate traffic online, eg, commenting on other blogs, article marketing, pay per click, etc. Some are more time consuming than others. But great content will always drive traffic – immediately and in the future.

This is because web surfers look for information. Two hours spent writing an in-depth blog post that answers a lot of questions those in your niche might have will get linked to over and over and over again. This generates traffic for years to come.

How Content Marketing Via Social Media Outlets Saves Time

Once you create great content and make others aware of it via social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can spend much less time marketing because it becomes viral. Social media users love to promote great content – for it makes them look good. This is akin to having a social media marketing sales force on payroll.

And it’s why great content – whether it’s a series of videos or a standalone blog post – should be the cornerstone of every social media marketing strategy.

Have you heard about PPC Summit’s upcoming Seach & Social two day conference coming to the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in Sept? It’s the event for marketers to learn actionable strategies for effectively integrating search and social campaigns.