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Recently, Google started sending pay per click marketers their account performance data via email. This information has always been available to PPC marketers, but you had to log into your account to get it.

The reason getting this information via email is so important is because it:
(i) reminds you to check on your pay per click campaigns; and (ii) allows you to take a few minutes to tweak what may not be working.

So if you see an email with the following subject line land in your inbox, take a break and see what it says, for one or two insights gleaned from these reports can significantly increase your ROI. AdWords Oct 2009 Account Performance. Customer ID: (Your Customer ID Number)?

This is for October 2009, obviously.
Following is one way to quickly use the info in your Google’s Account Performance Reports to increase your ROI.

The report is categorized into four sections, ie: Account Overview; Keywords with the Most Clicks; Ad with the Most Clicks; and Content Sites with the Most Clicks.

If you’re pressed for time and can’t analyze all the data, as keywords drive success in pay per click marketing, go directly to the “Keywords with the Most Clicks” section. Using the info there, you can make do two things:

I. Increase Organic Traffic: As you have a list of your high-performing keywords there, use this to create keyword-rich copy for your website. You’ll drive organic traffic, in addition to the traffic you’re paying for.

II. Tweak Poorer Performing Ads: Add these high-performing keywords to ads that aren’t performing as well as you thought.

If you get in the habit of checking your pay per click ads when your Google Account Performance Report lands in your inbox, you don’t have to worry about settling into a pattern many PPC marketers fall into, ie, “set it and forget it” marketing.

It’s not hard to make money with Google AdWords, but many fail to do so because they make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Keep it simple by doing the following:

Decide On Your Offer: Putting together a successful AdWords campaign starts NOT with keywords, but with your offer. Why? Because you have to be very clear about this before you move on to selecting your keywords.

For example, if you operated an online bookstore, do you want to send readers to the romance section, the science fiction section or the history section? “But,” you may be thinking, “I don’t care what they buy, as long as they buy something.”

We counter with, in order to get browsers to “buy something,” you have to first get them interested in “buying what interests them.” And, this is where you get specific.

Think of it like a local bookstore they may wander into. A reader may pop in to buy a specific book, but once there, they start to browse and come out with two, three or four things.

The bottom line here is – web surfers don’t care about making a purchase from you. What they do care about is getting that book that their friend, mother, aunt, etc. recommended.

If your specific pay per click ad landed them in your online store, you have a chance of making that sale.
Use Keywords Effectively: Once you have tightly focused your offer, now you can move on to doing effective keyword research. Here again, be specific. When choosing keywords remember, it’s not about how much traffic a keyword will bring, but how much “qualified” traffic it will bring.

Rock the Landing Page! Round out your campaign by having a clear, concise, professional landing page that gets prospects where they want to be. Don’t make them surf to find what your ad promised. Land them there directly.

If you do these three things, you will be well on your way to Google AdWords campaign success.

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About the Author
Want to out perform your Google AdWords competitors? Attend the AdWords Advantage Online Summit (Dec. 1-17) and learn how to fast-track your pay per click marketing profits. Register now and save 40% at http://www.AdWordsAdvantage.com.

Last week here, we explained how video ads work. Now that you know that, this week we wanted to give you two specific tips for making them work for you.

Memorable Image: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Many pay per click marketers who use video advertising forget this. They get so caught up in the medium that they forget that the medium should serve an end purpose – ie, convert the viewer.

Your image should immediately capture your viewers in some way – intrigue them, amuse them, enlighten them.

How can you make an image memorable? A lot of what you do will depend on your type of business, but following are two quick ideas:

(i) Use Bright Colors: This is particularly effective if you use a black background in your ad.
(ii) Sparse Text: Many PPC marketers try to cram too much text into their ad. But sparsely worded ads can be very powerful. In fact, one famous copywriter used just two words in a headline once (Free. Money.) No explanation, no details, nothing. It was very effective.

Once you have their attention, you can . . .
Make Them Act: This is where a call-to-action statement comes into play. Just because it’s video does not mean you abandon some tried-and-true marketing practices. Do you want them to sign up to your newsletter, request more information, make an immediate purchase, call you, etc.? Whatever it is, let them know.

If you do these two things – at a minimum – you will be well on your way to creating very successful pay per click video ads. Want to learn more? Don’t miss Pay Per Click Summit coming to the Double Tree Hotel in Chicago, IL on November 4-5, 2009.

Even novices to pay per click marketing know that the profit – or loss – is in the keyword selection. To learn more about keyword selection, read, [How to] Classify Your Keywords for Better Pay Per Click Results. Building on the lessons in this article is another piece of the keyword selection puzzle, ie, long tail keywords.

In case you don’t know, long tail keywords are simply multi-phrase search queries web surfers type in to find stuff, eg, “antique car parts mercedes” is a phrase someone who is restoring an old Mercedes might type in to find parts.

Following is the number one reason to spend time ferreting out long-tail keywords.
Long Tail Keywords Signal Serious BuyersThis may be the most important reason to focus on long-tail keywords. It makes sense when you think about how web surfers search for and make purchasing decisions on the web. The more serious a web surfer is about buying, the more focused their search gets.

In the long-tail keyword phrase above, a non-serious surfer might have typed in simply “antique car parts.” But, this surfer qualified it with a car make. To get more specific, they may type in something like “antique car parts mercedes” and “1956 carburetor”.

See how specificity tends to mean the buyer is serious. They’re looking for specific information for a reason – they have a problem they need solved.

So, the next time you sit down to do keyword research for your pay per click campaign, don’t forget that the long-tail is a very profitable keyword center. Don’t ignore it. 

In the post, Pay Per Click Advertising: 3 Things for the Busy Fall Season, we discussed some areas to assess to improve your pay per click marketing results when the fall season rolls around. And, although it’s technically still summer, the busy fall season IS here (after Labor Day is when things tend to kick off).

Now that it is, you may be wondering, “What specifically do I need to do to increase sales with my PPC campaign?” Rather than give you a list of tips – which you may or may not get around to following – we thought it best to share with you three traits we’ve identified that almost every successful pay per click marketer has – or should develop.

Diligence: The hardest part of success is the monotony of doing what it takes – day in and day out – to succeed. This means doing your keyword research, setting up different landing pages, tweaking your website, etc. In short, doing what’s necessary to succeed as a PPC marketer.

Patience: This trait is closely tied to diligence, for you have to test, test and retest pay per click advertising to know what’s working, what’s not working, what may work, what did not work, why, etc. Nothing about pay per click marketing is “set it and forget it.”

It is hands on, which makes it exciting – and frustrating – at the same time.

Knowledge Seeker: As pay per click marketing is a form of internet marketing, it constantly changes. This means staying abreast of emerging technologies, PPC marketing rules, search engine guidelines, etc.

If you have – or can develop – these three traits, then pair it with some basic pay per click marketing knowledge, you will be well on your way to succeeding as an online marketer.

Learn more pay per click marketing by attending the next PPC Summit coming to Los Angeles Sept. 23-24 and Chicago Nov. 4-5. Check out the excting new session topics and agenda at www.ppcsummit/agenda. Register by Sept. 15th and SAVE 35% with code LI.

Most of us don’t pay much attention to our pennies. When we’re checking our wallets for cash we don’t count pennies; when checking our bank statements, we focus on the dollars and not so much the cents.

But, did you know that you can use your pennies to beat the AdWords competition? It’s a huge, cost-saving search engine marketing strategy that can mean the difference between being the highest bidder for a particular keyword and losing the AdWords bidding war.

When marketers set up an AdWords campaign, most of the focus is on the even numbers, ie, $0.10, $0.20, $0.40, $1.00, $1.20, etc. Why? No one really knows, but one the fact is that if you focus your bids on odd numbers (eg, $0.11, $0.21, $0.41), you significantly increase your odds of winning the bid for a keyword without breaking your budget.

Here’s an example: Let’s take the keyword “marketing.” The average CPC or Cost-Per-Click is $3.88 (Google AdWords Keyword Research). If you bid just one cent above, you would be the winning bidder at $3.89.

Now take a moment to review the average cost per click on random keywords. You will quickly discover that more times than not, the majority of the bids are even numbers. While you may not have the budget to bid $3.00 on a keyword, know that this method applies to all keywords, in all of the AdWords programs.

If you’d like to learn about other winning AdWords strategies like this, join the AdWords experts at the upcoming PPC Summit Chicago or New York. They have the knowledge and experience to help make your AdWords campaign a success.

As every Pay-Per-Click campaign manager knows, there are many elements that make up a successful PPC campaign. Following are two mistakes many make. Unless and until you know better, you’ll probably make them too? What are they and how can you avoid them? Read on.

Keyword List: Your keyword list is the foundation of your PPC campaign. Many define it too broadly, which leads to less than targeted traffic. This raises cost and lowers profits, which cause many to think, “Pay Per Click doesn’t work well for our product/service.”

Many PPC campaign managers are so afraid of excluding prospects that they include unprofitable ones.

The lesson here: Hone your keyword list as tightly as you possibly can. No matter how much it goes against the grain, force yourself to remember that less traffic is a good thing – if it’s bringing in more targeted traffic.

Ad Group Sharing: Many PPC managers take a “set it and forget it” mentality to pay-per-click marketing. This is especially true when it comes to adgroups, as in, most campaign managers will only use one.

The lesson here: You can – and should – have many closely related ad groups. This allows you to test, retest and tweak ads; something we advocate for every PPC campaign.

You can never test an ad enough because customer wants, needs, methods of searching and a host of other factors are constantly changing. This is why testing, retesting and tweaking ads is the only surefire way to improve your pay-per-click campaign results.

Learn more about this and much more at the upcoming PPC Summit (April 22-23) in Chicago, register now and save $400!

You can have a killer AdWords ad, but still not be getting the conversion rates you want. It’s at this point that many pay-per-click advertisers start to shake their heads, wring their hands and tweak their ads. Don’t. Stop!

You’ve forgotten to do one thing. What is it? Take a look at your landing page. Remember, your AdWords ad and your landing page are like a married couple – it takes the two of them working in concert to be effective.

If you’re getting lots of clicks on your AdWords ad, but you’re not converting those clicks into sales, then your landing page may be the culprit. Following are some landing page areas to assess to increase your pay-per-click ad results.

Landing Page Areas to Assess to Increase Your AdWords Conversion Rates

Copywriting: Many times, PPC advertisers will spend hours and hours on the 130 words or so of an AdWords ad, but they spend practically no time on the few thousand words that can make up a landing page.

For example, does your landing page deliver on the promise of your AdWords ad? Does it boldly state the benefits? Does it differentiate your product/service from your competition? All of this needs to be present before customers will part with their hard-earned dollars.

Don’t Oversell: What we mean by this is, don’t try to sell a prospect on every product or service you offer. Remember, confused customers don’t buy. If you’ve gotten them to click through, deliver on the promise in the ad they clicked on.

Ease of Payment: Does your site make it easy for prospects to purchase? If not, change it. This is a simple fix.

Your landing page is every bit as important as your AdWords ad. The two work together to make the sale for you. So if your AdWords ad is doing its part, make sure that your landing page is also.

Learn more at the upcoming PPC Summits in Chicago (April 22 – 23) or New York (May 13-14)! Register now and save $400 at www.ppcsummit.com.

In the post, Pay Per Click Headlines: 3 Ways to Change It and Increase Your ROI, we discussed how what may seem like small little changes to your headline can produce big results. Continuing in this vein, we will discuss the most powerful words in the English language – and how you can use them in your body copy to increase your ROI.

In his book, How to Make Presentations that Teach and Transform, Garmston references a Yale study on words. He writes:

. . . the most powerful words in the English language are those “that affect us most directly.” They include you, easy, love, free, save, discover, health, success, proven, guaranteed, results and new. They are powerful because everyone is concerned about health, safety, relationships and security. 

Now that you know what the words are, how can you use them to increase your Pay Per Click ROI? Perhaps the best way to explain it is to tell you the best thing not to do. 

Don’t Try to Sell Every Benefit

This is one mistake many Pay Per Click marketers make. It’s ineffective because it can muddy your primary message. Remember, the goal of an AdWords ad is to get qualified prospects to click. State one or two benefits that you think will appeal to your target audience – and marry it with one of the above words. 

For example, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. An effective ad using two of the seven most “powerful words” might read something like: 

Valentine Roses: $18.95
Free Shipping If Order Recd by 2/13
Guaranteed, On-Time V-Day Delivery
www.xyzrosesite.com 

The benefits stated in this ad are “free shipping” and “guaranteed delivery.” These are two critical benefits that appeal to someone who really wants to send roses to their special someone on Valentine’s Day. 

Don’t delay, register now and get huge savings for upcoming PPC Summits in Chicago, New York and LA! 

In the post entitled, Are You Making This All-Too-Common Mistake with Your PPC Campaign?, we relayed two reasons it’s critical to constantly monitor, tweak and analyze your PPC campaigns.

One of the reasons was that customers become blind to your ad, eg, they gloss right over it because they’ve seen it so many times. At this point you may be thinking, “But what do I tweak? I don’t want to mess with a successful ad?” And we’re not telling you to. What we are saying is to change ads that are underperforming. Sometimes, something as minute as changing the punctuation in an ad can skyrocket your results. 

How Important Is the Headline in a PPC Ad? 

Industry experts say that five times as many prospects read your headline as opposed to the description line. As the headline is the most important part of any PPC ad, here will give you three tips on tweaking it that could help your ads to perform better, ie:

>  Spark curiosity by making it a question, eg, Want to Make $100 Today?

>  Mention a benefit, eg, Eliminate Dry Skin Today

>  Add a negative qualifier, eg, May Bahamas Cruise: $559+ (there are two negative qualifiers here – the month and the cost. This weeds out those who are, for example, looking for a fall Bahamas cruise for under $500).

PPC Marketing Fact: Specifics Sell; Generalities Repel
 

What we find most often is that many ads are too general. Most PPC advertisers are so afraid of scaring off prospects that they cast too broad of a net.

Making money on the web is about niche, niche, niche, ie, specifics, specifics, specifics. While your clickthrough rates may decrease, your conversion rates will increase the more specific you are in your ads.

Note: PPC, as with every other type of marketing is a test, test and retest form of advertising. When you change ads, you always run the risk that they will perform worse. But the only surefire way to get them to perform better is to tweak them.