When you’re advertising with Google Adwords, you need to pay extremely close attention to your competition.  It is possible that you could start advertising on this popular advertising medium and be shocked at the expense of the costs per click.

So here are a couple ways you can determine what you’re up against before you launch your first campaign. This will give you a huge advantage and enable you to adjust your strategy if the clicks are too high.

1) Type in your main keyword into Google.

Simple enough right? What you need to do is count the number of competitors you have for that keyword. It could range between 6 and 66.

You see, in order to be on the first page of Google, you need to be within the top 1 to 8 or 11 best ads on the page.

Regarding what is considered “best”–Google will take into account your bid price, clickthrough rate, and quality score. So it’s not neccessarily the highest bid that wins out when it comes to Google Adwords.

2) Go to www.spyfu.com and estimate what everyone is bidding on your site.

This is a really neat technique you can use to see what everyone else is paying per click for your target keyword.

This website will also let you know who is bidding on these keywords.

Keep in mind this is only an estimate. You will not know for certain until you start bidding on your own campaigns.

If you find that the click costs are too high, you will need to use less competitive keywords. You can do this by going to www.wordtracker.com and choosing keywords that are targeted for your niche–but are lower in compeition.

You can also change your offer, add a couple of upsells, and tweak your copy so you get more conversions. You see, Google Adwords is all about constantly testing and tweaking–but once you find the right combination you’re golden!

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

In my last post, we went over 5 Google Adwords ad-writing tips that could boost your conversions. They are what any person who is fluent in Adwords should be familiar with.

Now we are going to cover 5 more tips that could boost your profits with Google Adwords. So let’s get started!

1) Are you taking full advantage of the space Google gives you in each line?

In general, the more you tell, the more you sell. You do not want to shortchange yourself by not filling in the entire space Google gives you to sell the click.  So make sure you utilize all the space Google gives you.

2) Are you listing the benefits first?

Many times people will put the features of a product first.  This is not the way to do it.  You need to put the benefits first as people want to know what the product is going to DO for them. There are exceptions to this rule, but there aren’t many.

3) Is your display URL relevant to what your searchers are looking for?

Your display URL is also a piece of copy.  If you have an obscure URL, it’s not going to connect with the audience. Try sending your traffic to a domain like, “www.datingsecrets.com” so that people will know what they are clicking on when they see your ad.

4) Are you testing capital vs. lowercase letters to see what gets the best clickthrough rate?

This is important. Sometimes having capital letters can boost conversions–and sometimes they cannot. You never know until you test what is going to convert the highest.

5) Are you playing to your hunches?

Sometimes when you’re in the shower and playing with the kids, you could be thinking of new ad copy for your Adwords to test.  Always be thinking of new ideas during your idle time–it could mean boosting your clickthrough rate for your Adwords ads.

So make sure you implement these Adwords ad-writing secrets into your marketing arsenal.  You could conquer Google Adwords and bring more income to your business!

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

Google Adwords can be intimidating to some people.  But like anything else in marketing, you can easily master it if you know certain tricks to working with this critical pay-per-click search engine.

Here are 5 things you need to keep in mind with creating your Google Adwords ads:

1) Are you entering into the conversation going on in your customer’s head?

Frequently when people write Adwords ads, they do not spend a lot of time analyzing where their customer is coming from when they enter their search term. For example, some keywords are obvious “buying” keywords and others are just general “searching” keywords.

Generally, the more specific the keyword, the greater the chances that visitor is going to buy from you.  And the ad copy needs to match.

2) Are you bidding on longer phrases, e.g. “how do I stop chewing on my fingernails?”

Frequently, the keywords you should be using might not appear in your favorite keyword tool.  Long-tail keywords are those you’ll need to think of when you’re brainstorming what your target market would type into a  search engine.

3)  Are you trying to “beat your control” by rotating at least 2 ads?

This is critical to constantly ratcheting your conversions higher and higher. You never want to only run 1 ad, as the advertisement that’s going to double your conversions could be on the top of your mind.

4) Are you reading your ads out loud to yourself to see if they have a good flow?

A good ad is conversational and should not sound “awkward” when you read it out loud.  Fine tune any advertisement that doesn’t read right when you read it to someone out loud.

5) Are you always keeping a close eye on what your competitiors are doing?

You need to be constantly monitoring your competition, as they could bid higher than you, or change their ad–thus jumping higher than you on the page. All of this can happen in the matter of minutes and you need to be abreast of your competition at all times if you’re going to survive the PPC game.

Those were 5 tips you need to be implementing in your Google Adwords campaigns. Tomorrow I am going to reveal 5 more so stay tuned!

Live, Love, Laugh!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

Google Adwords can be a great way to get traffic to your site. Unfortunately, most marketers really mess up by not following common Google Adwords best practices and strategies.

Here are 5 Google Adwords mistakes most people can make that can cost you a lot of money.

1) Putting too many keywords into an adgroup.

This can really skyrocket your click costs because there is no way you can place 100 keywords into an adgroup and be specific enough. If you have more then 10 keywords in your adgroup, you need to break them up into smaller adgroups so you can target your Google Adwords better based on what your potential customers type into the search query.

2) Not testing different ads.

This is a horrible mistake because you can easily boost your ad conversion by split testing your ads.  You cannot know what ad is going to convert higher unless you test them. Google Adwords makes it easy to do this, and even the large direct mail companies out there test their ads all the time. Shouldn’t you?

3) Doing poor keyword research.

Google Adwords is getting pricey these days, and doing poor keyword research can really ruin your campaign. Go through all your keywords and ask yourself, “Would my potential customer type this into a search engine?”

This is critical because if you are not getting enough clicks on your ads, Google will lower your ad position since they only want to serve relevant ads to its users.  So you cannot skimp on keyword research as they are the lifeblood of your business.

4) Being in the #1 position of the page.

Many people think that being #1 is the best place to be on the Google search results. However, 95% of the time, this will be more expensive to you, and most of the people who click on these ads are usually “tire kickers”.

The optimum position is between position 4-6–in the middle of the page. By the time they get to your ad, they will have already clicked on the ones above you and your click will be cheaper–and perhaps a better customer.

5) Not driving traffic to a relevant landing page.

Google uses a quality score to determine if the keywords you are using are relevant to the landing page you are driving your traffic. You need to have the same keywords on your landing page as you’re using with your Google Adwords campaign.

Remember, Google wants to bring the most relevant results to its users, and if your landing page isn’t coherent with the keywords you are using, they will lower your quality score. And that means your click costs will go up.

So when creating your next Adwords campaign, don’t make these 5 mistakes. You’ll save a lot of money.

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

Google Adwords is one of the best ways to get traffic to your site.  The traffic that comes from Google Adwords can be very valuable, since these people clicked on an ad to get to your site.

There are a lot of ways to increase the number of people who click on your ads. This blog post lists 3 you can start testing right away in order to boost traffic to your site and make you more money.

1) End the headline with a question mark.

For example if you have a headline called “Business Proposal Template”, you can easily modify that to say, “Business Proposal Template?”  This induces curiosity in the visitor since it embeds a question in their mind and they want to see if it is answered.

This also makes your ad stand out more since a very small amount of people will actually use a question mark in the headline of their ad.

2) Use the “secrets most people will NEVER know” line in your ad.

If you were a golfer and you came across a headline that said, “Discover Golfing Secrets Most Golfers Will NEVER Know”, wouldn’t you want to find out?

This has been tested time and time again to outpull most ads, mainly because it plays on the fact that you’re about ready to get an advantage over other golfers.  That you’re going to have several secrets that you only know.

That’s why the word “secret” is used time and time again in marketing. Secrets are irresistible because it plays on the fact that someone knows information that you don’t.  And we as humans are always curious to learn “secrets” so we can be a part of the “club” that knows the secrets.

So use some variation of this line in the body of your Adwords ad.  It could boost your clicks big time.

3) Have an intriguing domain name.

Google allows you 3 lines of text for Adwords, but nothing stops you from creating a better domain that urges people to click on your ad.  The display URL is another line of copy you can utilize with effectiveness.

So what URL is more apt to be clicked on: www.acme.com or www.LoseFatRightNow.com?

The only thing is your display URL and destination URL has to be the same.  So if you’re sending traffic to a seperate landing page, try to come up with a good domain name that’ll attract more clicks.

So next time you create your next Adwords campaign, test these tweaks out. This could definitely help you conquer Google Adwords.

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

Everyone knows that Google Adwords can be very lucrative if you have money to spend and have a converting product. We even talked about several ways you can boost your ad performance in this post by making sure your ads are relevant.

Now we are going to talk about 5 ways you can boost your clickthroughs for your Google Adwords. Pay attention because just one of these tips could end up being a huge profit windfall for you.

1) Make sure your main keyword is in the headline

As you might have noticed, when you type in a Google search query, you’ll notice the ads that have a BOLD headline are the ones that match exactly what you searched for. While the other ads just sit there with regular text headlines.

It goes without saying that the BOLD headline is going to get the most clicks. It just makes it stand out better among the other ads. It’s a simple step you can do, but very few people do it.

2) Make sure you end your headline with a question mark

This is an interesting one. Which one would you rather click on, this one:

Business Proposal Tips

or…

Business Proposal Tips?

The one with the question mark at the end is going to get the most clicks since the question leaves an “open loop” in their mind that needs to be closed. It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer the question in your ad or the next page, it’s just a device that gets people to notice and click on your Adwords ad.

3) Make sure your display URL doesn’t begin with “www”

One common error people make is to list their display URL with a “www” at the end. The thing you need to do is insteal of this:

www.awesomelawncare.com

…you would want to do this:

AwesomeLawnCare.com

First of all, the URL is easier to read. It could almost be another headline. Second of all, it get’s people’s attention and can boost your clickthroughs. And best of all, Google will let you do it!

4) Make sure you have a “big benefit” in your ad

So what exactly is a product going to do for a customer? That’s why you need to have a “big benefit” in your ad. For example, if you’re selling a weight loss product, you would want to have a line that says, “Impress The Babes”. If you’re a guy, that’s the reason you want to lose weight, not for the heck of it, but in order to fulfill a deep desire or goal.

And you need to make sure it’s in your Google Adwords ad.

That’s it for today, if you’re running pay-per-click campaigns, test these out and see if they’ll boost your conversions. I bet they will.

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

One of the things that is necessary in order to get the most out of your Google Adwords pay-per-click campaign is to do proper keyword research.

For example, it doesn’t really matter if a keyword gets a lot of traffic. What really matters if they are ready to buy something!

Here’s an example: if you are selling a diet that teaches you how to eat bananas and lose weight, the last thing you want to do is bid on a general word such as “diet”.

First of all, it’s going to be way too expensive. Second of all, Google Adwords is going to raise your click price and could easily run your account way over your budget.

The highest converting keywords are “buying” keywords.

For example, instead of “diet” you can bid on “banana diet”. This is more specific and indicates the searcher is looking for something about the banana diet, and thus, is closer to buying something.

The best keywords are “banana diet course” or “banana diet book”.  These are the best “buying” keywords and is indicative of the fact the searcher has already done his/her research, they are looking to buy a book or course.

Further, let’s say your course is called, “Lose Weight Fast With The Banana Diet”.  What a great keyword to bid on!  This is the most specific keyword you could ever use, and it ensures you’re going to get a high conversion.

In general, the more specific the keyword, the better the chances the searcher is a buyer.  In the example above, they’ve already researched the diets and they’re looking for specific information on the banana diet.  And some have even found out about your course and are searching specifically for your product name.

This is critical in Google Adwords, as you’ll need higher conversions to make your campaign profitable. Especially with rising click costs and increasing competition everywhere online.

Keep Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy

As most of you know, Google Adwords has cracked down on advertisers who drive traffic to pages that aren’t relevant to a search query. To combat this, Google instituted the “Relevancy Score”,  a measurement of how relevant your landing page is to the keyword query.

If your landing page is relevant, you’ll get a better ad placement and your Google Adwords click costs will be higher. If you get a low score, then your bid prices will go up, and your placement will be at the bottom of the page.

Definitely not what you want if you’re looking to make money online.

Here are 4 ways to boost your relevancy score. Implementing these could lower your click costs below your competitors that don’t know what they’re doing.

1) Make Sure You Use A High PageRank Domain.

Google will generally give a high relevancy score to an aged domain with high PageRank. Whereas the website that was thrown up yesterday is going to take a hit in relevancy score.

2) Make Sure You Have Your Keywords In The Domain And Elsewhere In Your Adwords Ad.

If people type in “golf shoes” into Google, you better be sure the words “golf shoes” are in the headline, body copy, and domain. Also make sure you landing page is about golf shoes.  I’ll tell you next how to do this.

3) Make Sure You Have Your Targeted Keywords In Your Meta Tags And Title Tags.

Relevancy Score will increase if Google sees the search query on your pages via the Meta tags and title tags.  So in our hypothetical scenario, you’ll want to make sure “golf shoes” are in these tags.

4) Make Sure The Site Has A Little Depth.

If you have 10-15 pages on the website, Google may give you a higher relevancy score than a single squeeze page.  You can easily add a privacy policy, terms of service, customer contact, and other standard pages to beef up your site a little bit

Now all of these things might seem like a lot of work. But if you’re targeting a specific term on Google Adwords that converts well for you, you’ll want to make sure all this is included. Even purchase a new domain if you have to!

Because having a low relevancy will cost you more money in the long run.  Google’s job is to send the most relevant results to the user when they enter a search query.  Taking these steps will ensure Google evaluates your site correctly and assigns a high relevancy score for you.

Good Luck!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Internet Marketing Academy