Online marketing Blog

I just found a keyword niche that according to my keyword tool was searched 41,000 times last month in Overture… There are only 5 ads running in Google for the keyword phrase.

I just set up the adgroup and the “traffic estimator” out of 6 variations says I will get one click per day.

Shall I prove once and for all that the Google estimator is bunk?

…or there is a great disparity between Google and Overture.

11 Hours later…

17 Impressions
2 Clicks

So we are on target to get about 1020 Impressions per month and 120 Clicks per month…

OR 34 Imp per day 4 clicks per day……….

But I have a feeling Google might not be serving it up 100% yet.

That still falls way short of Overture results and that is something I could never understand. Why would people search different on Google than Overture?? Wouldn’t Google results be larger; it’s a larger and more popular engine!? Do they serve a different demographic?

Now wait a minute……………………..

I just went to check quick on which keyword phrase it said would give me that one click AND the results are different!

Before one of the keywords out of 6 was supposed to give me one click per day…

NOW…

Spread between 4 of them they are supposed to get 10.2 per day per the Google Estimator.

Why on earth would it be different than 11 Hours ago………?

WELL, No matter what the difference between Google & Overture, there is another example of why NOT to trust the estimator.

OK, back to ignoring it & stairing at the carpet. The votes are all in… it’s useless bunk junk!

Do you know how to run ads against each other yet?

Part of this game is trying to improve click through always. Even on campaigns that are doing very well…

I always try and have 2 or 3 ads going at the same time. They might be very similar. I might just change capitalization… or a line or word…

I try and make sure keywords are in the copy. This way it bolds when someone searches and draws attention.

Writing the ad itself is an art form that can be learned. The ad should solve the searchers problem.

If I’m searching for information about how to care for a turtle, and my main keyword is “turtle information”, my ad copy might read:

Turtle Information
Expert Techniques Revealed!
Healthier & Happier Turtle.
TurtleInformation.com

My copy tells the surfer exactly what they will find when they click. They no immediately that it is turtle information… they will be immediately attracted to it because “Turtle Information” is bolded.

The copy tells them that they are going to learn from experts. Something is going to be revealed which causes curiosity to attract the click…

I give them a result. I don’t right copy that only gives facts. I want to give people an idea of what the end result of that click will be… a healthy and happy turtle!

And of course the URL is important. It should be related to topic as well..

This is just one example. It does depend on the product… You only have so much room, but you want to attract people… build excitement. If there is something that sets this apart tell them about it. For instance: This Book Recommended by USA Reptile Magazine… or something.

I get clicks all over the board. Of course you will get better click through on the first page so that should be a goal.

But no matter where you are, you always should be playing with your copy a little.

Just track it. Make sure that the “Automatically optimize ad serving for my ads” is unchecked so your ads are served evenly… Then when you see one performing way better than the other, replace the other and test another.

It’s continuous process…

I’ve never heard of match types getting special treatment. Whatever ad is eligible to show up in a search is ranked by the same formula Google has always used…

Why would you use different matches?

More targeted clicks… as an example:

If your phrase is “buy a bike”, obviously there are three different match types you can choose…

If you choose [buy a bike], your ad will show when someone searches like this:

buy a bike

If you choose “buy a bike”, your ad could show when someone searches like this:

buy a bike
i wanna buy a bike

If you choose buy a bike, your ad could show when someone searches like this:

buy a bike
i wanna buy a bike
a bike sitting buy the street

By using other match options, you are eliminating non relevant searches…

That is the main reason it exists I think. All the other factors have to do with ranking. This just let’s you control where you want to be shown.

One of the others things I do is resell eBooks…

Each eBook has a landing page which is the sales page and usually an “about the author” page as well…

The sales pages are not islands. One one of my websites they are actually all part of a collection I have. I do not hide that fact at all that I do more than sell each individual eBook on my website…

What am I driving at?

I’ve said this myself in the past about landing pages. I’ve always thought that having an island for a landing page was absolutely essential. Don’t give anyone an out EXCEPT for that affiliate link…

Cut to the chase…

I’ve been getting search engine traffic for a while now… and have made some sales. In the last week I sold two different eBooks on different topics…

I have different ways I track visitors, but one of the most useful scripts I use is StatCounter. It enables me to see the search keywords next to the landing pages….

AND it also allows me to track the persons movements throughout my website.

That last feature is why I decided to start this thread.

I analyzed the movements of the two sales this last week and guess what?

They didn’t leave the page AT ALL. I have a menu bar across the top. I have a link to the “about the author”… nope, they found what they want and bought.

I’ve noticed this in the past as well, but these two finally sealed it for me… maybe building a website and including web pages within that serve the website as a whole, but can also be used as stand alone landing pages without changing the linking structure is…. not a problem.

I’ve always had landing pages that are part of a larger website and have had success with them… but this kind of made me rethink the ‘rule of thumb’ I use when it comes to building a landing page solely for an Adwords Campaign.

Maybe it’s as simple as this. Maybe the surroundings are irrelevant. If the landing page serves the searcher by helping them, that’s all that matters.

Again, this is just my experience and may very per individual marketer, the market, product, service and campaign…

Have multiple avenues of traffic is a good thing… approaching it this way can open the door to more conversions for you with very little extra effort.

Hope you found this interesting…

This is probably something that can be easily tested. You can easily create a website with the landing page and then also have an isolated page.

I just found it interesting and thought maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t so easily rule out having a landing page connected to a larger web…

Who knows… if done right, maybe it will increase conversion.

How distracted can a visitor become?

… that is the question. Probably depends slightly on how targeted the click is… if the person is in buy mode… or if it’s a broad phrase that brings in shoppers.

It’d be a matter of tracking and see… the opposite could happen and they go and hit another product on your site that makes you MORE money! Or multiple.

That’s why I think the some of the most successful people out there just harvest e-mails… then you can grow a big list & sell them over and over again with different products related to their interest.

Things that make you go, Hmmmm…

There isn’t much you can do about pop-ups on the landing pages short of contacting the merchant to see if they will give you a special landing page without one… or they might be able to recommend a link for you that doesn’t have one… the merchant might have more than one landing page that you can link to as well…

There are a lot of different types of pop-ups so it may not be immediately obvious that’s it’s even there. Some will be when someone trys to back out and something pops up OR they could be delayed, timed OR your computer may block it without you seeing it.

So you can’t really get them out. It’s actually a script on the landing page that generates them. It has nothing to do with the link itself.

It’s indispensable to me. I use it daily to track my campaigns and make decisions based on my spending, profits, ROI etc…

I also use is as sort of an ‘end of the month’ report. It gives me the big picture. It tells me how I am doing at the end of each month and that’s when I will often delete some campaigns, analyze things and make some decisions and set goals for the next month.

Keeps me organized and on track. And keeps me mentally in the game.

I feel I was flying blind before I had it.

I dumped about 6 campaigns these last few days. Some were just duds and wasting space (no clicks etc)… others I felt I had spent enough. One I had made a sale early, but then I spent twice the commission to try and make another!

Now in the next few days I will replace those 6 with 6 more… all different products and different markets.

Out of those 6 hopefully I’ll get one winner.

I’m in a constant state of failure. BUT the winners stick. It’s kind of like a plant or tree I suppose. You water it. Watch it grow… but periodically you prune it… cut off some of the stragglers & branches that don’t conform and let new buds immerge…

Maybe the new buds will work better or they’ll be chopped off during the next pruning and trimming…

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I’m a salesman. I’ve been in sales for almost 15 years. I’ve sold all kinds of things over the years.

The product that will illustrate this best was when I was selling Life Insurance full time. Mortgage Life to be exact. I did very well at it, but I phased it out to pursue my online biz…

Life insurance…

I worked off of leads that were received from people that were interested in Mortgage insurance. The lead company I worked with would send out millions of forms people could fill out to get a quote.

Out of those millions they got about 1 or 2% back…

I would receive 10-15 of those per week.

I would sit down at my phone and call those… some would pile up from weeks previous so I was always working on 30, 40 or 50 leads at a time.

THIS WAS a PURE numbers game.

I knew if I made a 100 calls per week. A 100 attempts at reaching people… I knew I would set 7-8 appointments per week.

Out of those 7-8 appointments I might actually only see 4-5 because of cancellations and reschedules.

Out of those 4 or 5 I would write on average 5 policies… (One household I might write 2 or 3 policies)

If the average premium was $2000, I made 80-90% up front commissions…

So I could make 8-9000 per month… Now some of that would go towards paying for the leads. Leads cost $14 a piece.

PURE NUMBERS…

As long as I repeated that process every week, my paychecks remained level. Some months I would or could do even better.

Adwords in my mind is no different. It’s all based on time and energy and activity to achieve a result.

Continue the process and you will break through and get a big winner periodically.

But the secret is, even when you have an unbelievable month or you are making more money than you have in your life… the secret is to continue the process. Don’t get comfortable. Otherwise, you will certainly stagnate and wonder where your commissions went that you were making months ago.

Sorry so long everyone.

I can really feel all of your frustrations because I’ve been there. Now it’s not so bad because I have a stream of income and it lessons the blow etc…

You’ll get there to if you keep that “stick to it” attitude no matter what.

The best salesmen look at the process this way. They embrace and learn to love the “no’s”…. Because they know that each “no” means they are one step closer to the “yes”.

Each campaign that fails should make say, “YES! I’m one failure closer to a success!!”

First, don’t get discouraged. We’ve all been there with campaigns… with successes that turn into failures. It’s part of it all. Just keep on keeping on.

If you are not having success in a particular market, there are tons of other markets you can branch off into.. In the beginning, I would suggest trying to concentrate on markets with the least competition. It’s not impossible to make money in the bigger markets like mortgage, insurance or whatever, but it’s MORE difficult and should be something you tackle as you gain experience.

Digital products are great, but don’t get stuck there either. There is so much you can do AND…

$100 profit is VERY achievable with a long term, sustained effort. Heck there are people here that make that every few hours.

I know this internet stuff is not easy. I’ve seen many come and go and you are right, it’s not for everyone.

If you truly have the burning desire and do all the things you have learned, you can make it. AND in this business you will always be learning and growing.

Find your routine And repeat. It’s that simple. You will naturally learn along the way…

As an insurance agent, I’ve sold 1000s of policies over the years (not just life)… I’ve probably not sold 10s of thousands. But lets say every person that walks through my office door I will sell 1 out of 5… I know that. It’s consistent. All I have to do is concentrate on getting people through the door AND the rest will take care of itself…

Concentrate on getting people through the door… concentrate on setting up campaigns… testing them… letting them go when they’re not profitable… nurturing the winners… Continue the process and don’t let up.

It’s not for everyone, but if you’ve made it this far you’ve already done better than I bet 98% of the people that have quit…. you’ve acted, you’ve tried, you’ve worked at this… many people quit before they even started.

…have you ever read the book “Think & Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill?

Here’s a review I did on Amazon.com: My Review of Think & Grow Rich

That says it all…

Some will find success quickly. Many won’t. We all have different experiences depending on our financial situations and backgrounds.

BUT the universal truth is… Don’t give up and you will succeed…

There are 2 strategies I use to find winners in a highly competitive market:

FIRST Strategy:

1) Do some serious heavy research to find all the keywords that might find people that want the product… think outside of the box; outside of the keyword tool as well. Sometimes those tools won’t find words that are related or similar to that product… Think like a Thesaurus. What words are out there that mean the same thing, but are different than the main keywords you are researching.

Make this huge list and then plug it in… maybe break it into different adgroups. Niche groups…

Then play the “on hold” “disabled” game. Keep a close eye on the it… clean out the bad performers etc. Take out the winners and put them into their own adgroups…

In doing this, you might be surprised what you find.

From there you can go to step 2…

2) Bend and break them…… in other words, misspelling etc.

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SECOND Strategy:

OFTEN, when I see a competitive market I don’t go through all of the above and can still find quick winning campaigns.

Most of the time I come at a market with a product already in mind… I search for merchants first then I look for markets for the products or services…

Often the merchant itself provides its own niche. Something the competition doesn’t have or targets a portion of the market the others don’t…

In many cases, I will actually just study the market… make notes of areas that don’t look like they have a lot of direct competition or match my merchant perfectly… and set up a small campaign specifically targeted at an opening…

In this method I’m not attacking the whole market. I’m just tackling a small corner of that market. I’ll often do better than the competition because I’m more focused.

—————–

AND Remember the results you get from your tools are just a rule of thumb. It does not take into consideration Googles matching options.

So you could have what looks like a competitive keyword. Your tool says there are 50 campaigns running for it, but in reality they are all broad matches… you come in with an exact match, excellent ad copy and you will get better CTR and better conversions than the competition..

SORRY so long. Just some thoughts and the way I approach competitive markets.

Much of it is just testing…… You don’t know that until you try it. Ya never know. Depending on what you are selling, your product might be more what the searcher is looking for and can do well… if the ad is written right.