2010 – Who will be successful?

Weigh in with your thoughts below.

Dear Business-Builder,

If you’re not already taking advantage of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to pull qualified traffic to your site, now’s the time! PPC is hands-down the fastest way to get targeted traffic to your site.

But did you know it’s also a lean, mean testing machine?

That’s right. This HUGE ADVANTAGE comes from the ability to quickly test, track, compare, and tweak your ads.

Use your results to decide what new keywords to optimize your site for. Figure out what types of opt-in offers get the best results. Use it to help you write top-performing copy for your website and landing pages. You can even use it to optimize the text in your meta description tags — which Google displays with your URL in the organic search results.

You can harness the power of your own pay-per-click campaign in just five simple steps:

1. Set up a Google AdWords campaign.
2. Set up your PPC conversion tracker.
3. Split-test versions of your ads.
4. Find out which ad pulls the highest click-throughs and conversions.
5. Use your top-performing campaign elements to optimize your website!

Let’s start by making sure the basic elements of your AdWords campaign are in place.

Step 1: Lay the groundwork for success
with these AdWords essentials

If you don’t have an AdWords account set up yet, go get one at http://adwords.google.com/.

The instructions are fairly straightforward. You’ll be setting up an “Ad Group” for each of your keywords. Within each Ad Group you can elect to have your ad appear when variations on your keyword are typed into the Google search engine.

And since you’re able to test different ads against each other within one Ad Group, it’s a good idea to create ad versions that include variations on your keyword.

As you go through the process of setting up Ad Groups, check to make sure you have these essentials in place:

• Use Google’s Standard AdWords Edition — NOT the Starter Edition. You want full control over all settings and advanced options that aren’t included in the starter version.
• Create one Ad Group per keyword to keep your campaigns organized. Name it after the keyword for easy reference.
• Enter three ways for AdWords to “match” your keywords to search results in the “Choose Keywords” box to make sure your ad gets the maximum number of impressions:

1. Broad match = keywordAs the name suggests, broad-matching matches your ad to a wide range of phrases built around your keyword. This includes synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases that contain any of the words in your keyword phrase, in any order.

   If you’re selling home-smoked salmon and using the keyword “smoked salmon,” broad match would appear for search terms like “salmon smoking,” and “how to smoke salmon.”

   Google AdWords automatically tracks which broad match variations produce the most clicks on your ads, and automatically excludes the broad match terms that don’t convert.

2. Phrase match = “keyword”Phrase match brings up your keyword phrase only in the order it’s typed. It may include additional keywords on either end.

   So your ad might appear for the search phrases “smoked salmon recipes,” but NOT “smoked like salmon”.

3. Exact match = [keyword]As it sounds, with exact match chosen, your keyword will only appear when it’s typed into Google Search exactly — with no additional terms included.

   With exact match, your ad will appear only when “smoked salmon” exactly is typed in.

4. Negative keywords = -[words you don't want]In the same area, but on a separate line, include “negative keywords” by typing a minus sign or hyphen before words you’d like excluded from the results.

   You would use “-smoker” to make sure your smoked salmon ad doesn’t show up in search results for salmon smokers.

   (Incidentally, making sure your ad doesn’t appear for search terms that include the word “free” is a REALLY good idea. People searching for free solutions to their problems are not your ideal customers! On the other hand, if you’re trying to get opt-ins with a free sign-up offer, people looking for free solutions are just what you want.)

• Write compelling ads that focus on the benefits of your product. Spell out (briefly!) the main way your product or service will improve the lives of your customers. A well-written ad will draw more attention and bring in more traffic than a poorly written ad with a higher ad position.Make sure your keyword appears in your ad title and somewhere in your two-line description. Google will bold the keyword wherever it appears, so the more often you include it in your ad, the more your ad stands out.

  Google will also consider your ad more relevant to the keyword (aka the searcher!), which can translate into a lower cost per click for you. Plus, your ad will appear more relevant to the person who typed in that keyword, so they’ll be more likely to click on your ad.

• Opt out of Google’s Content Network. Google’s Content Network consists of websites that display Google AdSense ads in exchange for a percentage of the cost per click paid by the advertiser. (When you sign up for Google AdWords, that advertiser is you!)Your ad appears on websites that are considered to have content that’s relevant to your keywords.

  Advertising on the Content Network is one way to get exposure beyond the search engines, but it should be tested carefully. It’s a different platform that requires different strategies.

  So if you’d like to target Google’s Content Network, create a separate campaign to do so.

• Create a minimum of 15 Ad Groups representing your top keywords to maximize the amount of traffic you pull with PPC. This also gives you a great opportunity to test the effectiveness of your top keywords.
• Set a minimum budget of $10/day, more if you can afford it. Anything below $10 and Google will think you’re not serious and won’t give you any breaks. (Did you know that the average AdWords client only lasts two weeks?)Set your budget options to the standard delivery method so your ads show evenly over time. Then set the ad serving option to “rotate” so your ads are displayed more evenly. These settings will give you the best sample audience:
  

Once you’ve created a minimum of 15 Ad Groups, set up AdWords to track your conversions.

Step 2: Monitor your campaigns with
AdWords’ conversion tracker

As I mentioned earlier, tracking your conversions means that you can make adjustments to elements of your ads for MAXIMUM results.

AdWords has a handy conversion-tracking tool that will allow you to easily test and tweak your ads:

Here’s how you set it up:

1. Log in to your AdWords account
2. Under the “Campaign Management” tab, select “Conversion Tracking”
3. Click the “Start Tracking Conversions” button
4. Put a check mark in the “Purchase/Sale” check box, and click “Continue”
5. Choose the format of your Google site stats label. (Not a big deal. Once you have enabled conversion tracking and someone clicks through to your site and buys something, your user will see this label — which allows them to give Google permission to track that conversion.)
6. Choose your report language and security report. Copy the code from the text area (starting with <!--Google Code...>) and paste it on whichever page you direct customers to when they’ve completed their purchase (usually a “thank you” page).
7. Test to make sure your conversions are being tracked by clicking on one of your own ads and navigating to your conversion page. Then check your “Campaign Summary” page in AdWords to make sure your stats are being tracked. (It can take up to 24 hours for these to show up.)
8. Return to the Conversion Tracking page and repeat the process, except:Put a check mark beside “Signup” instead of “Purchase/Sale” where prompted.
9. Copy the page conversion code to your “Thank you for signing up” HTML page.

That’s all there is to it. Using AdWords’ campaign management reports, you’ll be able to gauge the effectiveness of several different ads. Now you’re ready to create and test different versions of each of your ads.

Step 3: Split-test your ads for maximum click-throughs

Split-testing allows you to find out which versions of your ads attract the highest number of qualified visitors — that is the number of people who BUY your products once they click through an ad and land on your site. And Google AdWords makes split-testing EASY!

Just select an Ad Group, and click the “Create an ad variation” link at the bottom of the page to create another text ad. Create a minimum of two text ads per Ad Group.

Here’s an example of two ads we set up to test against each other:

1. Everything Neon Fish
   Neon fish supplies below cost.
   Visit Fish Tropics Today!
   www.fish-tropics.com
2. Find Neon Fish Supplies
   Find everything you need to build
   your own neon fish aquarium!
   www.fish-tropics.com

Use the ad you created when you set up your campaign as your “control” — the yardstick against which you’ll measure the performance of your other ads.

Then, changing one element at a time, test variations of your:

• Headlines/Ad title: Try using different words to grab attention. For example, “Buy” versus “Download.”
• Unique selling proposition (USP): You might think you know what differentiates your product from similar ones on the market, but your target audience might have their own ideas! So test your USP and find out!
• Benefits: Highlight different product benefits to find the ones that are most appealing to your market. For example, “save time” versus “save money.”
• Emotional appeal: Create an ad that connects through a fear of losing something compared to one that focuses on the gains of clicking on your ad.
• Offer/Price: Test different offers in your ads. For example, a 30-day versus a 60-day trial offer. And if price is a benefit of your product, try creating an ad with the price displayed compared to one using the word “affordable.”
• Call to action: What words most create a sense of urgency in your ad? Try using different power words like “buy,” “get your,” or “sign up”).

Test different ways of telling your target market what to do (e.g., “Sign up for free membership now” and “Save on used sports equipment”).

Google will automatically rotate your ads equally between impressions — so you can find out which ads are most attractive to your target market.

After you’ve got a few hundred impressions for each ad, take a look at your statistics and see which ads are more popular with your target audience.

As soon as you see one of your test ads consistently outperforming your control ad over the course of a few days or weeks, make this one your new control ad. Continue reading →

Alright all you social media Luddites time to wake up and smell reality. Communicating with your world has changed in recent years. Maybe you did not get the whole Facebook, Twitter thing. Many did but lots of folks just don’t get how it can help their business grow.

Those that have figured it out are reaping rewards from it every day. So today along comes the new kid in town from the biggest guys on the block. Google released Google Buzz to the world this afternoon after launching a streaming press conference on YouTube.

This one bears taking notice of in your world. You see there is no new site to go to, no new software to install, no new accounts to create. If you have a Gmail account, if you don’t then you should, it is already there. Nothing to install. The folks you contact regularly are already in there as your friends. It is easy right out of the box.

You can share links, photos, videos, and more.

While Google may have an uphill climb to compete with the Twitter and Facebook phenomena it is certain to get lots of attention and the ease of use is sure to make acceptance widespread. They have made it available on your smart phone too.

So watch this space as we delve into the workings of Buzz and what it can do to help you communicate with your customers and potential customers better so you can make more sales.

Oh and the name is perfect if you ask me. No more talking about Tweets. Buzz is where its at.

Tell me what you think of Buzz in the comments below.

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If you have ever considered your marketing options for your business and felt that you had no chance of doing video or TV ads you need to think again. Seriously. Web video and now online TV ads have become a very real marketing option that can drive geo targeted customers to your doors this week.

Please read this clip from a Jivox.com report on the effectiveness of online TV ads for small businesses like yours:

Reaching new customers can be challenging for most businesses. While tried-and-true methods such as newspaper advertising remain popular, a new ad medium has also taken the business world by storm.

Online video ads — short-form commercials that run on Web sites — are proving to be one of the most effective ways to advertise online, with some video ads generating twice the clicks of banner ads. In fact, advertisers report planning to allocate about 35 percent of their budget on the ads by 2012, according to Borrell Associates.

Small businesses are catching on to this trend, fueled by a host of do-it-yourself Web sites that offer inexpensive, locally targeted, online video ad programs. Companies such as Jivox (www.jivox.com) allow advertisers to get started for as little as a few hundred dollars per campaign and make developing an online commercial simple and fun.

For example, Princess Port Bed and Breakfast in Half Moon Bay, California used Jivox to create an ad with free video footage showing a couple holding hands and walking on a beach, with a link to a coupon. After Princess Port ran the video ad, bookings skyrocketed, and 85 percent of new guests redeemed the coupon.

So there are several options for you to get your business on the web in video and none of them have to break the bank and in fact are cheaper than banner ads, display ads in print publications. Plus consumers are engaged and they take action.

Sample ad we produced for a client recently:

Talk to us about setting up your online TV ads and getting results today.

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