Marketing Joy

Content Comes First on your Landing Page

Sometimes pleasing Google's algorithm for Adwords Quality Score seems like hitting a moving target, but there's no doubt that content plays a major role in the landing page component of your Quality Score. Here's what you should know about Google Adwords with regards to your landing page's content:

The content should be as specific and relevant as possible - both for your users information and for Google's generation of your Quality Score. Ad Copy and key phrases should be found in abundance on the landing page - your customer doesn't want to be fooled or confused and neither Google! Being broad on your page is a sure-fire way to negatively affect performance. What's in is creating multiple landing pages, each addressing SPECIFICALLY what your keywords suggest and what your ad states (your quality score depends on it)!

Match up the hot buttons: whatever you used as your hook on your ad, you should carry over onto your landing page. If they are compelled to act because of your price - promote it. If it was your selection or experience or WHATEVER, then be sure - even in the headline, to reinforce WHY they should choose you.

How much is too much? Be strategic about HOW MUCH content is delivered on the landing page, particularly “above the fold” (the area where people can see without having to scroll). Unless your visitor sought you out for information, don't overwhelm them with text high up on the landing page. If they used key phrases like "info", "review", "guide", "resources", by all means, give them everything but the kitchen sink, but even then you need to organize the info so they can get to the information THEY care most about. Having a list of topics or questions at the top that takes them directly to the answer in the text below is a winning idea.

Speak to your customers in a language and tone they can understand. HOW you say it can be as important as WHAT you say. If it's a crowd that likes technical jargon and lots of it, then you should aim to please with rich, in-depth content offered in a variety of ways on the page. However, if you need to make your point quickly to a teenage crowd, for example, use catch phrases, edgy language and more imagery. Bottom line is: know your audience and speak their language.

Give something for nothing. You should have good, informative, relevant content BEFORE you require a visitor to sign up. Do this primary because your prospects appreciate it and secondarily because Google looks out for it when calculating your Quality Score. In fact, "voluntary" opt-ins are of more use to you than not. You want people who WANT to hear from you because you have a better chance of conversion.

Put to use these landing page content guidelines and get results both from your Adwords campaigns as well as from your sales!

OK - another 10 List!

10 Adwords Bidding & Budget Management Tips 

(All are “As a rule…” and must be verified by you with your own conversion stats!)

1. Bid a few cents more than $.05 increments (i.e. $1.02 instead of $1.00 - you never know who you'll beat out by just pennies.)
2. Don’t immediately increase your budget to increase position – try optimizing your ad copy and headline first (refer to call #4) I can’t emphasize enough the power of tightening ad groups and optimizing ad copy so your copy can be more specific. By improving ad copy overall you can increase positioning, increase CTR, increase clicks, reduce costs and increase ROI.
3. The more qualified and specific your search term, the higher your can set your position preference (i.e. for the phrase [purple fuzzy iPod cover], we could choose to come up #1, but for “iPod cases”, we should absolutely NOT come up #1)
4. Bid lower (often much lower) on searches more like to result in a looker vs. a buyer (searches for “review”, “info”, “guide”, “prices” etc.)
5. Bid just as much for misspellings – they have the same intent! (Tool for generating common typos is http://www.searchspell.com/typo/ )
6. Bid lower for competitor brand names/model #’s (shown to be not as valuable a click – often a curious looker)
7. If you opt for the Content Network (which I regularly pass on), utilize Content Network bids and mark them down by about half
8. Use your Advanced Search option in the Tools section to quickly make bidding changes without having to manually change bids one by one.
9. When going into your ad groups, sort by click cost or total cost and IMMEDIATELY compare it to your conversion statistics
10. Constantly be checking and re-checking to see if there are any NEGATIVE key phrases that you should be adding to your campaign level or ad group level key phrase lists to limit wasted budget.

Impress Me in 8 Seconds or Less

Your landing page is like a first impression in real life: you almost NEVER get another chance to make a first impression. Because of this, getting your landing pages right can make or break your Adwords (and overall) success!

Key points to think about when considering your landing pages:

• It’s typically NOT about how fancy or “flashy” your website is. (It’s about giving people the info they’re looking for QUICKLY and CLEARLY)
• What was the hook in your Ad Copy? Stick to that theme on your landing page!
• Quality images are important – some visitors will assume the quality of your offering is equal to the quality of the picture they see.
• Keep your value proposition and differentiators EASY to see and understand. Remember: WHY should they buy? And why should they buy from YOU?
• The layout of your page, as well as the navigation of your site can make or break your conversions. Give your visitors the simplest, most user-friendly experience for best results!

And it probably goes without saying, but... your homepage is often NOT the best landing page. You should have multiple, specific, compelling landing pages for the various products or services you offer.

Landing Page Tips to Maximize Quality Score

Here's a quick guide to making the most of your Quality Score with your landing page:

1. We'll state the obvious... again!! Include a reasonable amount of RELEVANT, keyword rich content that is useful to your visitors. (There aren't any shortcuts here!!)

2. Take the time to tag: make sure your HTML tags correspond to your key phrases.

3. Use the key phrase in the landing page, such as www.YourURL/keyphrase

4. Do NOT require sign-up information from your visitors (and if you just can't stop doing it, be sure to include a significant amount of keyword rich content on the same page)

5. Provide unique, original content - if you're going to quote other sources, use them sparingly within your own text.

6. Use "Do Not Crawl" coding on pages you are testing - but as Dave wisely suggested, leave your best performing page open to be indexed! Here's a handy guide on how to get that done.

7. If you offer AdSense, make sure that the ads are distinct and distinguishable from the rest of your content and images.

8. Exceptions can be made if you feel Google's algorithm is unfairly punishing you. You can plead your case directly to Google at 866-246-6453.

Also, Google reportedly checks and re-checks your Quality Score throughout the day (as many as several times). So you're not completely stuck if your QS is ailing!

Drinking from a firehose

I recently tried to give a talk on Adwords at an Online Guerrilla Marketing Bootcamp - which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that it was supposed to be a 60 minute talk.

There's no way to do the Adwords program justice in an hour. Well, I guess I could if all I did was convince the room that they absolutely SHOULD be using Adwords to attract highly qualified prospects to their websites. Because the talk was to go beyond a pitch for Adwords and was slated to deliver actionable information on Adwords, an hour of information (plus the extra half hour that I took) was only long enough to raise questions of strategy and tactics.

Because of the limited time of the talk, I suggested to the class, and would do the same for you, that they consider taking my Amazing Results with Adwords Telecourse. In the course, guru Dave Taylor and I are offering in-depth information over the course of 7 weeks. Each week we'll dissect a topic and answer specific questions on your Adwords account.

Honestly, there's no free lunch. Google's tutorials won't give you all the info you need to as profitable as you can be. And other outlets will dangle big promises and obvious free tips - but you've got to pay for the good stuff - and usually pay A LOT!

With Amazing Results with Adwords, the fee is nominal, and our goal is to have an interactive group of participants intent on making the course pay for itself in the first MONTH of advertising with Adwords. The efficiencies created by knowing professional tactics and insider tips and tricks will pay for the course several times over.

We invite you to read the first few class outlines to see what we've covered so far. And then JOIN IN!! We look forward to giving you Adwords by the sip - not by the firehose!

Keeping Google Honest

I recently read an article by an SEM professional who was questioning the accuracy of the Adwords accounting and tally system. He asserted that because Google reported exceeding $90 billion (with a "B") in revenues - mostly from ads - even a small amount of error could mean a significant amount of money lost for advertisers. He specifically tested the Adwords system with both his analytics system of choice as well as with GOOGLE ANALYTICS and found overbilling occurred in both cases.

Of course, Google - if you can get them to even grace this issue with a comment - defends that they are an honest, ethical provider with fair billing. They even go so far as to say that they give BACK money to advertisers by detecting click fraud.

What can you take away from this debate? Though Google may be erring toward their favor in billing - and you really just have to live with it because it's still the best thing going for advertisers - your charge is to be smart about your Adwords campaign and tactics. Don't just give even more money away by not learning the Adwords tool.

In a conversation recently, a good friend and colleague said that if businesses actually learned how to use Adwords properly, Google's revenue would be cut in HALF. I happen to agree. And even though Google offers cursory training to advertisers on how to create and maximize their ads - that smacks of the fox garding the hen house. What incentive does Google REALLY have to help advertisers get MORE for the same money?

Let's XYZ this with an illustration: if you go to Vegas and gamble - you KNOW that the house has the advantage. You overcome this by knowing the rules of the game, studying the rules and techniques and staying current on strategies and tactics that work. Ultimately, you will win some and lose some, but if you invest in knowing about the game and "playing the numbers" so to speak, you can come out ahead.

Google Lets You See Click Fraud

So you think you may be the victim of mad clickers or sneaky competition wanting to drain your Adwords budget? Coming down from on high today, Google reported that it will start showing advertisers click fraud information to help address that very issue.

Amidst law suits and pressure from disgruntled advertisers, Google instituted this reporting, which can be run with daily, weekly, quarterly or yearly parameters. Dating back to January 1, 2006, Google will show you what they've detected as click fraud or "malicious activity" and removed from your click charges.

It would be a good idea for you to go back and check your reports to see what has been happening in your account and how Google has handled the activity. There is still much speculation as to how much click fraud is actually happening, and for many it will be a relative non-issue. But it's better to be safe than sorry with your advertising dollars so I recommend running the report at least weekly to stay on top of potential mischief.

Tight Budgets Need Adwords

There's much ado about SEO (search engine optimization) or "optimizing" a website to achieve higher rankings in search engines like Google and Yahoo! and others.

There is absolutely a place in every business for making your website the most useful resource for your target audience - which is the best way to optimize. This includes rich and extensive content, making everything on your site "text" and readable by the search engine "spiders" and building link relationships through mutual exchanges with related sites, online news outlets, bloggers, etc. If you maintain an ongoing web enrichment strategy, the aforementioned will in nearly all cases help boost your placement in the organic search results. But the notion that you can magically send hundreds to thousands of dollars to an outfit and get overnight Page 1 rankings is hopeful at best and often times a costly and frustrating gamble.

A balanced approach is the best course for most businesses, and if a budget is tight, clients would be well-served to engage in a structured Google Adwords account versus attempting to engage in paid "optimization" for three main reasons. Adwords has immediate impact with a broader scope, proven methodologies and measurable results where as SEO (search engine optimization) is nearly opposite.

SEO can take a long time to achieve desired results (front page of Google, for example), has differing methods that may result in being "black-listed" or kicked off Google and is more difficult to measure the ROI of the engagement. And when every penny counts, you need to see exactly where it's going and how it's going to come back.

Let's dissect these benefits further.

Immediate Results/Broader Scope: we can get front page exposure on ALL the key phrases that matter to your business within MINUTES of the decision to engage in web advertisements ("Sponsored Links"). SEO (the legal kind) usually takes months to see results and can only be effective for a more limited number of key phrases.

Proven methodologies: Attaining success with Adwords is a science - playing the SEO game is an art. With SEO you are, for the most part, trying to use a few known ways to convince a relatively unknown algorithm that out of thousands to millions of searches that your site should be in the Top 10 in relevancy. Whereas with Adwords, the system is completely KNOWN and can be developed, scaled and executed all with methods that have been tested and proven successful.

Measurable results: Adwords gives us a wealth of data (more than just about anybody needs) to see exactly what is working and what's not about the advertising campaign. That allows us to constantly make adjustments and improvements for our clients to get the maximal effect from the medium.

Bottom line: Adwords allows you to more specifically target your market, create ad copy that is compelling and land them on the page on your site that is going to sell them on the benefits of what you're representing. SEO alone, in most cases, just can't do that. If budget is tight for your business, the my money is on Adwords.

Take the time to do it right!

Google Adwords is kind of like a Swiss Army Knife - it has lots of bells and whistles and, when used by someone familiar with it, can be an amazing tool.

If you don't know what all it can do - take the time to learn. Not only can it make your marketing efforts far more effective, it could save you LOTS of money to learn how to use it properly. Google offers numerous tutorials to help you through the orientation process, or you can seek out services or individuals who have the expertise and can guide you through the set-up and maintenance process.

Either way, treat it like you would any other business function like accounting or legal - understand that, though you can do it yourself, you would be very well served to get specialized training to do so or use a service that offers you what you need for a reasonable investment.

Coming soon, we'll look specifically at some of my favorite attributes of Adwords and how you can use them to your advantage in you business.

Anyone can have a Google

Have you ever heard the saying "Anyone can have a baby...but not everyone can be a parent" ? And so it is with Google Adwords (or any other Pay-per-click environment out there). Anyone can open an Adwords account, but not everyone can manage it effectively.

What strikes me as interesting is the lack of research most people are willing to perform before spending their precious marketing dollars online. Google offers information in the form of tutorials and the like, but most don't use the tools provided to form intelligent campaigns. Instead they forge ahead (boldly going where lots have gone before in most cases) and either spend more than they have to for the results they get or worse... They come away thinking that pay-per-click doesn't work.