Master Google Adwords & Adsense
Monday, September 19, 2006
These days, it comes as no surprise that nearly every online company has attempted
to do keyword marketing or "pay-per-click" campaign on either Google
Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture). The alarming statistic
is how many companies have stopped their "pay-per-click" or cut way
back because they are unable to make enough sales to cover the ever rising costs
per keyword.
Looking at Google's stock price, it's obvious that keyword marketing can and
does payoff for a large number of companies. The problem is most don't have the
knowledge or expertise to make keyword marketing convert at a rate that allows
them to continue using the service, much less expanding on it. So they end up
throwing a bunch of money to be #1 for a week or a month for an ultra competitive
keyword only to end up spending a ton of money and not having many customers to
show for it.
Everyday I talk to new and prospective customers who are looking for professional
help doing a keyword campaign that have all made the same 4 mistakes . If you
avoid these 4 simple mistakes, you will be on your way to mastering Google Adwords.
First - Stop Bidding on the Wrong Keywords
Most people I talk to ended up bidding on keywords that aren't relevant to
their site. As a surfer, there is nothing more annoying than doing a search, clicking
on a link, and not finding what you're looking for. If you have an online store
that only sells "oak furniture", don't waste your money and surfers
time bidding on "pine furniture" and "mahogany furniture"
just because they are similar and the Google keyword wizard recommends them to
you. Focus on what you have and get creative. Try buying "oak chair"
and "oak table" and other relevant keywords that describe what you sell
and cost less.
Second - Don't be the Number One Keyword Listing
So many keyword campaigns I get handed have the site owner paying out the nose
to be #1 for a high quality keyword. I'm not sure if it's just in our nature to
be at the top or what, but in "pay-per-click" you should ideally be
around the 3rd or 4th spot. I consider the top spot to be the "Kill Zone"
because all the lookee-loo's will absolutely kill your conversion rate. So instead
of paying $1.25 or $4.00 to be in the top spot, just throttle back and pay about
half of what the top spot person is paying to have everyone look at their site
but not not buy anything. If you move back, but still stay on the 1st page you
will lower your "per-click" cost which will give you more margin. With
the money you save, use it to bid on other keyword phrases to make up for volume
loss.
Third - Add the Keyword Tracking Code
Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing provide a snippet of code that you
need to put on your site. Why? It will tell you exactly what you are spending
on each keyword and when you get a sale from that keyword. It is flat out a must
have if you're going to be spending any kind of money on paid search.
Let me show you an example: You spend $1,000 in the month of July on 64 different
keywords on Google at an average of $0.25 per keyword that nets you 4,000 unique
visitors. You also get 125 sales and make $1,250 in profit. All you really know
is that you made more than you spent on marketing.
If you use the tracking code, you would also see a correlation of sales by
keyword. So, you can discover which keywords are profitable and which aren't converting.
With this additional knowledge, you can spend more on converting keywords and
increase margin by avoiding dead keywords.
Fourth - Use Google Adsense to Sell Your Traffic
Since you probably won't be converting every potential customer that clicks
on your Google Adword banner, you can offset your costs by selling them. Google
Adsense determines relevant Adword banners to show on your site by predominant
keywords. So if you have an Search Engine Optimization company like this one,
Google Adsense would display related ads.
If a visitor to your site determines they don't want to buy what you have,
they may see a relevant Adsense banner and click on it. Google Adsense pays you
for every click-thru from your site. Here's an example of how Adsense will reduce
your advertising costs: You get 1,534 visitors to your site in a month. Of the
1,534 visitors, you receive a 2.28% click rate (35 clicks) on your Adsense. Google
then determines an eCPM (per 1,000 impressions) rate, which in this case is $10.48.
You would receive $16.08 in Google Adsense revenue.
Google Adsense will really start to pay off once you get organic search engine
traffic. It also works really well for subscription based sites or similar sites
that have returning customers.
Google Adwords and Google Adsense Help
There are many ways that you can benefit from both Google Adwords and Google
Adsense. For most web site owners, it just takes an initial setup to understand
how it all flows. If you are looking to find a Google Adwords or Adsense company
to do this for you, please give us the opportunity to talk to you about your needs.
Preferred Position offers a very affordable Google Adwords and Google Adsense
service. |
