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Google Adwords is a great tool! Careful use can
lead to legions of highly targeted visitors breaching the moat
around your site, and demanding to pillage your products! On the
other hand... Adwords is also a great place to drain your
advertising dollars if you're not careful. Like any other automated
system, it requires constant feeding and attention to keep you
from wondering just why you spent hundreds of dollars and received a
paltry return on your investment. Here's 7 great ways I've found to do
just that, (and yes I've been guilty of several of these to one degree
or another.) 1. - Not getting enough keywords, and I don't mean
just numbers. Good ones. A lot of people run a search on their
favorite keyword tool and pick the top ten or twenty words or
phrases getting the most traffic, thinking somehow that THEY will beat
all the others using these keywords. There is a reason why these
keywords are so popular: everybody and their grandmother are bidding
on them! A much better approach is to come up with at least a couple
hundred, better a couple thousand words that you have a shot at
getting a high ranking for. After all, if you have 1800 keywords
and can get a top 8 (first page) position for most of them, you'll see
a lot more clicks than you will chasing the top dollar words. If you
get a hundred of the lower tier words giving you a couple of visitors
a day, well, you do the math. Not only that, but often the less
expensive words are altogether more specific, delivering far more
targeted visitors. 2. - Not creating adgroups. You should use
this function! It can help you focus your advertising much more
effectively. By arranging your keywords in tightly focused groups of
10- 30 phrases, and writng a keyword-specific headline for each of
them, you have a much greater ability to see what's working and what's
not. Also gives you a chance to test different headlines and text
copy. 3. - No negative keywords. This you gotta do. And it's so
easy. Simply add -free (or whatever else you don't want associated
with your searches) and you won't end up paying for a lot of clicks
for people who weren't interested in the first place. 4. -
Using only broad keyword searches for their keywords. When you're
paying for this stuff, you want to be as specific as you can,
particularly if you're playing in a very competitive market. Why hope
that a broad search will return someone interested in what you're
selling? Better to get as focused as you can on the words they may be
searching for. Google helps you with this by giving you more
information on the impressions and click-throughs than you can
handle, but be pro-active, and prune the dead wood after 100 or so
impressions. If they haven't produced by then, the odds of them
improving by leaps and bounds are not great. 5. - Not testing and
rotating your ads. Even a small change in a headline or ad text can
make a HUGE difference! Particularly headlines. Your ad text won't be
read if the headline is boring or uninviting. Learn to write killer
headlines, and do not be afraid to test and rotate your ads. Also
don't be shy about deleting ad groups if they're not clicking through
enough. Remember, you've got a list of several hundred words; either
these aren't right or the headline/text need tweaking. Test, test,
test! 6. - Not using the content targeted feature wisely. This is
a tricky one. Google, in it's infinite wisdom, seeks out alternate
avenues to show your ads, thus delivering substantially more clicks to
your campaign. Trouble is, though, you have no control over this, and
it IS your money. If you are attempting to run a tightly focused
campaign on limited funds, this one is a potential budget buster. It
can easily rack up a lot of clicks, but are they of worth to you?
In my experience, the CTR is ALWAYS a lot lower. I guess it could make
sense for large campaigns with a very popular product, but for the
most part, you'll want to be very careful. Which leads me to my last,
and most important dollar-drainer of all. 7. - Not having a
GREAT sales page. This one is the hardest to fix, but without doubt
the most important. All the clicks in the world won't mean a thing if
the sales page you're sending your hard-earned visitors to doesn't get
the job done. If it's your product, there's hope! You can address
these issues, and after testing and more testing, can correct and
come up with a page thst sings! If you're an affiliate, you might
consider a separate landing page, where you might offer a sincere
testimonial in an attempt to presell the product more effectively.
(That is not a bad strategy even with a good sales page, as personal
recomendations go a long way!) There you have it. 7 Great ways
to lose infinitely more than your shirt! Webmasters
feel free to publish this article in its entirety in your ezine or
site, so long as none of text or links are changed. Get the latest
and best in internet marketing tools and reviews at http://www.internetmarketinghere.com/
Contact
the author at: keith@internetmarketinghere.com
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