Google want's you to make: "selling ads" (clicked on) AND "informative ads" (describing the content) at the same time, can't argue with that!
This is an exceptional oppertunity to learn how to write a killer Ad.
Real people testing it, Google Editorial Staff to review it, your own experience to improve it, what more do you want?
I must change mine about twice a week, its nice to have the control :)
no problem mate.
no doubt, my dear friend "Webdiversity" shall be along with a detailed explanation on writing killer copy any minute now :)
this guy lives and sleeps PPC copy and will be able to shed a lot more light on the whole situtaion, rather than my 1 liners.
Shak
no doubt, my dear friend "Webdiversity" shall be along with a detailed explanation on writing killer copy any minute now
Let`s hope he sees this tread...
I can see that working, but unfortunately we are the most EXPENSIVE in our industry, and therefore have to use slightly different tactics.
Shak
but unfortunately we are the most EXPENSIVE in our industry
teehee Shakil, I won't tell you what flies through my head in the guessing of what your site(s) are about... -aV-
Many times, I have seen price as the 'trigger'. People often use the web to bargain hunt.
But, if you can't compete on price, then you have to find something else as your trigger.
I worked for one company who manfactured a widely used product and the 'trigger' in the ad was to tell the consumer that the product came 'Direct from <Manfacturer_Name_Here>'.
People put a lot of value in that particular brand name, and found it important to buy directly from them, even though it may cost a little more. They knew if they had a problem with the problem with the product, they could get service for it.
Once you find the 'trigger' for your particular product, then you gear everything to it: adwords copy and overture ad copy, even looksmart and Yahoo directory copy.
It's such a buzz when you nail a campaign.
The thing is that strategy for each will be different, results across sectors will be different, keywords that work on one PPC may not work on others, there is the anomalies of mispellings, you have 70 characters on Google but 190 on Overture.
Keeping a campaign at the top is a constant thing. Experiment with title/description combos. Tweak the copy on the landing page, you are in no danger of a Google PR0 de-listing if you use seperate pages just for your PPC. Track the activity of the guests you invite into your site, give them the Big Brother treatment, look at their behaviour and adjust the words/desired actions according to this feedback you get.
Play with the price you pay, and get a campaign running so you make ROI on every keyword you have.
On some campaigns you need to include prices, on others (like Shak's case) you need a different angle or USP. Eventually you will find what works for you (or pay someone to find it for you), and once you get to that stage assuming you have other products to sell, then replicate the formula.
Always build the cost of the clicks into your ROI calculatioms, always factor in the time spent managing it also, whether you do it yourself or outsource, always measure the ROI from the bottom line and not as some people do from their sales ledger. if you only make 10% margin on a $100 sale then you only have $10 to play with, so don't think you can spend $3 a click and make a profit.
Your first soiree into PPC will always involve a certain amount of R & D budget, be prepared to make some mistakes, some costly. But learn from them.
You can achieve fantastic things with a 25/35/35 or 40/190 ad.
In the UK there is a product called "Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain" and it says it does exactly what it says on the tin. Your PPC ad should do the same. If you want someone to buy something then make sure the word "buy" is in your title/description or both on Overture. If you want someone to subscribe, then have the word "subscribe". If someone needs to register on the site before they can do anything then tell the prospective visitor and then you won't get tire kickers costing 50 cents a throw.
Above all else, if your ads are losing you money then don't blame the PPC providers, if they deliver clicks and you don't convert it's YOUR fault, with the way you have written your ads or the keywords you have chosen.
for us, the no-frills (ronseal) approach works not just for the PPC text but also for the title and description.
but this too may depend on the products offered, ours are generally "no frills" products.
Anyway, example would be, if you sell all the types of widgets there are in the world, one of which is name brand Sprockets, don't put up an ad that says "We sell widgets, all kinds o' widgets" and then have your keywords list have all the different name brands of widgets. Take the time to make a different ad for each brand name. "We sell Sprockets widgets." with Sprockets and any variations on Sprockets as your keywords.
It's time consuming,I know, but DO IT. Your CTR and ROI will thank you for it.
One example is in marketing shopping portals where I have found that adding the word "shopping" almost double the CTR.
The problem comes when the trigger words that give you higher CTRs don't give you better ROIs so make sure to monitor both :)
I see the main benefit of putting $price in an ad as being to emphasise the "available for sale right now, no hassle , one click" message. I reckon that often most prospects will probably not have looked at the price of competitors, and so you may gain more CTR than you lose by putting the price in, EVEN IF you're more expensive.
for instance, if you're selling widgets (as everyone seems to be on this board) and your keyword is a variation of "widget," it's likely that nearly every ad will say "widgets for sale" or "the very best widgets" or "widgets: none better."
to the user (your prospect), all the ads blend into a meaningless sameness.
but if your ad title features a "Specific Product Benefit" or if it says "Save Blah Blah Blah," the eye is immediately drawn to it because it's title is significantly different than all the rest and there is NO bolding.
make sure of course that the product benefit or offer you state is compelling and specific to the search. and it also helps if you do include the term "widgets" elsewhere in the ad.
So far for me, capitaling as many words as relevant, and making sure the keyword is repeated on each line possible has caused a definite improvement.
Now I am working on adding more negitive words but its getting hard to figure out how people are thinking (up to 20 negitive words so far). I don't want to block a possible sale!
There have been some good negitive word lists posted, anyone have any more suggestions? The best ones are the ones dealing with "cheap" or "free" and any kind of photo.
Any other approaches? Thanks for any help! -aV-
Monday we move offices.
This month we get a new web site. (We also got Overture UK SEM accreditation woo hoo!)
But the tutorial is definately still on, we are building the library of stuff, tips etc..but we might hang on to the information until Google decide to introduce some sort of agency recognition.
amznVibe would it be useful if you could see the exact search term that was used (including the syntax), to help you build your own pesonalised negative keyword list, rather than trying to guess? This list would double up as a list to use to exact match phrases increasing the CTR dramtically on those too? (It's late, so sorry if that made no sense).
Drop me a sticky and I'll give you the details of the answer to your problem.
