March 2004 Trafficology
Issue...
The Supplemental Materials
This month's TRAFFIC CREATION
TUTORIAL:
Getting Started with Google
AdWords
This month we had so many good
ideas, that this issue is already a bit long. But, I
promised I would cover the step-by-step process to set up
a successful Google AdWords Campaign - so here it is.
1) First, you need to generate a
large list of keywords. Look at your site and write down
every keyword that you can think of. Focus on what
problems your customers have and what questions they would
ask.
2) Visit your competitors site and see what keywords they
are using that you are not. You may even want to look at
their Meta Tags - just to see what keywords they thought
were important.
3) Enter all your keywords into
www.synonym.com and
www.thesaurus.com - add every even remotely relevant term to
your list
4) Go to
http://www.trafficology.com/research/ and use one
of the free software research tools. I personally like to
use Wordtracker (free trial), but I have heard a lot of
good things about Jon Keel's PIPE software (Free Trial).
It has the added benefit of being able to estimate how much
profit you can expect to make (I will be using it for a
case study next month).
5) No matter which tool you use, the point is to create
the largest list of keywords that are in anyway related to
your product or service. You should also try to focus on
the terms that have the most amounts of traffic with the
least amount of competition. If you do not have at least
200 terms, keep adding.
6) Go to
http://adwords.google.com and sign up for an
AdWords account. The process is fairly simple - just
follow their instructions step-by-step.
7) When creating your ad, use a headline and description
that is fairly conservative. The point is to get your ad
up and running, and it will do you no good if you get
rejected. Make sure to include your main benefits in the
headline and I also suggest mentioning your price in the
description.
8) When you are entering your keywords, use the Google
Keyword suggestion tool. Make sure only to pick out the
terms that relate to your product or service.
9) If during your research you found that many people are
searching on a term that is related but not relevant to
your product, then make sure you use Google's negative
keyword feature. For example if you are selling "Tennis
Balls" and you found many searched for the term "Golf
Ball", then you would want to include the term "-Golf" in
your keyword list. This will ensure that your ad will not
be displayed for people looking for golf equipment.
10) Try to make your terms as specific as possible. If you
have a phrase that needs to be matched exactly, then make
sure to use the "" or the [ ]. Using the same example from
before, if you use the term Tennis Balls, then you may
want to also use the term "Tennis Balls" and [Tennis
Balls]. This will provide you more exact matching. Later
you will be able to determine which combination converts
better.
11) When setting your bid, set it at the minimum. Then
slowly increase it until you have an average position of a
little less than 3.0 - this will ensure you are syndicated
to all of Google's partners.
12) Think about how much net profit you are making from
each sale, and then make a conservative estimate of your
conversion rate. Multiply the two together and use that as
a rough maximum bid estimate. For example, if you make $10
profit per sale, and you have a 3% conversion ratio - then
make sure you do not bid more than $0.30 per click.
Bidding anymore will result in a negative cash flow. Once
you have established a firm conversion ratio, then you can
re-calculate this number.
13) Using the instructions that Google provides, place
their conversion tracking code on your order confirmation
page.
14) Set up a second ad that is only slightly different
than your first ad. For example, change the capitalization
or use a slightly different title.
Once you have had around 200 impressions, look at the
click thru rate of your 2 ads. Delete the ad that has the
lowest click thru rate and then create a new ad that is
slightly different than the first two. After the next 100+
impressions repeat the process of deleting the losing ad
and creating a new one. You will want to continue this
process for the duration of your campaign.
15) Review your keywords periodically. Once a term gets to
around 100-150 impressions - if it does not have any click thrus then delete it. Once a term gets around
80-100 click thrus, if it has not had any sales, then delete it. In a
couple weeks, you will have whittled your original list of
200-300 keywords down to the 30-40 keywords that create
sales.
16) Review your new conversion rate and multiply it by
your profit per sale. For example if your profit per sale
is $10 and your conversion rate is 10%, then you can
increase your max bid to $1. This will give you a better
position and increase the amount of traffic that you will
receive.
17) If you do not see a significant increase in sales,
then revert your bids back to their previous level. There
is no reason to pay more for a higher position if it is
not going to produce more sales.
There is much more you can do with Goggle AdWords - but
following the above steps will get you started right.
Also, don't forget to use those 30-40 final keywords for
your search engine optimization.
Best Regards,
Amy and Dearl
Editors
Trafficology.com
We welcome your feedback - just send it to:
feedback@trafficology.com
If you have some traffic ideas of your own, you
are welcome to submit them at the site and get
some free exposure in a future issue of Trafficology.
http://www.trafficology.com/ideas.html
---------------------------------------------------
(c) 2004 by P&D Marketing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Nitro Marketing
2807 Allen St. Ste 668
Dallas, TX 75204
|
