Improve Your Internet Marketing

Melanies Tips is BACK!

After countless email conversations and requests, I am realizing that there is such a wide range of experience and needs among the 230+ of you who have subscribed to my list, and that almost half of you are new to PPC and just trying to get those first few sales, while almost half are trying to build more in-depth online businesses, that no single email is going to be of value to everyone.

So, I have been hard at work on a marketing Web site that I hope to “unveil” over this weekend. I decided to create a list of the main revenue-generating activities I do personally, and also list out the things I stumbled over myself early on.

It will include a ‘beginners’ section with much basic information on setting up campaigns, using Clickbank and other affiliate networks, and understanding GCD (and AdSpyPro & ZamDoo) information; an ‘advanced’ section with Adwords tips & tricks, keyword research, landing pages/sales pages/mini-sites, back-end email list & autoresponder use, and a few sections on expanding beyond ‘cut & paste’ PPC campaigns such as affiliate marketing with your own review sites, authority sites, and membership sites, creating your own info-products, setting up “set & forget” mall sites like Clickbank front-ends, and some of the other ways I generate revenue myself.

Why am I doing this? Well, certainly I remember what it was like when I was struggling in the beginning, didn’t know if this stuff would ever work for me, and wished & prayed for someone somewhere to give me a little guidance and keep me from making those early mistakes that would have sunk me. Of course I also hope to generate traffic and have some product offerings that will generate revenue. I know if the information on the site is good, and the products offered provide good value, the site will more than pay for itself.

So look for my “unveiling” email soon…!

And in the meantime, here are some tips to help with your campaigns:

Keywords - are you adding keywords to your campaigns? If you are running a successful campaign, you should ALWAYS be looking for additional keywords. If you haven’t invested in a keyword tool, you should - I use Wordtracker.

You can use Wordtracker’s free tool at: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com. Simply enter any of your successful keywords, and it will give you back 100 additional keywords, along with their search volume. Make sure you grab those “long-tail” (3 or more word) phrases - you may not get too much volume on them, but they are much more targeted and will have a higher ROI.

Adgroups - you should NEVER have more than 20 or so keywords in an adgroup. No single ad can properly target dozens or hundreds of keywords. Group your keywords and tailor your ads to them. I have some adgroups that have 1-5 keywords in them. Also, your CTR will increase, which will lower your CPC.

“Profitable” campaigns - When I look at my GCD data, I often see ‘profitable’ campaigns (pink & blue) that are far down the list - the ‘best’ ads being on top. There’s no reason you can’t use the ‘better’ ads at the top with the keywords & affiliate links from the profitable pink campaigns lower down the list. You’ll want to be careful and make sure they apply, but why waste a ‘best’ written ad simply because it itsn’t using an affiliate URL?

Match types - are you using “exact match” and “phrase match” with your keywords? This is when you put quotes (exact match) or brackets [ ] (phrase match) around your keywords. They are much more targeted, and will result in a better ROI. You should always start out with all three. For some of my own campaigns, I eventually drop broad-match keywords altogether.

Bid adjusting - for those of you not using GCA (I don’t use it, still too buggy), are you adjusting your bids over time? You don’t have to keep the ‘default’ bid price on every keyword. Some keywords won’t convert regardless. Some keywords that convert will give you more clicks if you bump your bid.

Split testing - if you aren’t split testing, you’re throwing money away. Even if you don’t fully understand split testing, you should be doing it. For every campaign, you should have at least 2 ads. For my own campaigns, I keep the ad body text the same and just adjust the headline. After 100 clicks or so, I re-adjust the headline of the lower CTR ad. Wait another 100 clicks. If it isn’t beating the better ad, adjust it again. If it is, than change what used to be the better ad to try and beat the ‘new’ better ad. Keep doing this and your CTR will continue to improve.

Sometimes I will simply add a question mark to the end of the headline on one of the ads as the split test. It actually works pretty well.

One thing to keep in mind with split testing, you have to edit your campaign settings and tell Google NOT to optimize your ads, but show them evenly, otherwise you won’t be truly split testing. Google will decide too quickly which ad is ‘best’ and favor that one.

Best of luck to all of you, and as always, feel free to email your questions and comments.

Melanie