An Adwords Lesson About Keywords and Domains
January 1, 2008
Today I was reviewing some of the Adwords eBooks I’ve purchased in 2007. It’s interesting that each contradicts the other in different ways. In one eBook, there is a section on promoting Affiliate links through adwords. I’ve been doing that for a few months with little success, so I decided to take the advice given in this book.
As a brief overview, I have been promoting an eBook targeting to new mothers. I purchased my own domain name and wrote a review of the eBook. I then started an Adwords campaign, built my ad, purchased my keys and I was off. I linked directly to the affiliates site, but display my own custom URL/Domain name. Per Googles TOS, as long as you can find the same information on your domain it is ok to do this. Also, I am not redirect to the affiliates site, so there is not an issue with the TOS being breached either.
I’ve been paying a VERY LOW price per click on my keywords and getting a decent click through rate. Just no sales conversions. I’m convinced that the affiliates page should be revamped.
In any event, the recent eBook I read suggested using the affiliates domain name instead of my own, so I did. The eBook also suggested targeting additional countries and locations, so I did. In a matter an 30 minutes, my normal low cent keywords were no longer being displayed. Instead, Google told me I needed to bid several dollars!
Needless to say, I undid everything and I’m back to my normal rates. I’m not sure if it were the domain or the location targeting, but something caused a ripple in my Adwords world.
I’d love to hear some comments from anyone who has experienced similiar issues.
Jeff
More on Adwords
December 11, 2007
Yesterday’s post should have got you thinking about Adwords and how you can use them. Today, I’m going to touch on the proper way to use Adwords and some mistakes that people typically make.
Adwords is a great way to drive traffic to your site if you do your research. Far too many people get an Adwords account, pick there keywords, set their Cost Per Click(CPC) and let the campaign go. They don’t realize that they are probably spending money they don’t need to.
Broad keywords can get you plenty of impressions,(Each time your ad is shown is called an impression). Impressions are free. You begin paying when someone clicks on your ad. Some people think that the more their ad is shown, the better the chance of it getting clicked. That can be true, but are the right people seeing your ad?
With Adwords, you pay to get page position. The better the page(1-2) and the higher on the page, the more you pay if someone clicks. You’re paying for a combination of Keywords and Position. Here’s how you can get both and cut down on your costs.
First, Google drops their prices as your Click-Thru-Rate(CTR) percentage goes up. So the more impressions you have, you need to increase you clicks or you price per click will increase. You can get more clicks by focusing your keywords and writing better ads.
Keyword Research
There are quite a few tools on the net that will help you pick keywords. Let’s say that you are selling Golf Clubs. You would more than likely select Golf Clubs as your keywords and a few others. You’ll also want to look at other similar keywords. To do this, I suggest WordTracker. They have a free tool that is very helpful. In this case, WordTracker suggests “Used Golf Clubs”, “Discount Golf Clubs”, and various name brand clubs. If those keywords interested you, then by all means, include them. However, make sure you use Adwords keywords delimeters to help.
Here’s where most people fall short in Adwords. Using quotes ” and brackets [] around your words will significantly change your ad impressions. Using just the words Golf Clubs will yield results when people search for Golf Resorts, Golf Balls, Yacht Clubs etc. That’s not the traffic you want and you won’t neccessary get clicks from them. You’re killing your CTR and raising your price per click.
Instead, Use “Golf Clubs”. Using Quotes will allow for phrase matching. In this case, when someone is searching for Used Golf Clubs, your ad will show. It will also reduce the number of impressions. Using [] will provide exact phrase matching. This means that only when a user search for Golf Clubs will your ad be shown. If they search for Used Golf Clubs your ad will not be displayed.
This technique will take some practice, but it will pay off.
Don’t forget to use negatives. Negatives are the words you want to exclude from your keywords. In our example, if I am only selling golf clubs, I would probably exclude balls, tees, shirts, courses. I would do this by adding a - in front of each of those words.
This alone helped boost my adwords campaign.
Writing the Perfect Ad
We all wish we could craft the perfect ad, but it’s something that isn’t always easy to do. I’d suggest looking at other adwords ads to get some ideas. Each Adwords ad consists of 4 lines. I typically set mine up as follows:
Eye Catching Title
A brief teaser
A call to action or enticement
Website URL
Try to put your keywords in your ad. Think about what the user is searching for. If their goal is to find the best site for discounted clubs, you may want to consider putting that in your title. A word of warning: Make sure you follow the Adwords TOS. That is a quick way to get your ad pulled.
Tomorrow I post some great sources for really learning the ins and outs of adwords.
