Landing Page Optimization is equally as important as ad optimization in Google AdWords. If someone clicks on your ad and find themselves on a page which is not directly related to the ad they clicked on, the chances are that you’ve just wasted the money you spent on that click. Maybe your ads have a great CTR, but if your cost per conversion is horrible your CTR doesn’t mean anything. Say you’re advertising a Harry Potter book; don’t link the clicker to the bookstore homepage, link them to the exact page where the Harry Potter book can be bought. If your ad mentions some sort of specific deal, make that deal visible on your landing page.

As mentioned above, your landing pages are just as relevant as the ads they’re linked from; this is why you should also split test landing pages (if you own the domain you’re using to advertise of course). To split-test landing pages, make two identical ads and just change the landing page links (you want the ads to be identical because otherwise you won’t know what the discrepancy in cost per conversion is due to). If you don’t know anything about “web -copywriting” and you have access to the source code of your capture page, you should definitely read a web-copywriting book. Testing your own ideas and layouts of landing pages can also be great, but knowing what really sparks interest in the human mind could save you a lot of money.

That does it for “Google AdWords Basics Part Four – Landing Page Optimization”. If you’re unfamiliar with Any AdWords terms I’ve mentioned, check Google AdWords Basics Parts One and Two, also hosted on my blog.

I currently have two blog posts discussing AdWords basics. This post discusses exactly how to use AdWords, i.e. how to create ads and how to optimize them for AdWords. The other AdWords Basics post discusses the technical aspects of AdWords, i.e. key terms you need to know, and exactly what you’re trying to do to make your AdWords ads effective. The posts compliment each other and go hand in hand. If you’re a complete beginner, you should read both posts.

I should also state that all the information herein is pertinent only to Google AdWords, and not necessarily to other Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisers such as Yahoo or MSN. I do all my current advertising with Google AdWords, because Google rewards you for providing relevant content, i.e. the more you know what you’re doing, and the higher the relevance of the ads you place, the cheaper Google will allow you to advertise for. If you know what you’re doing, Google is the place to advertise.


HOW ADWORDS WORKS

For anyone who doesn’t know the very basics of how Google AdWords works, I will explain (for technical aspects and common AdWords terms, see my other AdWords Basics post). You, the user, place an ad with Google. You write out a few short lines of what you’re promoting, specify your keywords, and link your ad to the page you want to send people to. Google places this ad on the right hand side of its page when someone searches for your keyword. If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say “keyword”, read my post “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” which explains the basics. Essentially though, a keyword is a word or phrase being searched for on Google which will trigger your ad to appear.

NOTE: In “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” I write about keywords pertaining to organic listings (“organic” means the listings which or not paid for, i.e. the results directly under your search, not the ones on the right side of the page on Google). The basics of keyword analysis is the same here, but the section where I talk about determining your competition for each keyword is irrelevant, because there I am talking about your competition for organic listings, not in the paid listings, so ignore that part.


HOW TO WRITE AN AD

So, let’s begin with an example of a simple ad in AdWords. Let’s say you want to sell guitars. First, create a Campaign in AdWords called “Guitar”. The title of the Campaign is not super important, but at least make it something related to what you’re selling. Next you want to title your Ad Group. The title of the Ad Group is very important, and is relevant to all the keywords you’re going to add to your Ad Group. Your Ad Group title is important, because it will be the base keyword for all your keywords. To explain, let’s say I want to sell Gibson guitars. My Ad Group title will be “Gibson Guitars”, and every keyword that I now add to this Ad Group will contain the words “gibson guitars”. This is because as I said above, you will do better with Google Adwords if your ads are relevant. For your ads to be relevant, you want your Ad Group title in the title of your actual ad. If all of your keywords contain your Ad Group title, then at least part of each keyword will be in your actual ad title. This is very important to Google. Your relevance will go way up in Google’s eyes if the term that a person is searching for is in your ad title. For more on relevancy in AdWords, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post.

So let’s go to the free WordTracker tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ (again, I would recommend reading “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” for further information on this). Type “guibson guitars” in and click search. Now the keywords you choose are going to depend on exactly what you’re selling; obviously if you’re only selling electric guitars, you don’t want “gibson acoustic guitars” as one of your keywords, this is just going to waste your money. Go through the Wordtracker list, and add as many terms as you can that you think are relevant. I would recommend putting your keywords in your list twice, once in square brackets like this [keyword], and once in quotes like this “keyword”. If your keyword is in square brackets, your ad will only be triggered if someone types in exactly what you have within the square brackets, in that exact order. If your keyword is in quotes, your ad will be triggered if any phrase is searched for containing your keyword, in the same order in which you entered it. For example, if your keyword was “electric gibson guitars”, your ad would be triggered if “buy electric gibson guitars” was searched for. However, if “electric gibson black guitars” was searched for, then your ad would not be triggered.

I would recommend also entering your keyword without quotes or brackets, because this can trigger your ad for any phrase entered that contains your keyword. For example, if your keyword was “electric Gibson guitars”, your keyword could be triggered by a search for “I want to buy gibson black electric guitar”. You have to be very careful with this however, because you don’t want your ad to be triggered for irrelevant searches. For example, you don’t want your ad triggered for “pictures of electric gibson guitars”, because this would just serve to lower your CTR. This is where negative keywords come in very useful. I have written an additional post on negative keywords called “Google AdWords Basics Part Three – Negative Keywords”, which I would recommend reading. Again, for more on relevancy with AdWords, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post.

Google allows three lines for your to type for your ad. Your first line will be for your ad title, and should always contain your Ad Group title, and hence at least of part of your keyword (to increase your relevancy). The second and third lines are completely up to you to decide what to write. Perry Marshall suggests however that your second line be a benefit of your product, and your third line be a feature of your product. An example of a benefit could be “Gibsons Make You A Better Player” or “The Guitars The Pros Use”, while a feature could be “Rosewood And Maple Fretboards” or “Over 100 Models To Choose From”.


OPTIMIZING YOUR ADS

You should also always split-test your ads. The smallest change could dramatically change your CTR (for more on CTR, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post). To split-test ads, go to your Ad Group, then Ad Variations, then Create New Ad. You will create an ad that is very similar to your first ad, but with some slight difference. For example, if your title is “Electric Gibson Guitars”, try changing it to “New Electric Gibson Guitars” or “Great Electric Gibson Guitar Models”. You could also try reversing your second and third lines, or changing their wording too. You will run the two ads at the same time, and Google will show you which ad performs better. When you have sufficient data to decide which is the better-performing ad, delete the lower-performing ad and create a new ad variation to test against the better-performing ad. This way you can constantly increase your CTR. Only change one variable at a time however, otherwise you won’t know why your new ad is performing better than the old one. This may seem tedious, but it has been proven that minor changes can sometimes make a huge different in your CTR.


CONCLUSION

This is the very basics of AdWords. I would highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords to get more detail on the topics I’ve covered here. It is a document you will have to pay for, but it is worth it.

I will be writing more posts on AdWords in the future, so check back often!

I currently have two posts discussing AdWords basics. The purpose of this post is to discuss the technical aspects of AdWords, i.e. key terms you need to know, and exactly what you’re trying to do to make your AdWords ads effective. My other AdWords Basics post discusses exactly how to use AdWords; how to create ads and how to optimize them for AdWords. The post s compliment each other and go hand in hand. If you’re a complete beginner, you should read both posts. I also have other more advanced posts on the topic, as well as an post on keyword analysis.


ADWORDS TERMS

Below is a list of basic terms you should know before using Google AdWords. If you’re going to be using AdWords, you need to be familiar with all of these terms.

1) Cost Per Click (CPC)
As the title implies, this is the amount you’re going to pay every time someone clicks on your AdWords ad. Different keywords (for more on keywords read “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” and my other AdWords Basics post”) are going to cost you different amounts for clicks depending on their popularity. The posts mentioned above discuss how to determine some cheaper keywords.

2) Impressions
This is the number of times your ad appears in the search results in Google. Your ad will be triggered to make an impression when someone searches for one of your keywords. Your ad won’t necessarily make an impression every time someone searches for one of your keywords, depending on your competition, i.e. how many other people are also using your keyword in their AdWords campaigns.

3) Clicks
The number of times someone has clicked on your ad.

4) Click Through Rate (CTR)
Your CTR will be used by Google to determine how successful, and hence with Google, how relevant your ads are. Your CTR is the number of times someone has clicked on your ad, divided by the number of impressions it has (your ad is less relevant to Google if it has appeared many times, but no one is clicking on it). Your CTR is extremely important. Google will reward you for relevancy; Google will give you better placement for less money, the better your CTR. Your goal in AdWords is essentially going to be to improve your CTR; this is going to be dependent on the quality of your ad. First and foremost, you want your keyword in your ad title (see my other AdWords Basics post for more details on this). Secondly, you just need to write quality ads; that is, ads that are going to attract readers’ attention. I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject, and there is a lot you can learn about this in Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords. You can dramatically improve your CTR however by split-testing your ads. Again, for more on this, see my other AdWords Basics post.

The exact formula Google uses to determine an ad’s relevancy isn’t known exactly by anyone. For example, Google will also use variables such as how long the average person stays on your page, or how relevant your page actually is to your ad (so make sure the content you’re advertizing is exactly what you’re linking to).

5) Cost Per Conversion
This is essentially just as important as your CTR. This is the amount of money you’re going to be paying per conversion. A conversion for you could be someone continuing to your next page, or it could be someone purchasing something. Obviously though, you don’t want to be paying more per conversion than you’re making per conversion. Google will track your Cost Per Conversion for you, but you have to insert some HTML code. Go to “Conversion Tracking”, and then “Create a new action”, then enter the information, and get the HTML code. This code should not go on your landing page, but the page on which a person would land after being converted, i.e. after they have purchased something, or done whatever you want them to do on your page. Your goal in AdWords, as well as raising your CTR, should be to lower your Cost Per Conversion.

6) Current Budget
This is the amount of money you want to spend on a campaign per day. Obviously if you have a set budget that you don’t want to go over, you should set this as your budget. If you don’t, you could get into huge trouble by spending more money than you have. Unfortunately, Google will pay more attention to you if you have a significant budget. If you’re only paying $5 a day or something like that, Google might not give you very much attention, and may not show your ad very much.


CONCLUSION

That is it for this post. Use this in combination with my other AdWords Basics post to get a good start with Google AdWords. I would highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords to get more detail on the topics I’ve covered here. It is a document you will have to pay for, but it is worth it.

This question cannot really be answered with a simple yes or a no… it’s a much more complex issue than that. The following article will discuss my personal experience with Google Cash.

I’ve recently become very interested in the potential of making money from home on the internet. A few months ago I had no idea this kind of thing was possible, but one day came across an ad for Google Cash and decided the risk (less than $100) was worth the reward (being able to quit my job and work from home). I read through Google Cash and it sounded great and fairly simple. I truely believed that what Google Cash promised was possible to achieve with the information it provided me with.

If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the Google Cash system, I will explain. Google Cash teaches you how to exploit the world of affiliate marketing. Just about any company that sells products on the internet has an affiliate program. For example’s sake, let’s use Walmart as one of these companies. Anyone can apply to be an affiliate with Walmart. If you are accepted into Walmart’s affiliate program, Walmart will pay you a percentage of products you sell for them. How do you sell these products? That’s what Google Cash teaches you.

You know those ads on the right hand side of the page when you search for something? Those are affiliate links, i.e. ads created by people who have signed up with whatever company to sell their products. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, type “dvd” into Google and look at the results on the right side of the page.

Now, if you click on one of those links, whoever put that ad up there is paying Google for that click. So if you signed up as an affiliate with Walmart and decided you wanted to sell dvd’s for them, you would create an ad with Google which would receive a placement on the right hand side of the page. If someone clicks your ad and then buys something from Walmart, you get a commision on that purchase.

So, I read Google Cash and got the basic idea. It sounded easy enough. I rationalized it to myself like this: if I made 10 different ads which made me only $10 a day each, that’s $100 a day. 7 days a week, that’s $700 a week. Not too bad at all. Well I soon found out that this was much harder than it sounded. I made some ads and yes, I got a lot of clicks, but no one was buying anything when they clicked on my ads.

This is where things get more complex than they seem. When you place an ad with Google, you choose which keywords you want your ad to appear for. Let’s use dvd’s at Walmart as an example again. Say you want to sell a Batman dvd. You can have it so your ad comes up when someone searches for “dvd”, “batman dvd”, “i want to buy dvd’s”, etc… there are endless possibilities. You will pay a different price for each keyword (note you only pay for a keyword when someone searches for your keyword and then ALSO clicks on your ad). Dvd is a very popular keyword as you can imagine, and hence will cost you more than say “i want to buy dvd’s”.

Google Cash does give you some guidance on how to determine less expensive keywords, but then there are other problems. Which keywords are generating money for you and which are wasting money? Which are actually the best products to market (endless possibilities)? When a person is clicking your ad, are they just doing research, or do they actually want to buy something. Additionally, most affiliate programs offer tiny commissions, in my experience, generally between 4% and 10%. It is not easy to get a positive ROI (Return on Investment) with commissions so low.

This type of marketing can be lucrative, which is why I am hesitant to say that Google Cash is a scam. However there is too much information missing from Google Cash to make a positive ROI without learning a lot on your own. On top of that, once you’ve bought Google Cash, you have no one to help you out. You can’t pick up the phone and call Google Cash and ask them for help, which is very frustrating. Essentially you’re left up to trial and error, which can be a huge waste of time and money.