You've got your products to promote — you have your keyword lists … so what's next?
Jump into AdWords and create some "Google Cash" ads and plan on the color of the next sports car you want to buy?
Nope. No change.
This is the exact spot that way too many marketers fall to pieces — and even worse still — skip it altogether.
They go for the quick hit — the Google Cash direct linking approach — and crash!
I personally don't play the Google Cash (aka Direct Linking) game. That's not to say that it doesn't still work — because in some cases it still does. But it's not what I do. It's not how I play this game.
So When Does Google Cash Work?
It's not fair to talk about something and not "close the loop" so to speak. So what is Google Cash aka Direct Linking?
It's when you use the affiliate link in an ad.
So if your destination url was affiliateID.vendorID.hop.clickbank.net — that's an example of direct linking.
You aren't preselling — you aren't building a list — you are making an ad and if they click they go to the vendor's sales page.
All the PPC engines frown on direct linking but you still see it in some markets being used successfully.
Where?
With CPA offers. CPA stands for "cost per action". There are vendors that will pay you for someone's email address, or contact information.
Usually these vendors are selling mortgage leads, or health insurance programs. Sometimes they run free giveaways for iPods or vacations in Las Vegas just to get your name and email address. Some will even pay you for a zipcode.
If you want to play with direct linking — join a CPA network like Hydra and promote their best offers.
If you want to sell ClickBank products — read on.
Actually — if you want to crush it in CPA offers — forget about Google Cash — build a list and market to that list very aggressively. Very aggressively. Nuff said.
On with the show…
So let's get to it. Let's get knee deep in killer marketing. Get ready to play the game to win!
AdWords Landing Pages — Background
Hah!
Are you ready to do some work?
Because without pulling your finger out of your ass — you have no chance of producing a killer revenue generating campaign. So don't even think about moaning that this is too much work.
Landing pages…
We need them. Period.
Notice the plural.
Yes … I'm talkin' multiple landing pages. Not one lousy landing page — but MULTIPLE!
Before I go on let me just clear up one thing. I've said it before but it's worth mentioning again. There are many ways to skin this AdWords and ClickBank cat … and this case study will address one of those ways. (And a very powerful way at that.)
Ok … back to multiple landing pages and why we play the game this way. Here are two reasons why we build multiple focused landing pages…
- Reason 1: It's about conversion. It's about landing page optimization. It's about matching the conversation in the searchers head with a targeted and relevant marketing message. This starts with the AdWords ad and then follows through to the landing page. (The market to message match doesn't start AND END with the ad).
- Reason 2: Because Google now demands relevance! Relevance effects that mysterious Quality Score — and if you don't do everything in your power to deliver relevance to the visitor — Google will slap ya! Of course — even if you do cross all your T's and dot all your I's — there's still no guarantee that you won't get Google Slapped. But this will help stack the deck in your favor.
Here is what we'll be doing…
You should already have generated multiple focused keyword groups. Get a domain name. (Explained shortly.)
Then — in a perfect world (although not always practical) — you'll create a different landing page for each group. Now you know why it was so important to make all those groups, eh? :-)
Each landing page should try and contain all the keyword phrases from within that keyword group. (Google's AdsBot checks for this and your Google Quality Score will be weighted higher for doing so.)
Don't worry if this all sounds crazy and difficult. It's not. I'll show you exactly what you need to do.
You see, you only really need to create one landing page. You then simply copy that page for the next keyword group and then modify it slightly. (Making sure you include that groups keywords.)
Here's an Introduction to the Google Ad Auction — and How Quality Score Affects Your Ad Placement:
Before I show you with an example, we need to get a domain name…
Get a Domain Name
You, of course, need a domain name for this method. Remember — we aren't going down the Google Cash path here. As such, you need a domain name … and you need somewhere to host it.
This case-study is not a course on how to register a domain name and then setup hosting for it. You need to do your own due-diligence and figure that out yourself.
There's a ton of free info and forums on the internet that can help you out. It's beyond the scope of this case study to address it in detail here.
I will say this though. I highly recommend NameCheap to register domain names and this host for hosting. Very reasonable. Very reliable.
Choose a name that's fairly short. (Because you only have 35 characters for the display URL in AdWords.) Try and get your root keyword in the domain name too.
In the ClickBank product selection section I chose to attack the World of Warcraft market for this case-study. So here's the domain name I've chosen, and why…
WorldOfWarcraft-Secrets.com (27 characters including the TLD)
… which leaves me with 8 characters left to squeeze in even more keywords into my AdWords display URL. (Because keywords that are in your ad and/or display URL, will get bolded, if they are searched on — BIG CTR TIP!)
The domain name that I chose is still a bit longer than I prefer it to be. I could have gone with an abbreviated slang name for this market…
wow-secrets.com (15 characters long)…
… but the keyword world of warcraft appears in far more of my total keywords than wow — and hence why I went with the longer domain name.
I also went with a .com (4 characters). If cash is tight — or if you simply want to test cheaply — you can go for a .info (5 characters) domain name which will cost you less than $3.
Moving on…
Matching The AdWords Display URL With Your Landing Page
Here is one of the keyword groups that I created in the AdWords keyword research section…
Group #1: Buy Cheap Gold
buy cheap world of warcraft gold
buy cheap gold for world of warcraft
buy world of warcraft gold cheap
world of warcraft buy gold cheap
In this case I could create a landing page in a directory called gold. My URL would then look like this…
WorldofWarcraft-Secrets.com/gold/ (32 characters)
… meaning that almost all of the words in ad display URL will be bolded.
Let's look at another example…
Group #6: Guide
world of warcraft gold guide
world of warcraft gold making guide
world of warcraft gold guides
world of warcraft gold makin guides
… which means I could do this…
WorldofWarcraft-Secrets.com/guide/ (33 characters)
Get it?
Create the AdWords Landing Page
This case-study is not about showing you how to create a landing page with your favorite WYSIWYG HTML editor like Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver or NVU. That's not what this case-study is about.
I'm showing you the methods & strategies you need to implement to build a successful campaign.
The nuances like how to register a domain name — setup hosting and create an HTML web page is up to you to figure out on your own — or get outsourced. Cool? :-)
Here is the landing page I've created for the "buy gold" keyword group…
A Little About the Landing Page
Don't get overwhelmed if you think writing landing page copy is beyond you!
It's not that bad. It's not that difficult.
Download the AdWords Landing Page Template Here for Free »
(Right-Click and select Save As…)
The key is to just take action and get something down. Even if you think it's crap. Something is better than nothing.
It doesn't need to be perfect — hell, my copy if FAR from perfect. (If Michel Fortin was reading this, he'd verify the fact that my copy is mediocre at best — but I have at least got something down.)
I'll improve and tweak it later — over time.
It's also worth noting that I know zero, nada … not a freakin' thing about the World of Warcraft market. Yet I still managed to write both landing page and autoresponder copy.
Not knowing anything about a particular market/niche is no excuse for not taking action. Do some research — make some stuff up — and then get something down.
Notice the red rings on the landing page image above. Well that's some of the key locations that I will simply swap out keywords to match the keyword group that is sending it traffic.
Get it?
It's really pretty simple.
Your landing pages must also include pages for…
- Privacy Statement
- Terms of Service or Disclaimer
- Contact Us
You can go to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) site for a boilerplate Privacy Statement.
DisclosurePolicy.org provides a free service. Fill in the blanks and they generate a disclosure policy for your site. This was originally intended for blogs but can be easily adapted to any site.
Terms of Service and Disclosure Policies are not only important for Google, they have legal ramifications. Believe it or not — some visitors may not know you are trying to sell them something with your landing page.
In order to avoid false claims of fraud for recommending something you are making a profit from — your Disclosure Policy comes right out and says you may be compensated for your reviews or the actions taken on the site.
You may also notice that I link out to relevant authority sites. (It "seems" that Google pony up a few extra Quality Score points for your landing page if you do so.) I have created three outbound links pointing to authority sites for World of Warcraft.
Back to those Keywords
This landing page was for my "buy gold" keyword group. Here were the keywords in that group:
Group #3: Buy Gold
buy world of warcraft gold
world of warcraft buy gold
world of warcraft buy gold for sale
world of warcraft gold buy
world of warcraft buy gold eldre thalas
buy gold world of warcraft
world of warcraft buy buy gold
world of warcraft buy item gold
gold world of warcraft buy
buy gold on world of warcraft
buy world of warcraft gold detheroc
world of warcraft buy gold for money
world of warcraft buying gold
buying gold in world of warcraft
buy gold for world of warcraft
gold for world of warcraft buy gold
buy world of warcraft gold with credit card
buy world of warcraft gold items
world of warcraft gold buying
world of warcraft buy gold online
buy gold for world of warcraft kilrogg
places to buy world of warcraft gold
buying gold coins for world of warcraft
buying gold for world of warcraft online
power level character world of warcraft buy gold
info buying gold at world of warcraft
world of warcraft gold iteam buy out
buying world of warcraft gold
buying gold world of warcraft
buy gold online world of warcraft
buying gold for world of warcraft using paypal
buying gold for world of warcraft
buying gold is stupid for world of warcraft
buying gold on world of warcraft
buying worlds of warcraft gold
where do i buy world of warcraft gold
world of warcraft buy gold my personal vendor
world of warcraft gold buyer
buy gold wow world of warcraft
world of warcraft and buy and gold
where to buy gold for world of warcraft
If you look at this list you'll see that the main terms in the keyword list include "buy gold", "buying gold", "world of warcraft", "online", etc.
I used these terms in my landing page. In other words, I don't have to use every exact keyword phrase, just the main phrases and the main terms. This will help with relevance and the all important Google Quality Score.
More About The AdWords Landing Page
This type of landing page is usually called a "presell page". The goal is to get the visitor to opt into my list where I'll pound them mercilessly with emails until they unsubscribe or buy. Ok, that's a little overboard — but not by much. :-)
PREsell Pages
The point here is that presell pages try to put the visitor into a buying mood. They also use language from the vendor's sales page so that when the visitor gets there, they see a "match" with what they saw before.
Download the Affiliate Marketing for Dummies Report
(Right-Click and select Save As…)
Remember — people don't have to read every word of your presell page. They won't. But they skim and pick up the main points. So using bullets and bold and underlines are always good things in copy.
And making your language align with the language on the vendor's sales page creates that message to market match that I was talking about before.
Name Squeeze or Product Link?
Here — our goal is to get the visitor to opt-in. The other option would be to have a call-to-action that included an affiliate link to the merchant's product.
Both are common. Why did I go the NameSqueeze aka opt-in route?
You may only be able to convert 1 out of 150 visitors if you directly promoted the vendor's sales page. By getting them to opt-in to your list you can usually increase your conversions five-fold or more. That means more money in your pocket.
In case you care, the opt-in here is a single opt-in. Usually I prefer double opt-in but for testing and quickness I went with a single opt-in for this case study. You'll want to test them both because some lists and niches will perform better with one versus the other.
If you don't know anything about opt-ins, testing, and autoresponders, I suggest you use AWeber.
2009 Update: I still use AWeber today. I've tried and test most of the popular autoresponder services on the market — and I believe AWEBER is still the best — and most reasonable. If you're just looking for a killer autoresponder service — with the highest email delivery rates in the business — then go with AWEBER.
Content, Content, Content…
Oh yeah, the content on the page. How does somebody that knows nothing about WoW write a sales page like that? I mean, even experienced WoW gamers wouldn't know that I was absolutely clueless about the game. This isn't to toot my own horn … it's to make a point (again):
Know your product and market!
I learned just enough about World of Warcraft to write that sales page. Just enough. I did not have to become an expert.
Here are some things you can do to quickly learn about your product or niche:
- Buy the product and read through it. Summarize the content and sections.
- Look at the vendor's sales page. Use their bullet points and emulate their approach.
- Go to Amazon.com, find related books to what you are interested in, and use the "Look inside this book…" feature to read the first 10 pages or so of the books! Take notes. You'll be an expert in no time.
- Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias like Microsoft's Encarta are great content sources.
- Go to Yahoo Answers and ask some basic questions (and search on archived questions and answers).
- Contact the author and shoot them a few questions to answer.
- Just remember — you are writing a sales letter, not a guide. You just need the basics.
By the way — there is some gold in the aforementioned list of places to go and visit — to learn about a niche and product … just thought you'd want to know.
Now get to it. Get a landing page up — today!
2009 Update: In case you're wondering — I no longer own the domain name WorldofWarcraft-Secrets.com. I only registered the domain for the case study … and I let it expire once the year registration concluded. I notice that someone else now owns it. Perhaps I should have kept it. lol!
Continue to Testing & Tracking…
