Traffic Generation — Leveraging Google AdWords Traffic
Ok folks — it's time to rock and roll!
Make some moola and stuff.
Err … hopefully. ;-)
But I must admit — I cheated ever so slightly. I started driving a "little" AdWords Search traffic before getting to this point.
Before I show you my results so far — I'll discus some basic Google AdWords fundamentals & strategies. These are not closely guarded secrets. But rather — it's simply "good marketing" … PPC marketing.
Create Small, Tightly, Highly Focused Keyword Groups
During the keyword research section I discussed keyword grouping (segmentation) and proceeded to create 10 targeted keyword groups. Those are the same groups I used in my AdWords campaign.
Oh, real quick — one last word on keyword grouping:
- Savvy Marketing = small tightly focused groups of keywords with an ad closely targeting each group. (Groups of 3-50 keyword phrases per ad group.)
- Crazy Ass Marketing = large unfocused broad sets of keywords (groups of 100-2000 keyword phrases) with a broad, general ad. (It's imposable to have one ad with a targeted sales massage for that many keywords.)
When it comes to creating focused keyword groups, smaller is better.
It's crazy lumping hundreds — even thousands of keywords into EACH Ad Group. It may have worked in the past — but it sure as hell ain't gonna work now.
This (and ad copy) really is the secret to AdWords!
If you create small targeted groups of keywords and write two reasonable ads per group — you've just cracked the secret code to successfully using AdWords. Simple really when you think about it.
Targeted keyword groups allows you to write ultra-targeted ad copy — and ultimately connect directly with "conversation" the visitor is thinking about there and then.
This Google AdWords video illustrates this perfectly…
Keyword Targeted & Content Targeted Campaigns
In AdWords you can choose where your ads will be shown…
In a nutshell — Keyword-Targeted ads will appear on Google.com (the sponsored ads on the right-hand side) and Site-Targeted ads (sometimes referred to as the content network) will appear as AdSense ads on content sites.
Here are the differences in more detail…
We'll be leveraging BOTH systems to drive traffic in the beginning.
In the past the content network got a bad-rap for producing dirty traffic that didn't convert well. That was than … and thankfully things have changed for the better now.
This may not always be the case for every market — but for the most part — the content network can produce a lot of great traffic with a good ROI.
You can bid separately on the content network and in many markets content network bids are much cheaper than bids on the search network. This is the bane of many AdSense folks that are seeing their earnings from portal sites plummeting.
The Search Network and Content Network are both worth testing. The Site-Targeted Campaigns are another "secret" technique I'll use here to get targeted traffic to my landing page, cheap.
First things first though…
Start With a Keyword-Targeted Campaign (Search Network)
I'm not going to run through the entire step-by-step process of creating an Ad Group. (Because it's easy.) Instead — I'll show you a few "things" that I do…
At the campaign level…
… I create 2 campaigns PER campaign group.
One is for keyword-targeted traffic and the other for site-targeted traffic. So, for example, I'll setup my top-level campaign groups like this…
Games & Entertainment (Search)
Games & Entertainment (Content)
Health & Fitness (Search)
Health & Fitness (Content)
Sport (Search)
Sport (Content)
Internet Marketing (Search)
Internet Marketing (Content)
I try and keep these groups general as there is a 25 campaign group limit. So you have to be careful how to structure your account from the get-go or you'll run out of campaigns. (And each campaign group can contain 100 Ad Groups.)
Talking of Ad Groups. Here is how I setup my groups…
0001 represents my entire World of Warcraft campaign. If I also had a campaign about, Texas Holdem Poker, for example, that would be labeled 0002… and so on. It helps with campaign identification and AdWords reporting.
The next part, WoW Guide and WoW Buy Gold represents the type of keywords I'm targeting in that group.
The last part of the Ad Group label, (cjz) and (bzh) represents the unique ClickBank tracking ID I have associated with that particular keyword group.
As you can see — initially I only set up two ad groups. I am going to test the market and my sales system before jumping in with both feet.
Ad Group 0001 WoW Guide (cjz) contains 20 keywords (which includes the quotes and square-brackets), and the Ad Group, 0001 WoW Buy Gold (bzh), contains 22 keywords.
I'm not going to show you within those two Ad Groups just yet, as it's not relevant to this section. I will show everything later in another section.
What is important right now is for you to create a couple of small focused Ad Groups and write two ads for each group.
Write 2 Ads PER Ad Group
This is not a case study on writing ad copy. I can't possibly cover the ins and outs of it all here. It's a topic on it's own.
But I'll give you a few tips that I do…
Firstly — do a search on Google for your main keyword phrases and scope out the other ads.
Find other ads promoting the same, or a similar competing product. Take a note of the copy of all those ads. Is there a common theme? Are they all using similar benefits? Are the keywords in the title? (Because ideally they should be!)
Perry Marshall says that you should structure your ads to include the keywords in the title, a benefit on the first line, and a feature on the second line. If you can — squeeze in a call-to-action right at the end.
Here are my two ads for the "world of warcraft guide" keyword group…
Notice what I've done.
The title of ad #1 says: {KeyWord: World of Warcraft Guide}.
I've used dynamic keyword insertion (that feature that Google likes to hide — and never talk about) with the default keyword being my main searched on keyword phrase.
Nothing special there … which is just the point. Keep it simple. Stick to the core rules. You then can't go far wrong.
I then like to mess about with the title of ad 2. (You see — there I go and "break" the rules I've just told you to always stick to. lol)
Ad #2 says: Buying Gold is Illegal
Earlier in this case study I spoke about the importance of carrying the ad message through from the ad copy, to the landing page, and then through to your autoresponder story. Remember? That whole message to market match thing?
That is what this ad is all about.
Because my landing page copy is all about NOT needing to purchase gold from the gold sellers — as it's illegal to do so and in violation of Blizzard's TOS.
The ad body copy is very similar in both ads, but in ad 2 I simply carry over the illegal/legal hook … so that my title matches the story in the copy body.
Again — basic stuff. This doesn't need to be complicated.
Let's Look at Some Numbers Quickly, Because…
… it'll assist us when we create our ad for the content network shortly.
These are search results from Friday 15th, December 2006 to now, Wednesday 20th, December 2006. (I've omitted the results from Thursday 14 for now.)
Now — it's interesting to note that ad 2, Buying Gold is Illegal (which is displayed 1st in this image) is kicking the butt of the other ad in terms of clicks, signups (which is what triggers a conversion), and cost per conversion.
What have we learnt?
Well for one — I know which ad is producing the highest CTR … and that's data I can use for when I create the site-targeted campaign. (The content network.)
AdWords Bidding Strategy — Start High, Then Reduce to a Simmer
I always bid HIGH from the get-go — then reduce my max CPC (cost-per-click) until I'm happy that it's at a sustainable (and ultimately affordable) level — yet still maintaining clicks.
Here's why…
By making sure your ad is in the top 3 positions, you can be guaranteed a pretty high CTR … and CTR, if you don't know, is a major factor in determining your Quality Score. (And ultimately how much you pay.)
If you start out with a low max CPC, and your ad gets positioned too low in the results, you're going to be fighting a losing battle to get your CTR up, without it costing you a fortune to do so.
Yes, it costs me money in the beginning to play the game like this, but in the long run it'll work out better — believe me.
Let's look at the numbers again quickly…
When I first launched this Ad Group, I set the max CPC at $0.40, which got me to an average position of 2.1 (within the top 3)…
… which, as you can see, cost me a small fortune — $19.67 for the day.
Of course, there was little chance that I could ever sustain a $0.40 CPC and still make a profit selling an ebook where I earn a little less than $20. I simply did this to get my CTR up.
The sacrifice was worth it.
After bidding at $0.40 for a few days I was able to get my my average CPC down to $0.13 — yet I'm still maintaining a 2+ percent CTR with an average position of 4.6.
I would never have been able to have done that if I had specified a max CPC of $0.13 in the beginning. I would have probably been buried somewhere deep on page 2.
Before moving to the next section, I want to show you something…
Note: Numbers differ slightly from previous images because I'm doing this live. Taking image-shots as I need them. lol!
Do you see how much MORE the 0001 WoW Buy Gold (bzh) Ad Group is costing me in terms of CPC and cost per conversion?
Hell — it's costing me $0.81 per click … and $5.67 to get a person on my subscriber list. That's "almost" crazy, right?
Not too fast…
In the past I would have most certainly ditched this particular group of keywords. I already KNOW these searcher are looking to "buy gold". (Although not necessarily looking for a guide to be fare.)
The keywords tell me that … and the rate at which I'm converting them — also largely verifies that fact.
However…
In the past it was next to imposable to track per group/keyword sales (as an affiliate) because you have no access to the merchant's destination "thank you" page.
But now that we can do ClickBank tracking life for us affiliates has just got a whole lot easier, baby!
Take a look at this…
Huh!?
Tracker BZH produced a sale!
Which put that Ad Group into positive ROI for my first 5 days.
Positive ROI — that's marketing speak for I made money baby.
It's waaaaay to early to be calculating returns and visitor value with any confidence — and putting in that order for the Porsche Cayman S — but even in a small test the tracking here is very revealing.
In the past I would have probably deleted that keyword group. But now — with the clarity of tracking — I can see that it's the only group that's made a NET profit.
Cool, eh?
But it doesn't stop there. Oh no.
Out of the 21 clicks — 14.29% have subscribed to my list. That's only 3 people!
But you see — I've tracked even further down the line. I also track clicks on my links within my autoresponder messages.
So let's look at my GoTryThis click stats…
Let's work the numbers again…
3 people subscribed
2 people clicked email links
1 Sale
That's some very, very interesting data.
Sure — that Ad Group is costing an arm and a leg (although it's still running in profit) but I've just learnt that those people can convert.
I just need to try and target them from a different angle. Get my message in front of them for less ad spend.
Enter the content network…
Add Site-Targeted To The Mix (Content Network Placement Targeting)
A Site-Targeted network campaign can be a great way to get an increase in targeted traffic cheaply.
I'll quickly run through what you need to do to setup this kind of campaign.
Again — I've used the same naming convention that I described at the beginning of this article.
Unlike a search network campaign, the Site-Targeted network campaign doesn't require keywords. Keywords don't trigger ads. Your ad appears as an AdSense ad on "someones" content website.
So instead of selecting keywords — you now select what websites you'd like your ad to appear on. Here are the few steps you'll go through…
The only "hard" part (which is pretty straight-forward) is the few choices you'll face when selecting where/how your ad will appear within the content network…
For this campaign — I simply selected Describe topics and entered in world of warcraft as my search term. Because you are looking for general websites that are aligned with your landing page and affiliate offer you don't need to type in your entire keyword list.
Just using the main keyword and maybe a few others will do.
I selected a few content sites that "looked" relevant — and then saved the campaign. That's it. It's that simple.
Note: It's worth mentioning (because it's bloody important) that I've created — just like I've done on the search network — a separate landing page for this traffic. That's because I want to be able to track sales from the content network separately from the search network.
One final thing — with a Site-Targeted campaign you use CPM pricing. CPM is "cost per thousand" and is like the way banners are priced. Your bid price is the maximum you want to spend for 1000 impressions of your ad.
You can also select sites based on the way they show your ad — leaderboard, medium rectangle, skyscrapers, etc. Your turn now. Get your ads up and let's make some money. ;-)
2009 UPDATE: Google has since changed the way AdWords works. Site-Targeting is now called "placement targeting". No different. Same thing. Just different name. Oh yeah … you can also now bid using the classic CPC model — not only CPM as described above.
Time to analyzing the data. Click to continue…
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