Adwords Landing Pages

Matt Levenhagen did a great post on his blog recently that discussed the whole Landing Page and Quality Score issue. Matt is a great guy and very generous in his Adwords and Internet marketing knowledge to many people, newbies included. I have witnessed his generousity on several forums, most recently on the Keywords Analyser forum.

On his blog, Matt touched on a great point and it got me thinking; Fear sells, and the latest Google Quality Score update in July of this year has got people running scared. The recent flurry of eBook releases pertaining to have ‘the solution‘ to the recent changes by Google is testament to this.

However, Matt’s Adwords campaigns haven’t been impacted much at all by the so-called Google Slap. The main reasons Matt believes is that the methods detailed in his Campaign Blasts product really do work!

Matt’s lists the Top 3 reasons why he wasn’t affected by the latest Landing Page and Quality Score update as being;

1. Merchant Quality - A merchants website must be well laid out with good sales copy.
2. Diversify - It is recommended to have a large portfolio of merchants and products/services to promote.
3. Relevant Results for Searchers - Ensuring your ads and ad groups direct searchers to the relevant products/services that they are searching for. Sounds simple, but you would be surprised at how many people do not do this.

Matt has written an entire guide regarding this update that is now included with the Campaign Blasts Package.

Campaign Blasts - Profit From Adwords!

Matt Levenhagen’s Affiliate Marketing Methods with Adwords, Adwords Basics and Landing Pages 101.

http://www.CampaignBlasts.com

You’ve researched your keywords, written great ads, set your budgets and bids, and have embarked on what promises to be a really butt-kicking PPC campaign. But wait, you’re not seeing the conversion numbers you expected. So you go into crisis mode, you check the conversion code, you test the campaign by actually clicking on your own sponsored search (or PPC) ad; and your results show that everything is right and perfectly implemented. So what is the problem?

Building your Landing Page

Before you throw more of your budget at the search engines, or spend needless time looking at keywords and what users are searching for, take a look at your landing page.

• Is it telling users what they need to know?
• Is it friendly and good looking?
• Or do you arrive at a page loaded with information in a font or format that is hard on the eye?
• Are you able to immediately see the relevance of the page to the information you searched for, or do you have to wade through screens worth of waffle with no way out, and no other navigation options?
• Can you request information from the site owner on this page or do you have to go elsewhere to do that?

These are serious concerns and my advice to you is;

When building landing pages for your PPC campaigns the best thing you can do is KISS! (Keep It Seriously Simple).

Cost Per Click Value

I firmly believe that if you have a PPC campaign showcasing various services your company offers; that you should have a landing page built specifically for each service. Don’t send users to a generic page that tells them what ‘Chantelle’s Holidays’ is all about, if they have searched for ‘things to see in cape town’. If you are going to use this as a keyword, get proper value from the cost of the click by giving the user the information they are looking for. The more relevant and fresh you make this page, the higher your chances of making that conversion or sale.

I recently worked on a campaign (in my capacity as PPC Campaign Manager for Quirk eMarketing) that hadn’t shown the results we’d expected over a period of time. By simply adding a few textlinks to the existing page, we started to see a considerable increase in the conversion rate. Another great idea is to use a very simple technology called a navigation panel.

Making Browsing Better

In fact, visit any good website that provides information and you’re likely to be greeted by options that allow you to navigate to other pages on the site - and other options that allow you to navigate the page you’re on. This is especially important if the information on the page extends below the fold. Instead of asking browsers to scroll down, you are giving them the ability to quickly find the information they are looking for; making the entire browsing experience easier and more efficient.

Once again, ‘keep it simple’. Give users what they are looking for in a way that is easy for them to access. Whether it’s a site aimed at business people or holiday makers, or the youth, or the general public - make visiting your pages a memorable experience. If people know they can get relevant information quickly by visiting you, not only will they keep coming back to your site, there will also be willingness and a certain trust when it comes to doing business with you.

Success Made Simple

Focus on one aspect of the business and build a PPC campaign around that one area. Start Small! Tweak that campaign until it is running the way you want it, and only then shift your focus to another area - slowly building pages and campaigns for each aspect of your business as you go. These simple baby-steps will ensure that you don’t waste any of your precious budget, and that each part of the campaign goes smoothly and operates at its peak; optimising your business performance. If all else fails, get an expert opinion!

Quirk eMarketing have many successful PPC campaigns under their belt. Submitting to the paid search engines is a process not an event. It is a chess game, and you need to manage every detail. ‘A true professional will not cost you money; they will make you money.’

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You probably have already heard about the new marketing tool from Google.com on the Internet. Their advertising service is called Adwords and allows you use Google.com for marketing. Your ads will be displayed on Google’s website when people initiate a search. Your ads can also be displayed very targeted among many thousand websites that partner with Google in a program called Google AdSense. Adwords is the Google.com version of a pay-per-click advertising model. That means users click on your ad and will be redirected to your website or a specific URL that you have selected when creating your ad campaign.

What do you need to know about Adwords? Adwords is a way to spend a lot of money on advertising very very fast. BUT - Adwords is also a way to spend marketing money very selective to a targeted audience. Adwords can be very expensive for the advertiser if not properly planned and tested.

When you setup a Google Adwords ad campaign, you choose certain keywords for which your ad will appear on search results on Google.com. You also specify the maximum amount of money that you are willing to pay for each click. Remember, the Google Adwords program is a PPC (Pay per Click) model and you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad and hence visits your website.

It is very important to select the right keywords for your business ad. Going with too generic keywords that everyone will not be very effective and very expensive. Play a little bit with the Adwords keyword and campaign settings just to get a feeling how expensive the generic keywords for your business and industry are. You will realize soon that you need to be creative and careful with the usage of keywords.

Google recommends using different spelling variations and plural versions of your keywords to reach the best target audience. This is a good approach, as not every one of your potential new customers will search for a keyword in the same way as everyone else. Some people will use plural versions and others will use singular versions.

Exact matching of keywords in Google user queries requires you to place square brackets around your selected keywords. Example: [web hosting]. Your ad will now only show when users search exactly the phrase ‘web hosting’. Your ad will not show if other words are included in the search string or the words are entered in a different order.

Another keyword matching option is phrase matching. This is very similar to the exact matching of keywords in a search in the sense that the keywords must all be present and in the right order. However your ad will still show up in search results even if other words are present in the search. To make use of phrase matching you must include your keywords in quotes. Example: “web hosting”.

Negative matching is the final option available for your Adwords advertisement. This option allows you to block your ad being shown if a certain word is present in the search query of the Google user. This allows you to reduce the number of possible clicks on your ad in non-relevant searches and therefore to keep your cost low. It also helps you to make sure that your ad is not shown to users who will not be interested in your products. If your keyword is ‘web hosting’ but your web hosting is based on the Linux operating system and not based on a Windows Operating System then by using negative matching you can choose to have your ad not shown for search queries with ‘windows web hosting’. In this case ‘windows’ would be your negative keyword. You simply place a dash in front of your negative keyword to use this option. Example: -windows

Using these tips of selecting keywords will help you to be more successful with Google Adwords. Google also allows you be very specific for which geographic area your ads will be displayed. You go from global to country and even state or city specific settings. Especially local businesses now will have it much easier to use Google Adwords for their specific local markets.

Well, you got the idea how to be very specific how you select your keywords and combinations of keywords. But how do you actually select the right keywords? In order to get the most out of Adwords, you must have a list of great keyword and phrases. If your keyword list is not good enough, you will be punished with paying too much for your advertising. Write down the top search terms that you can think of. Ask friends and family how they would use Google to find your product (without searching for the business name itself).

A competitor of Google actually offers a free tool, which will allow you to find out how popular the keywords are that you selected. Find this free tool here and use it for your advantage:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Create a list of the most popular keywords. Now add words to the actual keywords. Use words that would describe your specific product or service. Now use these phrases or word combinations when setting up a Google Adwords campaign to find out how much you would have to pay per click to get your ad onto the first page on a Google search.

If the keywords selected by you are very expensive to use you should consider rewording or using different combinations. Maybe concentrate on a certain niche to find lower priced keyword options.

When testing new campaigns make sure that you limit your exposure by amount of money you want to spend per day as well as you should set a date/time limit. It’s easier to activate a campaign again if it works just fine for you. If you fail to set limits you might spend lots of money in a very short time - money you can’t get back. It is gone…

Another way to save money on your Adwords advertising campaign is to wait for the end of the month. It’s funny, but many folks follow a plain rule to start their advertising in the beginning of the month. By the time the 25th of a month is there they have spend most of their money on their campaigns already. For you this means that the prices for many popular keywords might be more affordable for you.

If you are advertising specific products with your ads, link to the specific product page and not to your homepage. 95% of the people who click through to your website will not really be willing to start another search on your website to find the product mentioned in your ad.

Conclusion

Frequently revisit your campaigns and compare prices and results. The Internet is a fast changing environment. What works one day, might not necessarily work the next day. Keep track of everything - maybe create a spreadsheet.

About the Author: Christoph Puetz is a successful small business owner (Net Services USA LLC) and international author. Guides, Tutorials, and Articles for small businesses - http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com

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What is a good landing page? The crucial half of a PPC campaign most people don’t know about.

Google Adwords, Yahoo (formerly called Overture Sponsored listings) and other Pay Per Click (PPC) companies give you the chance to get your ad or search listing at the top of the pack, right up front and perfectly matched to the searcher’s query. With a clever and catchy, attention grabbing ad or headline you can win the viewer in that critical split second he has to decide to click.

He clicks, you score! Right? WRONG! If you can get that click on a focused, targeted keyphrase and ad headline, you should feel very good. You’re halfway there. But, where does he land? On your home page? On the specific product page if you have an online store?

The page where the viewer lands is called a “landing page” or “destination page”. It is equally as important as your ad headline and copy, if not more. Most sales, conversions, or leads that cost hard cash to Adwords or Yahoo are often lost because of poor, or non existent landing pages.

Why can’t I just send my adword clicks to my Home page?

You can. But what if you walked into a five-story department store with no sales people– You’re looking for a very specific sweatshirt with a Penn State Logo that you saw at a football game. You know the sports shop out in the mall will have it, but you’ve got a store credit card so you’d like to get it here. You’re also holding onto two toddlers who are losing their cuteness very quickly because they want the Happy Meals you promised on the way home.

So there you are in an endless sea of perfume counters. You want a sweatshirt. Maybe it’s in the men’s section…but where is that? Or maybe it’s in Active wear… would that be with the men’s stuff? And where are the escalators?!

“Forget it,” you think, and walk out to the sports shop in the mall, buy your sweatshirt and are on your way to Micky D’s in less than 10 minutes.

Your homepage is the department store. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a product, service, or giving away free information. You have sections and categories which are probably very well marked and labeled.

However, your Google Ad or Sponsored listing was specific. It advertised a precise thing in about 70 characters or less. People don’t care about your home page. They expect to see what they were searching for as soon as they click. Don’t you?

So let’s say your ads lead to specific destination pages of your site. What’s on those pages?

Destination Page Overview

For Pay Per Click, your destination pages are absolutely critical. They are the second half of the sales pitch. Just having the adword or PPC land on the product page is not enough. First, you have to get someone to your site.

Remember the number of hits you get on a PPC or Google Adword is an ever-increasing expense if you don’t turn that click into a sale and the only sales person you have is the page at the end of that click.

You’ve got to convince someone quickly, “at a glance quickly,” why they should buy from you and not the ad above or below you. Think of your own web searches. You have seconds to entice that viewer to read more, or lose them.

Build the page around a SINGLE goal incorporating:

Remember, when you land on a page, you ask “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?”

Destination Page Construct

Destination Pages and the Unique Selling Proposition

A concept developed in 1961 still holds merit today and is a great check for the underlying tone of your landing page. That is the “Unique Selling Proposition” by Rosser Reeves. The concept explains how every company should strive to show how it differs and surpasses its competition.

It consists of three concepts that should be applied to your advertisement (or adword) and your destination page.

1. Tell the consumer what benefits you will be giving him. “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
2. The benefits have to be unique to your product. Something that separates you from what the competition has to offer. If your products are sold by competitors too, find something that distinguishes YOUR company.
3. The proposition must be so strong and convincing that it can move the millions (attract new customers).To be successful, you’ll need to research and build a campaign, then watch and modify, test and retest different changes, words, prices, etc. I want to stress the importance of this.

The same testing, observing, tracking and revising apply to landing pages as they do to ads and headlines themselves. It can save you a lot of money. If you’re not careful you can run up thousands of dollars in PPC and adwords with insignificant sales or leads.

John Krycek is a creative director at Toronto Web Development and Full Service Internet Marketing Studio theMouseworks.ca Learn more about search engine optimization, internet marketing, web development and graphic design in easy, non-technical, up front English at http://www.themouseworks.ca