“AdWords Tutorial” From Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss
Okay, so I got them on the call and they essentially gave me a mini “AdWords tutorial” if you will… basically they schooled me a bit on what went haywire with my campaign. What I learned was quite an eye opener.
After hearing that despite opening up a new account, Google STILL didn’t like me (and I say that loosely of course) and slapped me right from the getgo… They suspected that my domain was trashed. Basically Google keeps a “history” of domains on their PPC network. And if your domain has a HORRIBLE track record and ends up in their dog house, that’s the end of that.
It doesn’t matter (as I discovered) if you open a new account with brand new credit card, they’ll still not give you (with that domain) the time of the day.
With that said, to remedy my situation, I bought another domain and merely had it aliased to the original domain. And wouldn’t you know it… problem solved. That’s right, with that change, i got out of Google’s dog house and the same exact keywords that were originally getting poor quality scores are now OK and Great 
So next time you get in Google’s dog house and can’t seem to get out, you know what to do.
Lawrence Talent
Google Announces Major Quality Score Changes…
Okay, this is coming straight from Russel Wright - he’s got the scoop on what’s shaking over at Google land and here it is:
In July 2005, AdWords introduced minimum bids for keywords based on Quality Score. This system allows us to show very high quality ads to Google users, while also giving advertisers control over their keywords. Since 2005, we’ve improved Quality Score in many ways, such as the inclusion of landing page quality and landing page load time as factors. Along the way, we’ve also received much helpful feedback from both users and advertisers.
Today, we’d like to let you know of further improvements we’ll introduce in the coming weeks — based, in part, on this feedback. First we’ll outline the key points, and then dive into the details:
* Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
* Keywords will no longer be marked ‘inactive for search’
* ‘First page bid’ will replace ‘minimum bid’ in your account
A more accurate Quality Score
Most importantly, we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad’s quality each time it matches a search query. This way, AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed. Your ads will be more likely to show when they’re relevant and less likely to show when they’re not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified.
Keywords no longer marked ‘inactive for search’
The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as ‘inactive for search’ in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you’ve paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked ‘inactive for search’ are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn’t high enough to gain competitive placement.
‘First page bid’ will replace ‘minimum bid’
As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we’re replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They’re based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad’s Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn’t always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.
It’s worth mentioning that the impact of these changes will vary from advertiser to advertiser; some might see no changes to their ad serving, while others may see a noticeable difference. As always, we recommend optimizing ads to prevent them from receiving a low Quality Score.
Putting it all together
Here’s an example to illustrate how per-query Quality Score works:
Nancy’s Dairy advertises on the keyword ‘milk.’ Nancy’s ads perform better on the keyword ‘milk’ in the U.S. than in Canada. Her ads also perform better on the query ‘milk delivery’ than on ‘milk,’ and better on certain search network sites than on others. Instead of one static Quality Score and minimum bid that determines whether the keyword ‘milk’ is eligible to trigger an ad for all search queries, we will now determine eligibility dynamically, based on factors such as location, the specific query, and other relevance factors. For that reason, Nancy’s keyword ‘milk’ will be able to trigger an ad for search queries where it’s likely to perform better, i.e., in the U.S., on ‘milk delivery’ and on certain search network sites.
We’re working to update the AdWords API and AdWords Editor so that, in the future, they will support first page bids. Until then, both the AdWords API and AdWords Editor will continue to show the minimum bid field. However, the information shown in this field will be based on the new per-query Quality Score. You may keep current with upcoming API releases on the API Blog and learn about upcoming AdWords Editor releases via the AdWords Editor Forum.
Finally, please note that we’ll release these Quality Score changes to a very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two, so that we can gather feedback before launching to all our advertisers. We will, of course, post again in advance of the time that these changes go live for everyone.
Picking Your AdWords Keywords
Last time we covered a few keyword selection tips to get you started. Today, we will continue discussing keyword selection strategies that will elevate your AdWords game dramatically.
Let’s get to it!
Pick Lateral Keyword Topics
Now… just because you have thought up of some keywords that you think are super powerful doesn’t mean that they will be. Some factors that will go into determining if you should bid on those keywords include:
- Relevancy of the keyword to your product
- Amount of competition
- Others promoting the same product
- Number of users searching for that keyword per day
- Cost per click
The way you find out how your keywords measure up is by scouting your market on Google. Start by doing a search on Google using your keywords. Take note of how many sponsored ads are already in place – this tells you how many people are competing against you.
Next, look at their ads. How enticing are they? Do they motivate you to want to click on them? Then click on them and see what they are promoting. Make notes of everything.
All of this will help you get a better idea how competitive the market is.
Use the Google Traffic Estimator: https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox
Are they of high traffic volume? How much is the minimum cost per click? What about the expected ad position?
Also use other online FREE research tools. All tools have their strengths and weaknesses, which is why we recommend more than one.
Using http://itarget.info/Bulk-Keyword-Research-Tool/ and/or http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ you can get an idea of how much traffic your keywords can expect. Whatever number these tools give you, multiply it by 3 and that’s a good estimate for the expected traffic on your keyword.
Lesson #4:Study your competitor and know your market. |
Mastering the Long Tail with Width
Expanding your keyword list and capitalizing on the “long tail” is a very important aspect of your marketing, but you shouldn’t allow yourself to get pigeon holed with only one category.
Let’s define the “long tail”:
Let’s say you are promoting a martial arts boot camp course on DVD. And one of the things people might be interested in may have to do with self-defense. So you think that one of your key words should be “self defense”. Then you add depth to that word by coming up with more specific keywords related to self-defense like: “personal defense”, “self protection”, “women’s self defense”, “effective self defense”, “easy to learn self defense”, “self defense for the handicapped”, etc.
Adding this specificity is called the long tail of self defense.
As you can see, each new keyword is just an extension of the first keyword – but you are homing in on a more targeted audience. And this is great and recommended, only when you have identified your market.
You don’t want to ever be wasting hours or even days coming up with a long tail of keywords for the wrong PPC market!
You’ll be wasting all your time, energy and money bidding on keywords, which may perform poorly.
Lesson #5:What we suggest you do is first think broad or laterally. Go ahead and select a few key phrases related to “self defense” which haven’t been inundated by competitors yet, but may be very related to what you are offering. For example, rather than focusing only on self defense, perhaps try the market which is searching for a martial art like Karate, Krav Maga. Or one that’s interested in law enforcement training. Or even something like dealing with bullies. Only after you run your campaign for a bit and figure out which keywords are winners should you spend more time going into more depth for the winning keyword categories. |
Keyword Criteria
Now that you have a few cool tools, narrow down your list using the following criteria:
- Highly Relevant – imagine your ideal customer. What would they be searching for on Google?
- Low-to-Medium CPC – initially, don’t go for the obvious keywords, because you’ll get killed by the competition. Focus your initial testing on low-to-medium cost keywords (< $0.40).
- Low-to-Medium Competition – it’s good to get your feet wet with low competition keywords, then move up from there. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to out perform other advertisers, but that will happen as you gain more experience.
- Medium-to-High Traffic – this might be a little harder, but as you start thinking laterally about your keywords, you are going to stumble across a few medium-to-high traffic keywords which are not being bid on my many people.
For example, if you are offering an online business opportunity you might consider targeting ex-cons looking for employment. These folks generally have a hard time finding a decent job, so they might be interested in learning how to make some money online.
Lesson #6:Pick keywords that are highly relevant, low-to-medium Cost-per-Click (CPC), low-to-medium competition and medium-to-high traffic. |
There is still much to cover on keywords. We will be coming back to the more advanced strategies later on in the AdWords Seduction Newsletter.
In the next newsletter, we take a look at how you stay organized and efficient with your keywords and how that affects Google’s perception of your campaign.
Stay tuned!
To Your AdWords Domination,
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| Lawrence Talent |
P.S. When you are ready for the next Google AdWords step, don’t be afraid to step up here: AdWords Secrets!