My Step-By-Step PPC Advice for Newbies

[Mike Morgan.]

[quote=Kevin H;620333]

Originally Posted by emjayce

All you need is 1 high converting keyword to generate sales and make a campaign profitable. The more keywords include in your campaign the more expensive its going to be to test it effectively.

Hope that makes sense,

It is always nice to start with high converting keywords . After successful testing and optimization , you can expand your keywords in to large list .

Mike

[Bronkim]

Hi ,

thank you for sharing just what I was looking for.

Regards

Bronkim

[emjayce]

[quote=Kevin H;620333]

Originally Posted by emjayce

Hi Glenn,

I apologize for overlooking this reply.

With respects to a market that is highly competitive with high CPC's. What you want to do is find a handful of good quality keywords. I would say 2-3 keywords to start. Use your spy tool to confirm that other affiliates are making money off your selected keywords and then target those handful of keywords exclusively. The whole idea here is that you are investing your money into a few good keywords and this will allow each of them to get enough traffic to prove whether or not they convert.

Here's the problem that most affiliates have. They load up 100 + keywords into their campaign. Each keyword gets 5 to 10 clicks. This in turn leads to 500 - 1000 clicks and very few sales. You can't expect a keyword to convert after just 5-10 clicks. You need more like 50-100 + clicks per keyword before you can prove it converts. You need to ask yourself how much am I willing to invest in my next campaign? If it's $100 and the industry is highly competitive with $1 clicks then you can only afford to advertise to 1 maybe 2 keywords. So you find a proven keyword that's (1) converting for other affiliates, and (2) has descent search volume behind it - and then put up an ad for just that one keyword.

All you need is 1 high converting keyword to generate sales and make a campaign profitable. The more keywords include in your campaign the more expensive its going to be to test it effectively.

Hope that makes sense,




Hi Emjayce,

Thanks for this thread, I think it very helpful advise. I joined a PPC education site in Oct that was telling newbies to load up 300 to 1000 keywords and select broad, phrase , and exact match, which in hind site now seems like horrible advise for someone new unless they have very deep pockets.

Which match type do you recommend using for a small group of keywords? I read from someone recently to only use exact for a search campaign.

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

You are correct. This method works and it works well only when you have very deep pockets to work with. Say $1000 + in ad spend just to test for conversions. The whole idea behind the 300-1000 keywords is that you are testing as many keywords as possible and then identifying those that convert and rolling with them. It's not horrible advice for those who have the cash to play with. But for those who are on a tight budget, you need to identify the converting keywords before you go out and advertise.

Again - all you need to start with is 1 great converting keyword with descent traffic to start making consistent sales. I recommend going with a handful of good quality keywords that you know are converting for others and targeting only exact and phrase match. I consider broad to be too broad and too risky.

Hope this helps,



Matt

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by emjayce

Hi Kevin,

You are correct. This method works and it works well only when you have very deep pockets to work with. Say $1000 + in ad spend just to test for conversions. The whole idea behind the 300-1000 keywords is that you are testing as many keywords as possible and then identifying those that convert and rolling with them. It's not horrible advice for those who have the cash to play with. But for those who are on a tight budget, you need to identify the converting keywords before you go out and advertise.

Again - all you need to start with is 1 great converting keyword with descent traffic to start making consistent sales. I recommend going with a handful of good quality keywords that you know are converting for others and targeting only exact and phrase match. I consider broad to be too broad and too risky.

Hope this helps,



Matt

Thanks Matt. I appreciate your insight!

Kevin

[emjayce]

Hi Warriors,

I have another valuable lesson to share with you. Today we are going to talk about ad writing. Here we go...

Here are really simple yet highly effective guidelines to writing ads that are
guaranteed to generate clicks and achieve a descent CTR at a minimum:

Headline = Include your targeted keyword
Description 1 = benefit statement
Description 2 = call to action
Display URL = YourDomain.com/Keyword

These tips came from Google Adwords resource section. You can read more at:

Writing Targeted Ad Text - Google AdWords Learning Center

Ad Writing Example:

Someone searching make your own solar panels will see your ad like this:

"Make Your Own Solar Panels?"
Reduce Your Energy Bill By 80%
View Our Step-By-Step Videos Now!
DiyEnergySystems.com/SolarPanels

Don't worry too much about having the keyword everywhere within your ad. You
want the keyword to be in the headline to grab the attention of your audience while
being relevant. Then you want to express what's in it for them (think benefits).
Then you want to tell them what they should do next (think call-to-action)!

Make Sure You Split Test - Write Two Ads Per Landing Page / Ad Group

Using this information, you need to write 2 ads per landing page. You are going to
use these ads to build your campaign within your Adwords, Yahoo, and MSN
accounts. You should always test two different ads with each of your keywords and
then proceed with the one that holds the higher click-thru-rate.

Pretty simple stuff!

Let me know if you have any questions,



Matt

[jitendrakbharai]

Hello

Thanks.A good post.

I have been using PPC for quite some time and i can tell you from experience that it can be a very costly affair.

One has to be very careful or else you will end up loosing a lot of money.

So just be a little careful with your budget while using PPC --Google Adwords in particular.

jitendra

[ngjkro]

hi,
Thank for your sharing.
Just to ask that how accurate is the search volume in google keyword tool external?
i hear that some say the search volume is not so accurate

[emjayce]

You are right - boat loads of cash can be lost through PPC. This is why I recommend newbies use spy tools like iSpionage to narrow down to a handful of keywords that seem to be converting for other affiliates.

One way in which you can really lose a lot of money is by advertising to a ton of keywords. This is not necessary. All you have to do is find say 1 to 10 keywords that you know are converting and focus on advertising to them. Taking this approach will surely help to minimize your loses.

Originally Posted by jitendrakbharai

Hello

Thanks.A good post.

I have been using PPC for quite some time and i can tell you from experience that it can be a very costly affair.

One has to be very careful or else you will end up loosing a lot of money.

So just be a little careful with your budget while using PPC --Google Adwords in particular.

jitendra

[emjayce]

I don't think there is a single keyword tool out there that provides 100% accurate data, but I do believe the Google Keyword Tool is more accurate than any tool you have to shell out cash for.

And really - search volume doesn't really matter all that much for PPC. If you find a good quality keyword, put up an ad for it and see where the traffic falls out accordingly.

Originally Posted by ngjkro

hi,
Thank for your sharing.
Just to ask that how accurate is the search volume in google keyword tool external?
i hear that some say the search volume is not so accurate

[ngjkro]

Originally Posted by emjayce

I don't think there is a single keyword tool out there that provides 100% accurate data, but I do believe the Google Keyword Tool is more accurate than any tool you have to shell out cash for.

And really - search volume doesn't really matter all that much for PPC. If you find a good quality keyword, put up an ad for it and see where the traffic falls out accordingly.

Thank you for your reply this clear my curious.

[Tim45]

How do you know that a keyword is converting with a keyword spy tool? I have tried a few spy tools and have tried some keyword that I though were converting but to no avail. I know they say if a competitor is spending a lot of money on a keyword that it is most likely converting and that makes sense but when you compare companies like Target for example, they spend tons of money on keywords that are not targeted so you have to wonder if big companies like that are doing that to keep the little guy confused.

I'll try the tool you recommend Matt, Thanks

[emjayce]

Hi Tim,

You want to make sure the advertiser you are spying on is an affiliate who is promoting a similar product or offer to what you are promoting. I think "Target" is not the greatest example. You're an affiliate so you want to find other affiliates who are doing the long-term advertising - not big merchants like "Target".

Originally Posted by Tim45

How do you know that a keyword is converting with a keyword spy tool? I have tried a few spy tools and have tried some keyword that I though were converting but to no avail. I know they say if a competitor is spending a lot of money on a keyword that it is most likely converting and that makes sense but when you compare companies like Target for example, they spend tons of money on keywords that are not targeted so you have to wonder if big companies like that are doing that to keep the little guy confused.

I'll try the tool you recommend Matt, Thanks

[Sebulba]

What a wealth of information, thanks all.

Seb

[Brisk808]

Yes i have a question im using this affiliate program "3900income""dot"com how can you help me to make it work for me Ive been at it 2weeks with not one referral

[Tim45]

OK Thanks Matt, I'll do more research.

[spires]

Excellent Stuff

[AllThingsArePossible]

[quote=Kevin H;620333]

Originally Posted by emjayce

Hi Glenn,

I apologize for overlooking this reply.

With respects to a market that is highly competitive with high CPC's. What you want to do is find a handful of good quality keywords. I would say 2-3 keywords to start. Use your spy tool to confirm that other affiliates are making money off your selected keywords and then target those handful of keywords exclusively. The whole idea here is that you are investing your money into a few good keywords and this will allow each of them to get enough traffic to prove whether or not they convert.

Here's the problem that most affiliates have. They load up 100 + keywords into their campaign. Each keyword gets 5 to 10 clicks. This in turn leads to 500 - 1000 clicks and very few sales. You can't expect a keyword to convert after just 5-10 clicks. You need more like 50-100 + clicks per keyword before you can prove it converts. You need to ask yourself how much am I willing to invest in my next campaign? If it's $100 and the industry is highly competitive with $1 clicks then you can only afford to advertise to 1 maybe 2 keywords. So you find a proven keyword that's (1) converting for other affiliates, and (2) has descent search volume behind it - and then put up an ad for just that one keyword.

All you need is 1 high converting keyword to generate sales and make a campaign profitable. The more keywords include in your campaign the more expensive its going to be to test it effectively.

Hope that makes sense,




Hi Emjayce,

Thanks for this thread, I think it very helpful advise. I joined a PPC education site in Oct that was telling newbies to load up 300 to 1000 keywords and select broad, phrase , and exact match, which in hind site now seems like horrible advise for someone new unless they have very deep pockets.

Which match type do you recommend using for a small group of keywords? I read from someone recently to only use exact for a search campaign.

Thanks,
Kevin

lolol...ppc classroom

[refernshare]

Good stuff. I am knew here but in a short time I have learned a lot. Thanks all of you for taking a lead and sharing your knowledge and experience.

[howareyou]

Thanks for your sharing.

[irving]

So far so good.. so when can i expect the remaining part of this article??

[Teleologist]

Hi emjayce,

In your signature there is a link to download a PPC guide but it takes me to a site
that is marketing niche ready landing pages. Is there a PPC guide available?

[lingerieexposure]

Hi,

Great information. Thank you for taking the time to share and educate.

My question is would you be willing to look over (and make suggestions) to my first Google Adwords attempt to drive targeted traffic to my website (eBay Store)?

Alan

[emjayce]

Hi There,

I have compiled my strategy into a complete step-by-step guide and have packaged it with my website Landing Page Authority. If you would like the guide, you can get it by buying my landing page package. The guide and the landing pages go hand in hand.

Thanks,




Matt

Originally Posted by Teleologist

Hi emjayce,

In your signature there is a link to download a PPC guide but it takes me to a site
that is marketing niche ready landing pages. Is there a PPC guide available?

[emjayce]

Not a problem. PM me with some more background information about your store and what your initial PPC plans are. I would be happy to help you out.

Thanks,



Matt

Originally Posted by lingerieexposure

Hi,

Great information. Thank you for taking the time to share and educate.

My question is would you be willing to look over (and make suggestions) to my first Google Adwords attempt to drive targeted traffic to my website (eBay Store)?

Alan

[lingerieexposure]

Hi,

I don't have enought post counts to send you an PM. Guess I'll have to start asking more questions.

Alan

[imac1912]

Great info and helpful warnings about watching your cost limits using this method.

Thanks

Ian

[lingerieexposure]

Hi,

I sent you a PM yesterday. Anxious to hear from you.

Alan

[paulgl]

Enjoyed reading the post on keywords. Good stuff. Keep the thread going!

PGL

[Kahuna]

Hey buddy, Good Job on trying to help people out.

I would like to chirp in my 2 Cents for it's worth.

You have suggested people get some long tailed keyword phrases that are related to buying and while that makes perfect sense as you are going to get the most targeted buyers here is the kicker - Other affiliates/advertisers already know this! They have been advertising longer than you, thier campaign has a longer history and better CTR overtime.

So this is what happens...

The over enthuastic newbie (This was me many times!) makes a keyword list for his Forex Trading Software like this.

buy forex trading software
how to make money forex trading
get forex trading software....

You all know the drill.

So what happens? Your ad goes live and you start seeing the impressions go up. Your bidding on words with good search volume so you get plenty of impressions, but your ads are being shown in crap positions and then not even on the front page, your CTR is rubbish and eventually google are asking a doller or more a click!

This sound familiar to anyone?

You see if your ad's are not getting clicked (poor CTR) your no use to google!

So how do you break into this 'inner circle' of your niche? In my opinion you need to go really really wide. Forget about the obvious keywords like 'buy forex software' and start getting some really longtailed keywords.

Fo this example maybe something like 'how can I get more pips trading", 'where is the best place to learn forex', 'how do pro's learn forex.'

Now these are just three examples, what you really need is hundreds, if not thousands of long tailed keyword phrases (4 or more words). Now when you do this you will see a different pattern. At the start you will get very few impressions because people dont type these phrases as often, but when they do your ad is there, often on it's own in the prime spot.

So what happens, your CTR becomes quite good. A good CTR says to google "hey, this guy is good at advertising, when we show his ad's people click. When they click he makes us money, we should show his ad's more often and we will make more money."

So what happens is you are rewarded with a lower CPC and more impressions. Now you can take your strong campaign and start bidding on some of the more lucrative keywords because you have a good history and CTR you will be given optimal position and price because in Googles eyes it makes sense for them to show your ad's.

This is the longest post ever but I just wanna say one last thing - a newbie might be thinking "I gotta get a list of 1000's of KW's! - That sounds hard!" - Sorry folks but it aint just a case of picking 20 words late in the buying cycle and watching the cash role in, if only it were that easy this forum wouldnt exist.

Kahuna Out

[emjayce]

Hi Kahuna,

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Originally Posted by Kahuna

Hey buddy, Good Job on trying to help people out.

I would like to chirp in my 2 Cents for it's worth.

You have suggested people get some long tailed keyword phrases that are related to buying and while that makes perfect sense as you are going to get the most targeted buyers here is the kicker - Other affiliates/advertisers already know this! They have been advertising longer than you, thier campaign has a longer history and better CTR overtime.

So this is what happens...

The over enthuastic newbie (This was me many times!) makes a keyword list for his Forex Trading Software like this.

buy forex trading software
how to make money forex trading
get forex trading software....

You all know the drill.

So what happens? Your ad goes live and you start seeing the impressions go up. Your bidding on words with good search volume so you get plenty of impressions, but your ads are being shown in crap positions and then not even on the front page, your CTR is rubbish and eventually google are asking a doller or more a click!

This sound familiar to anyone?

You see if your ad's are not getting clicked (poor CTR) your no use to google!

So how do you break into this 'inner circle' of your niche? In my opinion you need to go really really wide. Forget about the obvious keywords like 'buy forex software' and start getting some really longtailed keywords.

Fo this example maybe something like 'how can I get more pips trading", 'where is the best place to learn forex', 'how do pro's learn forex.'

Now these are just three examples, what you really need is hundreds, if not thousands of long tailed keyword phrases (4 or more words). Now when you do this you will see a different pattern. At the start you will get very few impressions because people dont type these phrases as often, but when they do your ad is there, often on it's own in the prime spot.

So what happens, your CTR becomes quite good. A good CTR says to google "hey, this guy is good at advertising, when we show his ad's people click. When they click he makes us money, we should show his ad's more often and we will make more money."

So what happens is you are rewarded with a lower CPC and more impressions. Now you can take your strong campaign and start bidding on some of the more lucrative keywords because you have a good history and CTR you will be given optimal position and price because in Googles eyes it makes sense for them to show your ad's.

This is the longest post ever but I just wanna say one last thing - a newbie might be thinking "I gotta get a list of 1000's of KW's! - That sounds hard!" - Sorry folks but it aint just a case of picking 20 words late in the buying cycle and watching the cash role in, if only it were that easy this forum wouldnt exist.

Kahuna Out

[raotnv]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[frenchkiss]

thanks a lot for this valuable info

[TechBlog]

Nice piece of advices ... i was never into ppc but i feel like giving it a try ... thanks for the quick guide

[NilsUSA]

Hey all,
this is a good work by emjayce.I found this approach very valuable in my money making adventures over the time.But this trend keeps changing as the online world and search engine tactics.But the basics are the same.

[emjayce]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I last posted. Sorry for the delay. And thanks to all those who have acknowledged this post since my last update.

Today I will be talking to you about getting prepared for the search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN).

I recommend testing your campaign across all 3 ad networks (Adwords, Yahoo, and
MSN). All three of these search engines offer high quality traffic. You want to be
able to get your targeted traffic for the lowest possible price. If you test on all
three networks, you will immediately get a feel for where you can get the most
good quality traffic at the lowest possible price.

Doing all three ad networks is obviously not necessary but it will definitely give you a better picture of how the traffic falls out and at what price.

Before you can start loading your campaign into these ad networks, you need to
make sure you have the following tasks accomplished:

1.) List of product keywords compiled

2.) Shortened list of 5-10 proven solution to problem keywords compiled

3.) Registered domain name and hosting account set up

4.) Blog set up and live through your hosting account

5.) Landing pages prepared for each product and each keyword

6.) 2 ads written for each of your landing pages

You want to set up your campaign across all 3 ad networks because you want to
identify with the traffic each network generates per keyword and what their click
costs are for page 1 on the search results.

Calculating Your Bid Price

Assuming your selected offer will convert 2:100 (2%), you should establish your
default bid price using the following formula:

Payout / 100 = default bid price

Ex.) $35 payout / 100 clicks = .35 cents per click

Setting your bid price using this method would help you realize a 50% return on
investment on your ad spend (assuming a 2% conversion rate). You want to apply
your default bid price to the campaigns you set up with Adwords, Yahoo, and MSN.

If your default bid price is too low to get you to page 1, you can increase it by 25%
at a time until it hits double the default bid price you started with. You can go as
high as you feel comfortable with on your bids, but do understand that setting
higher bid prices means more risk and shrinking profit potential.

Setting Your Campaign Budget

You should budget your commission amount for each campaign you set up in the ad networks. For example, if you expected commission is $30 per sale and you plan on advertising on all three search engines, you will set up 3 campaigns and budget to spend $30 on each of them.

Building Your Ad Groups

Assuming you’re creating 1 landing page per solution to problem keyword and 1
landing page per product you plan on promoting – your ad groups should break out
similar to this:

Ad Group 1

“how to make solar panels”

Ad Group 2

“build your own solar panels”

Ad Group 3

“how to build solar panels”

Ad Group 4

“how to make wind turbines”

Ad Group 5

“Earth 4 Energy Review”
“Earth 4 Energy Comparison”
“Earth 4 Energy Testimonials”
“Earth 4 Energy Discount”
“Buy Earth 4 Energy”

Ad Group 6

“Homemade Energy Review”
“Homemade Energy Comparison”
“Homemade Energy Testimonials”
“Homemade Energy Discount”
“Buy Homemade Energy”

*Structuring your ad groups this way will ensure you are getting only highly targeted traffic and not throwing clicks away to broad / less targeted keywords. Broad / less targeted keywords won’t convert as well and will eat into your ad spend and profits quickly.

Campaign Settings

A few quick notes on your campaign’s settings for your Adwords, Yahoo, and MSN
accounts:

Target only English speaking countries
Accelerate Ad serving
Serve Ads evenly
Turn off content network when advertising through Adwords*

*You can run your ads on the content network – but create a separate campaign for them and be selective of the sites you advertise to (focus on good quality authoritative sites only)

That's it for tonight. Let me know if you have any questions.

Peace,



Matt

[dclozen]

I'm having trouble with clickbank registering clicks from google. Sent them an email tha couple of hours later i had 3 times the clicks shown than I had produced on google that day...

Is anyone else having trouble with their tracking system???

Now I'm having the same problem today...My web tracking program correctly follows the google count...

Inquireing minds would like to know

[Jimnopks]

I have not done any ppc but I am eager to learn more about it.

Maybe I can learn enough to actually makes some money with it.

Jim

[Askbigo]

Hey First post

Where do I send the 37 bucks?

Just Kidding, Real Good Advice, I just read yesterday about creating a subdirectory using a root keyword for adwords instead of www like this

rootkeyword.mysite . com says it will increase quality score.
Lastly, I wish I found this place a long time ago, I'm getting hammered on adwords

Thanks,
Mike

[saferain22]

Wow! What a great thread with loads of useful information! Great Job. Learning new stuff everyday.

[willow77]

Thank You for all the easy to understand details you have given us.
You have taken the complicated and made it easier.

Willow77

[mr.schutz]

Thank you for posting! Very helpful post!

[zealotknight]

I learned a lot. especially putting your keywords to the most important parts of the ads like the title or header. having the website name as a keyword is helpful as well.

[SEORundown]

A big part to ppc is testing to see what converts. You will want to test both your campaign and your landing pages. David Bullock has a taguchi theory he uses that is awesome. However on your own there are a few ways to test multiple pages. In Google Analytics there is a feature called Website Optimizer. This allows you to use multiple landing pages which it will rotate through for you.

You can also try creating Keyword based landing pages and test multiple pages. This can be done by a simple php script. Click on BirdsEyeSeo below and I have provided it and instructions to set it up.

As far as keyword research Spyfu is awesome, and you can hijack campaigns all day.

If you are looking for some really good PPC info I reccommend checking out Dan Theis's stuff, especially his ************* method.

[raindog777]

This is a great thread. Thanks for posting.

[AllThingsArePossible]

yes it is a great thread.

[rdbranson]

HeyEmjayce, your advice is certainly appreciated. Worth lots of thank you's!
Excellent and helpful thread.

[emjayce]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I am amazed at the response this thread has had. It feels great to know that I am helping so many people.

I will do a new post this week...

Cheers,



Matt

[mrodriguezo]

Hi EmJayce:

Thanks for the information, very informative!

I have some questions:

How do you test keywords in the very beginning: direct linking, Iframing or Landing Page? What is your experience with direct linking to merchant page for testing Google / Yahoo? What is the best method for you?


When testing do you look for conversions (sales) or just impressions? which level do you want to reach to know that the keywords you choose convert well for you?


You were talking about Spy tools, so I think anyone need to protect their campaigns from them (Ispionage, KeywordSpy, SpyFu, and others). How do you protect your profitable campaigns for not being discovered by those tools? I think it is important.


Have you some issue with click fraud or being Slapped by Google? how do you prevent that?


About CPA, which is your experience about conversion (do you suffer any kind of cut in conversions / payment from the CPA networks you are enrolled regarding data rejection, or IP fraud for example?) and which is your experience the average cycle payment? just to know what to take into account for cash flow


Keep going!

Regards,

[Tim45]

I'll tell ya, google slaps every change they get, at least me they do. Direct linking is a no no any more. You really have to be on top of your game to do business with google adwords and have some deep pockets when first starting out.

[T.J.]

emjayce, awsome thread. One question though. If your are already getting good quality scores 7/10 or better with direct linking is there any reason that you would want to go to a landing page? Does a squeeze page/ landing page and preselling make that much difference in conversions?