PPC Difficulties

[clonemybusiness]

I admit it.

I'm a PPC dunce.

I have spent thousands on AdWords, thousands on courses and ebooks and still can't make any kid of a profit. I do personally know a person (Carl) who does make money - he lives near me - but he's not rich... far from it. When I talk to him it's obvious he is highly intelligent and really 'into' all the PPC stuff, but he only scrapes by.

If Carl can't make a pile, using PPC then I know I can't and I completely avoid anything to do with PPC and promoting ClickBank products. Carl recommended PayDot.com over ClickBank but then said that he only promotes products on the CPA Ad Networks.

One thing that in all the advertised PPC/ClickBank 'how to' products they never tell you the cost of the advertising. Look, if they are making 150,000 a month and their ROI is 50%, that means they are spending 100,000 month on the Ads! That's a lot of money to be playing with.

And that's the reason why Carl switches off all his Adword campaigns when he is away from the computer. That's right, he 'nurses' his campaigns like a baby. No such thing as 'set up and forget' for him.

[SaSh]

I'm sure if you know how to play this game, you CAN make money of it.
But for me, the learning curve was to heavy. And I lost to much money in a short time.
But to be honest, I like the SEO game much more. Thought there is one thing ( perhaps some more actually ;-) ) what I have to learn within SEO, and that's to be patient. And of course, if doing right the roi within ppc can be much faster.

SaSh

[Vita_Vee]

(06-16-2009 03:16 PM)SaSh Wrote:  I'm sure if you know how to play this game, you CAN make money of it.
But for me, the learning curve was to heavy. And I lost to much money in a short time.
But to be honest, I like the SEO game much more. Thought there is one thing ( perhaps some more actually ;-) ) what I have to learn within SEO, and that's to be patient. And of course, if doing right the roi within ppc can be much faster.

SaSh

I second SaSh on this. I also prefer the SEO game even if I have been successful with PPC. Actually if you make your homework and find the right keyword phrases you can get high rankings very quickly.

For PPC, if you're just starting out, you should only create tiny very targeted campaigns. This will increase your account quality score and it will allow you to pay less per click in the long run.

Vita Vee

[mickeywest]

Hey Vita...

Are you saying to forget about getting the detective if you are a newbie...as I am...and rather concentrate on SEO and free traffic methods??

I have been watching the GCD videos and it looks soooo easy the way they do it. I was going to stretch myself and buy it!!!

How long does it take to get a good quality score?

Do you offer any courses or teaching along these lines as I am new here and have just found you?

You sure seem to know what you are talking about...thanks.

http://www.worldsbestwrinklecream.mickeywest.com

[Vita_Vee]

(06-18-2009 12:57 PM)mickeywest Wrote:  Hey Vita...

Are you saying to forget about getting the detective if you are a newbie...as I am...and rather concentrate on SEO and free traffic methods??

I have been watching the GCD videos and it looks soooo easy the way they do it. I was going to stretch myself and buy it!!!

How long does it take to get a good quality score?

Do you offer any courses or teaching along these lines as I am new here and have just found you?

You sure seem to know what you are talking about...thanks.

http://www.worldsbestwrinklecream.mickeywest.com

Hi Mickeywest,

PPC is dangerous without any doubt as I have been able to see with my GCD students.

GCD is great for finding great campaigns but if you can't manage to pay low enough per click then you won't be able to make profits.

That being said I'm not using GCD only with PPC. I'm also using it with SEO. After discovering a great campaign thanks to GCD and a great affiliate program and the profitable keywords, you can clone the campaign, build the same landing pages, use the same affiliate program but instead of paying google adwords you use my SEO methods to drive traffic to your offers.

It takes a little bit more time (Advantage of PPC is that you can get the traffic right now) but it's also less risky.

That being said, PPC is great to make quick profits when your adwords account has a high quality score. This is why you see all the PPC gurus make huge profits. Their accounts are old, they are building quality and targeted campaigns for years and their bids are very low and they manage to get higher rankings than those just starting.

In consequence, they have high CTR (thanks to their higher position) and this increases or at worse maintain their high quality score account.

If you have just opened your adwords account or plan to open one soon, my advice is to create very targeted campaigns only for a few weeks.

Vita Vee

[dsmith39]

Hi Vita,

Thanks for your last post insight. I just had a few questions for you on PPC as I'm fairly new at it and starting to realize it's not the holy grail I thought it might be. First of all when you say targeted campaigns do you mean a limited number of focused keywords (say 12 or so)? I've heard some say you should group very similar keywords together (only 1-3) for each ad group, so if you use 1000 keywords, well that would be time consuming? Should one use the {Keyword:????????} keyword insertion tool to help here?

I was looking at GDC and was thinking instead of going head to head with a direct affiliate winning campaign as Chris suggests (Google has the 1 direct link per page only rule), does it make sense to take that same campaign and use a decent landing page. I actually tried that as I thought it would work, but it was messy. My quality keyword score (not sure now this relates to account quality score) was 2 to 5 out of 10, because of relevancy. So I'm not sure if it's my landing page or ads that aren't relevant.

Also do you think direct linking is dead? It sure is easier then pulling a successful landing page together that Google actually likes (seems like Google doesn't like 1 page landing pages).

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated? Merci

http://www.my-data-entry-review.com
http://www.governmentauctionsitereviews.com

[Vita_Vee]

(06-19-2009 06:58 AM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Hi Vita,

Thanks for your last post insight. I just had a few questions for you on PPC as I'm fairly new at it and starting to realize it's not the holy grail I thought it might be. First of all when you say targeted campaigns do you mean a limited number of focused keywords (say 12 or so)? I've heard some say you should group very similar keywords together (only 1-3) for each ad group, so if you use 1000 keywords, well that would be time consuming? Should one use the {Keyword:????????} keyword insertion tool to help here?

I was looking at GDC and was thinking instead of going head to head with a direct affiliate winning campaign as Chris suggests (Google has the 1 direct link per page only rule), does it make sense to take that same campaign and use a decent landing page. I actually tried that as I thought it would work, but it was messy. My quality keyword score (not sure now this relates to account quality score) was 2 to 5 out of 10, because of relevancy. So I'm not sure if it's my landing page or ads that aren't relevant.

Also do you think direct linking is dead? It sure is easier then pulling a successful landing page together that Google actually likes (seems like Google doesn't like 1 page landing pages).

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated? Merci

http://www.my-data-entry-review.com
http://www.governmentauctionsitereviews.com

Hi DSmith,

No, I don't think direct linking is dead. Some say it is but it's not true. It's still possible to make easy money just with direct linking campaigns but you need to have a high quality score adwords account first or a very good niche.

Here is how you can increase your account quality score:

Only create EXTREMELY targeted campaigns with EXTREMELY targeted ad groups.

One keyword (the broad, phrase and exact match) per adgroup. The keyword in the ad title and in the landing page.

Only use long tail keywords. Minimum 3 words per keyword.

Campaign Example:

Campaign Name: Webhosting

Adgroup: pay webhosting account with paypal

Keywords:

* pay webhosting account with paypal
* [pay webhosting account with paypal]
* “pay webhosting account with paypal”

Ads:

WebHosting With PayPal
Pay Your WebHosting Account With
PayPal - Top Rated Hosts Reviewed
TopWebHostingAccounts.com/PayPal

Landing Page:

You must use the exact keyword you're targeting in your landing page. Preferably as the title of the page and it must be seen immediately by the visitor as soon as the page gets loaded.

Obviously this is just an example but I think you understand the concept.

If you only create this kind of campaign you will get extremely high quality score PLUS you will get extremely targeted visitors and this will increase your profitability.

Vita Vee

[secularllc]

I completely agree.

[dsmith39]

Hi Vita,
Sounds like solid advice so thanks.

Since a broad match contains all within your example keyword pay webhosting account with paypal
wouldn't that automatically include all occurances of the same phrase and exact keywords.

For example is someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal' that satisfies all 3 criteria, so why even include an exact match? Also if someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal or visa' it is included with a phase match but again it is included with the broad match so why even bother to include a phase or exact match.

I'm sure others have wondered this so your input is valuable and appreciated.

[minxie]

I'm trying out GCD right now and trying out a keyword with direct linking. I think it GCD would be an excellent program and I"d like to try PPC but since I am so new, I think I will just stick to SEO. I've bought Market Samurai and I still need to understand how that program fully works!!

[Vita_Vee]

(06-22-2009 06:01 PM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Hi Vita,
Sounds like solid advice so thanks.

Since a broad match contains all within your example keyword pay webhosting account with paypal
wouldn't that automatically include all occurances of the same phrase and exact keywords.

For example is someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal' that satisfies all 3 criteria, so why even include an exact match? Also if someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal or visa' it is included with a phase match but again it is included with the broad match so why even bother to include a phase or exact match.

I'm sure others have wondered this so your input is valuable and appreciated.

The reason to use the 3 matching options is because you will almost always have a higher CTR with the exact match than with broad match.

The more specific your keyword is and the more precise, the higher your CTR will be.

Let me give you an example from one of my own campaigns.

This is a campaign about heartburns.
I have a targeted adgroup called "home remedies for heartburn"

In this adgroup I have 3 keywords:

1. broad match: home remedies for heartburn
2. phrase match: "home remedies for heartburn"
3. exact match: [home remedies for heartburn]
   

For the broad match I have a CTR of 4.39%
For the exact match I have a CTR of 10,67%

Because the exact match keyword is extremely related to my ad, people click on it more often.

While the broad match version could be a lot of different variations. In fact for the broad match option google doesn't hesitate to display your ad for synonyms. Which makes it sometimes less relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

So thanks to this exact match keyword, the average CTR of my adgroup is higher.

The result: My adgroup, my campaign and my account quality score are higher than if I was not using this exact match.

Vita Vee

[premier4]

(06-24-2009 12:19 PM)vitavee Wrote:  

(06-22-2009 06:01 PM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Hi Vita,
Sounds like solid advice so thanks.

Since a broad match contains all within your example keyword pay webhosting account with paypal
wouldn't that automatically include all occurances of the same phrase and exact keywords.

For example is someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal' that satisfies all 3 criteria, so why even include an exact match? Also if someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal or visa' it is included with a phase match but again it is included with the broad match so why even bother to include a phase or exact match.

I'm sure others have wondered this so your input is valuable and appreciated.

The reason to use the 3 matching options is because you will almost always have a higher CTR with the exact match than with broad match.

The more specific your keyword is and the more precise, the higher your CTR will be.

Let me give you an example from one of my own campaigns.

This is a campaign about heartburns.
I have a targeted adgroup called "home remedies for heartburn"

In this adgroup I have 3 keywords:

1. broad match: home remedies for heartburn
2. phrase match: "home remedies for heartburn"
3. exact match: [home remedies for heartburn]
   

For the broad match I have a CTR of 4.39%
For the exact match I have a CTR of 10,67%

Because the exact match keyword is extremely related to my ad, people click on it more often.

While the broad match version could be a lot of different variations. In fact for the broad match option google doesn't hesitate to display your ad for synonyms. Which makes it sometimes less relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

So thanks to this exact match keyword, the average CTR of my adgroup is higher.

The result: My adgroup, my campaign and my account quality score are higher than if I was not using this exact match.

Vita Vee

Hi Vita,

How many keywords are you bidding on? I hear sometimes it's good to bid on 1-5 to start, then others say as many as possible! Also are you using the content network or do you have a separate campaign for the content network?

[Vita_Vee]

(06-30-2009 02:28 PM)premier4 Wrote:  Hi Vita,

How many keywords are you bidding on? I hear sometimes it's good to bid on 1-5 to start, then others say as many as possible! Also are you using the content network or do you have a separate campaign for the content network?

It's better to start bidding on as few keywords as possible. And always start by the most targeted ones.

Just so you know the most targeted keyword for any product, physical or digital is the product name.

If the product name keyword has a very low search volume, use the google keyword external tool to find keywords related to the merchant's page.

If you do that, don't use deep keyword phrases, instead use wide keyword phrases.

Here is an example of what I mean:

Root keyword: make money

what I call deep keyword phrases:

* make money online
* make money from home
* how to make money on the internet
* make money fast
* make easy money
* etc... All these keywords are just variations of the root keyword

What I call wide keyword phrases:

* make money
* extra cash
* make a living online
* quit my day job
* working from home
* dollars now
* etc... These are in essence new related root keywords for other deep keyword phrases.

You can either bid on these wide keywords by using the broad term and use a keyword tracker to find the exact keywords and exact new root keyword making you sales, or you can try to find more long tail keywords related to these ones to bid on them using the exact match.

Vita Vee

[premier4]

(06-30-2009 08:07 PM)vitavee Wrote:  

(06-30-2009 02:28 PM)premier4 Wrote:  Hi Vita,

How many keywords are you bidding on? I hear sometimes it's good to bid on 1-5 to start, then others say as many as possible! Also are you using the content network or do you have a separate campaign for the content network?

It's better to start bidding on as few keywords as possible. And always start by the most targeted ones.

Just so you know the most targeted keyword for any product, physical or digital is the product name.

If the product name keyword has a very low search volume, use the google keyword external tool to find keywords related to the merchant's page.

If you do that, don't use deep keyword phrases, instead use wide keyword phrases.

Here is an example of what I mean:

Root keyword: make money

what I call deep keyword phrases:

* make money online
* make money from home
* how to make money on the internet
* make money fast
* make easy money
* etc... All these keywords are just variations of the root keyword

What I call wide keyword phrases:

* make money
* extra cash
* make a living online
* quit my day job
* working from home
* dollars now
* etc... These are in essence new related root keywords for other deep keyword phrases.

You can either bid on these wide keywords by using the broad term and use a keyword tracker to find the exact keywords and exact new root keyword making you sales, or you can try to find more long tail keywords related to these ones to bid on them using the exact match.

Vita Vee

Thanks Vita,

I get it. Thats really useful. Sorry I asked you as well do you use the content network and when. Also do you have separate campaigns for content and search.

Thanks

[dsmith39]

Thank Vita,

So it sounds like using an exact match won't increase your clicks (assuming we're using the same ad) as your ad will show in either case, but rather will increase your CTR which in turn will decrease your CPC for that exact match keyword.

So I'm assuming Google won't show more then 1 of your ads simultaneously if a keyword entered matches with both broad and exact keyword?

One last question regarding Google's Conversion Tracking. I was able to have an affiliate enter Google's conversion code on their purchase thank you page, so does that guarantee that Google can track all sale conversions after someone clicks the search ad, which goes to my landing page, then the customer clicks the Clickbank hoplink to go to the affiliate site where they make a purchase. That's impressive if it keeps track of all sales conversion through all those steps.

Merci beaucoup (my attempt at french, love that language) for taking time to answer these and past questions.

[Vita_Vee]

(06-30-2009 08:23 PM)premier4 Wrote:  Thanks Vita,

I get it. Thats really useful. Sorry I asked you as well do you use the content network and when. Also do you have separate campaigns for content and search.

Thanks

Yes I'm also using the content network. Sometimes in the same campaigns as the search network and sometimes in separate campaigns.

Most of the time in separate campaigns and I prefer targeted placements.

Vita Vee

[Vita_Vee]

(07-01-2009 04:47 PM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Thank Vita,

So it sounds like using an exact match won't increase your clicks (assuming we're using the same ad) as your ad will show in either case, but rather will increase your CTR which in turn will decrease your CPC for that exact match keyword.

So I'm assuming Google won't show more then 1 of your ads simultaneously if a keyword entered matches with both broad and exact keyword?

One last question regarding Google's Conversion Tracking. I was able to have an affiliate enter Google's conversion code on their purchase thank you page, so does that guarantee that Google can track all sale conversions after someone clicks the search ad, which goes to my landing page, then the customer clicks the Clickbank hoplink to go to the affiliate site where they make a purchase. That's impressive if it keeps track of all sales conversion through all those steps.

Merci beaucoup (my attempt at french, love that language) for taking time to answer these and past questions.

That's right, it's to increase your CTR and decrease your costs.

Google will always try to display the ad of your exact matches first, then phrase match and then broad match.

That's great that you managed to get the merchant put your google's conversion code on their sales page. If they did, then yes you are guaranteed that all the sales will get tracked (except if the customer has a browser with javascript disabled but this is very very very rare)

Quote:Merci beaucoup (my attempt at french, love that language) for taking time to answer these and past questions.

Il n'y a pas de quoi (you're welcome)

Vita Vee

[dsmith39]

Vita, what do you use for producing your screen video recordings, Camtasia Studio. If so what version? I believe version 3 is free.

[Vita_Vee]

(07-03-2009 09:47 PM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Vita, what do you use for producing your screen video recordings, Camtasia Studio. If so what version? I believe version 3 is free.

I'm using the latest version, right now it's v 6.0.2

That's really a great software, very easy to use.

[bdegrossa]

(06-24-2009 12:19 PM)vitavee Wrote:  

(06-22-2009 06:01 PM)dsmith39 Wrote:  Hi Vita,
Sounds like solid advice so thanks.

Since a broad match contains all within your example keyword pay webhosting account with paypal
wouldn't that automatically include all occurances of the same phrase and exact keywords.

For example is someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal' that satisfies all 3 criteria, so why even include an exact match? Also if someone searches 'pay webhosting account with paypal or visa' it is included with a phase match but again it is included with the broad match so why even bother to include a phase or exact match.

I'm sure others have wondered this so your input is valuable and appreciated.

The reason to use the 3 matching options is because you will almost always have a higher CTR with the exact match than with broad match.

The more specific your keyword is and the more precise, the higher your CTR will be.

Let me give you an example from one of my own campaigns.

This is a campaign about heartburns.
I have a targeted adgroup called "home remedies for heartburn"

In this adgroup I have 3 keywords:

1. broad match: home remedies for heartburn
2. phrase match: "home remedies for heartburn"
3. exact match: [home remedies for heartburn]
   

For the broad match I have a CTR of 4.39%
For the exact match I have a CTR of 10,67%

Because the exact match keyword is extremely related to my ad, people click on it more often.

While the broad match version could be a lot of different variations. In fact for the broad match option google doesn't hesitate to display your ad for synonyms. Which makes it sometimes less relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

So thanks to this exact match keyword, the average CTR of my adgroup is higher.

The result: My adgroup, my campaign and my account quality score are higher than if I was not using this exact match.

Vita Vee

Vita - I've been diving into PPC much more since you and I last talked. I've been doing a lot of work with Perry Marshall and his guys. Based on that training and on my experience of applying what I'm learning, I would also suggest that you break the broad match out into a separate adgroup, and then you ensure that you have a lot of negative keywords to control your cost.
For instance, in the above example, Google could very well show your ad (against broad match) when someone types in "home remedies for bad breath". You can watch that adgroup closely and put a bunch of negatives in your keyword list to make sure that you're not wasting money or hurting your CTR. If google shows your ad all the time for things that don't match and no one clicks, it still hurts your CTR.

Becky