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Learn How to Instantly Make Your Web Site URL
Appear
on the First Page of Search Results in Google
Each
month in our "Secrets To Their Success" private
members' web site, we interview e-business people
who are making fantastic profits with their online
businesses. We ask them for the details of how they've
come to be so successful -- what exactly their secrets
are, what tools they've used, etc. And we find out
some interesting things...
A
number of these people have recently reported having
great success with Google
AdWords Select. In fact, in one of the interviews
we did last month, our interviewee told us he is
generating an average of 13,000 unique visitors per day by having keyword listings on
both Google AdWords and Overture.com.
Google
AdWords Select is the pay-per-click side of the
search engine giant we all know as Google. Just
a few months old, Google AdWords Select is an offshoot
of its cost-per-impression sister Google AdWords,
which has been available for a little longer.
An
ad placed with Google AdWords Select shows up in
a colored box on the right side of the Google search
results page, combining free (editorial) content
with paid advertising. It's another form of pay-per-click
advertising that, done right, has proven to effectively
generate traffic.
The
ads are extremely high in visibility, set off from
the main text in Google's familiar pages that attract over 20 million unique visitors per month. Your
URL can appear on the first page of search results without all the hassles of search engine submission
and optimization... and you don't pay unless viewers
click!
Sound
like the ideal advertising set-up? Well, it's been
very profitable for some... But let's have a look
at what exactly Google AdWords Select offers, how
it differs from competing sites in its industry,
and how you can use it to your benefit.
Because
Overture has dominated the pay-per-click industry
almost unrivaled until now, I'll use it as a point
of comparison to examine the merits of Google AdWords
Select.
The
main difference between the two programs is the
way in which their ads are listed -- Google's are
highlighted alongside the regular Google search
results, and Overture's appear as regular
search results. However, there are five other points
of difference that are very important to understand...
1. Pricing
The
pricing structures for each are very different:
When
you sign up for Overture, you must pay a $50 deposit that is applied
to your monthly click-throughs and your monthly
"spend" (you must spend a minimum of $20 per month
in click-throughs; if you don't, the money will
be subtracted from your deposit). The minimum bid
amount is 5 cents.
In Google
AdWords Select, you must pay a $5 non-refundable
fee that is not put toward your click-through fees.
There is no monthly minimum to pay. The minimum
bid is said to be 5 cents, but this is not the case
for all keywords -- in fact, bidding on popular
keywords tends to be more expensive here.
2. Bidding Your Way to the Top
If
you want to bid on the term "baseball bats" in Overture,
you could run a query in their View Bids tool to determine that (at the time of
writing) the number-one position has a maximum bid
of $1.18 per click. You'd have to beat that bid
to get the coveted position.
In
Google AdWords, there is no "View Bids" or equivalent
tool; you don't have any access to the amounts other
advertisers are bidding. What you can do is fiddle
with the numbers in the "Traffic Estimator Tool"
(which you'll find when you go to set up your ad) to find out how much you'll have
to pay to get a top position with your keyword.
By
testing different amounts in the Traffic Estimator,
we found that the minimum bids changed according to the popularity
of each keyword. A minimum bid for the keywords
"baseball bats" in Google AdWords Select requires
(at the time of writing) $0.40 per click and ranks
your ad fifth. This is the same as the bid for the
number-five position in Overture.
But
to attain the number-one position in Google AdWords
Select, you'll have to cough up a hefty $2.60 per
click, while the ace spot in Overture goes for a
maximum bid of $1.18.
3. Keeping Your Bid Costs Low
When
Google AdWords Select first came out, it got an
edge on its competition by creating the "AdWords
Discounter." This tool automatically keeps your
bid one penny ahead of the competition, up to your
stated maximum amount, thereby accomplishing two
very important tasks:
It
keeps you from having to monitor your bids and
your competition all day every day, and
If
your next closest competitor lowers his or her
bid, your bid will automatically be lowered
to only a penny over the lesser amount. This
prevents "bid gaps," which occur when a wide
margin exists between one bid and the next lowest
bid, causing the higher bidder to spend unnecessary
money.
Since
then, Overture has taken the hint and has implemented
a similar tool, referred to as its "Auto Bidding"
tool. Be careful, however, to make sure you sign
up for this service in Overture -- it does not happen
automatically, and you may be caught paying much
more than you need to!
Allow
me to illustrate: In our search on "baseball bats,"
the top bid was, as mentioned, $1.18. The next highest
bid, however, was $0.65! That means the unfortunate
soul in the fortunate position of being number one could be saving 52 cents per click!
...And
if this calculation is taken into consideration,
and if we drop the number-one listing's bid amount
to $0.66 cents (all it needs to be), it means that
the number-one spot in Google AdWords Select costs
four times more than in Overture for this particular
keyword.
I
know that sounds expensive, but Google's approach
to advertising could mean an excellent return on
investment on your ad (depending on your ad, of
course!) -- so although you pay more, you could
profit more as well.
Note: If you're not sure how much is too much
to bid on the keywords you want, take a
look at issue 54 of our newsletter, where we discuss
how to determine the dollar value of your
customers -- if you bid over this amount,
you could end up losing money.
The
only way to really determine both the value and the volume of your traffic from your
Overture ad as compared to your Google AdWords Select
ad is by tracking your advertising. Each program
will allow you to assign a tracking URL to your
ad -- a URL that contains a special identifier so
that you can tell which ad is pulling the most response
from where and ensure that it is generating enough
revenue to be worth the cost of advertising.
Google
AdWords Select makes it very easy to create a tracking
URL when you initially set up your account. In Overture
it's not quite as easy, but they'll tell you what
to do at: http://www.overture.com/d/USm/learning/track_howb.jhtml
Your
viewers won't see this URL -- they'll click on your
web site link and be redirected through your tracking
ID. We personally track all of our advertising with
our affiliate software -- AssocTRAC. It's the easiest and most effective way
we've found to keep an eye on our ads and ensure
that they're turning the profit we expect.
4. Listing Position
Your listing position is more than just a matter of catching
viewers' attention -- in both Overture and Google
AdWords Select, a top-three listing can dramatically
increase the exposure of your ad.
Overture's massive reach is enabled not only by its well-known
name, but also by its partnerships with:
Yahoo
Ask Jeeves
InfoSpace
MSN
AltaVista
Netscape
But Google AdWords is no shrinking violet either; its partners
include:
America Online
Earthlink
Sympatico/Lycos
Your ad is guaranteed listings on all partners' sites only
if it appears in the top three listings for your
search term. So how do you achieve this position?
In
Overture, the process is simple: the more you pay,
the better your listing. If you outbid all the other
people competing for your keywords, you'll attain
a top listing in the pages of search results. Simple
as that.
In
Google AdWords Select, the listing process is very
different, and is unique in the pay-per-click industry.
First of all, Google AdWords ads are listed at the
top right of Google's search result pages. This
means that your ad shows up in a prominent position
alongside (but set apart from) Google's editorial
(unpaid) listings.
Secondly,
and most surprisingly, your ranking is determined
both by how much you bid and by how many
click-throughs your ad generates. The more you bid,
the better your chances of attaining a top ranking
are -- but if your ad doesn't perform, it
just slides on down the rankings.
Google's
argument for this kind of approach is that ads that
perform are (obviously) of more interest to viewers,
so this kind of system creates the best quality
results for users. Google also maintains that performance-based
placement keeps competitors from getting locked
out of top positions by those with more money to
spend.
But
the problem with Google's payment-plus-popularity
placement system is that it can be very difficult
to figure out exactly where your ad will appear.
And if you're paying the top price for the top listing
but not actually getting the top position
on Google's results page, you'll not only be a little
disgruntled -- you'll also have to do some work
on your ad to try to get the response you're aiming
for.
5. Choosing Keywords
Back
to keywords -- but let's take a step back from bidding
on them and talk about the process of choosing them
in the first place...
Both
Overture and Google AdWords supply tools to help
you determine which keywords would be best for you
to use. However, Overture provides a much more extensive
and useful range of tools.
Google's
"AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool" does give you
a list of synonyms and similar phrases for your
keyword. For example, when I punched in "Baseball
Bats" I got a list of 20 related terms.
However,
when I entered "Baseball Bats" into Overture's "Search
Term Suggestion Tool," I got a list of 99 related
terms, PLUS how many times each of those terms has
been searched in the last month. Flip over to the
"View Bids" tool to determine how much is being
bid on these terms, and your bidding strategy is
underway.
But
if you want to get a good pay-per-click listing
on Google, there's no reason why you can't use Overtureto get a feel for which terms are most searched, and which are available
at low cost (you can do this for free and without
committing to anything with Overture), then use these terms to create your ad in Google AdWords
Select.
Or,
better yet, use the more comprehensive tools offered
by WordTracker--
the free version will give you search numbers and
bidding amounts from AltaVista, while the paid version
compiles results from the top 24 search engines,
directories, and pay-per-click engines, including
Google. This is the best way to find those overlooked
keywords and misspellings that your competition
hasn't noticed... and that you can capitalize on at a very low cost.
Final Thoughts:
The
success experienced by our Secrets To Their Success interviewees who used Google
AdWords Select is a good indicator of what you can
do with this somewhat elusive form of pay-per-click advertising. Google
has a very good reputation and is widely used as
a search tool with quality (unpaid) listings, and
you just can't miss the "sponsored links" listed
down the right column of the page.
It
is perhaps this degree of visibility that has made
such a difference to those advertisers who have
generated a great response with Google AdWords Select.
And now that you know how to use Google AdWords Select
to achieve the best results possible, you can start
getting in on some of Google's masses of traffic.
To maximize the performance of your ad, make sure
to...
Choose the keywords you bid on very carefully. Try to choose
keywords that are frequently searched by your
target market but that are not being bid on
by as many of your competitors.
Write an effective ad (see issue 65 of our newsletter for tips on how to
make the best use of the space you have).
Monitor your bid position. Whenever possible, make sure you
rank in the top 3 listings as this will get
your ad the highest exposure.
Track your results and make adjustments and improvements
based on what you learn.
Learning
the search engine game is a trying and time-consuming
lesson, and a start-up e-business may not have the
time or the resources to undertake the arduous task
of getting a good ranking. But if you can choose
your keywords carefully and find the most attractive
bid amounts available, you can bid your way to the
top of the search results pages without blowing
your budget.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly
successful online businesses that attract more than 1.8
million visitors per month and generate over $6.6 million
each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling
Internet Marketing course online.
To
Find Out How To Market Your Business
Online CLICK
HERE
