More On Paid Search Account Management

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span limit.

class="cap">Google

Low Clickthroughs = Change
AdWords and Yahoo Search Your Ad

Marketing can be great media for

If you are getting low
driving traffic to your web site.     clickthroughs, i.e. not enough to
They can also, if you're not          even use up your daily limit each
careful, chew up a lot of your        day, chances are that you need to
money and not produce enough          change your text ad. This is the
leads. So how do you manage them      ad that gets displayed on Google
properly so that you get your         or Yahoo when people enter the
money's worth?                        keywords you have selected. If
Daily Limit

you have market research surveys

The first thing to know is         done for your business, review
that it is absolutely vital to        these and rewrite your ad to
set a daily limit on both Google      better reflect what the surveys
and Yahoo. This is a daily budget     show as what your public needs
that controls how long your ads       and wants. If you don't have any
appear each day. For example,         surveys, go to Google and Yahoo
let's say that you want to spend      and enter the keywords for your
$300 per month on Google. You set     campaign, and look at what other
your daily limit to $10 per day.      vendors are saying in their ads.
Your ads will appear and people       This will give you ideas on what
will click on the ads, and each       to say that might work
time they do, your account will       better.

be debited. Once it reaches the

Once you make changes to your
$10 limit, then your ads will be      ad, make sure you record the
shut off for the day. Without         change and the date you made the
setting this limit you can spend      change, in a folder. Then review
a fortune in just a few days. So      the statistics every couple of
definitely use the daily              days and see how the new ad is

doing in terms of clickthroughs. (giving you their contact info)
Compare it to how the previous ad or buy something

was doing.

Get the idea that your landing

Low Conversions = Change Your page should only give the person
Landing Page

one choice, i.e. to fill out the

Once people click on your ad       form and become a lead or buy
on Google or Yahoo, they land on      something. If you give them your
a page on your web site. This I       whole navigational button
cleverly call the "landing page."     structure on that page, they will
The percentage of people that         wander all over your site and the
land on this page that actually       percentage of those that will
do something that you want, such      become a lead or sale will be
as fill out the form to buy           MUCH lower.

something or become a lead, is

Also, your landing page can
known as the conversion offer some kind of free item,
ratio.

often an informational product

By the way, this landing page      such as a "free report,"
should NEVER be your home page.       something you can make into a PDF
The landing page should be            and send to them for free. This
specifically set up so that           usually increases conversion
it:

ratios.

a. Does NOT include your

Often people ask me what kind
standard navigational links to of conversion ratio is good or
the rest of your site.

acceptable. I have gotten as high

b. Contains sales text and as 10% conversion, meaning 10
pictures of your product or people out of every 100 that come
service

to the landing page do the

c. Contains a form at the          desired action such as filling
bottom for people to either fill      out the form to become a lead.
out the form and become a lead        However, not every campaign has

that kind of potential. A lot         sports, celebrity gossip, etc. So
depends on your offer, and how        the person going there is
well that connects with the           slightly different.

public. Also the various markets

Bidding

using Google and Yahoo paid

On both Google AdWords and
search have changed a lot in the      Yahoo Search Marketing, in their
last 2-3 years. I would say that      online account management
a 2-5% conversion ratio is            interface, it will show you your
acceptable today. 10% is really       ad's average position. In other
stellar.

words, it will have a number like

Google vs. Yahoo

1 or 1.7 or 2.5 or 63.7. This

In the course of managing          represents the average position
several paid search accounts for      your ad appears in for that
clients, I have noticed within        keyword. In other words, does it
the last year that people going       appear at the top (in 1st place),
to Google tend to convert to          or in second, or third, or way
leads or sales at much higher         down the list?

conversion ratios than those

Both Google and Yahoo use a
going to Yahoo. For this reason I     very arbitrary and secret system
actually recommend, especially to     to determine your position, based
people with limited budgets, that     on, first of all, your bid, and
they start on Google. A few years     secondly, your ad's "quality."
ago it was just the opposite. My      The bid part is pretty straight
theory on this is that the            ahead. The higher you bid, the
demographic of people that go to      higher your ad will appear. That
Google is different than those        used to be the only criteria that
who go to Yahoo. Google just has      determined your ad's position on
that one line. Everyone going         Yahoo, but they recently changed
there is going to search for          their system to make it like
something. Yahoo has news,            Google, based on your bid and

also on "quality."

for that keyword in a given time

Your first question will           period) and your average position
likely be "What do they mean by       is low, i.e. below 3 let's say,
'quality'?" And you're right -        then you may want to bid higher
that is exactly the question.         to move yourself up in the ranks.
Unfortunately this is all very        But you also have to use judgment
arbitrary and secret, which has       here, based on the current bid
the effect that one tends to bid      amount and the price point of the
higher and higher to try to raise     thing you're selling. You
one's position, which of course       obviously can't afford to spend
is great for Google and Yahoo as      $3.00 per click if the thing
they make more money. The quality     you're selling costs $10.00.
issue is supposedly based on the      Because not everybody who clicks
idea that your landing page is        is going to buy.

relevant for that keyword and

Another aspect of bidding
contains good information, and of     which is helpful to know about,
course again, that's all pretty       is the phenomenon of the
subjective and arbitrary (i.e.        expensive keywords using up your
based on one person's decision or     whole budget quickly. Take this
judgment.

scenario: You have 8 campaigns up

So my advice is not to worry       on Google. Your bid amounts are
much about the quality issue. As      mostly between $1.00 and $2.00.
long as your ad and landing page      But one of your campaigns has a
are relevant to the keyword           max bid amount of $4.00, because
that's pretty much all you have       there is more competition for
to worry about.

those keywords. And those

As for bid levels, in general      keywords get lots of impressions.
if you have a keyword that is         And your daily budget amount is
getting lots of impressions           $12.00, or $360 per month. So you
(number of times someone searches     can see that 3 clickthroughs from

your expensive campaign can chew exciting new eBook at up your whole budget for the href="http://www.realwebmarketing
day.

.net/ebook1/"

Beware of this phenomenon,         title="http://www.realwebmarketin
because your goal is to either        g.net/ebook1/"
get leads or sales. And not every     target="_blank">person who clicks through to your     color="#001000"
site is going to become a lead or     size="-2">http://www.realwebmarke
sale. So you've got to drive          ting.net/ebook1/. John
volume clickthroughs to the site.     is also President of So if a certain keyword or group      href="http://RealWebMarketing.net
of keywords has a much higher bid     "
level, you might want to skip         title="http://RealWebMarketing.ne
them. Go with keywords or groups      t" target="_blank">of keywords that are more             color="#001000"
affordable. I have often found        size="-2">http://RealWebMarketing
that those expensive keywords are     .net (not necessarily the best ones for     href="http://www.realwebmarketing
conversions anyway.

.net"

Good luck with your Google and title="http://www.realwebmarketin
Yahoo paid search g.net" target="_blank">campaigns.

end>About the                      size="-2">http://www.realwebmarke
Author), an Internet
id="authorbio"                        marketing and web design firm in
class="membersnoticewhite">John       Los Angeles. He has been doing
Eberhard is the author of "Making     marketing in a wide variety of
Money with a Web Site, The Basics     fields for 18
of Internet Marketing, Part 1."       years.