Text Link Advertising Making The Most Of Your Budget

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eading through a text-link      Nothing is worse for a bad
advertising forum recently,     website than a good text-link ad
I noticed a number of           campaign--you drive people to it
negative posts. One post in           once and then they never come
particular stuck in my mind and I     back.
want to answer it here.
                                      While you're at it, be sure your
The poster had been frustrated        website is designed to encourage
with his results from a text-link     visitors to do what you want them
ad campaign. He mentioned that he     to do (i.e. click on CPC ads, buy
was new to text-link advertising      your or your affiliate program's
and he wasn't getting any             products, etc.), ETHICALLY, of
results.                              course.

My short answer to him would be,      2-Second, what's your ad campaign
"Your text-link ads can get           objective? Before you spend a
results, but you have to use the      penny on text-link advertising,
right text links and the right        you need to decide what you want
ads."                                 your ads to do for you. Do you
                                      just want more traffic to your
My long answer follows, in the        site? Or do you want people to
form of five key tips for any         take some action once they get to
text-link advertising campaign:       your site (i.e., buy a product,
                                      sign up for a newsletter, etc.).
1-First, make sure you have a         Make sure you're clear on what
product that's good. In this          you want for your text-link ad
case, your product is your            dollars first.
website. Make sure it's designed
well, easy to navigate, with          3-Related to step 2, take
content people are interested in.     advantage of any special features

offered by the website you've         looking for information in a
placed your text-link ads             broad sense, your searches tend
on--especially if they offer          to be broad, don't they? But when
conversion tracking. Conversion,     you're ready to buy, or take some
for the uninitiated, means            other action, your searches are
CONVERTING a visitor into either      more narrow and your search terms
a customer (they buy a product),      are more specific to what you
a subscriber (they sign up for        want.
your newsletter) or whatever
other action you want to              For example, if you're casually
"CONVERT" your visitors into          interested in bicycles, you might
taking. Conversion tracking will      search just using that as your
help you figure out which of your     keyword, "bicycle." But once
text-link ads are getting you the     you've decided to buy a bike,
kind of visitors you want.            you'll probably have something
                                      more specific in mind: "red
4-Test, test, test. The beauty of     ten-speed bikes" or "Mike's Bike
most text-link advertising is         Shop."
that it's not prohibitively
expensive to advertise or test        If you want your visitors to do
your ads (as long as you watch        something specific at your
your spending limits). If you         website, then your text-link ad
can, run a few different              should be as specific as
text-link ad variations.              possible.

Something to consider when            Once you set up your text-link ad
creating your text-link ad: put       campaign, give it some time to
yourself in your visitors' shoes      see what ads work, at least a
as much as possible. When you're      week or preferably a couple of
just surfing the web casually or      weeks. Be aware of the season, or

if a holiday weekend falls during     at a time and keep track of them
your testing, as those factors        (enter your text-link ad changes
will affect your text-link ads'       into a diary or journal, for
results.                              example) so you can easily
                                      measure their effect. A tweak as
5-And last but not least, don't       minor as changing a word or two
be afraid to make changes to your     in your text-link ad could
text-link ad campaign. Just make      increase your conversion rate
sure they're incremental, and         significantly. Or it might not.
give each change some time to see     So keep track of what works (and
if it works.                          what doesn't so you don't repeat
                                      it).
For example, pick the text-link
ad that gives you the best            Don't make the mistake that
conversion rate and tweak it,         poster made, throwing money at
while you drop the others. Change     his text-link advertising and
the times and days of the week it     then cutting it off in
appears (if you can) to find out      frustration when it didn't work.
when to schedule them. Or try         Make sure to set up your
another text-link ad variation.       text-link ads properly and then
                                      tinker with them until you get
Just make sure you make these         the results you want.
changes to your text-link ads one

Read more articles by: Frank Calderon

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