Most of us know how hard and difficult it is now in the competitive world of business online and marketing our products to get them sold and make it all work online, hopefully fully automated (I have a dream!) but not least, work from home without having to get up at 6:45 am to be at work by 9:00 am due to the heavy traffic volume (and for those in winter climates, I feel your pain) and in some cases, winter storms or cold rain.
Most of us strive for a little more than that. Whether you are looking to start up a home business through eBay or want to become the next Google Search Engine, we all have to start somewhere and most of us usually start from home in our personal computers, parttime after work or after the kids have gone to bed.
First and foremost, whether you have a business or business idea ready or not you do need to have something that you truly enjoying working with whether it be writing, selling or participating in affiliate programs. One thing is for sure, to make this guide a very useful tool you need to have a product, service or idea to make this all worthwhile.
Once you have found your product or service, this is where our little guide here comes in handy. I am constantly amazed at how many great products and services there are out there and THEY ARE NOT SELLING. So much focus and attention to detail was put into the product and website that all the time (and money) was spent and by that time, most people are just too overwhelmed to take on an effective marketing campaign. This guide is not how to get your website ranked in the top 3, or 5 or 10 or anything like that. We have quickly found that if you have a great product and do what is listed in this guide, you should not have to spend your hard earned money on these submission services (and some of them are more counter productive than productive) or spend valuable time submitting your website manually to the tens of thousands of Search Engines in the marketplace.
Welcome to the world of Google Secrets, Tips & Tricks Volume 1 were we help you set up a website, optimize it, work Google Adwords to maximize your sales and profits and assist you with the Google Search Engine tools that most 99% of the people are not aware exists!
This guide can, and should be read in any fashion you like. The only thing we assume is that you have some knowledge of web and search engine language and preferably, some basic HTML skills if you operate a website. There is no need to start from page one and read the guide straight through, you should go directly to the Chapters that you would like to focus on and later go back and read the guide to its fullest. Trust me, you will find very useful information throughout and you will not want to miss one single page.
Most website owners and marketers know the importance of having a highly ranked website, preferably in the top 20-30 rank on Google. Anything higher and you will benefit from good search engine traffic, especially on Google which is highly regarded as the top search engine in the world. You need to know what to do and how to do it right and we hope this guide will not only show you tips and secrets but also answer some of your questions by having us post some of our customers questions here, and our answers to them.
This guide is not a ‘book’ per se, more of a sprawled out information gatherer keeping up with the latest news and information to help you out. Be sure to sign up at GoogleSecrets.com and participate in our message forums. Signing up allows you to become part of our community and you will receive all the latest news via our mailings, an advantage no one else has.
If you have the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/) you will have access to very popular ‘PageRank’ green bar that is displayed. Here is Google’s explanation:
Google searches more sites more quickly, delivering the most relevant results.
Introduction
Google runs on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software. The speed you experience can be attributed in part to the efficiency of our search algorithm and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's we've networked together to create a super fast search engine.
The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.
PageRank ExplainedPageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
IntegrityGoogle's complex, automated methods make human tampering with our results extremely difficult. And though we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find highquality websites with information relevant to your search.
Source: http://www.google.com/technology/Trick to boost your CTRs aka dynamically inserting "keyword" in "title"
Got one ad and a whole list of keywords? Click through rates (CTRs) can be increased by including the keyword in the ad title. But, how do you do this with one ad and multiple keywords?
Answer: use dynamic titles.. just edit your ad and change the title to:{KeyWord:backup}
and the keyword will automatically appear in the ad title when the ad is served. BTW: The "backup" text is used if the keyword is to long.
{KeyWord:backup} can also be used with other fixed text in the title, for example, you could have:
Buy {KeyWord:backup} Today
subject to space constraints of course.
Does {KeyWord:backup} work in the body of the ad?
{Keyword:backup} - first word first letter gets cap {keyword:backup} - lowercase
also work, and you can use any in your copy as well.
Is this stuff documented on Google? Top Secret:
KeyWord:Widgets} In this example the search term used (as long as its 25 characters or less) would show up as the headline, And if the search term is over 25 characters "Widgets" would be used as your headline. The main drawback currently is that when you use this method that the backup headline (in this case "Widgets") is limited to 15 characters.
Just as a footnote.{keyword:backup} will give you it all lower case
{Keyword:bckup} will capitalise first character
{KEYWORD:backup} will put it all in caps (but you'll probably get stopped for relevancy but you might get a few impressions on it before then.
Do the math to figure out your profit on your average sale and how many visitors it takes to close a sale, on average. Once you know those, you can figure out how much you can afford to bid for traffic and still turn a profit.
The task of identifying relevant search phrases to bid on is worth careful research. You'll likely be adding to your list for weeks as you think of new searches.Try to find niches that people may be looking for that are not heavily advertised to extend the usefulness of your budget. Also make sure that your site is user friendly so that potential clients can order easily.
Track your sales by keyword. Make use of googles or another tracking tool to measure your ROI. Eliminate the poor performing keywords as you go and adjust your spend. You'll never know unless you try it.
Start small, don't make any nasty mistakes, be prepared to put in significant time daily, and IF you can build sales and profits then you can work up to $5,000 per month or even more. Remember - these little ads look easy, but they're not. Good luck!
What matters most is to keep your bids within the limit that will turn a profit for you. Set your bids accordingly, and let your ads deliver whatever they can deliver. If that puts you on the front page, great, but if not, take what you can get and leave it at that.
It's possible to get more mileage from your Adwords campaigns without spending more money; if you learn what tweaks will improve your overall clickthrough rates. CTR matters because Adwords gives better exposure to ads with better CTR, sometimes even to the point of ranking your ad ahead of a competitor who is bidding more. You don't always have to outspend your competitor to get ahead of her!
Bringing on an adword campaign slowly is a good idea. If you throw a ton of keywords into your account you are sure to be disappointed.Work on getting a nice set of high CTR Ad Groups, then it is easier to bring on more keywords.
Can I claim the money I spend on Adwords as an advertising expense (in Canada)?
Response / Advice / Answer:
I am a Canadian affiliate marketer and do deduct any marketing expenses that generate revenue, including AdWords. As long as you're reporting the income, you can claim any expenses you incurred in creating it. Sure, you can treat it as a small business and claim all adwords expenses and others (bank fee, portion of your computer cost, server fee...) against all revenues generated from it as a loss or a gain. This gain (or loss) can be added to (or deducted from)your total income for the year.
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I have a Paused Ad Group and set my Maximum CPC to $50.00.
If I enter a keyword such as [widget] and click on estimate traffic, the results show Average Cost-Per-Click $1.92 and Average Position 1.0.
Does that mean if I bid $1.92 I will have the number one position? If that is true then that means the current number one position is paying $1.91 per click?
Response / Advice / Answer:
No. Google also factors in the CTR (click thru rate). They want maximum revenue (don't we all).
$1.92 per click x 10 clicks a day will produce $19.20 a day
$.09 per click x 1000 clicks will produce $90 a day!
Which would you give top billing? I am not sure how they factor in words and bids without a 'history' but I know the give higher placement for good CTR.
That's an estimated position, and the estimator can often be way off.
Secondly, that's not necessarily their bid. Ranking is done by CPC x CTR. So if you have a $10 bid and 1% CTR, and they have a 10% CTR and $1.01 bid, they will appear first.
The only way to see if that formula will give you the top position is to bid it, then do a search on G.
To find out for real set you max CPC to $2.00 and run the ad. Then look at your real costs.
But, the name of your posting "lusting" is a good one.. you can waste a ton of money on Adwords lusting after the top position. And you may not need top position. After you've done the above test and got real numbers, then set you Max CPC to, say $0.17 and compare results!
Remember, Google only displays 8 of these guys per page, and many people scan all 8. So, if you are in position #8 will your click volume be that much lower. Try it and see, you might be surprised, and you'll certainly save a ton of money
I want my ad to show for ALL search phrases containing a given keyword. So, of course, I simply use broad (or phrase) match for that single keyword. But then I notice many search phrases that do NOT display my ad. I even tried a search phrase that included the keyword plus some gobbledygook - other ads displayed but not mine. How do I get this to work? How do I get an ad to display for ALL and ANY phrase containing my keyword?
Response / Advice / Answer:Is your daily budget set high enough to ensure that your ad will appear all the time?
Depending on your budget, your ad might show for only a portion of the possible searches as Google makes its best guess about how to ration your funds and spread your ad exposures throughout the day. Try raising your budget and see if that improves your coverage.
I have noticed the exact same thing. No budget problems. When I complained to Google I got this:
"I wanted to send you an update on your question about broad match keywords. Anytime you have broad match keywords in your account, our system will treat these broad match keywords as exact matches and then based on performance, it will start expanding them to the keyword plus another word. "
This is a change, a BIG change in how broad matching works! the word in question has an average CTR of 3-4%. If that is not 'good enough performance' to 'expand' I am in serious trouble. I spend $800-$1000 month and have been very happy with sales. But, I have about 500 keywords all with decent CTR's. It seems that my only option is to think of every iteration specifically and broad match those.
I don't have the time for this. It also seems to defeat the whol purpose of broad matching.I Don't understand why they are making this change. As long as my broad matched terms are performing well why should I be penalized.
I plan on complaining loudly about this and I suggest that if this is important to you, you should do so as well.
That is how broad-matching (as opposed to expanded broad matching) is supposed to work. If I have a broad match phrase 'red widgets' I would like the ad to show in any search phrase which includes 'red widgets'. ESPECIALLY search strings I have not thought of.
If someone types in "I really want to buy a red widget" you better believe I want my ad to show. In the past, as long as my CTR was decent for 'red widget' and my budget was high enough my ad would show.
Now (if I understand correctly) there is a new threshold of performance necessary before my will ad will show on anything but 'red widget' .
So I am supposed to add:
I really want to buy a red widget I really want to find a red widget I would like to get a red widget
åååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååååIs anybody here getting blank referrers? Is it a "glitch" or is is related to users' browser or some other special circumstances?
Response / Advice / Answer:
Many browsers don't pass referrer information. This has been inherent in the web since the early days. There was even a version of IE - 3.01 that had problems passing referrer info.
Today, there is a multitude of customized browsers.
We experience 10-15% of our click through, with "no" referrer info. And this percentage has been consistent for the last several years.
A blank referrer is quite common. The referrer is just like any other header that the browser sends when requesting a page from a web server, but there is no requirement to send one.
Also it's not uncommon for a users proxy server to remove the referrer header, I have my proxy configured just so. There is absolutely nothing on the web server end you can do about it.
Hi after being an adsense publisher for many months I decided that adwords is what my brother could really use for his newly founded business. :)
I'm doing this with the revenues from my other sites on adsense; hopefully if this works I'll be reinvesting my adsense cash into customers which will convert to more money, especially over the longer term. (this is the theory anyway lol!)
I would like to hear your best advice for the adwords system and optimizing my profits. Advice for improving CTR and lowering CPC are also greatly appreciated! I have been reading through several of the topics here, but most seem to deal with fraud - is this problem on a serious scale?
Is there any tool to find odd search terms which may bring in clicks? Obviously I can think up of search terms but any help much appreciated!Lastly I know this is a big area (his market) with many huge fish who have gone on board with adwords, so is there really hope for me to get involved there, bearing in mind my daily spending will be only about $5-10 a day.
In addition I would like to know if I had two campaigns (same account) is it possible for them both to come up for the same keyword?
Both Overture and Adwords have keyword tools. Do a search for 'keyword tool' and you should get some helpful results. I don't think fraud is a wide-spread problem. And there is much more to this forum as well. You should be able to find tips on lowering CPC and increasing CTR. IMO- A $5-$10 daily spend isn't going to get you much in this field.
A $5-$10 daily budget is a waste of time in my opinion. And no, you cant have two accounts pointing to the same site with the same keywords. In a competitive area, I'd think it would be necessary to set aside a grand or two or more to get enough ads out there and clicks to see what works and what doesn't.
1) To find unusual words/phrases you can also use WordTracker. You can get a lot out of a 1-day access at $7.452) Use lots of negative words.
3) Use many different ad groups so you can get the search in the title (e.g. if someone searches for "red widgets" you want your ad to say "Buy Red Widgets"). You can use the substitution feature, but I prefer more ad groups.
4) I don't want to start another holy war, but I would say with a tight budget you should definitely turn off content distribution5) use lots of negative words.
6) Lots of people feel tweaking creative is very helpful, I'm not so sure but I do always recommend starting titles with a call to action (e.g. "Buy", "Search", "Compare").
7) Use lots of negative words.
8) If you have ad groups with highly variable CTR’s (e.g. one phrase is at 1.9% and another at 0.06%) you might want to consider taking action on low performers even if they are above Google's minimum. You can either move them to a different ad group or just delete them.
You can setup any website to accept CC's in a matter or minutes, not days. All you need is a website (not even a sec cert.), a bank account, and some basic html skills. I don't know your industry and your business so I cannot really say, but if I were to guess I would say if your not accepting CC's because you think it's too hard or you don't need that option - your doomed.
Creatives not important? ..Quote from Oceans 11, "are you out of your godamned mind!" A good ad always takes good copy. By stating that, I assume you just write an ad and let it run? As opposed to editing and rewording it with proven words while tracking the CTR's? Certain words can make or break an ad, and raise or lower your CTR by very substantial percentages. In the industries I work in, and there are quite a few, changing words around can mean a 5% jump in CTR and in sales as a result.
Since we're on this subject, I see the majority of ads on Adwords are basically bits and pieces of other ads that worked for other companies. I don't say much about it, and rightfully so. I compete in many markets & industries, and my ads nearly every time in every market get premium listings with a low CPC in part as a result of other advertisers not understanding how to write copy. If your running ads that you kinda just through together and profiting, get me in there and I will blow your mind (unless of course you already have a 10% CTR at a .40 CPC yielding premium listings across the board).
The way I do it now:1) use broad match to find out what the market is searching for
2) set up ads for phrases from broad search that apply to your product as exact match
3) use the exact match phrase 2) as a negative in the broad match ad
Although the budget you have has an influence on number of impressions and clicks, low budgets campaigns are not something to dismiss as mentioned above. It really depends on the market and what you can get out of it.
The budget is good enough to prove the concept of Adwords to you, credit card payments will help in some industries and hinder in others, depends what you sell as to whether to pursue. We used to take credit card payments but ended up letting the merchant account lapse at renewal as it was expensive and un-necessary and eroded margins for us.
Tools like Wordtracker will only be as good as the end user, there is no magic formula but there is still a colossal amount of unbidded inventory, in spite of attempts by the PPC providers to match drive, or extend broad match, or the FindWhat/Lycos intelliwhatsit announced today.
Once you know what you are looking for it's easy to find, which may seem a bit of an oxymoron, but search follows a pattern, once you know the pattern the research is easy. There was a thread back in supporters along those lines, which would be worthy of a read.
Daily budget = cash flowI'm sure this is brought up every day, but what is the process in reporting fraudulent clicks to Google adwords?
For an ad we normally get 2% clickthrough and 150 clicks/day for, today we got 1,500
clicks and a 22% CTR. Yet, our logs show that each person's IP address showed 6 or 7
hits on our Google landing page today. We have about 50 keywords, and 49 of them look normal. Its just one keyword that got 1300 clicks alone. Doesn't Google automatically filter out this type of thing? We've been running 6 ad groups for over a year and have never had this type of problem.
I'd email adwordssupport@google.com.
I would make them aware of it, but I believe there is a delay factor in getting a refund, because others have commented in getting an Adwords refund for fraudulent clicks weeks later.
Don't forget that your credit card payment of Google Adwords is protected by the credit card purchase protection guarantee - and you are within your rights to dispute the charge if you do not believe you have received what you paid for - and 1000 fraudulent clicks is not what you paid for.
Still, I'd try to dispute it. I think its kind of stupid to click on other people's ads as a method of retaliation (i.e. they can end up in a better position because of it), but people still do it. You can still make lemonade out of lemons, though.
I don't know if it's fraud, a bug, or if its Google's new optimization function, but our impressions for one of our word phrases unnaturally increased by a factor of more than 6, and the clickthrough rate for that word almost quadrupled, resulting in a huge amount of useless traffic that did not convert.
We stopped the phrase, and turned off the new optimization feature for that add group until we iron this out with or rep.A word of advice. Unless you can afford to have your Adwords off for a very long time, DON'T do a chargeback. We did one and Google didn't only switch off the related account, they switched off ALL the accounts from all our related companies. Tread carefully.
I got hit a few weeks ago by a single two word keyphrase, all coming from search.netscape.com that was pulling in under broad match on one of my ad groups.Hundreds and hundreds of clicks on the exact same two word phrase all from Netscape, and all within 24 hours. Interestingly enough, all from different IPs, most inside the US, but some spread out all over.
The keywords were only being generated at search.netscape.com, and not on any of the other search engines on the adwords feed.
It was actually sort of a pain to get a refund. My first entreaties for help via the online "contact us" page of adwords yielded a "I looked at it, but I don't think its fraud" response.
Only upon further pestering and pleading did the rep agree that perhaps it was a little strange that I was getting hundreds and hundreds of hits on an obscure keyword phrase that had registered less than a dozen total hits in the last 30 days. Even stranger that they were coming exclusively from search.netscape.com.
After finally getting them to agree to look into it, Google requested that I not put in a negative keyword phrase to block the hits, so that they could monitor it. I agreed, under the assumption that I wouldn't be charged for these hits while they monitored.
A few days later, I got a courtesy call from someone at Google, claiming that they would refund me for all of the obviously fraudulent clicks I received. (For what its worth, they didn't fulfill that promise, only refunding me for one-third to one-half the clicks - all those received _before_ they specifically requested that I turn the ads back on).
And then, last week, I watched my logs and noticed someone at a specific IP clicking down through every single one of my adwords ads (I have 50 or so). Given that I advertise on a number of different keywords and the speed at which they were gone through, I assumed that this was someone inside Google checking to make sure my Adwords text matched up with my landing pages and site details. Just as a precaution, I sent a query in via the support page on the adwords site, but never received a response. The IP address of whoever was clicking through those dozens of ads didn't resolve to a google.com address as far as I can tell, which is what concerned me in the first place.
No idea whether I got charged for those or not. The net is, Google will tell you that they are VERY serious about click fraud, but my experience has been that they are more like semi-serious. The impetus is on you to beg, plead, and cajole them into doing something in a fraud or potential fraud case, and even then there is a fair chance that the experience will end up costing you some number of dollars out of pocket.
Definitely don't r
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