Private Reply to Thomas Hasler

Private Reply to Michael McGauley

Private Reply to Brian Gruss

Hello Thomas,

I have run successful campaigns for both myself and my clients through Google Adwords.  Google Adwords is a great way to get the leads you need.

A few tips:

1.  Send your Google Adwords visitors to a landing page that is specifically about the product or service featured in the ad, NOT to your home page.

2.  Track your results!  Google will give you some code to add to your thank you page that can help with this, or you can use an ad tracking system like Ultimate Affiliate Manager ($97 one time fee) or 1ShoppingCart ($29 per month)

3.  Buy Perry Marshall's The "Definitive Guide to Google Adwords."  This e-book is a very well written, step by step ebook that shows you how to advertise effectively through Google, while saving 100s or 100s of dollars. This is an e-book I refer to every week. You can also sign up for Perry's free "5 Days to Success with Google Adwords."

Since I was already running successful Google Adwords campaigns, I thought there wouldn't be a lot of new stuff  for me to learn in the e-book.  But I learned a lot!  The e-book paid for itself in cost savings on my campaigns in the first month!

If you would like to have someone set up your campaigns for you, I have an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant who can help.

Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Download my FREE e-book, "Questions to Ask Your Web Designer"
Moderator, Internet Marketing Tools

Private Reply to Garland Coulson

Private Reply to Thomas Hasler

Hi Thomas,

While Google is a good company with some great products, relying on them to tell you how to spend your advertising dollars with them is like setting the fox to guard the henhouse!   :)

For example, they automatically "suggest" an amount per click you should pay which is MUCH higher than you need to pay to get good traffic.  Also, they automatically run your campaign both on the Google site AND on 1,000s of content partners.  (AdSense sites).  So you might think your ad is only showing up on Google, but it is also showing up on a wide range of other sites, some of which you might not want to advertise on.  I turn this feature off right away - a technique I learned from Perry Marshall, author of The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.

I would definitely read all the help areas on Google, but when it comes to learning how to maximize your campaign, I would look for independent help.  The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords is written by an independent expert and is well worth its value of  $47.  I refer to it every day for my campaigns.  He also offers a free "5 Days to Success With Google Adwords" email course.

I also have a virtual assistant who can set up campaigns for you if you like.

Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Download my FREE e-book, "Questions to Ask Your Web Designer"
Moderator, Internet Marketing Tools

Private Reply to Garland Coulson

Private Reply to Thomas Hasler

Private Reply to Thomas Hasler

Private Reply to Vaibhav Gangan

Hello Vaibhav,

You mentioned that you hadn't gotten a subscriber yet in your Google Adwords campaign and that you felt Google Adwords was providing traffic that wasn't relevant.

When I am looking at why a campaign is successful, it comes down to three things:

1.  Do I have the right product?

2.  Do I have the right message?

3.  Do I have the right traffic?

If your campaign isn't working, these are the things that need to be changed.  I am getting subscribers every day from Google Adwords, so I do know that it is capable of providing the right traffic.  Your product, message and Google Adwords campaign may need to be tweaked to get it working properly.  Here are some ideas in each category.

Right Product

We tend to become very attached and defensive about our products, but sometimes the products and services we are offering aren't what the target market wants.  It can be necessary to change the product or even to come up with entirely new products.  I am offering a very different mix of products and services than I did 5 years ago, as I had to change to match what my clients want. 

If I kept on offering the wrong products, NO amount of advertising would have helped. Listening to our clients and target audience is a good way to learn what products are best to offer.

Right Message

Let's say you have a fantastic product needed by your target audience.  Are you explaining it well in terms that your audience can relate to?

Some of us in technical fields sometimes don't explain things in good marketing language.  We might include too many technical details and too little information about how the product will help the client.  I once met with a fellow who tried for 20 minutes to tell me what he did.  After 20 minutes, I still didn't understand it - so how could he explain it in a 3 line Google Ad?

Google Adwords helps with this because you can test multiple ads each with different wording to see which one is converting best. Perry Marshall's book, "The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords" has sections on how to write ads that convert better and how to test different ads.

Right Traffic

So your product is great, and the ads excellent.  Are you getting the right traffic?  You can keep from getting the wrong traffic by choosing your keywords more carefully.  For example, if you sell car speakers and you buy the key word "speaker" you will also show up for searches like "motivational speaker."  This isn't the right traffic and will hurt your conversion rate and affect the amount you pay per click.

Some ways of making sure your keywords are more relevant is to use a tool like NicheFinder. 

Another technique that is explained in "The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords" is to use negative keywords.  In the example above, I could add -motivational to my speakers keywords to make sure my ad didn't show up when people were looking for motivational speakers.  You can also add -free if you don't want people who are just looking for freebies. 

So, by playing with these 3 areas, you may be able to get your campaign working.  These are the types of things I coach my clients through.

Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Download my FREE e-book, "Questions to Ask Your Web Designer"
Moderator, Internet Marketing Tools

Private Reply to Garland Coulson

Private Reply to Thomas Hasler