Basics on Budgeting

Remember that you can set your own budget, so you are in control of how much you spend each month—and you can adjust it at any time. Here are three things to consider when you set your budget:

1 Your Daily Spending Limit
• You can set daily spending limits—the amount you want to spend each day—for your entire account and for each campaign (if you wish). You can estimate your monthly budget to be approximately 30 times your account’s daily spending limit. If you reach your daily spending limit, your ads may stop displaying for the rest of the day and you will be notified with an alert.

2 Account Limit vs. Campaign Limit
• Although you can set your daily spending limit at both the campaign and account levels, the system generally won’t spend more than your account limit*. So make sure your account limit is high enough to cover what you want to spend on all of your campaigns put together.
• Keep in mind that if you add keywords and campaigns, you may want to consider increasing your account daily spending limit, so that you can get the amount of clicks you want for each campaign. If you go over your daily spending limit, your ads may stop showing for the day.

3 How Much Should I Spend?
• There’s really no definitive answer. Like most advertisers, you may start by picking an amount you can afford and see how well it performs over time.
• Don’t spread yourself too thin—pick your most profitable products or services to start with, and focus your budget on them. Start small and expand as appropriate.
• It’s important to look at how often your clicks are turning into sales, and keep it in mind when adjusting your budget. This concept of calculating your return on investment (ROI) or cost per acquisition (CPA) takes a little bit of effort, but the work pays off when you’re spending wisely.

Understanding Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of your search marketing account and help lead customers to your website. The keywords you select can have an impact on future traffic and sales.

Here are some guidelines for choosing keywords:

1 .) Look for keywords on your own web site.
Think like a customer and pick the words that your customers might be searching on to find you.

2 .) Use one of our keyword suggestion tools.
Click the “Add Keywords” link in your account for helpful suggestions. This feature provides three easy options that can help you generate keyword ideas: “Quick Add,” “Choose from List” and “Research Keywords.”

3 .) Think about keywords that attract customers at each stage of the buying cycle.
The buying cycle has three major phases: research, shopping and purchase. The closer someone is to buying, the more specific your keywords should be. For example, customers may search for “guitar” during research, “Fender guitar” while shopping, and “American Standard Fender Telecaster guitar” when they’re ready to purchase.

4 .) Pick a mix of broad and specific keywords.
Keep in mind that using more generic keywords, like “guitar,” can cause you to go through your budget and may not lead to sales as often, but can be helpful for driving traffic from prospective customers who are in the research phase. Selecting more specific keywords may deliver fewer clicks, but they may be more likely to result in sales.

Basics on Quality Index and Ad Copy

Your ad quality, which is based in part on how frequently people click on your ads relative to your competitors, matters a lot. High-quality ads can receive higher ranking on the search results page at a possibly lower cost-per-click. On the other hand, poor-quality ads can cost you more and are most likely not attracting customers. So it’s critical to write good ad copy that will help improve the quality of your ad and help you get more clicks.

Monitoring and Maintaining Your Quality Index
In your account, ad quality is represented by your quality index. You will see the quality index shown as one to five bars—the more bars an ad has, the higher its quality. Monitoring your ads’ quality indices, which are displayed on the Ad Group details page, can help you figure out which ads need more work.

Writing Effective Ad Copy
Well-written ads get the attention of your customers and may improve your click-through rate (CTR) and ad quality. Here are some tips for writing great ads:
• Be clear and precise - Write ads that are clear, concise, honest and, of course, grammatically correct. Don’t over-hype your business.
• Use your keywords in your ad - Use the Insert Keyword function, available when you create a new ad or edit an existing one, to automatically insert your keyword in your ad. Keywords in your title or description help your customers recognize that your ad matches their search.
• What’s in it for your customers? - Be specific as to how your service or product can benefit your customer.
• Include a call-to-action - Words like “Buy Now” in your ad may encourage customers to click. If you have a specific offer, make sure you state it.
• Set yourself apart - Let people know how you’re different from your competitors—free shipping, a money-back guarantee, many years in business and so on—and give them a reason to click your ad instead.

Find out which Ads Work Best
Make sure you use ad testing, also known as A/B testing, to test multiple ads. When you create more than one ad in an ad group, our system will automatically display the higher performing ads more frequently in search results. With different ad copy, you can see which ads attract the most customers.

Source: http://www.ysmblog.com/

Keywords are the foundation of your search marketing account and help lead customers to your website. The keywords you select can have an impact on future traffic and sales.

Here are some guidelines for choosing keywords:

• Look for keywords on your own web site.
  Think like a customer and pick the words that your customers might be searching on to find you.
• Use one of our keyword suggestion tools.
  Click the “Add Keywords” link in your account for helpful suggestions. This feature provides three easy options that can help you generate keyword ideas: “Quick Add,” “Choose from List” and “Research Keywords.”
• Think about keywords that attract customers at each stage of the buying cycle.
  The buying cycle has three major phases: research, shopping and purchase. The closer someone is to buying, the more specific your keywords should be. For example, customers may search for “guitar” during research, “Fender guitar” while shopping, and “American Standard Fender Telecaster guitar” when they’re ready to purchase.
• Pick a mix of broad and specific keywords.
  Keep in mind that using more generic keywords, like “guitar,” can cause you to go through your budget and may not lead to sales as often, but can be helpful for driving traffic from prospective customers who are in the research phase. Selecting more specific keywords may deliver fewer clicks, but they may be more likely to result in sales.

Ten landing page tips to turn visitors into customers

There’s something about a ten-item list that makes us want to get all Hestonian on you and break out the archaic pronouns, especially when it comes to something like getting people who visit your site to actually buy from you. After all, you work hard to get clicks. What could be more important than turning those clicks into customers?

But we’re kind of a live-and-let-live bunch here, and we’re not so big on telling people what they have to do. So consider these a set of suggestions about how to help optimize your landing pages. That way, when people get to your site, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase.

1. Tell them why they should buy from you
Clarity of your value proposition is the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from you or not. Ask yourself the question: “Why should I buy from this site?”

2. Keep ‘em with you
Protect your landing pages from the #1 threat to conversions: site flow disruption. After identifying a unique and compelling Value Proposition, you must ensure that you express it throughout your sales process in a clear, consistent and compelling way. Eliminate site flow disruption to help maximize conversions.

3. Don’t try to say too much
Don’t clutter your landing page with unnecessary details. Instead:
• Clearly state your key message using as few words as possible
• Use summary descriptions, sub-headings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs
• Adopt a standard one-column format for easy reading.

4. Make it simple
Improve the user experience with a site that is easy to navigate. A simple page layout that employs a clean visual and straightforward design is best. Here’s how:
• Design your site with a clear hierarchy with color and contrast for easily legible text
• Use meaningful and high-quality graphics (don’t clutter with too many)
• Use breadcrumbs to let visitors know where they are on your site
• Employ a clickable logo that takes the visitor to your homepage
• Use color to distinguish between visited and unvisited links.

Just as important, make sure you don’t:
• Employ horizontal scrolling
• Direct links to new browser windows
• Have flash-based content unless required.

5. Call them to action
Focus on one primary action per screen (don’t stuff too many products onto one screen). Make the call-to-action button clearly visible without having to scroll; don’t bury it under pages of information. Consider using tabs or a pop-up box to consolidate information.

6. Get specific
Provide product details and a large product image while displaying incentives—such as free shipping and warranty information—high on the page and close to the product. Don’t discourage visitors by requiring registration to your site.

7. Flaunt what you’ve got
What differentiates you from your competitors? Free shipping (both ways?), discounts, a 365-day warranty, price protection, privacy, customer service, etc.? If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

8. Search yourself
Make your site easy to navigate by helping potential customers find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. A search feature box should be simple and visible with a type-in field, not a link. To help increase conversions, make sure your search results link to product pages.

9. Rally the believers
Credibility is a true testament: people don’t buy from websites, people buy from people. Thus, testimonials from devout customers—or even a letter from the CEO/Editor—persuades the unbelieving.

10. Let them make the choice
“Why should I buy this specific product?” Almost every e-tailer forgets about this, but it’s the question that’s key to Mr. or Ms. Customer’s mind. Prove to him or her why they should buy this over the competitive product by offering reviews, ratings and comparisons.

– Amy Borowicz

Google Adsense program is a popular web advertising program which provides a good income source for many websites. There are well defined terms of service to strictly adhere to when participating in the program.

On my visit through sites and forums, I daily notice several instances of misuse of Adsense ads. So here a few helpful Google Adsense tips, probably many you already know, and few you might gain by knowing now. These adsense faq are all picked from the Program Policies, Terms and Conditions and FAQ itself and presented in a simplified manner.

1. Never click your own adsense ads or get them clicked for whatever reason. You know this one very well. This is a surefire way to close you Adsense account. Never tell your office associates or friends to click on them. Keep a check if your family or children are busy increasing your income by clicking your ads and indirectly trying to stop your income. Dont even think of offering incentives for clicks, using automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Adsense is very smart to detect fraudulent clicks. Check the ads which appear on your pages by the Google Preview tool if required.

2. Never change the Adsense code. There are enough means of adsense optimization & customizations available to change the colour, background or border to suit your needs. Do whatever you want to do outside the code, never fiddle within the ad or the search code. They know it when you do. The search code has more limitations to colour and placement, but you should adhere to the rules. The code may stop working and violates the TOS.

3. Do not place more than 3 ad units and 3 ad links or 2 adsense search boxes on any web page. Anyway, ads will not appear in those units even if you place more ad units. But this is the limit they set, so it is better to stick to it.

4. Do not run competitive contextual text ad or search services on the same site which offer Google Adsense competition in their field. Never try to create link structures resembling the adsense ads. Never use other competitive search tools on the same pages which have Adsense powered Google search. They do allow affiliate or limited-text links. Update: Google has allowed you to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika etc provided the ads do not resemble Adsense ads.

5. Do not disclose confidential information about your account like the CTR, CPM and income derived via individual ad units or any other confidential information they may reveal to you. However, you may reveal the total money you make as per recent updates to the TOS.

6. Label headings as “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only. Other labels are not allowed. I have seen many sites label ads with other titles. Dont make your site a target in a few seconds gaze.

7. Never launch a New Page for clicked ads by default. Adsense ads should open on the same page. You may be using a base target tag to open all links in a new window or frame by default. Correct it now as they do not want new pages opening from clicked ads.

8. One Account suffices for Multiple websites. You do not need to create 5 accounts for 5 different websites. One account will do. If you live in the fear that if one account is closed down for violation of TOS, believe me they will close all accounts when they find out. You can keep track of clicks by using channels with real time statistics. They will automatically detect the new site and display relevant ads.

9. Place ads only on Content Pages. Advertisers pay only for content based ads. Content drives relevant ads. Although you might manage some clicks from error, login, registration, “thank you” or welcome pages, parking pages or pop ups, it will get you out of the program.

10. Do not mask ad elements. Alteration of colours and border is a facility to blend or contrast ads as per your site requirements. I have seen many sites where the url part is of the same colour as the background. While blending the ad with your site is a good idea, hiding relevant components of the ads is not allowed. Also do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping images, pop ups, tables etc.

11. Do not send your ads by email. Html formatted emails look good and allow placement of these javascript ads. But it is not allowed as per TOS. You do not want impressions registering on their logs from any email even once. They are watching!

12. Keep track of your content. So Adsense is not allowed on several non content pages. But it is also not allowed on several content pages too. Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results. Also exclude any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content.

13. Do not alter the results after ad clicks or searches - Ensure you are not in any way altering the site which the user reaches to after clicking the ads. Do not frame, minimize, remove, redirect or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Advertiser Page or Search Results Page after the user clicks on any Ad or Search results.

14. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing - Although the definition of ‘excessive’ is a gray area and is subject to discretion, yet Google adsense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so excessive advertising is not required. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not required.

15. Ensure you Language is Supported - Adsense supports “Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, English, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian and Turkish”. In addition, AdSense for search is available in Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese. If your web pages language is not supported, do not use the code on such pages.

Update:
16. Maximum 2 referral button per product per page - With the launch of the google adsense referral program, you are allowed to put only 2 referral buttons for adsense referral, adwords referral, Google pack and Firefox with google toolbar referral.

17. Do not specify Google ads as your alternate ads. - Several services like Chitika eminimalls allow you to place alternate urls, when a targeted paying ad cannot be displayed. This involved creating an simple html page and putting the ad to be displayed instead. Even Adsense allows an alternate url feature instead of displaying public service ads. But never use Adsense ads as alternate urls.

18. Do not confuse with adjacent images - It was a common policy to increase CTR by placing same number of images as the number of text ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads is not allowed. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.

Whenever in doubt, it is better to ask for adsense help from the learned staff of Google Adsense. They are very helpful!

Source: quickonlinetips.com

They say it’s the login page to your account? Make them prove it

At some point, there’s a chance you may receive an e-mail that looks like it came from Yahoo!, taking you to something that looks like a Yahoo! Search Marketing login page, but something’s…not quite right. It could be a “phishing” attack from someone who is trying to duplicate a Yahoo! page in order to get your user name and password to hijack your account.

To help combat these phishing scams, we have installed what’s called a “sign-in seal” on our log-in page. Already in use by many financial institutions, a sign-in seal is a cookie-based secret message or image that is displayed on your computer(s) only. (That is, the machine(s) you use to log in to your account.) If you use more than one computer, you’ll need to set up your seal for each. You can create your own custom text message to use as a seal, or upload your own image.

If you do not see your custom seal—and you haven’t cleared your cookies on your browser—when signing into your account, the site you’re on may be a “spoof” site designed to hoodwink you into giving up your valuable personal information. We encourage you to create a customized sign-in seal for your Yahoo! Search Marketing account today, then look for it every time you log in. You can set up your seal from your Yahoo! Search marketing log-in page (the real one).

—The Team at Yahoo Search Marketing

What to do when you get an unexpected traffic surge

There you are, reviewing your account from last week, when you notice a jump in your clicks. Before you call us to find out what’s going on with your account, keep in mind that unexpected traffic is not necessarily a cause for alarm. Consider the following three questions:

First: Have you changed anything in your account recently?

A broad question, to be sure, but try to recall: Have you added keywords or changed your bids? Either of these actions can affect your traffic.

Second: Are you noticing abnormal click activity, or just traffic that’s not converting?

Examine your account and your web logs. Are your ads appearing on sites that are not meeting your business needs? If so, we offer tools to help you control your traffic. Find out more about Blocked Domains, Geo-targeting and Continent Blocking in your Search Marketing Help Section, and get to know your traffic by visiting the Traffic Quality Center.

Third: Have you set a daily spending limit?

Your traffic may fluctuate from day to day. But by setting a Daily Spending Limit, you help control the amount you spend. For example, if you average $250 in clicks per day and set your Daily Spending Limit at $350, you can capitalize on the extra clicks that result from a spike, without breaking the bank.

Submitting a Click Review Request

If you feel you have explored everything above and still have questions, or would like us to investigate your traffic further, our Traffic Quality Center provides simple instructions for submitting a Click Review Request.

After you submit the request, we will perform a series of diagnostic tests and analyses to attempt to identify potential issues that may have affected your traffic. We take all inquiries seriously, and though the length of investigations may vary, we work to achieve a resolution within 10 business days of your request.

Remember, keep an eye on your account, monitor your traffic regularly, and if you do spot something suspicious, let us know—we’re happy to help.

— Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager, Customer Solutions, Yahoo

Recently, I helped a relative get started with an online marketing strategy. Here’s a copy of what I emailed her, hopefully useful for others who may wander here.

1. Start with a User Traffic Monitoring Service To Establish a Baseline

Before you do any of the items listed below, follow this important step. Go to Google Analytics, sign up for a free account. Then you’ll be asked to insert special Web page code into your existing Web site (the code is not visible by people visiting your site) that allows Google to track who is visiting your Web site, where are they coming from, what keywords are they typing (if coming from a search engine), and other interesting trends. Any Web developer should be able to do this for you. Google provides a slick Web-based interface that you will then use to view data as it’s collected on a daily basis. [Phil's note: If you want to see a cool desktop version of Google Analytics, check out Google Analytics AIR].

2. Be sure your Web site is indexed by the major search engines.

Go to each search engine and enter “site:www.yoursite.com” — the “site” keyword “tells” the search engine to look for results just on the subsequent Web address. [Phil's note: this works for Google, Yahoo, MSN as above; for Ask, you'll need to enter another keyword before the query, followed by a space, to make it work properly.]

If you do not see your site come up, then go to each site submission page:
Google
Yahoo
MSN

3. Sign up for one or more “Pay per click” advertising programs.

These work on a keyword bidding basis. You choose specific keywords, you’ll see their “market rates” (per click), set your target bid price (the higher, the more likely your ad will be in a more prominent spot), and a monthly budget, and then run your campaign. Google also provides useful tools which allow you to estimate costs and potential click-through rates.

Google AdSense
http://www.google.com/adwords/

Yahoo Sponsored Search
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_ss.php

Microsoft AdCenter
http://joinadcenter.com

A great website to find Search Engine Promo’s (PPC promo codes) try SearchEnginePromos.com. They have up to date promo codes to get credits towards free PPC advertising.

Which one works best for you is a trial by error effort. Run a campaign for a month or so. You can see which ones perform best.

If you want to know about other advertising systems, check out this resource.

[Phil's note: at the time of writing, both Yahoo and Microsoft are offering $75 credits to get started.]

4. Maintain a Corporate Blog.

Create a corporate blog and use it for marketing opportunities. You can discuss trends in your industry, how you’re tackling major issues, summarize what you learned at a recent conference you attended, even mention your competition. The goal is to maintain a following of readers, even if they are not necessarily customers. Why? This is one of the most powerful ways to leverage word-of-mouth marketing. Someone reading your blog may recommend it to someone they know when a related need comes up during a conversation or email. Or they may reference your blog in their own blog, which inherently gives you even more readers.

You can sign up for a free blogging tool such as Blogger.com (also owned by Google) and either use their pre-built template or hire a Web designer to make it look like your existing Web site for a more integrated approach. You can even setup something like http://blog.mywebsite.com and have it point to the blog (even though Blogger.com is hosting it) and then add a link to the address from your existing Web site.

The drawback is that a high quality blog can be a considerable time investment. If you have an existing marketing resource on your team, maintaining the blog should be something they own.

How to Track Your Blog
Use Google Analytics, Technorati, FeedBurner. The latter two include other value-add features.

5. Participate in Industry-Specific Online Discussions to Get Your Name Out There.

Find all the blogs and message boards related to the industry you’re in. Spend time reading to figure out which ones seem to be a good fit and sound legitimate. Become involved by responding to posts (most blogs these days allow anyone to “comment” on them). Be sure in every post you have a signature line that includes your Web site address. But be genuine when you participate. People can usually tell when you’re simply posting a message for the sake of advertising your business (”spamming”).

How to find blogs:
Google Blog Search
Technorati

How to subscribe to blogs:
1. Sign up for a Web-based “feed reader” (aka “RSS reader”) - my favorite one is Google Reader. Or use a desktop feed reader (Windows’ Outlook 2007 and Mac Leopard’s Mail have it built-in). The advantage of a Web reader (vs. desktop version) is that you can then go back to pull up items using any computer, mobile device, etc. Either way, a reader pulls in feeds from different places, analogous to receiving emails from different people in your inbox. Think of it as a way to get stuff “delivered” to you instead of you going to dozens of Web sites and finding if new information has been posted.

2. When you visit a blog, look for the “RSS” icon in the browser’s Web address box. It means the Web page has a “feed” you can subscribe to. Click on the icon and it should give you a choice to “subscribe” to it. BTW, if you happen to have the Google toolbar installed in your browser, it can be setup to automatically subscribe to feeds using Google Reader.

From Webficient

9 Tips to Help Optimize Your Landing Pages

For obvious reasons we tend to focus a lot on keywords and ad copy. They’re vital to getting search users to click on your ads. But once they have clicked, then what? Hopefully, they’re A) in a buyin’ mood and B) they’ve actually come to the right place.

You can help promote both of these results by optimizing your landing pages. Here are nine tips to help get your leads to stick around and buy from you:

1. Connect the search experience to the landing page experience.
Wherever possible, use the same language on your landing pages as you do in your ads. It’s a real disconnect when you click on an ad that reads, “Online Conversion Rate Counter” only to land on a page selling a “Conversion Calculating Service.”

2. Integrate your landing page into your site.
Some advertisers make the mistake of building stand-alone landing pages for certain keywords that are more-or-less “divorced” from the rest of their sites. This can make your business seem sketchy to potential customers, who you want to be able to trust you with their credit card info. A consistent experience across all of your pages and product offerings can help create a more convincing experience. (More on this below.)

3. Gain their trust.
Use trusted, third-party security providers and make sure their badges and icons are clearly visible.

4. Offer tips and suggestions.
How can potential customers best use the product? If you’re selling steaks, offer a steak au poivre recipe. There’s a potential for up- and cross-sell here, as well. Perhaps monsieur would enjoy a nice bottle of cabernet sauvignon with his tender, juicy filet mignon, oui? Just don’t go crazy with it, mon ami. (See 5 and 6, below.)

5. Stay on target.
If your ad specifies John Deere tractors, make sure all of your tractors for sale on that page are John Deere tractors. In other words, if I had been looking for Caterpillar bulldozers I’d have clicked on an ad for them instead.

6. Cut the clutter.
Your landing page should not be too generic and cluttered. This ties in with the tip above. If your ad is for discount wholesale 7Up, don’t clutter the page up with other un-colas. This helps keep the lead focused.

7. Ban the bling.
Your landing page should be cleanly and attractively designed, but avoid distractions like music or other audio, animations and revolving logos. These can distract prospective customers from their purpose, which is to buy the product or service that they need, hopefully from you. Again, keep ‘em focused on the task.

8. Give them something to do.
A little interactivity can help keep people engaged. For some products, especially big-ticket items, things like video testimonials and 360-degree tours may be good sales aids. Just let customers decide whether or not they want to view them by giving them control. And remember Tip 7: Keep the bling to a minimum.

9. Write right.
Language counts. Think of your landing page as a salesperson in a showroom. What would a salesperson say to a prospect to help “get to yes?” Here are a few classic pointers:

• Make sure that your headers and subheads are clear and direct.
• Deliver your value proposition right away.
• Offer a persuasive message near the call-to-action—You know: “Don’t be left out of this amazing offer,” etc.
• Be nice with your call-to-action copy—”Submit” and “Buy Now” can sound like orders and put some people off. “Try it Now” sounds nicer.

—Michael Mattis, Conversion Tipster