Pay-Per-Click Power Profit Techniques

The Right Way to Start

To be able to profit from PPC traffic, preparation is key. It is also the most ignored aspect of PPC marketing. Most advertisers have no real strategy when using PPC sites. They simply rely on the hit-or-miss approach, hoping one of the arrows will stick, and usually give up fairly quickly, deciding that PPCs won't work for them before giving them a fair shot.

You've got to plan ahead to be ready for this traffic. Take the time to set up your PPC campaigns one time - the right way. It's well worth it because once you have it set up correctly, it doesn't require much maintenance.

Spending just a few minutes on planning and setting things up right will mean substantial and sustainable profits for you.

1. The Importance of Keyword Selection

When you're dealing with Internet marketing, and especially with PPC traffic, keyword research is the single most critical element of your marketing plan.

It all starts with keywords since they are the foundation of your targeting. Everything else builds on this. If you skip or gloss over this step, nothing will work.

Getting the right prospect to your site is the key to generating sales. You don't want random traffic to visit your site. You want targeted traffic, people who are interested in what you have to sell.

If you get this part wrong, you'll waste a lot of time and money, and create unnecessary frustration. But when you start with the right keywords, you can see pretty phenomenal results very quickly.

When selecting keywords, you have to pick the ones that are most relevant to your product, service or site. You should work on finding keywords that are:

• The least expensive.
  
  
• Produce the most qualified clicks.
  
  
• Generate the best conversion to sales.
  
  

Many marketers make a list of only 10 to 20 of their most basic and popular keywords and clump them together into the same campaign. Most of the time, these keywords are barely related to each other. They are usually the same keywords their competitors are using. Since these are the most popular keywords, they are also usually the most expensive. It's pretty obvious a campaign like this will flop.

The smart marketer works with 100, 200 or more keywords that are very tightly related to each other. And because others in the niche are not using many of the keywords found, they are available for as little as a nickel.

For example, if you're selling desserts, the keyword "dessert" will have the most competition, and will also cost the most. Whereas, more specific keywords like "chocolate dessert" or "summer dessert" will usually have much less competition, and probably cost a lot less to bid on. These specific keywords are also more targeted so you will usually have much better conversion rates.

You can get even more specific with keywords like "gourmet dessert" or "cheesecake" (provided they match your product) and pay even less for these more specific, more targeted keywords.

Right now, 200 keywords may seem like a lot to you. But, after I've gone over the techniques and tools below, you'll find that it's a breeze to come up with 200 or more targeted keywords and phrases for your site.

2. Use Your Competitors to Find More Keywords

You can use existing sites of your competitors and find a lot more relevant keywords to add to your list. Here's how ...

Go to the popular search engines like Google.com and do a search for your primary keyword, for example dessert. Then, visit the top ten sponsored sites listed under that search query. View the source code of each of these sites to find out which keywords they have listed in their Meta keywords tag. You will usually find at least a dozen keywords that you won't yet have on your list.

Note: To view the source code of any page, just use your RIGHT mouse button while viewing that page in Internet Explorer and choose the option View Source. The Meta keywords tag will be at the top.

Another method is to get a catalog of a company that sells products related to yours. Look through their catalog, and read the titles and descriptions of each product listed. Most of these catalogs list the best-selling products, which will give you tons of ideas on additional keywords to add to your list.

Yet another method is to visit sites like Amazon.com and Ebay.com and search for your keywords using their search features. You will find more products and descriptions that give you even more ideas and keywords you haven't thought of yet.

You will find keywords related to your product that you can test. For example, if your primary keyword is "dessert," you can also use related keywords like "dessert recipes", "dessert for Easter" etc. that you can bid on to see what kind of responses you get.

3. Misspellings, Similar Words, Plurals, etc.

After you've added some of the uncommonly used keywords to your list, there are still more keywords most people aren't even aware of.

Misspellings and Typos: If one of your keywords is a commonly misspelled word, or something that usually gets typed incorrectly, you can take advantage of that by adding the misspelled or mis-typed version of the word into your keyword list. Example: potato and potatoe, balloon and baloon, calendar and calander, Caribbean and Carribean, library and libary, etc.

Similar Words: The same goes for similar words, such as: cents and sense, bear and bare, brake and break, gorilla and guerrilla, etc. These can mean extra clicks and extra profits for you!

Plurals: This one is dependent on the PPC site you use. For example, in Google it won't matter. However, in Overture, you may want to use both singular and plural forms of the word to test the clickthroughs. Example: shoe and shoes, computer and computers, etc.

Also, keep up-to-date on buzzwords, slang, etc. related to your target market. For example, most people who are looking for in-line skates will search for roller blades even though that is a specific brand name. Why? Because, people think in-line skates are actually called roller blades, just as people think copy machines are called Xerox machines. Speak the language of your prospect, including common mistakes, misconceptions, etc.

The same goes for hyphenated words and words that are not supposed to be hyphenated but tend to get hyphenated by some people. Examples: part-time or parttime (or even 'part time'), well-known or well known, postoperative or post-operative, megabyte or mega-byte, pre-owned or preowned, etc.

Any one of these variations can be worth additional profits to you. The only way to find out which ones they are is to test.

4. Indirectly Related Keywords

As you research your keywords, you will also find some amazing ideas on what else your market is looking for. You'll find out which indirectly related keywords to bid on in order to direct traffic to your sites.

You'll also get some great ideas on what backend products to offer them (using those keywords) after they've become your customers.

With a little creativity, you can find these indirectly related keywords on your own simply by asking yourself, "What else could they be looking for? What else would they be buying?"

Continuing with the dessert example, we could try to find out why they buy desserts. For example, if they're buying cakes, then one fairly obvious reason is that they're planning a party or gathering. If this is true, you can safely assume some of these people might be searching for party planning tips, and maybe even party supplies.

Some effective ways to use indirectly related keywords to drive traffic are to create a Tips page (as mentioned above). Or even a Price Comparison page where they can go and shop for the best price. You can then direct that traffic to your main product page (for desserts) or to a more specific page (for cakes, etc.)

What if you were selling an informational product on auto care. Could you drive targeted traffic to your site by bidding on keywords like Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, etc.? It's very possible - all you'll have to do is test those keywords to see if this is cost effective for you.

You could really go crazy with this strategy and come up with hundreds of keywords that can produce tons of traffic to your sites by including specific parts or even part numbers. Some of these keywords will be extremely inexpensive. The only way to find them is to start brainstorming.

You could use indirectly related keywords to lead traffic to your site if:

1. Your directly related keywords are too expensive
   
   
2. Your regular keywords weren't searched for often
   
   

5. Keyword Selection/Research Tools

Using keyword research tools and resources is very useful since they generate lists of actual keywords that Internet users search for. This can be extremely valuable to you.

You may want to start with the obvious stuff like the Overture Keyword Tool and Word Tracker, and then use the other resources listed below to supplement and fine-tune your research.

Overture Keyword Tool
This tool is a good place to start. You can get broad keywords and then use the other tools to drill deeper and get more specific. That's because the more general the keywords, the more times they will be searched for, and the more competitive and more expensive they are. The longer and more specific the keyword phrases are, the more targeted the traffic.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Word Tracker
Word tracker is a really powerful tool. I suggest you get an account with them, and more importantly, learn to use all the great features and tools it provides.
http://www.wordtracker.com/

Ad Word Analyzer
http://www.adwordanalyzer.com


Related Keywords Finder:

KwMap
http://www.kwmap.com/

Amazon
Amazon is a great place to get keyword ideas, examples of great titles, and even specific words to use in your ad, hot buttons, buzz words, etc.
http://www.amazon.com

And of course, you can also use a thesaurus to come up with additional related keywords:
http://thesaurus.reference.com/

6. Phrase Matching

Depending on which PPC search engines you use, you have various phrase matching options at your disposal to further improve your targeting.

For example, in Google Ad Words, you can add quotes " " or square brackets [ ] to your keywords and generate more relevant clickthroughs.

So, if one of your keywords were "summer dessert," adding them to your list without quotes will show your ad to anyone searching for the word "summer" and the word "dessert." Clearly those are not relevant to your product at all.

If you listed your keywords into the PPC system with quotes, then those two words "summer" "dessert" need to be next to each other. If you listed the keywords with square brackets [ ], then the words would have to be next to each other and be in that exact order [summer] before [dessert].

By listing all three variations of the keyword into your PPC system ...

• summer dessert
  
  
• "summer dessert"
  
  
• [summer dessert]
  
  

... your relevancy is automatically increased, because chances are most of your competitors will not be bidding on the variations using quotes and square brackets.

Also, by listing all three variations, you can triple your keyword count without adding any new keywords to your list! This will usually mean that you'll be bidding on less expensive keywords while also generating more targeted traffic.

7. Creating Successful Ads

Showing up in relevant searches is only half the battle. The other half is to display an ad that tempts the prospect to click on it. The following tips will help make your ad more effective:

• Start with a powerful direct response ad. Use time-tested ad formulas for your headline like "How to..." or "Discover how..." - the same formulas you would use to create an effective classified ad.
  
  
• Study your competitors' winning ads! Dissect them and find out what makes them pull better than other ads. Then, use those components in your own ad.
  
  
• More often than not, putting the keyword in the headline works very well. So, if your keyword is summer dessert, then the title and/or the body of your ad should also have the words "summer dessert" in it.
  
  
• Whenever possible, use a strong verb in your title (ex: find, create, learn, etc.).
  
  
• Ask a question, promise a powerful benefit, or offer a solution to a problem in your title.
  
  
• Create two different ads for the same keyword group and run them both together. Then, track the results to find out which performs better. Once you determine the winner, test other variables within that ad against the original ad to continue improving your results.
  
  
• Continue tweaking and testing each variable and attempt to beat the control piece.
  
  

8. Capitalization

Usually, capitalizing the initial letters of words in the ad as well as the domain name usually gives your ad a slight advantage over your competitors.

Examples:

Using "Summer Dessert Recipes" in your title instead of "summer dessert recipes"

or ...

Using "SummerDessertRecipes.com" in your URL instead of "summerdessertrecipes.com"

9. Get a New Domain - Pick a Better Domain Name

You may find you get better results using a domain name that also has the keywords in it.

Example:
"SummerDessertRecipes.com" may produce better results than say "DessertsForAll.com"
(where "summer dessert recipe" is the keyword)

Other alternatives that work:

1) Inserting the keyword into the URL as a sub-directory:

http://www.dessertsforall.com/recipes (where 'recipes' is the keyword)

2) Using a sub-domain with the keyword in it:

http://recipes.dessertsforall.com (where 'recipes' is the keyword)

Of course, the only way to find out which of these techniques works best for your keyword is to test one variation against the other.

10. Separating Keywords by Zones/Themes/Groups

Most people make the mistake of throwing all the keywords of their entire product line into one campaign or group. If you do that, it's difficult to determine which of those keywords help you make a profit and which ones cost you money.

In order to find out, you need to organize your campaigns and groups logically.

For example, if you have desserts as the primary keyword and cakes, cookies, and pies as the sub keywords, you need to separate the sub keywords into different campaigns and groups so that you can track your results more accurately.

Example:

Campaign 1 "cakes"
Group 1: cheesecakes
Group 2: chocolate cakes
Group 3: sponge cakes

Group 1 "cheesecakes"
strawberry cheesecake
pumpkin cheesecake
chocolate swirl cheesecake

Instead of dumping all of the keywords into one group, containing cakes, cookies, pies, keep them organized by category so you are able to track results.

11. Developing Separate Landing Pages

For your lead and traffic generation system to be highly effective, it has to have a logical flow. Your keywords must match your ad, your ad must be relevant to your web page, and your web page must make a relevant offer.

Consequently, if your visitor has found your ad by searching specifically for strawberry cheesecake, it wouldn't be smart to take him to your main page containing all food items, or even desserts.

Your results will improve dramatically when you lead visitors to a page specifically designed for strawberry cheesecake (what they searched for) or at least one for cheesecakes. They need to get to strawberry cheesecake in the fewest number of clicks or else you'll lose them.

Give them what they ask for, it's that simple. So, instead of leading this visitor to:

http://www.GourmetDesserts.com

You may want to direct him to:

http://www.GourmetDesserts.com/cakes/cheesecake.htm

You can use separate landing pages for tracking purposes as well, and track keywords and campaigns from several PPC sites all in one place, instead of tracking them separately through the PPC's internal tracking system. Tracking everything under one system makes data analysis a lot easier.

You can also use separate landing pages to capture names and addresses of visitors, if you're promoting an affiliate product. By sending visitors to a unique landing page first, you can offer them an opt-in form, collect their information, and then redirect them to the affiliates page.

This allows you to follow up with them in the future and continue to endorse the same or newer products. Take a look at the article on the NameSqueeze technique for a refresher.

So far, most of the techniques described above are designed to increase your clickthrough rates and hopefully also convert to sales. You can adjust your ads and keywords to find out exactly what people are searching for, and then offer them exactly what they want!

But you must start by first getting clickthroughs, especially if you're using with Google Ad Words. If your ad is not getting clicked at least 0.5% of the time it is shown, Google will disable that particular keyword after 1000 searches.

This is actually a good thing because Google is forcing you to stop running an ad that's not working and encouraging you to come up with a better one.

If you are getting good clickthroughs, Google rewards you. The higher the percentage of people who click on your ad is, the less you have to pay to be in that position. The more relevant you are, the less it costs you!

12. Negative Keywords and Negative Qualifiers

If you are getting a lot of clickthroughs but not converting to sales, you can use negative keywords and qualifiers to discourage people from clicking your ad.

For example, if your ad leads to a site that sells a product, you probably don't want freebie seekers to click on your ad. You can deter them from clicking by:

1. Adding the word "free" as a negative keyword to your list so your ad will not show up if someone searches using the word "free"
   
   
2. Adding a negative qualifier within the text of the ad itself to discourage freebie seekers from clicking. For example, you can list the price of the product in your ad. "Summer Dessert Recipe $10." This gets rid of most of the people who aren't willing to pay for your product, and pulls in more of the people who are willing to pay for the product.
   
   

13. Setting Your Daily Limit

PPC marketing offers you a lot more control and consistency than any other online traffic-generation strategy so, don't be afraid to start a campaign. The only way to get results is to do something. You have to begin somewhere.

Sometimes, the only way to find out what is working is by crossing off things that are not working! The great thing about PPC sites is you can limit your cost. You can set dollar limits depending on your budget, and lock it in. You can start small and test things out very cheaply. And, when you've found a winner, you can then decide to invest more heavily into certain winning campaigns.

So, go ahead and get started! That's the only way you'll find the winners and start making incredible profits.

14. Proper Testing Steps

The only way to get accurate and unbiased results is to use split-testing. In other words, you have to test two pieces at the same time, side by side. You cannot test one ad for the first week, the second ad for the second week and expect to get accurate results. It has to be done simultaneously. There are too many other variables that can affect your results within a week's time.

You also need to test only one variable at a time. For example, if you want to test two headlines side by side, do not change anything else in the ads except for the headline. Only after you have tested the headline and found a winner should you test the next component. Testing more than one component at a time will give you inaccurate results.

For PPC campaigns, you should start first with general keywords and a well-crafted direct-response ad so you can start generating clickthroughs.

You can then start testing and tracking your keywords and decide on more specific keywords to use.

It's also a good idea to test only two ads at a time, especially if you're just starting out with PPC sites.

Start by testing two completely different ads for the same keywords. Allow at least 30 to 50 clicks before you use the statistics to make any decisions. Then, get rid of the loser ad and start testing just the headlines against each other, then body text, then url, and so on.

You can keep going until you're down to tracking each keyword within a group individually. By doing this, you will find out which keywords don't produce any sales for you, even though you're paying for them. Get rid of those keywords and immediately increase your net profits!

Continue testing and tweaking your ads and keywords so you can continue getting better and better results. Also, keep doing new keyword research and testing as well so you can continue to add additional keywords.

And, always remember your goal is not just to get more clickthroughs. You want to get the most clickthroughs that convert to sales. Your need to increase impressions, clickthroughs, and conversion!

It's all about testing and finding out what works and what doesn't. You can't assume anything. The only way to know for sure is to try and see. The beauty of testing is that each time you add or remove a component and get better results, your profits go up!

Your Mini Action Plan

There are many, many PPC search engines out there. However, there are only three you should focus on:

• Adwords.Google.com
• Overture.com
• FindWhat.com
  
  

Google is our favorite because we can see and test results the fastest. It takes a little more time to learn to set your ads up on Google, but is well worth it. However, all three of these PPC sites have their advantages and disadvantages. All three should be part of your overall strategy.

You will find, depending on your choice of keywords and niche, one of these three PPC sites may get you more traffic than the other two. So, it would be in your best interest to take advantage of all three and leverage their strengths.

We suggest starting with Google since it's the largets PPC engine out there with the best system (in our opinion). An added benefit is that there's an entire tutorial with Perry Marshall and Jonathan Mizel available free to subscribers get you going. Just click here to pick it up.

Begin with one product and use the techniques provided above to brainstorm your keywords and design a powerful ad.

Begin testing the variables till you find a winner. Then, use the same format on Overture to see how well it does there. Tweak, test as needed. Move on to FindWhat. Start over, add more campaigns, test, track, tweak, and so on.

Key point: Your landing page (the web page which visitors are led to when they click on your ad) is an important part of the overall process. Remember to use proven powerful direct response principles like the NameSqueezeÉ and follow-up formula.

If your PPC campaigns are working well but your web site is not converting those highly-targeted visitors, than you know where the problem lies (in your sales materials) and what you need to work on. Remember we're not after massive clickthroughs, we're after maximum clickthroughs that convert to sales!

Conclusion

The PPC technology really is one of the most, amazing direct marketing breakthroughs in the history of the Internet.

Imagine having instant access to millions of people online, within just 15 minutes, and being able to target the exact ones you want, with laser-pointed accuracy, and being able to offer them exactly what they're searching for!

It's a guaranteed, consistent and predictable way to get the most targeted and most responsive traffic to your site quickly. It offers you more control over your marketing campaign than any other method of advertising.

Some of the tricks and techniques provided above may increase your results on a very small scale. However, when multiple techniques are used simultaneously, your overall increase in results can be substantial.

Even if one change improves your results by just one percent, over time, those small increases can add up to substantial gains.

To your increased profits!


Sincerely,


Bryan Kumar