The most common thing I see when reviewing clients online marketing strategies is ineffective Pay Per Click campaigns (Google Adwords) that are costing them a fortune with no ROI or targeted leads.  Below are a few things that will help make your 2010 Google AdWords efforts profitable.

Lets assume you already have a Google Adwords Campaign setup to drive highly targeted traffic to your website. Here are the top 7 things based on my experience that you should check or hire me to check for you to force your pay per click campaign into profitable and fruitful efforts.

1. Wasting Money and Clicks on the Content Network – Edit your campaign settings and turn off the “Content Network” check box. All you are doing is telling Google to only show your ads on the search network when people are actively searching for what you are offering. My experience is lower click through as a general rule with the Content Network, and it can have an adverse effect on the profitability of your search campaigns. ** NOTE: the Content Network should be targeted in separate and individual campaigns as it requires a completely different set of rules for efficiency and profitability. By no means am I recommending that you stay away completely, just do not blend search and content together.

2. Use your Keywords more often in your display ads. – Make sure you are using your keywords in the ad title, the body text and also in the display URL. This will make the keyword highlight in bold and draw the users eyes to the keyword that they were searching for. The more you can use the keyword in the ad without looking like you are keyword stuffing the better. Think higher relevancy for increased CTR.

3. Lazy Keyword Selection….. The Lazy approach is to group loads of keywords together in one ad group. This will affect how relevant your ads are and will also give them a lower CTR. A simple example is “Cheap Sneakers”, should not be in the same ad group as “Air Jordan Sneakers”. If you are creating an ad group for “Air Jordan Sneakers” it could contain “Air Jordan Sneakers”, “Nike Air Jordan”, “Michael Jordan Shoes”, but not “Cheap Sneakers”. Focus on drilling down to highly focused niche groups for increased effectiveness and click through to conversion.

4. Generic & Non Specific Landing Page – If you are running an ad about a specific product or service then make sure the landing page is only about that product or service. You will get more conversions because you are giving your potential customers exactly what they are looking for without making them search for it on your site. This means DO NOT send your Google ad clicks to your home page that has numerous additional links on it. In addition to the Lazy Keyword example above, if they were searching for the keyword “Air Jordan Sneakers” then send them directly to your Nike Air Jordan Sneaker page. You will see your conversion rates increase.

5. Not Using Negative Keywords – Keywords that you do not want your ad to show up on. You do this by placing a dash “-” in front of the keyword in your keyword list or within the designated location underneath your campaign settings. Nearly all clients existing AdWords campaigns that I review do not use this feature, which is bad because it means they are paying for clicks on non relevant search terms. This is especially the case if you are buying clicks from “Broad” keywords, because your ads will be triggered on keywords that utilize “additional” words than what you have selected.  Ex: Broad match keyword you are bidding on:  Sneakers.  When a user searches for “Nike Sneakers” your ads may be shown and will potentially be clicked even if you do not sell Nike Sneakers.  In this case I would enter a ” -Nike Sneakers” or “-Nike” negative keyword into the list to prevent your ads from showing on that particular phrase.

6. Neglecting to Split Test Ads – Always, Always, Always …. create a second, third and sometimes fourth ad and make small changes to your copy and split test which gets higher click through and conversions. An example would be testing the use of punctuation and/or capitalization in the copy body or URL’s to increase conversions. eg. www.moreclicks.com used as the display URL in an ad is likely to get 1% or 1.5% less click through than www.MoreClicks.com. If you are not currently split testing your ads then stop reading now and go implement this because it is the best thing you can do for your business.

7. Using Unprofitable Generic Keywords – Some Keywords are more profitable than others – Focus on the “buying keywords” rather than “generic keywords” to keep the cost of your clicks down and only pay for clicks from potential customers who have a higher probability of buying. Ex: Say you are an electronics retailer and you are selling specific MP3 players. Don’t bid on the keyword “mp3 player”, instead focus on your buying keywords such as “iPod Nano Video” or “Microsoft Zune MP3″. Your more likely to land a more relevant visitor that has a higher percentage of buying.

If you follow the above 7 things to Increase your AdWords Profits in 2010, I am sure they will do just that!

Here is to your success in the New Year.  May all your efforts be honest and fruitful.

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Have you ever used Google’s search-based keyword tool? The tool was launched last November. It was designed to enable paid search advertisers to get more ideas for keywords that could drive people to their sites.

What is the Search-based Keyword Tool?

The Search-based Keyword Tool generates keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. In doing so, the tool helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren’t currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. The tool goes one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more) based on your language or country/territory settings.

Based on your URLs, the Search-based Keyword Tool displays a list of relevant user queries that have occurred on Google.com (and on other Google search properties, such as google.co.uk) with some frequency over the past year; these suggestions can be found under the Keywords tab, in the New keywords related to (site) section. In the Keywords related to your search section, you can see a broad list of keyword ideas that are also relevant, but aren’t necessarily based on your site.

The keywords are also organized by category. Click any category to expand and view its subcategories. If applicable, you’ll also see the keywords organized by brand names.

How does the Search-based Keyword Tool generate its keyword ideas?

The Search-based Keyword Tool compares your website and current AdWords campaigns against actual, past Google search queries to identify additional keywords that might be relevant for your campaigns. The tool compiles a list of search queries relevant to your website that don’t already appear in your AdWords campaigns. By changing your language or country/territory settings, you can view keywords (and corresponding data, such as the amount of competition, suggested bid, etc.) specific to those settings.

See more information on how the Google Search -based Keyword Tool works:  Google Search Based Keyword Tool

This video captures the basic’s of writing ad text and targeting your keywords to the users search query. In addition, designating high quality landing pages that support your Ad and Keywords have a better chance of converting.

There are many more insider Tips-n-Tricks that will boost your performance even further, no sign up for a NO OBLIGATION, FREE 15 Min conference call click here.

News Flash from Dr. Glenn Livingston:

I got word from several affiliate marketers that Google dropped the hammer today on affiliate review pages. Many pages went from quality scores of 10 —> 1 overnight.

And these were NOT skinny sites, rather well build out, consistently updated blogs with good navigation above the fold, xml site maps, high click through, hyper-relevant keyword mapping, low bounce rates, long average time on page … everything else Google loves.

When we analyzed which pages survived, and we take it in combination with other information, it seems pretty clear they’ve added code which screens for affiliate links on the landing pages.

At the moment it seems cloaking and PHP redirects are untouched, … but I can’t imagine these are far behind. (I’m guessing they’re just avoiding this in order to decrease their server burden … takes some CPU cycles to visit every link on the page and evaluate for affiliate code)

I’d say it’s safe to conclude Google’s on the war path against affiliate review sites, and we should be advising clients towards a different business model… at minimum it seems necessary to avoid placing affiliate links on landing pages, but ideally, I think people need to move towards a deeper list building/relationship building strategy and/or a strong e-commerce model.

Time to stop “building on sand”.

There are a few super advantages to the AdWords advertising program. All to benefit the online marketer, on-line retailer, business to business, business to consumer and most importantly the entrepreneur.

No minimum buy – Before AdWords existed, buying a highly targeted ad or a keyword could cost thousands of dollars. AdWords allows you spend whatever amount you want—no minimum. You can run or test a campaign for $10 a day or less.

Almost immediate implementation –Your ad runs almost immediately after it’s submitted. No long waits before you see your listing appear. This gives you an advantage by reaching your target market quickly and efficiently.

Pay only for clicks – When people view your ad (called impressions) you pay nothing. If someone clicks your ad, you then pay for the click. There is no need to worry about your competition depleting your budget by clicking all day. Google’s system protects against multiple clicks from the same user.

Bid for placement – How much does a click cost? That depends on what you’re willing to bid and on how much you might have to bid based on the key phrase popularity. When you bid on a term or phrase, you are telling Google the maximum you’re willing to pay for the click against others who have bid on that term. If the next highest bidder is much less than your maximum bid, you will only pay slightly more than the lower bid for top placement.

Set maximum cost per day –There is no minimum deposit required to start an ad campaign, so even the smallest of businesses can get exposure quickly and affordably. AdWords advertisers enjoy a tremendous level of control over their spend. They can set a maximum daily budget and specific amounts they’re wiling to pay per click, which the AdWords system will only exceed if you are in a hyer competitive market where your ads may be receiving impressions from multiple users at the same time.  Even then, Google will only exceed your daily budget by a dollar or two depending on the click price.

Stop or pause campaign at any time – If you want to make adjustments, it can be done within minutes. You can also pause or stop a campaign at any time. If you need to make revisions to your landing page and do not want your audience to see the page while you are making tweaks, all you do is pause the campaign and then resume when you are complete.

IMPORTANT – NOW accepting new students and clients – Limited space, ACT NOW!!!!

Do you need assistance setting up or launching your Adwords marketing campaign?  Are you looking for personal Adwords Training & Coaching? … click here NOW.  Let me teach you the tips and tricks Google will never share with you.

To your ongoing Success within your Niche Marketplace.

Here we go … this will help separate the herd once again.  People who neglect to follow will be left in the dust.

Google is implementing display URL changes based on the below blog post (from Google Blog) …

For example, an ad group containing the following group of display URLs would comply with this policy because all URLs contain the same top-level domain, “example.com”:

• www.example.com
• www.widgets.example.com
• www.example.com/widgets/redwidgets/
• www.example.com/index.html

On the other hand, and ad group containing the following group of display URLs would not comply with our policy because their top-level domains don’t match:

• www.example.com
• www.example.widgets.com

See original Post from Google … click here