Editorial: 4 Tips to Squeeze Every Cent of Profit From Your Pay-Per-Click Marketing
By Derek Gehl

I love pay-per-click marketing! There are few forms of online advertising that offer such complete control over where you spend your advertising dollars.

But despite the ability to control Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing gives you over your ads -- how much you spend on them, where and when they appear, etc. -- I'm constantly meeting savvy Internet marketers who are wasting tons of unnecessary money on their pay-per-click campaigns because they are either...

a) Making "okay" money from their campaigns and too lazy to do the work to make them really successful

-- or --

b) They just don't know any better!

No matter how you're doing with YOUR pay-per-click efforts, here are 4 tips that you can start applying today to fine-tune your campaigns and boost your ROI.

Tip #1: Keywords... keywords... keywords!

Even if your business targets an extremely narrow niche market, your campaign should begin with at least 100 keywords.

I have yet to come across a niche market for which we couldn't find that many keywords for the initial round of testing. In fact, the majority of businesses I deal with start in the range of 500-1000 keywords!

If it sounds like a huge challenge to come up with that many keywords, don't worry.

With tools like Wordtracker and Google's Keyword Evaluator, you don't have to come up with the keywords on your own. All you have to do is identify a core list of keywords and then let technology do the work for you.

Now, is every single one of those keywords going to make you money? Nope! Some will bomb horribly.

But I'll talk about how you deal with that in a second...

Tip #2: Never stop testing new ads

When you first start your pay-per-click campaigns, you should be writing at least five different ads for each keyword group.

Note: a "keyword group" is a cluster of closely related keywords that say exactly the same thing, in slightly different ways.

For example, a keyword group for a site promoting a bed and breakfast in El Paso, Texas could include:

El Paso bed and breakfast El Paso bed and breakfasts Bed and breakfast El Paso Bed and breakfasts El Paso Texas

El Paso BandB BandBs El Paso B and Bs El Paso B and B El Paso Texas B and Bs El Paso Texas

El Paso bed and breakfasts B and B El Paso El Paso Texas bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast El Paso Texas

... and so on.

(As you can see, the variations between each keyword phrase are very slight.)

Once you've written your five plus ads for your keyword group, run them all at the same time. Keep them going until you get enough impressions to determine which one is the winner -- and then roll out the winning ad across the entire group.

Congratulations... you now have a winning ad!

But don't stop now... continue to work on your ads and try to come up with one that will beat your current front runner. If you beat your winning ad, roll-out the new ad across your keyword group and then try and beat that ad.

Then keep on repeating this testing cycle indefinitely, to ensure you're always running the best possible ad you can.

Tip #3: Design targeted landing pages for each keyword group

Nothing will turn a visitor into a customer faster than a message that tells them exactly what they want to hear. So, if I have multiple keyword groups that target different themes, each ad should be driving visitors to a landing page with salescopy that reflects the theme of a single keyword group.

For example, if different themes an El Paso bed and breakfast owner could try targeting might be:

"family friendly bed and breakfast el Paso" or "el Paso couples bed and breakfast"

The first ad could lead to a landing page that emphasized all of the great family activities available in and around the bed and breakfast, while the second one could talk about how great the same bed and breakfast is as a romantic getaway.

By testing out different themes like this, you can see which theme gets the most sales and focus more of your PPC dollars there!

Tips #4: Detailed tracking

If you want to get the most bang for every PPC buck you spend, then simply tracking the overall effectiveness of your campaigns won't do. You need to track the effectiveness of every individual keyword if you want to crank every cent out of your PPC efforts!

Like I said in Step #1, you will be starting your campaign with hundreds of keywords. But not all of those keywords will be profitable. It's your job to weed out the unprofitable ones right away.

There are four different keyword performance scenarios you will encounter:

1. Keywords that aren't driving any traffic
   
   After you've tested a few different ads to confirm these keywords are ineffective, get rid of them. They're useless. Even though they're not costing you any money, they are cluttering up your campaign.
   
   
2. Keywords that are driving traffic -- but no sales
   
   This is where a lot of your wasted PPC dollars go! If you find this happening to you, look at your ad and make sure your landing page relates back to the keyword.
   
   Does the landing page meet the expectation your ad creates? If yes, then get rid of the keyword. It's only costing you money.
   
   
3. Keywords that are driving traffic and opt-ins -- but no immediate sales
   
   If you are a savvy marketer, chances are you have a good autoresponder sequence that builds a relationship with your subscribers and eventually converts them to sales.
   
   If this is the case, I would keep these keywords. The ROI is not immediate, but don't worry -- it will come!
   
   In fact, if you are trying to sell a higher-ticket product through PPC without much success, your entire marketing campaign may be more effective if it's based around driving leads to an opt-in form or squeeze page and then working up to the sale as you establish a relationship with your subsscribers.
   
   
4. Keywords that are driving traffic and sales
   
   Obviously these are the keywords we want to keep... but status quo is not enough!
   
   You need to track the conversion of each individual keyword. Some will convert higher than others, which will ultimately dictate how much you can bid on those keyword and still remain profitable.
   
   In other words, if I have a top performing keyword and I am not ranking in the top 3-4 positions, I may want to spend more to increase the position, my clickthrough ratio, and sales.

So there it is! Four strategies you can apply today. If you are already doing all of these, great!

However, if you are missing just one, there is a very good chance you are missing out on sales. And you could end up throwing good money after bad!

If you are just getting started with pay-per-click advertising, you can get far more detailed training in my exclusive Search Marketing Lab, which I will let you try for the next 30 days for only $2.95!

Happy "pay-per-clicking!"

Derek Gehl

Right now you can get a full 30-day trial membership to our Search Marketing Lab, for just $2.95!

If you're intimidated by terms like "keyword themes" and "anchor text" -- this is especially for you.

Because for the next month, you'll get unlimited access to our search marketing video "library," as well as our exclusive search marketing forum and our monthly "Search Marketing Lab Report," outlining the latest tips and strategies that will help propel your site to the top of Google's rankings.

PLUS, you'll also get unlimited access to my very own SEO marketing "wizard," who will personally answer all your questions and work one on one with you to drive swarms of unlimited FREE traffic from Google to your site.

To activate your 30-day trial to our Search Marketing Lab, visit:

http://www.marketingtips.com/bigtrafficboost

See you in the search results!

How to boost your Google rank with free links (Hint: It's not just all about PageRank!)
By Andrew Mallory

Last week, Derek wrote an editorial telling you how to get high quality links pointing to your site by registering your site with the 'Net's top paid directories.

This week, Derek has asked me to write an article explaining how you can expand your link network by getting FREE links from other sites.

This process is a little more time consuming... but the links you'll get will definitely be worth it. (Not to mention all that extra traffic thanks to your improved search engine ranking!)

But before you set off in search of free links that will propel your site to the top of the search engine results, here are 5 things you need to consider:

1. Pay attention to PageRank -- but don't live or die by it!
   
   When trying to find sites to link to their site, most people tend to look for ones that have a high PageRank.
   
   (PageRank is a function of Google's toolbar that supposedly measures the importance of a given website.)
   
   However, all this focus on PageRank has resulted in many people looking ONLY at PageRank when evaluating possible linking sites. They also spend a lot of effort trying to improve their own PageRank -- without stopping to consider whether their actions are helping their actual ranking in Google's listings.
   
   And that is not a good thing.
   
   The fact is, no one is really sure exactly how much Google takes PageRank into account when calculating its natural search algorithms.
   
   For example, sites with very little PageRank can be found at the top of the search results, while sites with a high PageRank are languishing on the fourth or fifth page... or even lower!
   
   On top of that, it's hard to tell exactly what PageRank uses as its criteria to measure a site's "authority."
   
   Government sites such as FEMA, the IRS, and the FBI all have a PageRank of 8 out of a possible 10. Yet I can't imagine there's a more authoritative source of information on the IRS than the IRS itself!
   
   Finally, PageRank "addicts" should know that unscrupulous webmasters can steal another site's PageRank and use it to manipulate their own PageRank numbers!
   
   (In fact, this is what lots of shady "link sellers" do -- they sell links based on their PageRank, but often that PageRank has been artificially inflated!)
   
   So while you should still pay attention to PageRank, it's certainly not the only thing you should look at. You need to consider what the actual rank of that site is, and how well its content relates to the content on your site.
   
   (More about that in a moment...)
   
   
2. Looking for links from a commercial site? Make sure its products are complementary
   
   There's no point in trying to get a link from a site selling something that has no relation to your business! You need to look for commercial sites that sell things that go well with your product.
   
   If you sell the cola and I sell the glasses and ice, it could be the beginning of a beautiful joint venture relationship that provides great value to both your customers and mine.
   
   
3. Look for web pages with content that's closely related to the content on your page
   
   I would argue that this is just as important as a site's PageRank, if not more so.
   
   You want your links to come from pages whose content is as focused on the content on YOUR page as possible.
   
   It's not just a matter of getting links pointing from another site's homepage to your homepage! Try to go deeper and more specific than that.
   
   If you sell used tennis rackets and you find a site that talks about tennis topics in general, try to get a link on a sub-page that talks specifically about tennis rackets.
   
   And if it talks specifically about used tennis rackets, even better.
   
   Also look for web pages that have content related to your product or service, even if the site itself doesn't have any real relation to your business.
   
   For example, if a popular blogger who typically writes about her daily life writes a post that directly relates to your product in some way, ask her if you can get a link on the page that has that particular blog post.
   
   Or maybe a general information site has an article that relates to your product. THAT'S where you want your link -- right on the article page itself.
   
   Links from general information sites can still be valuable, provided they're heavy traffic-sites with a great search engine rank.
   
   But in general, it's more effective -- and in many cases, much easier -- to try and get a link on a web page whose content directly relates to your own, even if that site is lower down in the search engine rankings and doesn't get the same volume of traffic.
   
   
4. Is this a good page for a link? Consider it from the user's perspective
   
   When you're debating whether a web page is a good link source, think about it from the perspective of the visitors to that site.
   
   They've come to a page, and on it they see a link to a site they've never heard of before. It's got intriguing anchor text and it's embedded in content they're interested in.
   
   Now... if they click on that link, are they going to be happy?
   
   If they don't find what they expect to find -- based on the content of the page that led them there -- they're going to be disappointed, and they're going to leave. And they're going to think less of the site that sent them there.
   
   So if you're going to try and get links from other sites pointing to yours, make sure the people who click on that link are going to find something valuable to them!
   
   Offer them free information -- maybe something they can download, like a free report. Because if you don't send them to a page that makes that click truly worth their while, you're just gaming the system.
   
   
5. When you ask for links, emphasize what's in it for THEM
   
   The days when you could email people and ask, "Please link to me" are long gone.
   
   When you approach other sites owners to ask them to link to your site, what you're really asking is for them to share some of their traffic with you.
   
   Smart website owners are jealously protective of their traffic. They're not going to share it with just anybody. The sites they recommend reflect back on them. If they tell people to go to a low-quality site, their visitors aren't going to like them very much for it!
   
   That's why you need to emphasize the benefits of linking to your site -- both for their visitors and for them.
   
   How will you provide value to the visitors they send you? Are you a great source of information? Will your product help their visitors solve a problem you know they're experiencing? Do you offer something the other site owner simply can't provide -- something you know their visitors want?
   
   That's what you need to tell them in order to convince them to link to your site.
   
   Never forget: when you ask for a link from a site, you're essentially borrowing that site's credibility, and you need to be respectful about that.

Building a network of free links definitely takes some time... but you have to remember the benefits...

Not only will you enjoy the indirect benefit of better search ranking and the traffic it'll bring you, you'll also get the traffic sent directly from the links themselves!

And all that extra traffic will make all your efforts worthwhile.

[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is one of our top Internet Entrepreneur Club experts.]