Adwords and Adsense Not Working For You?
Having troubles with Adwords or Adsense? Or still thinking about whether either of these are right for you? This is the article for you to read! Both of these services are great for some, but they can be disasters for others.
Let's start with Adwords. If you don't know already, Google Adwords is basically a pay-per-click system that Google has set up. Sites pay to have their small ads shown either on the Google search or on sites that elect to have Adsense on them (not only does Google get paid per click, but they pass some of that onto sites that allow them to put their ads there too). It can be a lifesaver for some sites, but a huge disaster for others. Somes sites who are unable to get ranked high in the search engines (either due to their own SEO downfalls or a field that's too competitive) are able to create ads that can appear in the first page of results either on the top or the right-hand side of the results page. Interested individuals can then click on their ad and proceed to see their website or sales page. Clicks can cost anywhere from 1 penny to $50 per click (yes, you heard me right, some competitive keywords go for $10 to $50 a click).
Adwords is a little more complicated than some might think, but the "basic" idea is that the more competitive a keyword is, the more money you have to pay per click. This isn't totally true, as the amount you have to pay is also determined by how how popular and relevant your site is to the keyword (they check both your site and see how many visitors click on your ad on given search terms, how long they stay on your site, etc.). The more relevant and more click throughs your site gets, the cheaper your pay-per-clicks are.
Even so, you can go through a lot of money before you find your "sweet zone," which might not even end up being that profitable at all. There are a few ways around this, though.
Although having some money to play around with to find out what ads appear more popular (thus resulting in higher click throughs and lower pay-per-click costs) is the best way for some sites, there are even better ways for those on a much smaller budget. You can look for less common keywords where you'll get higher placement for a lot less money. You can do this by either being more specific or by finding keywords that are less popular but still somewhat related to what you are selling.
Let me give you a few examples. Let's say that you are selling TV's. Instead of buying expensive keywords like "electronics," "televisions," or even "LCD tv," you could bid on keywords like "Sony LCD VS1000" or whatever other product you are selling. If that wasn't specific enough, you could even search for less popular key terms that are related like "bad pixels in LCD tvs" or "plasma tv vs lcd tv" or even "LCD tv's vs plasma tv's" and so forth. Now I picked a fairly broad topic (tv's), so the results here might even be a bit more inflated than normal, but the same concept can work in any category to bring down the costs a ton. Even in golfing, for instance, if you were selling golf clubs, you could ad keywords like "iron golf clubs" or "'some brand name' golf clubs."
Another technique is to set a low bid amount (say maybe 5 to 10 cents per click) but use hundreds of keywords. There are tons of tools out there to look up relevant keywords. Both Yahoo Overture and Google Adwords offer these tools as well, but any internet search will present even more options for you free of charge. This way, even if your ad shows up in spot 139 on "tv," it might appear in the #1 spot for less used keywords and still result in some great traffic coming your way.
Another tip, which I'd be very careful with (if used wrong, it could hurt), is to be straight forward in your ads. If you are selling something for $200 and people click on your ad thinking that it might be free, you could be in for some very bad results (and wasted money). If you are giving away something free (and if you aren't, do it!), make sure that you say that. If you are just trying to sell something, then you can perhaps put a price on your ad. Even though this could result in less clicks, the people that do click on it will most likely be aware that it's not for free and that they will have to pay something, so you're not wasting your money on irrelevant clicks.
You do have to be careful with this depending on the keyword, as you don't want to be so blunt that you scare away potential buyers as well. This is more relevant to information products or services than actual consumer products, as everyone knows that you have to pay money for an LCD tv. They don't all know that your great website tools are $200 and not free.
Your sales page is also a huge deal with this type of marketing as well, as you really want to catch the attention of your visitors before you lose them. Let them immediately see why your site is the best for what you are selling, or try to offer them a freebie if they sign up for your mailing list (to catch them later). There are tons of techniques on how to make a sales page better, but I won't spend too much time on this (perhaps I'll do another review of good techniques for this later).
Another thing that makes a huge difference with Adwords is what type of business you are promoting. If you are trying to promote a vet clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, Adwords could be a great way to go (although it probably wouldn't be terribly hard to get ranked in the search engines with some good keywords here if you got some SEO done on your website). Not only could you have the settings to only display your ad to people within a certain distance of your clinic, but you could also ad more unique search terms like "vet clinics st. paul MI," which would almost certainly place your ad in the #1 or #2 spot.
Now if your business is an internet based one (like website marketing), you have a much harder situation and should definitely pay close attention to the tips in this article.
With that said, just be careful with Adwords and make sure that you are using it in a smart way. Make sure that your sales page is a good one and that customers who click on your link are clearly interested in what you have to offer for the price. And make sure that your ad and offer stand out more than your competitors (with still being realistic).
Now that we got over Adwords, it is easier to talk about Adsense, which is basically the opposite. Adsense is a service by Google that allows you to get paid when you have a block of ads on your site from Google each time someone clicks on it (be careful that you don't click on it yourself or use other similar techniques, as you can lose all of your money and be banned). This can be great for some sites, yet horrible for others.
If you already have a ton of traffic and relevant content, it might not be a bad idea to give it a try. For instance, a popular web forum that isn't making much money might start making a lot more by implementing Adsense. When relevant topics are brought up, some relevant ads might be displayed as well. Depending on the ad, you could get anything from a penny to several bucks (although think nickels and dimes for most of them). This sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Not necessarily...
First, if you don't have much traffic, you're pretty much screwed here. Then if you also have very little to no content, people probably aren't going to want to even click on your ads as they'll simply appear to be spam. Lastly, Google ads in the wrong places or even anywhere on some sites might appear like a desperate attempt to make some money, which could turn away potential customers. I actually don't use Adsense that much at all (I have a few spots for it on one site of mine), as I don't want to trash up the site with it ... and I make a lot more money with other techniques.
Unless you are doing this extremely well on a very well established website, don't expect to take in more than a few dollars a month (if that). Even more so, don't buy any of those "pre-done" websites filled with Adsense that claim to bring you thousands of dollars. Not only will you probably never get ranked in the top search engines (the only way for people to see those pages realistically), but you'll never make much more than a few cents with them. Think about it, if it was that easy to get clicks, why would advertisers waste so much money on that? And why would packages like this sell for only a few dollars? I've seen some packages ranging from $1 to $100 that sell hundreds to thousands of these pre-filled Adsense pages for you. Don't spend a dime on them as they are all crap. No one will ever see them, and no one will ever click on them.
So there you have it, both Adwords and Adsense can work for some sites, but don't think that they will instantly make you thousands of dollars overnight from scratch. You do have to put some time into your investments.
My original ebook goes into detail about Adwords as well, and my new ebook "The Secret to Making Money Online" has a small section that can help the new technique that I discovered as well. Check them out at www.iwantpennies.com.
Feel free to post about relevant experiences with either of these.
Let's start with Adwords. If you don't know already, Google Adwords is basically a pay-per-click system that Google has set up. Sites pay to have their small ads shown either on the Google search or on sites that elect to have Adsense on them (not only does Google get paid per click, but they pass some of that onto sites that allow them to put their ads there too). It can be a lifesaver for some sites, but a huge disaster for others. Somes sites who are unable to get ranked high in the search engines (either due to their own SEO downfalls or a field that's too competitive) are able to create ads that can appear in the first page of results either on the top or the right-hand side of the results page. Interested individuals can then click on their ad and proceed to see their website or sales page. Clicks can cost anywhere from 1 penny to $50 per click (yes, you heard me right, some competitive keywords go for $10 to $50 a click).
Adwords is a little more complicated than some might think, but the "basic" idea is that the more competitive a keyword is, the more money you have to pay per click. This isn't totally true, as the amount you have to pay is also determined by how how popular and relevant your site is to the keyword (they check both your site and see how many visitors click on your ad on given search terms, how long they stay on your site, etc.). The more relevant and more click throughs your site gets, the cheaper your pay-per-clicks are.
Even so, you can go through a lot of money before you find your "sweet zone," which might not even end up being that profitable at all. There are a few ways around this, though.
Although having some money to play around with to find out what ads appear more popular (thus resulting in higher click throughs and lower pay-per-click costs) is the best way for some sites, there are even better ways for those on a much smaller budget. You can look for less common keywords where you'll get higher placement for a lot less money. You can do this by either being more specific or by finding keywords that are less popular but still somewhat related to what you are selling.
Let me give you a few examples. Let's say that you are selling TV's. Instead of buying expensive keywords like "electronics," "televisions," or even "LCD tv," you could bid on keywords like "Sony LCD VS1000" or whatever other product you are selling. If that wasn't specific enough, you could even search for less popular key terms that are related like "bad pixels in LCD tvs" or "plasma tv vs lcd tv" or even "LCD tv's vs plasma tv's" and so forth. Now I picked a fairly broad topic (tv's), so the results here might even be a bit more inflated than normal, but the same concept can work in any category to bring down the costs a ton. Even in golfing, for instance, if you were selling golf clubs, you could ad keywords like "iron golf clubs" or "'some brand name' golf clubs."
Another technique is to set a low bid amount (say maybe 5 to 10 cents per click) but use hundreds of keywords. There are tons of tools out there to look up relevant keywords. Both Yahoo Overture and Google Adwords offer these tools as well, but any internet search will present even more options for you free of charge. This way, even if your ad shows up in spot 139 on "tv," it might appear in the #1 spot for less used keywords and still result in some great traffic coming your way.
Another tip, which I'd be very careful with (if used wrong, it could hurt), is to be straight forward in your ads. If you are selling something for $200 and people click on your ad thinking that it might be free, you could be in for some very bad results (and wasted money). If you are giving away something free (and if you aren't, do it!), make sure that you say that. If you are just trying to sell something, then you can perhaps put a price on your ad. Even though this could result in less clicks, the people that do click on it will most likely be aware that it's not for free and that they will have to pay something, so you're not wasting your money on irrelevant clicks.
You do have to be careful with this depending on the keyword, as you don't want to be so blunt that you scare away potential buyers as well. This is more relevant to information products or services than actual consumer products, as everyone knows that you have to pay money for an LCD tv. They don't all know that your great website tools are $200 and not free.
Your sales page is also a huge deal with this type of marketing as well, as you really want to catch the attention of your visitors before you lose them. Let them immediately see why your site is the best for what you are selling, or try to offer them a freebie if they sign up for your mailing list (to catch them later). There are tons of techniques on how to make a sales page better, but I won't spend too much time on this (perhaps I'll do another review of good techniques for this later).
Another thing that makes a huge difference with Adwords is what type of business you are promoting. If you are trying to promote a vet clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, Adwords could be a great way to go (although it probably wouldn't be terribly hard to get ranked in the search engines with some good keywords here if you got some SEO done on your website). Not only could you have the settings to only display your ad to people within a certain distance of your clinic, but you could also ad more unique search terms like "vet clinics st. paul MI," which would almost certainly place your ad in the #1 or #2 spot.
Now if your business is an internet based one (like website marketing), you have a much harder situation and should definitely pay close attention to the tips in this article.
With that said, just be careful with Adwords and make sure that you are using it in a smart way. Make sure that your sales page is a good one and that customers who click on your link are clearly interested in what you have to offer for the price. And make sure that your ad and offer stand out more than your competitors (with still being realistic).
Now that we got over Adwords, it is easier to talk about Adsense, which is basically the opposite. Adsense is a service by Google that allows you to get paid when you have a block of ads on your site from Google each time someone clicks on it (be careful that you don't click on it yourself or use other similar techniques, as you can lose all of your money and be banned). This can be great for some sites, yet horrible for others.
If you already have a ton of traffic and relevant content, it might not be a bad idea to give it a try. For instance, a popular web forum that isn't making much money might start making a lot more by implementing Adsense. When relevant topics are brought up, some relevant ads might be displayed as well. Depending on the ad, you could get anything from a penny to several bucks (although think nickels and dimes for most of them). This sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Not necessarily...
First, if you don't have much traffic, you're pretty much screwed here. Then if you also have very little to no content, people probably aren't going to want to even click on your ads as they'll simply appear to be spam. Lastly, Google ads in the wrong places or even anywhere on some sites might appear like a desperate attempt to make some money, which could turn away potential customers. I actually don't use Adsense that much at all (I have a few spots for it on one site of mine), as I don't want to trash up the site with it ... and I make a lot more money with other techniques.
Unless you are doing this extremely well on a very well established website, don't expect to take in more than a few dollars a month (if that). Even more so, don't buy any of those "pre-done" websites filled with Adsense that claim to bring you thousands of dollars. Not only will you probably never get ranked in the top search engines (the only way for people to see those pages realistically), but you'll never make much more than a few cents with them. Think about it, if it was that easy to get clicks, why would advertisers waste so much money on that? And why would packages like this sell for only a few dollars? I've seen some packages ranging from $1 to $100 that sell hundreds to thousands of these pre-filled Adsense pages for you. Don't spend a dime on them as they are all crap. No one will ever see them, and no one will ever click on them.
So there you have it, both Adwords and Adsense can work for some sites, but don't think that they will instantly make you thousands of dollars overnight from scratch. You do have to put some time into your investments.
My original ebook goes into detail about Adwords as well, and my new ebook "The Secret to Making Money Online" has a small section that can help the new technique that I discovered as well. Check them out at www.iwantpennies.com.
Feel free to post about relevant experiences with either of these.
posted by LeadEvolution Team at
2:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home