Pay per click advertising, PPC search engine articles

Perry Marshall is one of the best known AdWords experts around, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy of his book, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords (co-authored by Bryan Todd). My first impression was good: the book has a nice feel in your hands, it's well laid out and it's very well written. I felt far more confident about what I'd find inside this book than I did about Joel Comm's The AdSense Code.

The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords begins with a couple of introductory chapters that can be skipped if you have some basic knowledge about PPC and AdWords. I should note that I reject the concept of "auto-pilot" PPC that's introduced on page 1 and peppered throughout the book. Because of seasonal changes, changing buying or searching habits, new competitors and other factors, a PPC campaign isn't something that can be set up and left to fend for itself. The smart PPC marketer always keeps an eye on market trends and performance statistics, and constantly expands reach by growing and/or refining keyword lists.

Chapter 3 runs through the setup of an AdWords campaign, adding tips and warning of pitfalls along the way. This is a great chapter for any AdWords advertiser to check out (even if it's just to make sure that you crossed your t's.) Next, Marshall writes about lowering CPC, and introduces the "Peel & Stick" strategy, where you remove your high traffic keywords from an Ad Group, then create a new Ad Group for the keyword along with its own ad. This allows you to get your keywords into your ad copy, which always results in higher CTR.

The next chapter is a good primer on how to squeeze more clicks from your PPC investment by properly organizing your AdWords account, using negative keywords, split testing and keyword scrubbing. This is another good read for beginner to intermediate AdWords advertisers, as is the next chapter on keyword selection and crafting killer headlines for your ad copy.

Chapter 7 goes into detail about split-testing, the AdWords advertiser's best friend. Google makes split-testing a snap and Marshall provides a solid crash course in how to put this technique to use. Marshall continues by touching on subjects such as AdSense, image ads and local ads, and follows that up with a chapter on lowering your CPC through relevance, which includes an explanation of AdWords' Quality Score. These last few sections of the book seemed slightly out of order to me. They were also very short chapters. This is when it dawned on me that there was a chance that this book had started out as an e-book or email course–it just has that jumbled, slightly less cohesive feel to it.

Marshall goes on to stress the importance of having a defined USP (unique selling point) for your campaign, but after that the book starts to stray away from the world of AdWords into the more general waters of marketing. It's all good, related info but I missed the tighter focus on AdWords. Email marketing, more on testing, converting visitors (including how to setup AdWords conversion tracking), and visitor value are all on the list before the book settles back down to more AdWords power juice: pursuasive ad copy, untapped ad copy ideas, and finally some basic how-to's for using Google tools like Analytics and AdWords Reports.

The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords also includes a solid chapter on search engine optimization, penned by Planet Ocean's Stephen Mahaney. Again, this is not directly related to AdWords, but it's good information to have on your side nonetheless. A helpful FAQ section rounds out the book.

Overall, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords is a good quality book about AdWords AND marketing. Because the book strays from the tight focus of AdWords I question the title, but this doesn't detract from the quality of the information presented. In the end, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords is a good buy, but in my view the definitive guide to Google AdWords is MindValleyLab's AdWords Winning System. I'll review this excellent AdWords guide soon.

As a search marketer, I manage a large number of Google AdWords Ad Groups for my clients. Crunching the numbers to split test each and every one of those Ad Groups was once a laborious manual process, but no more!

I recently discovered the ClickMuse AdWords Optimizer does the heavy lifting for me, and it does it all automatically and for free. This extremely useful tool studies your clickthrough rates based on AdWords Reports and makes recommendations about which ad variations are performing better than others, giving you a clear and concise path to better CTR performance.

The AdWords Optimizer is a snap to setup and its recommendations are easy to understand, even for the new AdWords advertiser. Simply create a free account, then follow the step-by-step instructions to generate automatic reports within your AdWords account to be sent to your AdWords Optimizer account. Then, sit back and wait for the AdWords Optimizer to send you automatic optimization email alerts!

Its important to note that the AdWords Optimizer only analyzes your CTR–it does not take into account your conversion rate. As such, you shouldn't accept its recommendations blindly since a low CTR ad can generate high conversions. That being said, the AdWords Optimizer can still provide extremely useful insight into your campaigns.

When I think about how much time I've wasted manually drilling down through my AdWords stats to arrive at the same conclusions recommended by this free tool… well, needless to say the AdWords Optimizer has been an absolutely huge time-saver for me! If you only use one third-party AdWords tool for your next campaign, make it the ClickMuse AdWords Opitimizer!

On May 10, Google Labs released Google Trends, a simple to use tool that provides keyword or keyphrase comparisons. This can be very useful in determining the best keywords and phrases to target with your PPC campaigns. Just enter two keywords or phrases separated by a comma and Trends will spit out a nice chart and bar graph showing you the search popularity of the terms entered, broken down by cities, regions and languages. While this is certainly not a tool to replace WordTracker or the Overture Keyword Selector Tool, it is a nice service that can augment your research.

By the way, DigitalPoint offers a tool that combines the results of both WordTracker and the Overture KST; check it out here.

Both of these handy tools have been added to the Free Tools links in the left sidebar for your easy reference.

The most common phrases targeted by PPC advertisers quickly escalate in price. You can still obtain low-priced clicks though if you're able to develop a large list of key phrases that fewer advertisers are bidding on. Keyword Lizard is a free keyword tool designed to expand your keyword lists by creating every possible combination of keywords. You can develop huge lists in just moments! Simply enter keywords into two or more input lists and with a single click, Keyword Lizard will combine the keywords in every way possible to generate a large list of potential keyword phrases.

Keywork Lizard also offers a subscription-based professional service. Designed for the Google AdWords professional, this service includes unlimited phone support provided by My AdWords Expert, LLC., additional keyword search options, secure database storage of your searches, Google AdWords Power Posting export to Text or CSV, sample PHP & Cold Fusion code for Keyword Conversion Tracking on your client's website.

If you're looking for a rich pool of keyword and phrase targets for your campaigns (who isn't?), be sure to check out Keyword Lizard. 

I've been seeing numerous reports online about people receiving email solicitations from one of the newer players to jump in the PPC pool, ExpoActive. The text of the email goes a little like this:

My company is interested in purchasing ad space on your website. Right now we wanted to find out about placing a text based ad on the page [url].

However we would also be willing to have our ad shown on all pages of your site at your discretion. Currently we would be willing to pay you $ .25 for every click that this ad receives.

If you decide to accept this proposal please create your ExpoActive account using the following dynamic link [link]

After creating your ExpoActive account you will be able to view the actual ad that we would like to place on your website. If you agree to display this Ad on your website you will be provided with a short HTML segment that you simply paste on to your site's pages wherever you believe the Ad would be most effective. In the event that you feel the ad you have been offered would be more relevant on a different website that you operate, it is fine to place it there providing the visitor demographics are similar.

You will then immediately begin earning $ .25 every time a visitor of your website clicks this ad. At any time you will be able to log into your account and view your balance. The money you earn will be sent to you via check or certified money order on a monthly basis.

We hope you choose to accept our proposal, as we look forward to advertising with you ASAP!

Sincerely,

Pete Caxivo
Senior Account Recruitment
ExpoActive
advertising@expoactive.com

ExpoActive 3571 Far West Blvd. #94
Austin, TX 78731

When I received one of these last week, I finally decided to have a look at the ExpoActive website. Almost immediately I was put off by the site's mediocre appearance and awkwardly written content. Brand impression = two thumbs down.

I did a quick Google search and came up with some forum threads about ExpoActive, as well this review from ppc-forums.com. Hmm, not very impressive.

At this time, I will pass on ExpoActive and advise others to do so as well. Stick with the established players, where the ad inventory is large and diverse, account management tools are advanced, and a credible payout history has been proven. There are more entertaining ways that you can waste some of that surplus of "free time" you have!

Dan Thies has posted a quick review of Boris Mordkovich's PPC Search Engine Marketing Handbook. Thies calls the paperback a "gem", and "a nice introduction to PPC, with clear and concise discussions of the standard strategy & tactics".

SitePoint have established themselves as a leader in publishing books for web professionals that are fun and easy to read, yet feature in-depth, advanced information about programming, design and marketing. Their latest release, Dan Thies' The Search Engine Marketing Kit, is no exception: The SEM Kit is comprised of more than 250 pages presented in workbook format that contain invaluable knowledge that's suited to search marketing novices and experts alike. Despite the ever-changing nature of this industry, The SEM Kit should remain an excellent and relevant resource for years to come.

While the focus on PPC in the kit is limited to a single chapter (plus references to PPC tools in the appendix), it's a power-packed segment that touches on the basics (intro, major players), intermediate info (third-party management tools, minor players, keyword matching and selection, bid management), and advanced PPC strategies (dayparting, landing pages, testing and CTR boosting).

The best marketers know that a healthy dose of "organic" or natural search marketing strategies paired up with PPC marketing results in the most powerful Internet marketing. In Dan Thies' The Search Engine Marketing Kit, you'll find it all! Plus, for a limited time you also get $150 in clicks from AdWords, Yahoo! and FindWhat. The SEM Kit is highly recommended.

• Download sample chapters
• Take advantage of the introductory offer
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