five-days-to-success-with-google 3
What does the Wall Street Journal have to do with Google AdWords?
Plenty.
For starters, the Wall Street Journal advertises for new subscriptions using Google AdWords.
But that's not what I'm going to talk about today.
No, what I'm going to talk about is the WSJ's famous direct mail letter, the one that's been selling millions of subscriptions. They mail out 30 million copies of that letter every year.
This two-page letter starts out:
Dear Reader,
On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college.
They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable, and - as young college graduates are - both were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently, these men returned to their college for their twenty-fifth reunion...
Of course it goes on to explain that one was super-successful because he read the Wall Street Journal.
That letter has been selling WSJ subscriptions for 29 years - unchanged. That's right. They have not changed that letter in 29 years!
Not that people haven't tried. Top writers have been trying to beat it ever since it was first written.
And nobody's succeeded - until just recently.
That's right, a copywriter named Mal Decker just beat it, apparently increasing the response by Twenty Percent!.
Mr. Decker should be mighty proud of himself.
The reason this is so significant is that because of the improved performance of this letter, the WSJ now gets 20% more sales without spending a penny more on postage or printing. I can only guess, but when you subtract out expenses, this might actually double the profit they make selling their paper.
The lesson is clear: In advertising, your copy - your choice of words - is king.
So what does this have to do with Google AdWords?
Plenty. AdWords is set up to work in a way very similar to direct mail. If you can beat your existing ad, the same way Mal Decker beat the WSJ letter, something amazing happens: You actually pay less money for your clicks - and you get more visitors to boot.
The same thing, in turn, happens once visitors get to your website: The better your copy on the website, and the more traffic it converts to dollars, the more money you get, and you don't have to spend a penny more on traffic!
You can change the CTR of your ads by 50% just by changing ONE WORD. And this is NOT unusual, not a fluke. It's actually QUITE NORMAL. That's right - ONE word can make that much difference. My AdWords Toolkit even shows you an example of how simply reversing the order of two lines increased the response by 2000%!
When you're writing those little ads, little hinges swing big doors!
I got an email the other day from a customer who had just read my Definitive Guide to Google AdWords। He said, "It came to me that everything revolves around keywords. It is the basis not only for ad campaigns, but for website development."
That is absolutely right.
The success of your campaigns depends on keywords you bid on, specifically:
1) Choosing the right ones
2) Choosing enough of them
3) Bidding wisely.
Mistake #1 that most people make is bidding on too few। If you're only bidding on a 10 or 20 keywords, you'll have a very hard time making it work. That's because the 10 or 20 that you're bidding on are the same ones everyone else is bidding on.
You need at least 100 or 200. As a matter of fact, a thoroughly designed campaign for most products or services will have as many as 1000.
Why would you possibly need to bid on 1000 words and phrases?
Because if you sell, say, Digital Cameras, there are probably 30 or 40 other bidders for "digital camera." But if you bid on "Sony Mavica MVCCD400" there will only be a handful of other bidders and you can get those coveted 5 Cent Clicks.
How do you come up with hundreds of words and phrases?
Hint: You don't have to come up with them yourself. You use keyword research tools.
One tool that I've found quite useful is WordTracker.
WordTracker is a company that keeps records of millions of internet searches. You can type in a keyword and they'll give you lists of hundreds of variations on that keyword that have recently been searched on the Internet.
Good keyword tools can make your job much, much easier - and also cut your bid prices substantially. Give WordTracker a try - they even have a 1-day trial version so you can give it a test drive।
Plenty.
For starters, the Wall Street Journal advertises for new subscriptions using Google AdWords.
But that's not what I'm going to talk about today.
No, what I'm going to talk about is the WSJ's famous direct mail letter, the one that's been selling millions of subscriptions. They mail out 30 million copies of that letter every year.
This two-page letter starts out:
Dear Reader,
On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college.
They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable, and - as young college graduates are - both were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently, these men returned to their college for their twenty-fifth reunion...
Of course it goes on to explain that one was super-successful because he read the Wall Street Journal.
That letter has been selling WSJ subscriptions for 29 years - unchanged. That's right. They have not changed that letter in 29 years!
Not that people haven't tried. Top writers have been trying to beat it ever since it was first written.
And nobody's succeeded - until just recently.
That's right, a copywriter named Mal Decker just beat it, apparently increasing the response by Twenty Percent!.
Mr. Decker should be mighty proud of himself.
The reason this is so significant is that because of the improved performance of this letter, the WSJ now gets 20% more sales without spending a penny more on postage or printing. I can only guess, but when you subtract out expenses, this might actually double the profit they make selling their paper.
The lesson is clear: In advertising, your copy - your choice of words - is king.
So what does this have to do with Google AdWords?
Plenty. AdWords is set up to work in a way very similar to direct mail. If you can beat your existing ad, the same way Mal Decker beat the WSJ letter, something amazing happens: You actually pay less money for your clicks - and you get more visitors to boot.
The same thing, in turn, happens once visitors get to your website: The better your copy on the website, and the more traffic it converts to dollars, the more money you get, and you don't have to spend a penny more on traffic!
You can change the CTR of your ads by 50% just by changing ONE WORD. And this is NOT unusual, not a fluke. It's actually QUITE NORMAL. That's right - ONE word can make that much difference. My AdWords Toolkit even shows you an example of how simply reversing the order of two lines increased the response by 2000%!
When you're writing those little ads, little hinges swing big doors!
I got an email the other day from a customer who had just read my Definitive Guide to Google AdWords। He said, "It came to me that everything revolves around keywords. It is the basis not only for ad campaigns, but for website development."
That is absolutely right.
The success of your campaigns depends on keywords you bid on, specifically:
1) Choosing the right ones
2) Choosing enough of them
3) Bidding wisely.
Mistake #1 that most people make is bidding on too few। If you're only bidding on a 10 or 20 keywords, you'll have a very hard time making it work. That's because the 10 or 20 that you're bidding on are the same ones everyone else is bidding on.
You need at least 100 or 200. As a matter of fact, a thoroughly designed campaign for most products or services will have as many as 1000.
Why would you possibly need to bid on 1000 words and phrases?
Because if you sell, say, Digital Cameras, there are probably 30 or 40 other bidders for "digital camera." But if you bid on "Sony Mavica MVCCD400" there will only be a handful of other bidders and you can get those coveted 5 Cent Clicks.
How do you come up with hundreds of words and phrases?
Hint: You don't have to come up with them yourself. You use keyword research tools.
One tool that I've found quite useful is WordTracker.
WordTracker is a company that keeps records of millions of internet searches. You can type in a keyword and they'll give you lists of hundreds of variations on that keyword that have recently been searched on the Internet.
Good keyword tools can make your job much, much easier - and also cut your bid prices substantially. Give WordTracker a try - they even have a 1-day trial version so you can give it a test drive।
