Mar
Smart PPC Tips
When you dive into a niche, make sure that you do your research first. Too many people have lost way too much money without doing the proper research first, myself included when I first started out. So how do you do your research? First, find out how competitive that niche is and whether or not it is worth it as an affiliate to target the main keywords. If you are going after the cash advance niche, you will probably need to own a cash advance store to make any money off of it. Cash advance leads pay nicely at any network, but getting to the first page of Google with your ads will cost you a pretty penny.
So, how can you overcome a highly competitive niche? Well, it is simple sort of. You need to think outside of the box. Do some research and find a less competitive niche that is similar but does not cost as much to get on the first page of Google. Then you can set up those high paying leads without having to break the bank and start to make some. I don’t want to disclose all of the methods that I use to do this, but the key is to do your research and the ideas will flow. You are more than likely a member of many networks, so you have literally hundreds or even thousands of offers to choose from to promote. Also, remember that your affiliate manager is a huge key to your success. Talk to them regularly to find out which offers are converting the best at the time and also which ones have not performed as well.
As part of your research, don’t take the easy way out. If someone is selling a list of keywords, they obviously are either overpriced keywords or just crappy ones that are not converting well at all. Keywords are the lifeblood of PPC marketers, and those list are one of things that we will never give away if it is actually making money. If can use take another person’s list and do well with it, by all means try. Sometimes, you may just need to group the keywords better, tweak the ad copy or just have a much better landing page. Those could be reasons, but it is always best to just make your own keywords instead of taking the easy way out. More then likely, you will lose money and waste the time setting up the campaign.
Monitor your campaigns as often as you can and make small changes where is necessary. However, don’t make radical changes without giving the campaign some time. If you have 20 clicks with no sales, there is no reason to panic. Give it some more time. In the next 20 clicks, you may get 5-10 conversions, and you are back on track. Always make sure that you have a large sample to analyze your date effectively.
Another common mistake is not testing the offer out at all to see what will work the best. I always like to split test a few campaigns by changing a few things on the landing page, such as color, wording and placement of critical items. Remember, there is some psychology when you are doing marketing, so your ad copy needs to be dead on. Use professional colors when designing your page and make sure your wording is not messed up in any way. One thing that will turn people away and make you lose credibility instantly is having a spelling mistake in the ad copy. A small grammar mistake is not a huge deal to the majority of the population, as most will not catch on to it, but you need to make sure you don’t have any major mistake such as using there when you should have used their. Also, placing around with your call to action phrases and placement of buttons is critical, so it is always best to split test in order to optimize your campaign.
Another major element to your campaign is the wording of your ad. If you are targeting a specific keyword and it is directly related to your niche, you don’t need to tell the user what to do as much as other times. What I mean is that if you are running an ad on the keyword cash advance, people are already looking to get a cash advance and if they click your link, they know they are going to probably fill out an application, which means you get paid. However, if you are running an ad or a poll like question on a different niche, yu may want to pre-qualify those clicking your ads. What I mean is that when you write the ad, also include what they need to do or what you want them to do in order for you to get paid. This is great for email and zip submit offers, where all you need is their email address or zip code. Usually, I will word an ad like Win a $500 Gift Card! Just enter your email to see if you qualify. That is a simple way to make sure that when people click on the ad, they know exactly what is going on and what is expected of them when they click the ad.
Finally, the last little tip that I will mention today is the fact of grouping your keywords in a small group. Campaigns are easy to set up, so it is better to target a group of keywords with each ad and then you can even tweak each separate ad to fit the keywords in your group a bit better. This will help you get better quality clicks and also higher conversion rates.
