Google Adwords Campaign Management – Major Mistakes Most People Make

Most mistakes people make in their Google AdWords campaign managements are pretty common, and 90 percent of Google campaigns can be greatly improved with less than an hour of effort. You can save yourself hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of euros, depending of course on your adwords spend, in the hour you spend following our instructions in this article.

Want to know what the number-one mistake people make is in Google AdWords campaign management? Improperly organized campaigns. Badly organized ads and keywords cripple your Google campaigns and cost you a ton of money. Properly organized campaigns get results from the beginning and are easy to adjust and optimize. Over time this makes a huge difference.

In a perfect world, you’d serve up a perfect ad for every single keyword someone types in. Since each keyword is different, each ad would be different, too. If you had 2,000 keywords, then you’d have to write 2,000 ads, too.

In the real world, that’s kind of impractical. So you cluster similar keywords together with a single ad. Ad groups are the smallest individual units that contain your keywords and your ads together. You can have multiple ad groups in a single campaign. A campaign is just a handy way to organize ad groups, usually according to broad topic.

In a single Google account, you can have as many campaigns as you want. Some of the campaigns in your account may be on a completely different topic, selling completely different services, and sending traffic to a completely different web site.

How you separate your campaigns is up to you. How you separate ad groups, however, is one of those areas where there’s a right way and a wrong way.

Most beginners set up their campaigns to look something like this:

Murphy Telecommunications
Robust Solutions for
All Your Voice Mail Needs
www.murphytelecom.com

auto attendant
business telephone systems
call management systems
voice mail
voice mail equipment
voice mail service voice mail systems

Then they send all the visitors to the home page, which has a bunch of different links to “Services,” “Equipment,” “Q&A,” “About Us,” “Contact Us,” etc. What’s wrong with this kind of Google AdWords campaign management?

• There are too many different kinds of keywords in the same group. Every one of these keywords needs to be in its own group, along with a list of very similar words and phrases.

• The ad doesn’t match the keywords, and it can’t, because there are too many different kinds of keywords in the group.

• “Murphy Telecommunications,” or the name of almost any business, is a lousy headline. The clickthrough rate (CTR) is going to be very low, and therefore the bid prices will be higher.

• The ad is about Murphy Telecommunications, not what the customer really wants. Your ads need to be about your customer, not about yourself!

• A person who searches for “voice mail service” needs to be taken to a page about voice mail service; a person who searches for equipment needs to be taken to a different web page about voice mail equipment. These are two entirely different topics. If a person has to figure out where to go after they land on your web page, you’re making them work too hard. You need to show them exactly what they were searching for.

If you structure your campaigns properly from the beginning, it’s a lot easier to make this work. To do this, take all of your different keywords and organize them into narrow “silos” of very tightly related terms. They will look like this:

Voice Mail Services
voice mail provider
voice mail service
voice mail service provider
voice mail services

Voice Mail System
voice mail systems
voice mail systems for realtors
telemarketing and voice mail systems
phone systems voice mail
home office voice mail systems
home office telephone voice mail systems

Auto Attendant
answering attendant auto system
auto attendant voice mail services
auto attendant
auto attendant phone system
auto attendant software
auto attendant system
auto attendant voice mail
phone auto attendant

There’s another step we need to take before pasting this into a campaign: Consider negative keywords. Here’s a list of keywords that come from “Voice Mail Software.”

voice mail software
voice mail business software
voice mail software for panasonic
voice mail broadcasting software
voice mail business software
multiple voice mail software
mac voice mail software
multi-line voice mail system software vru
norstar voice mail software
software to record voice mail
free voice mail software

You might not want visitors who want something for free. Your company also has nothing to do with voice broadcasting and you don’t have anything for Macintosh computers. So turn those into negative keywords by putting a minus sign in front of them. The above list now looks like this:

voice mail software
voice mail business software
voice mail software for panasonic
voice mail business software
multiple voice mail software
multi-line voice mail system software vru
norstar voice mail software
software to record voice mail

Negative Keywords:

free
mac
macintosh
broadcast
broadcasting

So when you set up your ad campaigns, each one of these keyword lists is going to go into a different group with its own set of ads.

Follow these tips and you will be well on your way to a more optimised adwords account.

Social Media – 5 Great Tips For Your Small Business

Social media…There is plenty of buzz around it but, you may be wondering  “What can it do for my business and more importantly, how can I utilise it in my business operations?”

Well the best way to start to explain why you should be focused on Social Media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. Most of us are familiar with the old western movies where back in those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting.

Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.

Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet, and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).

We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.

Top Tip 1: Blog or Social Hub

When most businesses begin a social media campaign, they tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. They usually forget to incorporate their own site and tie their social profiles together. So our first big tip, is the creation of a blog or social hub. Why push your consumers to connect with you on other sites, but not give them a reason to visit yours?

Building and writing a blog may be time consuming, but it creates a way to connect with users on your own website. Additionally, creating useful content such as how-tos or industry insights can keep customers engaged.

For business owners that don’t have the resources to update their blog regularly or can’t think of what they’d write, I suggest building a “Connect” page. A connect page, or social hub, offers readers a way to find your business’ most active profiles and join you on those social sites. The page could also include a short bio or how you use each social site.

Giving consumers a reason to visit your site is extremely important. A blog or social hub can pull consumers to your site and into the sales funnel.

Top Tip 2: Local Social Networks

For local businesses with a storefront, sites like Qype and Yelp and can make a real impact. Qype.ie and the like, allows businesses to create listings with all the necessary information for a consumer to find you, while other customers can review and comment on your business. Many of these sites will let business owners “claim” their listings and add information, such as phone numbers, store hours, menus, etc.

Consumers use local social networks to find businesses, but also to get social proof when making a decision. They use comments and reviews to go with the “best” listing. Because of the demographic these sites target (people ready to make a decision) small businesses can see a great return from local social networks.

The other great thing about these sites is the SEO value attached to them. They can provide great backlinks to your main website and if you can build up reviews,  connected to your business profile on these sites, you will find that they can have a significant bearing on your standings in google maps, or now called “Google Places”.  In some market places reviews on these sites will determine if you are visible in the Google maps listing on page one of a search or buried in the background of the maps listing. Ignore this tip at your own peril.

Top Tip 3: Twitter

Everyone is talking about Twitter. So why is it a big win? Simple: it connects you with your consumers in real-time via the web, desktop applications, and even mobile. Finding a way to offer value while humanizing the business can lead to a stronger following and increased word of mouth marketing.

Soulplantation – This San Diego restaurant offers made from scratch soups and salads. The restaurant did well but it’s parent company, Garden Fresh, saw the potential of social networking and decided to dive in headfirst. They hired a social media specialist and began a very successful Twitter feed for the restaurant. The feed is used to play games with customers, such as trivia. Coupons and free meals are given out but only to the first respondant, thus driving up the desire for customers to take part. It’s also used to post recipes and other restaurant-specific information.  It has proven to be extremely successful, having racked up over 3,000 followers and contributed to a 5-10 percent increase in foot traffic in the restaurant. Twitter address:  Soulplantation

For more Twitter Success Stories you can check out this Blog article where the above story came ffrom…

With Twitter, business owners are able to cater to their consumer’s needs instantaneously. In a world where everything needs to be done yesterday, a quick response can create a lifelong customer.

Top Tip 4: Facebook Fan Page

You knew it was going to get a mention eventually and thats Facebook. No discussion on Social media would be complete without featuring this Social Media Giant. Creating a Fan Page is simple, but truly utilizing it to its fullest potential takes some guidance.

A Fan Page allows a business to visualize and build a community, similar to Twitter. However, unlike Twitter, you can add and customize a great deal more.

At the very least a business should update their Fan Page “status” to keep consumers informed and engaged. A more advanced technique would be to add things like coupons or Google (Google) maps directions to the storefront. These kind of resources give consumers a reason to visit your Facebook Fan Page and interact with the brand.

Top Tip 4: Custom Wiki

My final tip is to use a custom wiki, which takes advantage of a phenomenon called crowdsourcing. In other words, use your customers to give information to other consumers.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a wiki for your FAQ or Customer Service knowledge base. Let your consumers enter the problems they’ve had via a public forum (the wiki), and provide your responses publicly as well. Although showing problems may seem backwards, it’s a very effective way to retain customers and generate new sales.

Consumers aren’t stupid, they know that mistakes happen. Instead, they want to see that their questions will be answered quickly. Also, with a public wiki, customers can see if a concern has already been addressed, saving time for both you and the customer.

With minimal moderation, a wiki can build trust in your business and make your customer service more efficient.

Facebook Marketing 101 – Promoting Your Facebook Presence

After you’ve mastered the basics of Facebook and set up Facebook fan pages for your business, it’s time to promote your fan pages and identify ways to be found in real time search results.

Is customer loyalty important to you? Have you ever wondered about which sources provide loyal visitors who will repeatedly return to your site?

Chitika analyzed the browsing habits of 33 million unique visitors during September last year. They found that Facebook provides the most loyal visitors, with 20 percent of those who originate from the social network in turn visiting the site they landed on four or more times in a week. Other notable social media sites include Digg at 16 percent and Twitter at 11 percent.

This should help you feel better about the time you invest marketing on Facebook. Now let’s look at some ways to promote your Facebook fan page.

How to Promote your Facebook Page

A promotion is a good way to reach out to your customers and make them aware of your new Facebook page. Offer a discount or prize drawing for customers who become fans.

Let your fans know that you would like them to share their feedback on your products or services. Be prepared to receive this feedback, good or bad. This should be a given with any type of social media marketing strategy.

When your customers (or fans) interact with you on Facebook, their friends will see those comments on their news feed. This is one way to leverage the power of Facebook as a viral marketing tool. This should attract more fans and prospective customers.

Engagement and Conversation

Many people are fixated on the goal of acquiring new fans. You can’t ignore this metric because the more fans you have, the more successful your campaign is, right? Well, not exactly.

The real goal is to engage your fans in conversation. If you don’t communicate and converse with your fans, then your fan page will become dormant and fans will disperse to other interesting sites.

You must commit to spending time doing this. Set aside the time to read through comments and other posts from your fan base. Many businesses create a fan page with the mentality that “if you build it, they will come” and don’t invest the time to interact with their fans, a lost opportunity.

Facebook provides some great tools to help you engage with your fans. You have the ability to send videos, photos, messages, or links to each fan.

Each time you send out one of these communications, you show up on their personal newsfeed. This helps to keep you and your products or services top of mind with your fan base. Be careful not to “spam” them. Spread out your communication pushes and make them meaningful and relevant.

A cool feature of Facebook is that it also gives you the ability to segment your audience by region, age, and gender. This helps you send the right messages to the right demographic group. Learn who your audience is and plan your messaging strategy around those groups.

Facebook also provides a helpful reporting tool called Insights. This tool helps you understand the various types of content your fans enjoy interacting with.

Also, because you’re encouraging open and honest conversations, you might find that you occasionally get some objectionable posts. Facebook provides tools to help moderate and even block users. But you should plan on how to handle this ahead of time and communicate to your fans up front so they understand the policy.

Regardless, use these tools sparingly. If fans feel their comments are being edited or you’re watering down the Kool-Aid, then it’s less likely they will engage in future conversations.

Being Found in Real Time Search

One advantage to search marketers is that search engines are working with Facebook and Twitter to integrate updates into their search results. Getting found in real-time searches is another strategy for promoting your fan page. Let’s look at some useful tips that should help you show up in these real-time searches.

• Keywords: This is always the place to start. If you’re doing SEO or PPC, then you probably already have a good handle on your targeted keywords. If not, start with keyword research. Include your targeted keywords in your content, updates, and especially your titles. Make sure everyone who updates your Facebook page has a keyword list handy so they can use these keywords as much as possible.

• Research and converse about relevant and interesting content: Take time to “listen” to what people are talking about on your fan page and other sites. Then you can post content that will interest your fan base. Ask a question to spark a relevant and timely conversation. Discuss current events and news if these are relevant to you and your targeted keyword set.

• Many followers: More followers means it’s more likely your content will spread virally and be shared. This also helps generate more impressions of your content.

• Call to action: You might be surprised sometimes by the power of a simple invitation. Invite people to “act.” Ask people to share the content with others. Include buttons like “retweet” or “digg” that help them do this easily. Doing this gets you one click away from showing up on another site and being promoted for more viewers to see.

The principles discussed here can also be used for other social media sites. If you are new to Facebook marketing and would like to set up a fan page and begin using facebook as a marketing channel for your business then be suer to check out our Facebook Marketing Unleashed Training Program. Click the link to go there now.

Two Key Methods in Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy…

If you are considering using internet marketing to generate leads for your business or have just started, then you have joined and ever increasing number of businesses investing in this area of marketing. With the ever increasing number of businesses going ‘online’  it is becoming that much more difficult to gain high rankings in the search engines. It is reported that statistically somewhere in the region of 70% of all internet traffic goes to the top 3 – 4 search listings it is vital for you and your business to ensure your business and not your competition is being found first.

Below you will discover two different internet marketing methods you should start with when promoting your business online and to truly become successful at online marketing. Without a certain number of hits to your website every day, you can be guaranteed that you will not have great sales figures.  The only way to get the hits that you want is through marketing and this is where this article comes in.

The first thing you can do in creating an effective internet marketing strategy is to make sure that your website is properly created.  This article isn’t long enough to go into everything that you need for your website but you should make sure that your site is properly indexed by all of the major search engines so that you’re getting the maximum amount of natural search engine traffic you can.  If you need more information about this, have a look at some of our other article or just contact us.

This can help you redesign some pages on your website to make sure that you are getting maximum exposure.  If you want to get more people to your website, you may also want to look into using Pay Per Click Advertising such as Adwords. Where this can benefit you is that you can bid on certain keywords so when people search on these keywords, your ads will come up.  You will pay a certain amount per click that you receive from your ads being displayed. This is very good for you because you can target the audience that you want to bring to your website.  By bidding on this, you are able to control your marketing costs and still receive leads.

Another way to get traffic coming to your site and help in creating online business marketing is to offer some free giveaways.  There are a great deal of free forums out there where you can post about free giveaways at your website and this is an additional way to bring traffic to your website.  The word free is one of the major hot buttons for most people so by offering something for free if they visit your website, you will be guaranteed to get a great deal of traffic.

The way to run giveaways would be to have someone sign up for your newsletter in exchange for the free gift. This will help build your newsletter and create more online business marketing because you have a larger responsive list who is potentially interested in the products that you sell.  The way to do this in a newsletter is to make sure you do not push products but rather soft sell them while pushing information your target audience can use.

Hopefully these two different methods of creating online business marketing can help you out.  What we have told you about today only scratches the surface of the possible things you can do but these are two of the more popular methods and they are very low-cost methods so that you do not have to use a great deal of money that you may need to run the business.

Discover 7 Great Tips For Generating Traffic To Your Blog

Have you set up a blog with the expectation of attracting a lot of traffic, only to have your blog collecting dust and not getting enough traffic? It’s a common problem for bloggers. Their blogs are good, but no one is coming to visit. The burning question then becomes “How do I increase Traffic To My Site?”. Increasing traffic is actually easier than it seems–provided you know how. In this article, we will go over 7 specific methods of increasing traffic. These are guaranteed methods to draw more visitors to your blog. You should include these in your ongoing internet marketing campaign for your site.

Tip #1: Sign Up For Pinging Services

It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging basically means that when your blog is updated, a “ping” is sent out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging services will then see your blog flash across the side of the screen as “newly updated”. Pinging services include Yahoo’s blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.

Tip #2: Sign Up For Technorati

If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left side of the screen to “Claim Your Blog”. Doing so allows you to get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see your blog on there.

Tip #3: Sign Up For FeedBurner, a RSS Service

What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s traffic.

Tip #4: Bookmark Your Blogs At Places Like del.icio.us

You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then, using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts. There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic. Using social bookmarking can really improve search engine optimisation (SEO) and boost your traffic.

Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs

No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate comments and then sign your name(along with a link to your blog). This way, people know you aren’t there just to promote your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also say where you’re from. This tip should form a prominent part of your internet marketing strategy as it is also an excellent method of enhancing your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts.

Tip #6: Ask Owners Of Other Blogs To Post A Link To Yours

Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be decently popular(that is, they have a good amount of comments for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog to add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all the time and it does help to increase traffic.

Tip #7: Use Keywords In Your Blog

Like regular web pages, having a good keyword density on a blog is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the search engine database, which then lists that site. The more keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine spider to pay a visit)

If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2-6 keywords per blog post. 2-6 keywords in a blog posting of 200 words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many keywords, as that will make your blog look bad. Also be sure that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it. It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!

P.S. Signing up with a service like Technorati is a quick, painless way of increasing traffic to your blog. So sign up today!

That’s it for this post, hopefully that will help you in your ongoing Internet Marketing efforts and generating extra traffic to your blog.

For further indepth information on generating floods of traffic to your website then you should sign up for our newsletter and you will receive absolutely free a copy of “Traffic Overdrive”, containing Top Traffic Building Strategies That Will Put Your Site on High Octane.

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