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Google AdSense And Site Build It!...
The Perfect Marriage Is
Only The Beginning

What's stopping you from starting a business on the Net?

No time to deal with customers?

No services to offer?

No hard goods to sell?

Don't know how to create and market digital goods?

No problem!

A Web site, when properly built, is the ultimate niche business-building vehicle. Thanks to Google AdSense, you never even need to deal with customers. Thanks to Site Build It!, you can now publish a high-quality information site that attracts hundreds, then thousands, of targeted visitors per day, people who click on your Google AdSense ads and earn you substantial income. Yes....

Get Paid For Your Traffic...And That Is Just The Beginning

Google AdSense and SBI! are the perfect hand-in-glove fit for you to get your feet wet in the waters of e-business. This powerful combination gives you...

• a site that attracts high volumes of motivated, on-target visitors, and
• a powerful model for monetizing that traffic.

Here's how...

Site Build It! (SBI!) takes what you know and love (from work experience, hobbies, passions, or pastimes), and helps you turn that into your own unique content on your own unique Web site. You use the SBI! system of no-tech-skills-needed tools to execute the flawless step-by-step process to build a theme-based content site that generates targeted traffic.

Google uses its advanced, proprietary technology and algorithms to determine the content of each of your site's Web pages. It then delivers ads that are contextually relevant to your audience. For every ad clicked, you receive money.

End result?

1. You convert free traffic (built by you at the Search Engines through SBI!) into paid traffic (paid by advertisers). The beauty is that once you build organic Search Engine traffic, it keeps building and building... free. But advertisers have to keep paying.

2. Your focus stays on what you love to do, creating more quality theme-based content that fulfills the needs of...

   • your visitors who are searching for your solutions, information, cures (that's the "content" you deliver)
   • the Search Engines whose job it is to deliver quality, content-rich, relevant sites to their searching customers
   • yourself as a business owner. Relevant content attracts and PREsells new and returning visitors who see you as a credible expert in your niche.
3. The traffic, and the income, now take care of themselves.And, best of all, you can add many other more monetization models once you have built this foundation!

Chicken Or The Egg? SBI! Came First

Site Build It!'s "theme-based content site" is a flexible, long-term proven strategy. Site Build It! existed well before Google AdSense did. SBI! owners were earning income by selling services and products, through affiliate links and in in many other ways years before Google released AdSense.

Google AdSense was just another way to make money for SBI! owners. And it is indeed an excellent way for the total novice to quickly realize that money can be made online by anyone, as well as for the more advanced marketer to add into an overall monetization plan.

Of course, nowadays, you see many "Get Rick Quick" pitches. They sell systems about making fast and shoddy sites just to earn Google AdSense income (ex., "mini-sites" or building many "free blogs"). These "Made For AdSense" sites are doomed, yet one more cruel trick at the expense of the unsuspecting.

But the truth remains. Done properly, ethically, and with quality, Google AdSense and Site Build It! enable you to create and monetize, exactly as these satisfied SBI! owners demonstrate...

AdSense Gets The Gold Star For Passive Income

AdSense primes your monetization pump like no other option...

• It's low maintenance -- no products to ship, no customer transactions to deal with, etc. Google provides the ads and the guidance on how to easily insert them on your site.
• Forget banners. Google outperforms them. Contextual ads rule!
• Ad networks? Not worth the bother.
• Blend in a few well-chosen affiliate programs and it's passive income at its best!

You provide the relevant "real" content and AdSense compensates your efforts.

AdSense Gets The Gold Star For Passive Income

AdSense primes your monetization pump like no other option...

• It's low maintenance -- no products to ship, no customer transactions to deal with, etc. Google provides the ads and the guidance on how to easily insert them on your site.
• Forget banners. Google outperforms them. Contextual ads rule!
• Ad networks? Not worth the bother.
• Blend in a few well-chosen affiliate programs and it's passive income at its best!

You provide the relevant "real" content and AdSense compensates your efforts.

Create the Engine

Use Site Build It! to harness the power of the Net and put it to work for you. AdSense is just one of several income streams your business can produce.

Follow a to create a passion-driven site with content that Web surfers will find when searching for related words at the Search Engines. Once you have a solid PREsold traffic base, the key engine for your success, monetization is easy.

Dear SiteSell,

It's our second anniversary. Site Build It! works!

SBI has the sole credit for empowering us to present a niche and resource website that

• has more visitors in a month than one national official-organisation site has had in all its existence
• ranks in the top 10 for pages in all search engines (some keywords with over a million pages)
• has paid for itself many, many, many times over.

From the moment I read about SBI, it made sense. It makes even more sense now. If we can do it, anyone can.

Josephine Canovas,
www.andalusians-for-you.com

Site Build It! (SBI!) is an all-in-one Web site building, hosting, and marketing system that makes it possible for anyone, even novices, to build a thriving Web business. No technical knowledge or Web site building experience is required.

A Real Traffic Solution

62% of SBI! sites rank within the top 3% of ALL Web sites on the Internet. Success like that is no accident.With so much noise on the Net, it's hard to wade through all the false promises. We get so jaded that we fail to recognize the real-deal when we see it. But where else have you ever read about people just like you, without any professional help, build sites that

SBI! is for anyone with the motivation to create an exciting, profitable future for themselves... on their own terms, through their own targeted visitors, at an affordable price.

SBI! provides the complete package all in one place...

• - natural, powerful, proven and...
• - everything you need to do the process perfectly.

When I survey bloggers about the methods that they use to make money from their blogs Google’s AdSense is always the number one response. It is a quick and easy way for bloggers of all sizes to display ads that are relevant to their content.

AdSense is a ‘contextual’ advertising program where publishers simply add a piece of code to their blogs that helps Google analyze what your page is about so they can serve ads on that topic. This increases the chances of your readers clicking the ad which increases the chances that you’ll earn something from them.

AdSense also provide a variety of other income streams to bloggers including a site search tool (you make money by people searching your site) and referral tools (where you can make money by recommending Google products).

AdSense is how I earn around 35% of my income as a full time blogger and I would thoroughly recommend it as a way of monetizing a blog - especially for those just starting out.

If you’re not already an AdSense publisher sign up for it using the following button.

AdSense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-clickorper-impression basis. Google beta tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering (also owned by Google).^[1]

Overview

Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.

Currently, AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating website. If the advertisements are included on a website that has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, AdSense will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes, also known as public service announcements (PSAs). (The Mediabot is different from the Googlebot, which maintains Google's search index.)

Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and sales people. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites' pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.

Some webmasters invest significant effort into maximizing their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:^{[citation needed]}

1. They use a wide range of traffic-generating techniques, including but not limited to online advertising.
2. They build valuable content on their websites that attracts AdSense advertisements, which pay out the most when they are clicked.
3. They use text content on their websites that encourages visitors to click on advertisements. Note that Google prohibits webmasters from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. The phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

History

The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally fromWordNet, Simpli (a company started by the founder of Wordnet,George A. Miller), and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel, andSteve Reiss.^[2]A variation of this technology utilizing WordNet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998 by Gilad Elbaz and Adam Weissman.^[3][4]Oingo changed its name toApplied Semantics in 2001,^[5] which was later acquired by Google in April 2003 for US$102 million.^[6]

AdSense for Feeds

In May 2005, Google announced a limited-participation beta versionofAdSense for Feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS andAtomfeeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising—and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."^[7]

AdSense for Feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by a RSS reader or Web browser, Google writes the advertising content into the image that it returns. The advertisement content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website in the same way as regular AdSense advertisements.

AdSense for Feeds remained in its beta state until August 15, 2008, when it became available to all AdSense users.

AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search, allows website owners to place Google search boxes on their websites. When a user searches the Internet or the website with the search box, Google shares any advertising revenue it makes from those searches with the website owner. However the publisher is paid only if the advertisements on the page are clicked: AdSense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

AdSense for mobile content

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile websites using targeted Google advertisements. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches advertisements to the content of a website — in this case, a mobile website.

AdSense for domains

Adsense for domains allows advertisements to be placed on domain names that have not been developed. This offers domain name owners a way to monetize domain names that are otherwise dormant. Adsense for domains is currently being offered to some users, with plans to make it available to all in stages.

On December 12, 2008, TechCrunch reported that AdSense for Domains is available for all US publishers.^[8]

XHTML compatibility

As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design because of its use of

• non-standard end tags, such as and ,
• the attribute checked rather than checked="checked",
• presentational attributes other than id, class, or style — for example, bgcolor and align,
• a table structure for purely presentational (i.e., non-tabular) purposes,¹ and
• the font tag.²

1: using a table structure for unintended purposes is strongly recommended against by the W3C^{[citation needed]}, but nevertheless does not cause a document to fail validation — there is currently no algorithmic method of determining whether a table is used "correctly" (for displaying tabular data or for displaying elements, that get proportionally wider or narrower when browser window resizes in width without active client side scripting).
2: the font tag is deprecated but does not fail validation in any XHTML standard.

Additionally, the AdSense advertisement units use the JavaScript method document.write(), which does not work correctly when rendered with theapplication/xhtml+xml MIME type. The units also use the iframe HTML tag, which is not validated correctly with theXHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 TransitionalDOCTYPEs.

The terms of the AdSense program forbid its affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having valid XHTML websites.

However, a workaround has been found by creating a separate HTML webpage containing only the AdSense advertisement units, and then importing this page into an XHTML webpage with an object tag.^[9] This workaround appears to be accepted by Google.^[10]

How AdSense works

• The webmaster inserts the AdSense JavaScript code into a webpage.
• Each time this page is visited, the JavaScript code uses inlinedJSONto display content fetched from Google's servers.
• For contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page to determine a set of high-value keywords. If keywords have been cached already, advertisements are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system. (More details are described in the AdSense patent.)
• For site-targeted advertisements, the advertiser chooses the page(s) on which to display advertisements, and pays based on cost per mille (CPM), or the price advertisers choose to pay for every thousand advertisements displayed.^[11][12]
• For referrals, Google adds money to the advertiser's account when visitors either download the referred software or subscribe to the referred service.^[13] The referral program was retired in August 2008.^[14]
• Search advertisements are added to the list of results after the visitor performs a search.
• Because the JavaScript is sent to the Web browser when the page is requested, it is possible for other website owners to copy the JavaScript code into their own webpages. To protect against this type of fraud, AdSense customers can specify the pages on which advertisements should be shown. AdSense then ignores clicks from pages other than those specified.

Abuse

Some webmasters create websites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense website to make money from clicks. These "zombie" websites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g., a directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper websites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs (spam blogs), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these websites use content from other websites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.^{[citation needed]}

A Made for AdSense (MFA) website or webpage has little or no content, but is filled with advertisements so that users have no choice but to click on advertisements. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints, Google now disables such accounts.

There have also been reports of Trojan horses engineered to produce counterfeit Google advertisements that are formatted looking like legitimate ones. The Trojan downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a webpage and then replaces the original advertisements with its own set of malicious advertisements.^[15]

Criticism

Due to concerns about click fraud, 'Google AdSense' has been criticized by some search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks", in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine advertisements to drive up the other company's costs.^[16]

To help prevent click fraud, AdSense publishers can choose from a number of click-tracking programs.^{[citation needed]} These programs display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use this to determine whether or not they have been a victim of click fraud. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.

The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized.^[17] Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100,^[18] but many micro content providers^{[citation needed]} require a long time—years in some cases—to build up this much AdSense revenue. However, Google will pay all earned revenue greater than US$10 when an AdSense account is closed.

Many website owners complain that their AdSense accounts have been disabled just before they were supposed to receive their first paycheck from Google. Google claims accounts have been disabled due to click fraud.^{[citation needed]}

Google came under fire when the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video website Imineo.com. This website violated Google's AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense alongside sexually explicit material. Typically, websites displaying AdSense have been banned from showing such content.^[19] Some sites have been banned for distributing copyright material even when they hold the copyright themselves or are authorized by the copyright holder to distribute the material.^[20]

It has been reported that using both AdSense and AdWords may cause a website to pay Google a commission when the website advertises itself.^[21]

I’ve decided to provide a handful of tips on using Google Adwords for maximum effect. These may or may not seem obvious to you but I’m sure you will find them of use.

So lets get down to business with these Adwords tips:

1) You want to use the keyword text that people are searching for within your ad. Doing so will mean that it is automatically bolded. This will help in capturing your visitors eye which does two things. One it reinforces that what your offering may be what there looking for and two makes it more likely for them to click your ad.

2) You don’t want to go for overly large ad groups with a huge list of keywords. Based each ad group around a particular keyword. This keeps it easy to track and will also keep your ad’s themed toward that potential prospect. Your ad will be directly related to what they are looking for

3) Don’t get into bidding wars with any potential competitor. The traffic that you may lose can be easily recuperated by paying a lot less pay per click and targeting longer tailed phrases that contain that keyword. Something you should remember is that you don’t want to just make your ad targeted but you want to be delving deep into that niche to find the buyers within that market. Bidding wars are pointless and could end up costing you. Just cause a keyword makes more sales doesn’t mean its more profitable. If you get into a bidding war then you are dramatically reducing your profit margin. Less sales can often mean bigger profits in the pay per click game.

4) You would be a fool if you didn’t take advantage of Googles split testing feature. This will rotate several ads for you that will allow you to see which one is getting the highest CTR. A word of warning though, higher CTR on your ad doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. I’ve found from experience that some ad’s are getting a lower CTR rate but making more sales.

Take a look at the example below… notice the ‘TM’ symbol?

I’m always seeking new and effective ways to boost CTR in AdWords. Today I have a new technique I’ve been testing recently using symbols in Google ads.

You might want to try this in your own campaigns and see what happens.

You’re familiar with the ‘R’ letter with the circle around it (indicating Registered Trade Mark) as well as the ‘TM’ symbol see all around us… on billboards, TV and magazines, right?

But did you know you can sometimes use these symbols in your OWN Google AdWords campaigns… to good effect?

Which symbols can be used in Google ads… and do they actually result in an increased CTR?

Here are more examples of Google ads I have made using this technique;

After testing a series of identical ads (with and without these special symbols) in the ‘real world’ against my competitors (in a very competitive market), it’s clear to me that using trademark symbols in Google ads (where appropriate) definitely attracts more attention for your ads, because…

Ads WITH these Symbols WIN (in terms of CTR) Most of the Time…

This likely works because it attracts the eye of the viewer over similar ads… which may be using the same terms. In cases such as these, small points of differences can be significant. Also, use of a ‘TM’ or ‘R’ symbol can perhaps give your ad more ‘authority.’

So if you are advertising a product or service that is trademarked (does not necessarily have to be your product) it is likely worth testing these symbols in your own ads. Now, are there…

Legal Issues..or Not..?

All I can say is Google allows you to do this and has never banned any ad I have used this technique in. What’s more, assuming you have the trademark owner’s permission to use their trademark in your ads, it’s hard to see why they would object to the use of a trademark symbol (after all, many owners actually REQUIRE these symbols to be used in print advertising!)

Now, how do you actually place these symbols into your ad text?

One of the easiest ways is to use Microsoft Word to insert the symbol into a Word document… then just copy it from Word and paste it into the ad you’re editing in your AdWords control panel.

This definitely works for the ‘R’ symbol. For the ‘TM’ symbol the same thing will likely work using Word, or, you can go to this page here;

http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html

… and simply copy and paste the ‘TM’ symbol you’ll find there from that page and copy it into your ad. This also works well.

I suggest you give these ’symbol’ techniques a try (remember that CTR is only one measure of success - check your conversion rate also) and please get back to me with your results (perhaps you can come up with other symbols that are allowed too).

Are you one of the 150,000 Webmasters and advertisers using Google's AdWords Select keyword targeted text advertising to drive traffic to your Website? If so, you may be able to save a bundle by cheating Google! Okay, so it's not exactly cheating per se, but if you're not using all the tools and tricks that AdWords provides, then you're definitely leaving money on the table. And, when your competitors see your results, they'll think you've somehow cheated the AdWords system.

This series of articles will systematically show you how to:

• Generate the absolute best keyword list for your target market
• Use simple techniques to vastly expand your productive keyword list
• Create highly clickable copy for your ad
• Precisely limit the distribution of your ad to only those prospects who are most interested
• Beat the competition with creative bidding strategies
• Dramatically reduce costs of your campaigns while increasing clickthroughs

In order to get the most out of the AdWords Select program, you simply must have a great keyword list. If your keyword list is not deep enough, you will be doomed to pay top dollar on only a few highly-trafficked phrases that garner top dollar bids. So, what are the steps to developing a great keyword list?

First things first: you need your core list of targeted keywords and search phrases. These are the terms that your customers will type in to find your goods and services. Let's say you have an online store that sells handheld organizers like the Palm Pilot. Take a minute and think about how you would go about searching for a personal digital assistant (PDA) online. Would you search on the term 'digital device'? How about 'PDA'? Maybe 'Palm Pilot' or 'Palm V'? Would you try 'personal electronics'? My point is that there are many, many different and distinct search terms that will get you where you want to go.

So, how can you determine which search terms to use when advertising your goods and services? Follow these instructions:

1. Write down the top search terms that you can think of that describe your business or service. I suggest keeping this list on a spreadsheet if at all possible -- this will make it easier to organize and submit later.

2. Use the Overture 'Search Suggestion Tool' to get an idea of the popularity of each search term and enter this number under a 'monthly impressions' column in your spreadsheet. The tool is located here.

   When I searched on our example keywords, I found that those search terms were recently searched as follows:

   • Pda - 420,800
   • palm pilot - 75,982
   • palm V - 3,899
   • digital device - 376
   • personal electronics - 250

3. Use the Search Suggestion Tool to lengthen your list of search terms. Not only does the Search Suggestion Tool reveal the number of searches for any given search phrase, it also displays any closely related search terms.

   Another excellent resource is found atwww.wordtracker.com. At $199 for an annual membership, this service will reveal which terms are the most searched on the Web, and also give suggestions for alternative search phrases. Typing 'palm pilot' into Word Tracker also shows a list of search terms (suggestions), and the number of times the associated terms were searched at Overture in the previous month:

   • palm pilot software – 6,960
   • palm pilot game – 5,486
   • palm pilot free game – 5,478
   • palm pilot free ware – 2,315
   • palm pilot free software – 2,203
   • palm pilot downloads – 1,995
   • free palm pilot downloads – 1,931
   • palm pilot accessory – 1,291
   • palm pilot share ware – 985

   Add all the new relevant terms and monthly impressions to your spreadsheet list. Be creative! Type in any series of words that you think might lead someone to your product or service. Use a thesaurus and a dictionary to assist you.

4. Go back to your list -– it should be pretty lengthy by now –- and add modifying words that are relevant to your product or service, such as: cheap, discount, low cost, free, premium, authentic, etc. Check the Search Suggestion Tool to assess the number of searches conducted for those terms in the previous month. Enter the terms and data into your spreadsheet under 'monthly impressions'.

   In our example, if you use the keyword 'Palm Pilot', why not consider using 'discount Palm Pilot', 'cheap Palm Pilot', or 'low cost Palm Pilot' if they apply to your business? The purpose of these activities is to generate the longest possible list of relevant search terms possible. Why? Remember, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your message. You pay nothing extra to simply list more keywords. Additionally, the more keywords you have, and the more specific the search phrases are, the more likely that your visitor will be truly interested in your product or service. For example: 'pda' is a very general search term. Anyone interested in handheld organizers might search using this term. However, 'Palm V' is a more targeted search term. These customers are narrowed to a particular brand and model. The search phrase 'discount Palm V' is even more targeted, and will attract price conscious Palm V shoppers.

   A longer list of relevant search phrases also increases the likelihood that you will attract visitors to your site at a lower cost. That is because it is often possible to bid less for a click if the search term is less popular. More search terms, bid at a lower cost, mean more traffic to your site for fewer advertising dollars.

5. At this point in the process, you should have a fairly comprehensive list of targeted search terms and phrases. I suggest you sort the terms on your spreadsheet by 'monthly impressions' to get a sense of which terms are most popular. These are the terms that can end up costing you the most advertising dollars if you choose to bid for a high ranking.

Congratulations! You have now generated a comprehensive keyword list that will get you ahead of your competitors. In the next installment, we'll look at some rarely used techniques to ensure that your clickthrough rates are among the highest in your category.

In Part 1 of this series, we learned how to create a comprehensive and targeted keyword list specific to our business. In this installment, we'll learn how to:

• Create copy that compels your prospects to click on your ad
• Land your prospects on a page that will maximize your investment

  More on How to Maximize Google AdWords

  

  

  Now that you've generated a comprehensive list of targeted keywords and phrases with which to attract your customers, you must create an advertisement which will entice them to visit your site. Google adheres to a strict advertising format: all listings are text only, with a title line of 25 characters and a product or service description with 2 lines of up to 35 characters each. Your URL is also limited to 35 characters.

  It is critical that this message be effective, concise and descriptive, and that sales are driven for best results.

  Title Lines

  The title line is the first aspect of your Google ad that a potential visitor to your site will see. Google also has an affiliate network that displays their search results, and some of these distribution partners display only the title line of your advertisement. At these distribution sites, the only indication of your site's value proposition will be the title description. But even when the full description accompanies your title line in a listing, it is the title line's job to catch the attention and interest of a prospective customer -- and to fluidly transition them into reading your full description and clicking through to your site. No sweat, right? Oh wait…you have to accomplish this using only 25 characters in total!

  My process for creation of a title line is fairly straightforward. I open a new document in Microsoft Word, pick the first (most popular) search phrase on my spreadsheet list, and then write a description that really sells my product or service relevant to that keyword or phrase. Initially, I don't really worry about the exact length. I just try to get the most sales driven message I can. After constructing something I like, I highlight the phrase and use the 'Word Count' function under the 'Tools' menu in Word to ascertain its exact length. One caveat! Experience has proven one extremely powerful rule of a search phrase description: your description should contain the search phrase or a derivation of it if at all possible. This will increase the effectiveness of your title. Experience has also shown that if you are offering a compelling value proposition, listing a price will increase clicks. I also like to use capitalize letters in the title. Obviously the word 'free' increases clicks.

  For example, if you are writing a title for the search term 'Palm V', your title should include the term 'Palm V'. Here are two 25-character-or-less examples:

  Lowest Cost Palm V - $100 Palm V's From Just $99

  One great thing about AdWords is that it's pretty easy to change your message. I recommend testing several different approaches and finding the words and phrases that generate the most clicks. It's also smart to review the titles of your competitors in each category. I will type in the keyword or phrase and scan the title line to get a feel for what the main points of competition are. Some categories are very price driven, while others are service focused. There are no hard and fast rules as to what will work best, so continuous testing and refinement should be employed for all important keywords.

  Descriptions

  Descriptions are the heart and soul of your sales pitch. You've managed to get the attention of your potential customer -- maybe for only a millisecond. Now, you've got to deliver on the promise of your title. Finally, you've got to convince your potential customer that if they click on your link, they will be rewarded with the all the benefits described in your message.

  A great description gives as much relevant information as possible to the potential customer. This serves 2 purposes:

  • It will encourage qualified prospects to continue on to your site in search of further information, or to purchase your offerings.
  • It will discourage random clicks by unqualified prospects who are not firmly in your target demographic.

  Your description should include any factors that clearly add value to the customer above and beyond your competition. Do you offer special products or services? A wider selection? Better credit terms? More flexible payment options? Hard to find inventory? These are the kinds of trigger points that can lead to higher clickthroughs.

  Another Trick - Where to Direct Your Link

  The final step in the customer's journey is to successfully land on your site -- piece of cake, right? It is if you know that you need to land the customer on the portion of your site that is most relevant to the search term. Always link the customer to a page that contains the exact information, product or service that they were searching for. In our example, don't just land the customer on your home page. Land them on the exact page within your site that describes and offers for sale the Palm V!

  Never create a disconnection between the original search term and your landing page. Evaluate every keyword and search phrase to identify the best area of your site on which customers should be delivered. Use your spreadsheet to keep track of where you want each search phrase linked. Go to your site, find the correct page, then cut and paste the proper URL into your spreadsheet. This is absolutely necessary to maximize your conversion to sale.

  One final note on landing pages and your links: Google will bill you for a click once a customer has clicked on your link. You will be billed for this charge regardless of whether or not your site is functioning properly, or if the customer abandons the process prematurely because your site takes too long to load. Make sure that your site loads quickly, and that the links you deliver are active. If your site goes down, remember to reduce your bids to the minimum amount to prevent spending money driving potential customers to a dead link.

  Great! You now have titles and descriptions that stand out from the competition. You also know the power of a targeted landing environment. In the next installment, we'll look at some often overlooked techniques to further narrow your target demographic, and reduce "junk" clicks.

  
  

  In Part 2 of this series, we learned how to create copy that compels your prospects to click on your ad, and discussed the importance of landing your prospects on a page that maximizes your investment in their click. In this installment, we'll learn how to:

  • Precisely limit the distribution of your ad to only those prospects that are most interested
  • Beat the competition with creative bidding strategies

  Limiting Your Distribution – The Key to Success

  
  

  If there is one component of AdWords that's most often neglected, it's controlling the distribution of your ad impressions to only those prospects who are most targeted. According to the Google AdWords Website:

  Each account is evaluated after every 1,000 ad impressions are delivered on Google. If the CTR for your account falls below a minimum required CTR (which varies by ad position, but is 0.5% for the top spot and slightly reduced for each subsequent position), we'll only show your ads occasionally on your underperforming keywords. (The status of each of your keywords will be clearly indicated in your keyword reports.) If your keywords don't improve, we may disable them. You'll then need to refine your campaign to improve its performance and effectiveness. After editing your campaign, you may restore full ad delivery to your account.

  In short, if your ads don't get a decent clickthrough rate (CTR) they will be disabled -- your ads won't be shown. Conversely, if you achieve a high clickthrough rate for a very general term, you will potentially be spending a huge amount of money. So, how do you get your ads more closely targeted to your audience? Here's the secret -- use the built-in tools that Google provides:

  • Phrase Match
  • Exact Match
  • Negative Keywords

  Remember, the default setting for AdWords is "Broad Match". This will see your ad displayed when any keyword from your search phrase is typed in any order. So, if you target 'Palm Pilot', under Broad Match, your ad will be shown when someone searches for: airline pilot, auto-pilot, pilot light, palm reader, palm trees, etc. None of these search terms are in the least bit targeted!

  Getting Your Ad Targeted

  The first step in narrowing the audience to which your ad is displayed is to use the 'Phrase Match' feature in AdWords. This limits your ad to those searches that include your search phrases in order. To activate the 'Phrase Match' feature, simply enclose your search terms in quotation marks, for example, "Palm Pilot". Now, only those terms that include both Palm and Pilot in that order will be shown your ad, such as: free palm pilot, palm pilot software, and palm pilot V.

  This may be a good first step for some, but I've found that it's necessary to refine the distribution of my ads even further by using the 'Exact Match' feature. This is particularly useful for increasing the clickthrough rates of poorly performing ads. The 'Exact Match' feature will only display your ads when the exact search phrase is entered. The 'Exact Match' feature is activated once you place parentheses around your search term. In our example, we'd use the term [Palm Pilot]. Now, only the exact search term 'Palm Pilot' will cause our AdWords ad to be displayed.

  The third tool is 'Negative Keywords'. This feature simply excludes your ad from displaying along side the search results of any keywords you choose. If you're selling a product or service, you may want to use 'free' as a negative keyword, thus preventing your ad from displaying when the word 'free' is part of the search phrase. To enable negative keywords you simply place a minus sign in front of your search term. If, in our example, we wanted to exclude all searches for 'free palm pilot' and 'palm pilot software', our keyword list would include the following entries:

  • free
  • software

  Use of these targeting features will instantly place you into an elite category of Google AdWords users who have clickthrough and conversion rates at the top of their categories. Now, let's look at how to set your bid.

  Creative Strategies for Successful Bidding

  There are many different approaches to the process of bidding for position within AdWords. A $5.00 minimum deposit is required to set up any AdWords account, but once it's set up, any of the listed bidding options are available to you.

  The 'Always be #1, No Matter What it Takes' Strategy

  This strategy espouses the view that being #1 is everything. It is true that the top listing gets the most traffic. In some cases, the top listing can generate much more traffic than the lower listings -- even the second listing. The top listing will also always be the most expensive spot for any given keyword or phrase, and, depending on the popularity of the search term and the bid required to secure it, the top listing may become very expensive to maintain.

  Also, as AdWords uses the clickthrough rate to weight your listing, it may simply be impossible to sustain the number one position at any bid price. Remember, too, that Google currently has a $50 per click maximum bid limit. The 'Always be #1' strategy is also prone to bidding wars.

  The 'Never Bid More Than the Minimum Bid' Strategy

  This strategy focuses on cost containment. Given a vast assortment of search terms, it is likely that some top bids will be only as high as the minimum bid. These terms will most likely be less popular terms that don't generate a significant amount of clicks.

  This strategy assumes that even where the top bids are $1 or more, some visitors will read through the entire list of advertisements, and click on much lower bids. As of the writing of this article, Google AdWords bids can range in price from 5 cents, to $50.

  The 'Position Yourself Next to a Weaker Competitor' Strategy

  The thrust of this strategy is to position your listing as high as possible, while looking critically at competitor's listings and offers. You then position yourself next to a competitor whose price is much higher than yours for the same item, or whose offering is in some other way uncompetitive with yours, thereby making your offering seem even more attractive.

  For example, if you mention a sales price of $149 for a Palm V in your listing, and the listing directly above or below yours displays a price of $99 for a Palm V, your offer appears overpriced. However, if there is a listing that offers the Palm V at $199, positioning your listing directly above or below the $199 price can make your price of $149 look more attractive.

  The 'Steady State' Strategy

  This strategy is similar to the 'Never Bid More Than the Minimum Bid' strategy, but with a twist. You calculate the amount that you are willing to pay for each qualified customer that lands on your site, and always bid exactly that amount. For example, let's say that you calculate that you are more than willing to spend $1.35 for each qualified customer who lands on your site. You simply bid $1.35 on your best keywords, regardless of what others around you bid.

  This strategy is often employed by bidders who take a "hands off" approach to their bids. They simply want to set the account up once, and let it run on 'autopilot', without much (if any) maintenance.

  Of course, you can access your AdWords account as frequently as you like, and adjust your maximum bid to give the return on investment (ROI) you require. Measuring and maximizing your ROI will be the topic of the forth and final installment of this series.

  
  

  How to Make the Most of Google AdWords

  In Part 3 of this series, we learned how to precisely limit the distribution of your Google AdWords ad to only those prospects who are most interested, and how to beat the competition with creative bidding strategies. In this installment, we'll learn how to:

  • Track the results of your ads and campaigns
  • Create a Return on Investment (ROI) reportFrom the moment your AdWords account becomes active, it begins to generate valuable data that will help you optimize and fine-tune your marketing activities. In order to bill you correctly, Google must carefully monitor the number of clicks that each and every one of your keywords and search phrases generates. Not only that, they also have to report on what your active bid was at the precise moment that each click was generated.

    It is important that you familiarize yourself with the reporting data that Google provides. Experience has shown that, although one may generate a vast list of search terms, keywords and phrases, it is invariably a very small subset of these search terms that generate the lion's share of cost and clicks. The click reports will alert you to this, and help you optimize your activities.

    Some advertisers may have the capacity to track a click directly from a particular site and keyword back to the sale of an item at their site through the use of 'cookies' or other online tracking methods. If you have the ability and resources to create unique tracking URLs for each keyword or search phrase, I highly recommend doing this. The ideal situation for a any advertiser is to know which specific keywords, titles, descriptions, and products are driving the highest return on investment (ROI). Even if you are not capable of tracking a click through to sale, I recommend maintaining an ongoing ROI report as described below.

    Closing the Loop - ROI Reports

    Below is an example of a general Return on Investment (ROI) report similar to one that I've used extensively to manage cost per click sites, and to optimize our advertising dollars spent there. While it can be somewhat time consuming and resource intensive to generate a report such as this from your actual results, it is well worth the effort if you reveal information that saves you money on bids, or dramatically increases sales.

    Please glance through the following report format. Each element is described below.

    1252_table1 (click to view image)
    • Site: The cost per click site that generated the clicks for this reporting period for this keyword.
    • Keyword: The keyword or search phrase that generated the click and cost data.
    • Total Cost: The total dollar cost for all clicks associated with this keyword over the reporting period.
    • Estimated Impressions: An estimate of how many times the ad listing was actually viewed whether it was clicked on or not -- this data is available from your AdWords reporting.
    • Clicks: The total number of times the ad listing was clicked during the reporting period.
    • Average Cost Per Click: The average cost per click during the reporting period.
    • Clickthrough Percent: The number of clicks divided by the number of estimated impressions for the reporting period.
    • Sales: The total number of sales generated by this keyword during the reporting period.
    • Cost Per Sale: The total cost divided by sales for the reporting period.

    The key to successful ROI is to manage your campaigns by sales. The optimum campaigns are driving the highest volume of sales for the lowest possible cost per sale. If you're optimizing your listings according to how many sales they make and the cost of those sales, you have mastered the secret of the ROI report.

    Summary

    The purpose of this series is to get you started with a solid foundation of great information learned through years of day-to-day experience with cost per click sites. The tips included in this series should place you well ahead of your competition in the quest for more sales and lower costs in Google AdWords. This is only a beginning, and you will develop your own style, methodologies and secrets as you become more familiar with the Google AdWords product. I wish you well in your online endeavors!

AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product and main source of revenue ($21 billion in 2008)^[1]. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes.

Google's AdWords division is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan^[2], the company's third-largest facility behind its Mountain View, California, headquarters and New York City office.^[3]

Pay-Per-Click advertisements (PPC)

Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. When a user searches Google's search engine on www.google.com or the relevant local/national google server (e.g. www.google.fr for France), ads (also known as creatives by Google) for relevant words are shown as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results.

The ordering of the paid-for listings depends on other advertisers' bids (PPC) and the "quality score" of all ads shown for a given search. The quality score is calculated by historical click-through rates, relevance of an advertiser's ad text and keywords, an advertiser's account history, and other relevance factors as determined by Google. The quality score is also used by Google to set the minimum bids for an advertiser's keywords[1]. The minimum bid takes into consideration the quality of the landing page as well, which includes the relevancy and originality of content, navigability, and transparency into the nature of the business[2]. Though Google has released a list of full guidelines for sites [3], the precise formula and meaning of relevance and its definition is in part secret to Google and the parameters used can change dynamically.

The auction mechanism that determines the order of the ads has been described as a Generalized second-price auction. ^[4][5] This is claimed to have the property that the participants do not necessarily fare best when they truthfully reveal any private information asked for by the auction mechanism (in this case, the value of the keyword to them, in the form of a "truthful" bid).

Placement targeted advertisements (formerly Site-Targeted Advertisements)

In 2003 Google introduced site-targeted advertising. Using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords, domain names, topics, and demographic targeting preferences, and Google places the ads on what they see as relevant sites within their content network. If domain names are targeted, Google also provides a list of related sites for placement. Advertisers may bid on a cost per impression (CPI) or cost per click (CPC) basis for site targeting [4].

With placement targeting, it is possible for an ad to take up the entire ad block rather than have the ad block split into 1 to 4 ads, resulting in higher visibility for the advertiser.

The minimum cost-per-thousand impressions bid for placement targeted campaigns is 25 cents. There is no minimum CPC bid, however.

AdWords distribution

All AdWords ads are eligible to be shown on www.google.com. Advertisers also have the option of enabling their ads to show on Google's partner networks. The "search network" includes AOL search,Ask.com, and Netscape. Like www.google.com, these search engines show AdWords ads in response to user searches.

The "content network" shows AdWords ads on sites that are not search engines. These content network sites are those that use AdSense, the other side of the Google advertising model. AdSense is used by website owners who wish to make money by displaying ads on their websites. Click through rates on the content network are typically much lower than those on the search network and are therefore ignored when calculating an advertiser's quality score. It has been reported that using both AdSense and AdWords may cause a website to pay Google a commission when the website advertises itself.^[6]

Google automatically determines the subject of pages and displays relevant ads based on the advertisers' keyword lists. AdSense publishers may select channels to help direct Google's ad placements on their pages, to better track performance of their ad units. There are many different types of ads you can run across Google's network, including text ads, image ads (banner ads), local business ads, mobile text ads, and in-page video ads.

Google AdWords' main competitors are Yahoo! Search MarketingandMicrosoft adCenter.

AdWords account management

To help clients with the complexity of building and managing AdWords accounts search engine marketing agencies and consultants offer account management as a business service. This has allowed organizations without advertising expertise to reach a global, online audience. Google has started the Google Advertising Professionals program to certify agencies and consultants who have met specific qualifications and passed an exam.^[7]. Google also provides account management software, called AdWords Editor.

Another useful feature is the My Client Centre available to Google Professionals (even if not yet passed the exam or budget parameters) whereby a Google professional has access and a dashboard summary of several accounts and can move between those accounts without logging in to each account.

Click-to-Call

Google Click-to-Call was a service provided by Google which allows users to call advertisers from Google search results pages. Users enter their phone number, Google calls them back and connects to the advertiser. Calling charges are paid by Google. It was discontinued in 2007.^[8]. For some time similar click-to-call functionality was available for results in Google Maps.

History

The original idea was invented by Bill Gross from Idealab who, in his turn, borrowed it from yellow pages. Google wanted to buy out the idea but the deal would not get closed.^{[citation needed]} Google did not want to give up and launched AdWords in 2000.^[9]. AdWords followed Bill Gross' model to a significant extent. In the course of legal action Google and Idealab settled the dispute.

At first AdWords advertisers would pay a monthly amount, and Google would then set up and manage their campaign. To accommodate small businesses and those who wanted to manage their own campaigns, Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. Starting in 2005 Google provided a campaign management service called Jumpstart^[10]to assist advertisers in setting up their campaigns. However, this service is no longer available, so companies needing assistance must hire a third-party service provider.

In 2005, Google launched the Google Advertising Professional (GAP) Program to certify individuals and companies who have completed AdWords training and passed an exam. Due to the complexity of AdWords and the amount of money at stake, some advertisers hire a consultant to manage their campaigns.

Legal context

AdWords has generated lawsuits in the area of trademark law and click fraud. In 2006, Google settled a click fraud lawsuit for US$90 million.^[11]

Overture Services, Inc. sued Google for patent infringement in April 2002 in relation to the AdWords service. Following Yahoo!'s acquisition of Overture, the suit was settled in 2004 with Google agreeing to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license under the patent. ^[12]

Technology

The AdWords system was initially implemented on top of theMySQLdatabase engine. After the system had been launched, management decided to use a commercial database (Oracle) instead. As is typical of applications simultaneously written and tuned for one database, and ported to another, the system became much slower, so eventually it was returned to MySQL. ^[13]

Policy and restrictions

As of April 2008 Google AdWords no longer allows for the display URL to deviate from that of the destination URL. Prior to its introduction, Google paid advertisements could feature different landing page URLs to that of what was being displayed on the search network. Google expounds that the policy change stems from both user and advertiser feedback. The concern prompting the restriction change is believed to be the premise on which users clicked advertisements. Users were in some cases, being misled and further targeted by AdWords advertisers.^[14]

Google has other restrictions, for example the advertising of a book byAaron Greenspan called Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era, was restricted from advertising on AdWords because it contained the word Facebook in it. Google's rationale was that it was prohibited from advertising a book which used a trademarked name in its title. ^[15]

Allowed keywords

Google has also come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords. In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on a wide variety of search terms in the US and Canada, including the trademarks of their competitors^[16] and in May 2008 expanded this policy to the UK and Ireland. Advertisers are restricted from using other companies' trademarks in their advertisement text if the trademark has been registered with Advertising Legal Support team. Google does, however, require certification to run regulated keywords, such as those related to pharmaceuticals keywords, and some keywords, such as those related to gambling and hacking, are not allowed at all. These restrictions may vary by location.^[17] From June 2007, Google banned AdWords adverts for student essay writing services. While the move was welcomed by universities, there is no restriction on such sites appearing in the regular Google Search results.^[18]

thanks for the reading....