“AdWords Crash Course: Part III…..”

Table of Contents

Landing Pages

Landing pages are basically the pages your visitors land on, after clicking on your ppc ad. Each landing page should have one single purpose in order to maximize conversions. Here are the main types which you can use…..

Sales Page

The one single purpose of a sales page is to make a sale. This could a typical information product found on ClickBank with a long salesletter or a specific page with a single product within an ecommerce website like Amazon.

Squeeze Page

A squeeze page is also known as an opt-in page where the single purpose is to get the email of the visitor. Sometimes, you want to get the name and email, sometimes, simply the email will do.

For markets where there are lots of products that your target audience can buy, you should build a squeeze page and send as much traffic there as you can. This is especially for markets where the itch will never end, like internet marketing, weight loss, golf, poker, etc.

The long term benefits of building your list is that you can send continue to stay in touch with your audience, you can survey them, give valuable content, send out promotion for related products and much more.

I use AWeber to send out pre-scheduled follow up emails and regular email broadcast. I also use AdTrackz to track each individual link inside my emails.

Presell Page

A presell page is for preframing the offer so that your visitor will be more ready to buy. Something like warming up your visitor to the offer which you are about to present. It could be a product review, personal testimonial or simply a product recommendation.

If you are writing a product review, you might want to point out both the good and bad points of the product so as to set the expectation of your visitor. When writing about the good points, you want to be clear and specific about the benefits.

When talking about the bad points, you want to make sure that it is not so bad that nobody would want to buy. Afterall, there is no such thing as a perfect product. If you do this, not only will you get more sales, your refund rates will also drop significantly.

There are some markets once the people solve their problem, they would stop buying from you. Problems like acne, dark rings, insomnia, etc. You do not need to collect emails in such cases.

Comparison Page

Comparison pages is where you compare at least 2 similar products side by side, usually with a chart so that your visitor can make a more informed choice before making a purchase.

This is usually good for electronic products such as cameras, mp3 players, mobile phones and such. Items which can be bought from more than one place are ideal for comparison pages.

Combination Page

You could combine either of the above pages. You can share your personal testimonial of how you did something then followed by a comparison of products. You can also have a squeeze page, followed by presell or product comparison. I would leave this part to your imagination.

Back To Top

Landing Page Copywriting

In order to get your vistor to take an action, you just need to tell them! It is not just what you tell them but the manner in which you tell them is also very important and it would affect your conversion rate.

Call To Action

There must only be a single call to action so as not to confuse your visitor. Your call to action must also be clear and specific. Do you want them to give you their email? Or click on the link to the merchant page? Or to make a purchase? Just tell them.

There must be zero distractions, do not display banners or worse still AdSense ads! If possible make sure the best part of your landing page is on the first fold, where they do not have to scroll to see it.

Put your keywords in headline if possible, not only will this help you with your search network quality score, it will make your page appear more relevant. If they know that you are offering exactly what they want, they would take it.

Building Landing Pages

Now that you know what to include in your landing pages, here is how you can build them. I use WordPress for my landing pages, I have included tutorials as well as precomplied files, including themes and plugins so that you can build them easily.

You can also choose to use something like DreamWeaver, Office SharePoint Designer, NVU or any other html editor to create landing pages. If you do not want to do it yourself, you can show these tutorials to a freelancer and they can build it for you.

Back To Top

Overall Marketing Flow

Marketing is not just about selling products or services….. it is about matching your message or communications with the conversation inside the heart of your visitors, it is also about meeting their needs, getting them what they want and most important of all adding value to them.

To put it simply, your keywords, ads, landing pages, offers must all match in such a way that the flow just makes sense. Miss this flow and your conversions will surely suffer.

Back To Top

Campaign Management

Now that you have your keywords, your landing pages and almost everything in place, here is how you manage your campaigns. You want to look at your cost per conversion for each individual keyword or at least each individual adgroup. (For content network, you can only look at each individual adgroup.)

Cost Per Conversion

Conversion could also refer to a sale or a lead depending on your offer. Example, average affiliate payout per sale is $20:

An average cost per conversion of $10 (half of $20) for your campaign means 100% ROI. The goal is to get your average cost per conversion to half your affiliate payout

cost per conversion above $20 = loss
cost per conversion below $20 = profit
cost per conversion between $10 and $20 = profit (ROI below 100%)
cost per conversion between $0.01 and $10 = profit (ROI above 100%)

ROI vs Volume

Often, you will notice that the ads with the best ROI are those in position 4 – 8. This is because position 1 – 3 gets a lot of casual clicks, however when someone is searching till position 4 – 8, this person is more serious.

Another reason why you want to be within position 1 – 8 is because after position 8, you would usually end up on the second page, which most people never search that far and you will get far less traffic.

Always for a good ROI first, once you are sure of your conversions then you go for volume. In position 4 – 8, ROI is better, however in position 1 – 3, the volume is much better even when the ROI seems lower.

Usually, when your conversions are good, you can earn more money in position 1 – 3 then 4 – 8, always start out a new campaign with 4 – 8 if possible. On the other hand, if you are bidding low, (low enough to be profitable), and you end up on position 1 – 3, then stay there, why not?

Back To Top

Campaign Funding

When you login to AdWords, you can choose to either prepay (pay in advance) or postpay (pay after you get clicks). I prefer to postpay because I can use my profits to pay for it.

Take note that some affiliate checks may take awhile to arrive, so while waiting for checks, make sure you have enough money to continue funding your campaigns, if not, you would have to pause them and wait for your checks to clear.

ClickBank

ClickBank has an option of direct deposit, (available for most countries), which means they deposit your money direct into your bank account. You need to get 3 paper checks within 12 weeks before you can switch to direct deposit.

CPA networks

For CPA networks, most of them pay you by checks, if you want to request for PayPal or direct deposit, you need to have certain amount of sales volume, this can vary for different networks.

Some affiliate programs such as Amazon.com takes up to 90 days to pay you so if you want to promote such programs, take note of your cash flow.

Credit Cards

Most important of all, do not spend money that you do not have! If you are using credit cards to fund your campaigns, make sure you do not spend more than you can afford to pay.

Once you get into further debt, you might end up taking longer time to clear them. This advice here may slow you down a little, however, it keeps you in the game for a much longer time.

Also with more debt, you feel more stressful and stress does not help you think creatively. Many times, it is your extra bit of creativity that puts you ahead of your direct competitors.

Back To Top

Conclusion

Let me be totally upfront with you….. I have a clear motive for wanting to put more money into your pocket! After putting more money into your pocket, you would have more reasons to invest in my stuff or any other stuff that I recommend to you. First priority for me is….. putting money into your pocket!

The end of this crash course might be the beginning of your success with AdWords. This was written so that you can put more money into your pocket, simply by following the simple and specific steps here.

Want More Money In Your Pocket?

==> Insider PPC Course