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Whom Should I Trust in Pay-Per-Click?
There are a few major players in the pay-per-click arena. Yahoo! Search Marketing
currently has network partnerships that span Yahoo, InfoSpace, AltaVista,
AllTheWeb, and many other partners. Google AdWords has a larger distribution
network across Google, AOL, Ask, About, Earthlink, and many others' sites (even
a few of my own). Microsoft is a new player in the market, but their limited
syndication network means their traffic quality is high.
Amazon.com allows you to advertise contextual ads on their site via ClickRiver.
There are also a few other pay-per-click search engines (Ask, Business.com, Miva,
Kanoodle, Enhance Interactive, 7Search, Findology, Search123, ePilot) that may be
well worth a look after trying Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. When beginning pay-
per-click advertising, I would recommend only using Google AdWords, Yahoo!
Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter.
For the sake of this book, I am only going to cover Google AdWords, Yahoo!
Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter.
Why Use Large Pay-Per-Click Search Engines?
•
The results will be scaleable.
•
The feedback will be quicker.
•
They offer many great tracking and targeting features for free.
•
Larger pay-per-click search engines generally present higher quality
traffic and are less susceptible to fraud.
•
It is less complex managing two or three accounts versus 100 accounts.
•
It’s easier to track the ROI on two accounts than on 100 accounts.
•
Many of the extremely small search engines never have any real
traffic. You are wasting your time registering with them.
•
Even some of the better second tier search engines may waste a big
hunk of change. In early November 2004, I tried using LookSmart. It
sent me twice the traffic as Yahoo! Search Marketing , but traffic from
LookSmart had a 95% bounce rate. That means that 19 of 20 site
visitors from LookSmart immediately left, and I paid for garbage
traffic. To appreciate the absurdity of Looksmart charging me for
twice as much traffic as Yahoo, ask a few dozen friends if they have
ever heard of Yahoo, and then ask them if they have ever heard of
Looksmart.
The quality of traffic from smaller engines will vary from term to term, but its best
to go with the biggest guys off the start, and then, if you have spare time and your
campaigns are well optimized, try some of the smaller engines.
Case Study: The Ignorant Bidder
If a term does not convert well for you, then it may not be worth it to rank near the
top for that term.
When you use large pay-
per-click search engines,
you guarantee that you are
getting at least some good
traffic and that your
business model is scalable.
Smaller engines provide
slower feedback loops and
some may not even
provide quality traffic.
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Not too long ago, a person was bidding on Yahoo with an eBay ad for the
keyword SEO Book at over $1 a click. Assuming I can get a 1.5% conversion rate,
I can afford to pay that much, but this person was just throwing away their money.
Just to test the waters, I placed my e-book on eBay, and it did not go for anywhere
near what I usually sell them for.
I find it hard to believe the person who was bidding a dollar a click was making any
money. They later lowered that bid to 21 cents. In some markets, there will be
dumb companies that rotate in, lose money, and then go bankrupt. By the time
they go bankrupt, others may soon take their money-wasting market position.
Some terms are not worth buying at the price the keywords go for. And if they are
valuable, they may have more value at a lower position.
Landing Page Tips
Conversion is a way to measure how successful a pay-per-click campaign is.
The following are a few tips to improve landing pages:
•
Remove excessive navigational options. Unless it is necessary,
remove other options. Let people do what you want them to do, and
don’t give them many other choices.
•
Structure your content so it is easy to consume. Use bulleted lists,
headings, subheadings, testimonials, pictures, and other formatting
techiques to make your offer easy to scan.
•
Make link text appealing. People tend to glance over copy instead
of deeply reading every word. Since links are action points, people
tend to pay more attention to link text. Make sure link text is
appealing since it is far more likely to get read than most of the page
copy.
•
Use pictures of people. People like to look at other people.
Testimonials appear more legitimate if they have pictures next to them.
•
Give visitors a clue they have found the correct page. Place the
words they searched for in large text at the top of the page to show
them they are in the right location. If you are a large merchant with
many products, maybe use something like “search results for: <their
search term>.
•
Send them to the most targeted page. Typically, it is best to point
people at a landing page instead of the home page.
•
Other ideas. Some of the other concepts listed throughout this e-
book (such as using short paragraphs and concise subheaders) also
apply to landing pages. Corey Rudl constantly retested his landing
pages. You can learn a good amount by seeing how he changed his
landing pages over time, by looking in Archive.org. MarketingSherpa
also has a landing page handbook for sale.
C# HTML5 Viewer: Deployment on ASP.NET MVC under Views according to config in picture above. RasterEdge.XDoc.PDF.HTML5Editor. dll. Open RasterEdge_MVC3 DemoProject, copy following content to your project:
how to copy pictures from pdf to word; how to copy pictures from a pdf to word
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Yahoo! Search Marketing
How Does Yahoo! Search Marketing Work?
Yahoo! Search Marketing, formerly named Overture., is a large pay-per-click search
provider. You write ads for your website, and they appear in the search results and
content sites with ads delivered by YSM. Yahoo! controls about 20% of the US
search market.
Before the end of 2006, most keywords were editorially reviewed prior to
appearing in search results, but with the launch of YSM's long-awaited Panama
platform, most keywords are automatically approved and running within a couple
minutes.
Ad Format
Yahoo ads allow you to place 40 characters in the ad title, 70 characters in the ad
description. Yahoo also allows you to create an optional 190 character long
descriptions that may be shown in some instances.
YSM Stemming
YSM also truncates search terms for ad targeting, so book and books are treated as
though they are the same keyword phrase.
YSM Advanced vs. Standard Match
By default your Yahoo ads are advanced match, which is similar to broad matching
on Google AdWords. If you bid on seo you would show up in searches for things
like best seos.
If you wish to have a finer control of your ads you can opt for standard match,
which should only show your ad for your core keyword, plural versions of it, and
misspellings of it.
Yahoo also has an excluded words negative keyword tool which allows you to
block your ads from showing on poor performing keywords like free.
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YSM Bid Prices vs. Click Costs
With YSM, you pick a maximum bid price and your bid will never exceed that
amount. Their software has a bid discounter built in, so oftentimes your average
bid cost may be less than your bid prices.
Prior to the end of 2006, YSM bid prices were transparent, which means that you
could usually see exactly what your competitors were bidding at any given time.
With the launch of the Panama platform, Yahoo! no longer shows exact bid prices
but bid ranges, estimated clicks, and estimated share of clicks.
Please note that their estimates are just estimates, and that by adjusting your ad
copy relevancy and appeal you can drastically alter your ad clickthrough rate, click
costs, and traffic volumes.
•
If you use appealing ad copy, an ad at position number 2 or 3 may get
more clicks than an ad at position number 1.
•
Relevant ads that get clicked often are given a higher quality score.
Ads with a higher quality score are given a discount for their relevancy,
since search engines make more when searchers click on more ads.
Bid Jamming
With the new Panama system, bid jamming is no longer possible, but this explains
how the process worked in the past.
In some niche markets, there will only be a couple people who place exceptional
value on ultra-qualified leads. For example, a Chicago DUI attorney may bid much
higher for the term Chicago DUI attorney than a general nationwide firm would. If
there are only a couple competitors in a market, it is not uncommon for the top
few bids to be $5 or $10 while the rest of them are around 25 cents or less.
For example, if they bid $10, you can bid a max bid of $9.99. If the third placed
person is only bidding 25 cents, your clicks will cost you 26 cents each while
ensuring your competitor pays a full $10 per click.
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Of course you want to monitor your accounts closely if you are using aggressive
bidding techniques or are bid jamming people. Some competitors will be stupid
and let you take their lunch money. Others may be smart and readjust their bids to
bid jam you. Some will go so far as to engage in click fraud, so you need to watch
your account closely if you are bidding aggressively in competitive markets.
By default, ads are widely matched and syndicated to the content network, so if you
bid high on the search network, make sure you check the content network ads and
bid lower on those. It doesn’t take too many $10 content clicks to make for a bad
day.
YSM Programs
YSM has a $5 startup fee that is converted to click credit, and it has no monthly
minimum to spend. They also have a FastTrack program where their account
representatives will set up your account for a one time $199 fee. I recommend
taking the time to set up your own account. You know your products better and
are more interested in your own success than some random YSM editor is; they are
more interesting in ensuring that you spend as much as possible.
Local Match
YSM offers a local product called Local Match that allows you to target your ads
from a .5 to 100 mile radius of your business location. The Local Match product
requires that you have a business with a physical address, but it does not require a
website. These ads give driving directions to your place of business. Local Match
ads show up in the same location where other YSM ads appear.
Paid Inclusion
YSM also offers a paid inclusion program by the name of Search Submit. Search
Submit Basic charges a $49 per URL annual fee. Search Submit Pro is sold based
on a category based cost-per-click.
Search Submit Pro is good for sites that meet certain conditions:
•
They change rapidly
•
They are having dynamic indexing problems
•
They need indexing quickly;
•
They need the associated tracking offered by Search Submit Pro
Yahoo Smart Ads
In addition to Yahoo!’s contextual ad program they also offer behaviorally
targeted ads via Smart Ads.
Free Yahoo! Search Marketing Tools
Yahoo! offers a suite of tools to help their advertisers set up their accounts.
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•
SEO Book Keyword Research Tool. This tool cross references the
Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool, all the Google keyword research
tools, and many other keyword tools
(
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
).
•
Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool. This shows the frequency of
searches across the YSM network for the prior month
(
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
).
•
Yahoo! Advertiser Workbook. This is a free downloadable e-book
released by Yahoo! to help you get the most out of your YSM
campaign (
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/eworkbook.pdf
).
•
Yahoo! Panama Preview. This video previews the new Panama
platform (
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tu_htnya.php
).
YSM Search Term Suggestion Tool Errors
YSM truncates their search terms. While the plural and singular versions of search
terms will greatly differ in search volume, YSM just lumps them together.
Please note that the Yahoo! search term suggestion tool tends to run high on highly
commercial search terms since many automated bots and bid managers scour
through their partner network.
Here is an example keyword research search for SEO:
WordTracker tracks click data from the meta search engines, Dogpile and
WebCrawler. Since WordTracker makes their money by selling data versus clicks,
you can usually expect more legitimate traffic measurements using WordTracker.
Digital Point created a free keyword suggestion tool that compares both traffic
estimates.
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KeywordDiscovery.com and GoodKeywords.com are two useful keyword
research resources, as well.
When doing pay-per-click advertising, deep keyword research is a fundamental part
of most successful campaigns. Many of the keyword research tools are top-heavy
(only showing the most common terms), but Yahoo! and Google both have
enough traffic to give some deep keyword research results. WordTracker has a few
cool features called lateral search and thesaurus that help you find similar keywords. I
have tested many of the keyword research tools, and WordTracker is the only
traditional keyword research tool I feel is worth an ongoing subscription.
Other options for finding deep keyword data are
•
Look at your organic search traffic logs
•
Use Yahoo Advanced match and URL tracking to see what related
keywords they show your ads for
•
Run broad-matched Google AdWords ads (AdWords and matching
options are discussed later in this chapter), and mine keyword data from
the referral strings or AdWords search query reports. Make sure you
watch your budget closely and use negative terms to filter unwanted traffic
if you use this technique.
Yahoo! also offers a keyword tool inside of their Search Marketing program. In
addition to offering search volume estimates and keyword suggestions based on a
keyword you enter, the tool also suggests keywords based on a combination of at
least one keyword and a URL.
Ad Optimization:
If you chose to use the internal Yahoo! ad optimization tool, it may optimize your
ads for clickthrough rate (and thus Yahoo! ad relevancy and earnings). When you
optimize for search engine earnings, that optimization may be at your own
expense. Make sure you are tracking results in a way that makes sense for your
business.
Yahoo Keyword Insertion:
You can increase your ad relevancy by including your keywords in your ads. Yahoo
allows you to make your ads more relevant for a wide array of keywords by
clicking the Insert Keyword Automatically link near the ad title or listing description
when making a new ad.
The keyword insertion feature looks like this {KEYWORD:default_keyword},
where you can change the default_keyword to a relevant keyword for when
searches do not exactly match a keyword from your keyword list. When the search
keyword matches a keyword from your keyword list the keyword is inserted in your
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ad copy at the position where you placed the {KEYWORD:default_keyword}
code.
This feature is similar to Google’s dynamic keyword insertion, discussed in the
Google section of this chapter.
Ad Syndication & the
Trusted
Feed:
Many pay per click search engines syndicate their ads out to other search engines
and contextual ad networks. Yahoo! has two syndication types, search and content
match. Content match ads place your ads on content websites. Search ads place
your ads on search sites, and sites that obtained a trusted feed from Yahoo!.
If you are in an expensive niche, it is important to track your click sources and click
quality, because many search arbitrage players will target your keywords and your
industry. You can’t opt out of trusted partner keyword feeds without opting out of
Yahoo! Search, but in some cases that means you have to opt out of Yahoo!
altogether if you are concerned about your ROI.
Conversion Tracking
Yahoo offers a free built in conversion tracking tool. In addition to tracking
conversions they track assists. Assists are early stage shopping words that may not
lead directly do a conversion, but were ads people clicked prior to converting from
a future site visit.
The Keys to Doing Well on Yahoo! Search Marketing
Ensure you target your keywords properly and do not get in bidding wars. Do not
bid high prices for exceptionally broad or generic phrases.
Your standard match listings will still compete against advanced match listings, but
if you make a list of targeted phrases and bid for them then you should have higher
ad quality scores. That means your ad cost should be lower and you will not likely
pay for as many untargeted clicks as a person bidding for more generic phrases. If
you use somewhat generic phrases you will want to make sure you use negative
words to block terms you are not interested in.
A few good examples of common negative terms to block are “cracks” and “free.”
People looking for free stuff are typically poor leads for most businesses.
Keyword Tip: Spammed Out Guestbooks. Some guestbooks that have been
spammed by aggressive competitors may help you find many keyword variations.
Keyword tools may help you find about 500 keywords, but the guestbooks
sometimes may yield over 5,000.
There are a variety of free tools that will help you create keywords based on
different keyword groupings. Using permutation generation tools will allow you to
quickly create hundreds or thousands of relevant exact-match terms. I have a free,
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