Google is constantly innovating and adding new features to its services, though if you are not using Adwords or other Google services that regularly, you may miss easily. Google has opened a whole new can of worms by enabling Adwords users to install their data on local computers to speed things up. Google Adwords’ local storage feature takes advantage of Google Gears to store users’ data and makes it much faster to change views and do all kinds of things with data. Since you are using your local data here, speed won’t be an issue.

You can enable this feature by clicking on the appropriate mini-icon at the top right side of your Adwords account. If you don’t have Google gears, you’ll have to take a few extra steps. But installing this feature won’t be too much of an issue. The security of your data will be. Since this feature stores a copy of your data on your computer, you will have to make sure the computer you are using it on is secure (not a shared one). This is not a universal feature, meaning that you’ll have to do it for each computer. (more…)

You may have heard about Google cracking down on advertisers who are not using their “real” URLs in their display URL. A few years ago, Google was a bit lenient when it came to dealing with people who were using redirects or other addresses in their display URL section. But that would open Google to a lot of liabilities, which is why Google is tightening the rules and adding new guidelines for advertisers.

When it comes to choosing a URL for your business or landing page, you want to make sure it’s something that is brandable, catchy, and short (with emphasis on short). A domain name that is too long and contains too many words is just tough to remember and hard to push through Google Adwords and other advertising websites. I have found that many marketers just get too greedy when it comes to choosing their domain name. They not only go for longer URLs (with keywords), they don’t even register their own domain. Running a business using blogspot is not too ideal these days.

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If you thought Google was getting annoying with all its new policies, you are going to have to brace yourself for even more guidelines from Google. Google is trying awfully heart to cover itself against liabilities and protect consumers in the process. Whether that has helped small businesses that make money off of Google is another story. While I am not a big fan of a lot of policies that Google has adopted in the past, I actually agree with the latest move by Google to address issues caused by hosted domains (e.g. those on blogspot or WordPress). There are plenty of people who are spamming on Google by using free hosting services or hosted portals such as WordPress. The new URL policy addresses that.

Here is what Google is asking its advertisers to do: display the full URL of your website if you are on a domain that hosts multiple websites. Here are a few nuggets from the announcement:

all ads leading to sites on hosted domains will need to have display URLs that accurately reflect their destinations….

Incorrect:

Destination URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com
Display URL: blogspot.com

Correct:

Destination URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com
Display URL: adwords.blogspot.com

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As someone who has worked in the advertising space in the past, I can tell you that a lot of people are hurting by all the changes that Google has made to its Adwords program. We are not talking about the major changes. Everybody knows that your ad ranking depends on your CPC and your quality score. We also know that there are plenty of things that Google doesn’t tell you when it adjusts your quality score or slaps your campaigns altogether. But most often, people are blaming Google or keyword tools for things they are responsible for.

A lot of people believe Google Adwords is some magic service that will help drive traffic to your website and convert them at the same time. So they don’t pay enough attention to how they are putting their feet forward with their landing page. Getting slapped by Google can be an eye opener for a lot of folks. I have seen so many companies that have poor quality flash landing pages up and hope for some miracle. Some companies don’t even have a product yet, but they don’t even use their landing page to collect names or give people a way to find out more about their future products.

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Going Rogue may sell books for some folks, but it certainly won’t work too well for advertisers. Black-hat Adwords advertisers have been around for what seems to be forever. These folks use unethical practices by bending the rules and shutting out fellow advertisers from making it big on Adwords. Google has been awfully lenient on spammy advertisers in the past, but that is about to change as Google has started a serious crackdown on those need to be dealt with.

Google is focused on protecting its brand and keeping its promise to provide the best service possible to both advertisers and searchers. In part of advertisers, you can’t do that when the rules don’t apply to the rogue PPC marketers. But the focus is more on protecting the searchers from bogus get-rich-soon schemes, malware sites, and any other harmful site that is being advertised through Google Adwords. (more…)

There are plenty of keyword tools that you can use to come up with a killer campaign for Google Adwords and other search engine advertising services. There is always this notion among marketers that paid keyword research services are much better than their free counterparts. I don’t argue the fact that some of the paid services on the market do present data in a way that is easier to analyze and get more out of. And they do give you a different perspective on your market and you niche. But if there is one free tool that you should be using to set up your advertising campaigns, it’s Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The tool is going to be soon upgraded by Google and is more powerful than ever. It may not the only tool you will need to come up with a killer advertising campaign. But at the same time, the tool is more than capable of helping you out in developing a comprehensive keyword list.

I have found the new Google Keyword tool to be easier to use. For starters, you can still generate your keyword list by using your core keywords as your starting seeds. You can also use the website search function to find out what your competitors may be using to advertise on Google. Let’s say you want to figure out what keywords Fox News is using to advertise online. (more…)

The concept of red-ocean/blue-ocean has been around for a while. Essentially, to put things in very simple terms, a red ocean is a market that is mature and has a bunch of established players vying for market share. Entering and dominating such a market could prove to be difficult as you do not have too much wiggle room and will have to stare down and beat some pretty established players in the market. What does that remind you? For me, it does somewhat remind me of Google Adwords. If you intend to go in and outbid everyone and stick with the strategies that used to work 5 years ago, you are going to get involved in a bloody war with a bunch of other advertisers that are practicing the same old habits. In the end, Google is going to be happiest of them all as it gets your money while you engage in bidding wars with your competitors.

Top Adwords players are always testing and finding new ways to beat their competitors without engaging them in wars that is not good for both sides. In essence, they treat Google Adwords as a blue ocean and innovate with their campaigns, adgroups, and ads. In order to do that, you are going to need to have understood how Google Adwords work, and what strategies are currently being used by the top players in your market. Once you understand the limits of “the box,” you can then think of ways to think outside the box. (more…)

It’s old news that Google Adwords has gotten a new look. I signed up to try the new look a while ago, and I’ve got to admit it makes it easier to set up campaigns and manage my accounts. You can also set up your local campaigns and target a certain demographics on Google easily with this new interface. I also like the fact that you get to manage your impressions on the content network easily using the interface.

Google has gone out of its way to create a smarter interface to help newbies set up Adwords campaigns fast. After all, if you help people spend money on your network, you are going to make more money in the process as well.

Even the process of research keywords and setting up adgroups has gotten easier. The concept of inheritance has been introduced to the interface to make easy to create similar adgroups fast.

Overall, I like the new interface a lot. I do object to Google setting the default options in a way to extract more money from advertisers but Google is out there to make a profit. What you want to do is make sure you change the default settings in a way that saves you money and gains more exposure for your business. The new interface may take some time getting used to but it’s certainly more exciting than the old interface.

Your take: what do you like/dislike about Adwords’ new interface?

Recently, I had a chance to review CopyNProfit to see whether all the hype was justified. If you are not familiar with the product, CopyNProfit is a pay per click solution that helps you set up your pay per click campaigns fast. These guys have taken the guess work out of the process. They literally share with you the campaigns that they have used to make a killing online. That way you won’t have a blueprint to follow. You’ll have the whole thing. Plug & Play.

I was impressed with the wealth of content available through this program. The guys behind CopyNProfit have gone out of their way to make sure you see everything they are doing to prepare their campaigns. Here is what you get:

• Campaigns: all you have to do is pick a niche or keyword that you want to get started with. You get access to 37+ niches that you can choose based on popularity or supply/demand ratio. These guys have everything you need to get your campaign fast in any niche. They even provide you with data, so you know you are not taking a leap of faith. You can copy campaigns to your own PPC accounts fast with the templates available in this program.
• Ad Creator: with Copy & Profit, you get access to Ad Creator which makes it so easy to develop multiple ads on the fly. Remember, you are going to have to test things for yourself to make sure you increase your conversion and click through rates.
• Forum Marketing: if you want to make more money from your affiliate campaigns, you can always use forums to build links and drive traffic to your website. With this software, you can just find the top keywords and use them to drive free traffic through forums.
• Article Marketing: similar to forum marketing, you can increase your commission check by using your profitable keywords on your articles.

This is one innovative way to outsource your pay per click marketing campaigns. Sure. You’ll be managing your own campaigns, but these guy are doing the testing and niche research for you.  And they provide you with so much content to absorb that you are going to become a super PPC guru by the time you are done with this package. I was personally impressed by the niche list and the campaigns that you get with PlugNPlay.

PlugNPlay is not for everyone. First of all, there is a lot to go over. You are going to be bombarded with videos, campaign samples, tools, and everything in between. Secondly, you are going to have want to make money from pay per click marketing. Pay per click marketing is not for folks who are afraid of spending money online. But if you are already using pay per click to make money online, you are going to enjoy using CopyNProfit.

Nobody is born with all the Pay Per Click knowledge in this world. Everyone has to start from somewhere. The problem is a lot of folks end up banging their heads against the wall more than they have to. Some of these folks have gotten their basics wrong. That’s why they keep failing with their campaigns. But there is another group of folks who actually know what they are doing but don’t pay attention to the smallest curve balls that Google throws at us marketers.

There is no question that traffic is one of the most important success factors when it comes to PPC marketing. You can have the best converting landing page and a very sophisticated sales process, but if you are not able to get a decent amount of traffic to your website, you are setting yourself up for failure. A lot of folks put hours into setting up their landing pages and optimizing their back-end sales process, but you really need to focus on getting traffic to your website to avoid struggling in this field.

A lot of people treat Adwords as a gambling machine. They keep throwing money at it without any real strategy, and they pay the price big time. It’s not really that hard to go through thousands of dollars every hour with Google Adwords. But you’ve got to have a real strategy to get it right. Here is how you should go about building your business on Adwords:

• Have a business plan: you’ve got to have a plan to succeed online. Adwords is too complicated a system to leave anything to chance. You’ve got to come up with strategies that bring you the most traffic with the least cost. But don’t forget your success factors (EPC, CPA, …).
• Know your position: a lot of people want to be No. 1 on Adwords. It may pay off for you but you shouldn’t just choose a magic number and try to get there. You should test rigorously to figure out what positions work for you.
• Avoid Google Slaps: it constantly amazes me to see people surprised by Google slaps. If you read Google guidelines and pay attention to what’s going on in this industry, you can see slaps coming from a mile. And if you know something’s coming, it’s easier to avoid it.
• Choose the Right Keywords: not all keywords are created equal. You’ve got to catch folks while they are in buying mode. That’s where you convert the most.
• Choose the Right Keyword Strategy: a lot of marketers tell you that you should focus on the long-tail. It may work for you but getting enough traffic from these keywords could take a while. Don’t set yourself up for failure by being a one trick pony.
• Use Negative Keywords: you should try to qualify your traffic by using negative keywords. Not only that, be prepared to use embedded matching to get your game to the next level.
• Organize  Your Ad groups: a lot of marketers don’t pay attention to this, but your ad groups organization can hurt your business seriously if you get it wrong.
• Write decent Ad copy: your CTR matters big time. You should always try to write ad copy that is catchy and makes people want to click (buy from you).
• Be Aggressive and Smart: it’s one thing to throw too much money at Adwords. It’s another thing to throw money and be smart about it. If you are making $2 per $1 spend, who cares if you are spending $100 a day or $100,000 a day.
• Learn from competitors: if your competitors are spending money on Adwords, they must be making money off of it. Use the tools available on the market to figure out their exact keywords and ads to see what they are doing right.

There are many other things that you should consider before throwing your life-savings away on Adwords. You need to be aggressive on Adwords. There is nothing wrong with that. At least be smart about it.

Adwords Manifesto is a world class PPC training course that is designed for PPC marketers who want to stop the bleeding and actually make money online. Adwords Manifesto provides you with everything you need to know to succeed online. If you are looking for someone to teach you how to get PPC done properly, consider signing up for Adwords Manifesto.