Tired of Your Google Adwords Ads Being “Disapproved” Due to Low Click-Through Rates?

Google Adwords is the most powerful direct marketing tool on the planet.

If you haven’t tried it, grab $10 bucks and go to http://google.com/adwords and take it for a spin.

But first, read this post… TWICE. Adwords is a very powerful tool that can make you money (or TAKE YOUR MONEY) very quickly.

To be successful, you need to do two things…

1) Get searchers to click on your ads
2) Get ad clickers to convert to a sale or a lead

Today, we’re looking at #1, the best ways to improve your click-through rates (CTR).

They fall into two categories…

A) COPYWRITING

A1) Include the searcher’s keyword in your ad in the headline and one other place (Description line 1, Description line 2, or the Display URL). Google will bold the searcher’s keyword for you in your ad.

A2) To insert the keyword into the headline automatically, use this code…

{keyword:ALTERNATE HEADLINE}

Be sure to replace “ALTERNATE HEADLINE” with whatever headline you want to show when the searcher’s keyword is more than 25 characters long.

A3) Write multiple ads, but only change one thing in each ad. Delete the losing ads, keep the winners, then write some more test ads.

B) KEYWORD MANAGEMENT

B1) Aim for the middle of page one when you bid, positions 4, 5, or 6. Positions 1, 2 and 3 are too expensive. plus they draw too many impulsive clicks that won’t convert to a sale. Positions 7, 8, and 9 will convert best, but your CTR will be low.

B2) Start with [exact match] keywords. This will keep your CTR up by eliminating the chance that your ads will be shown for unrelated broad match keywords.

For keyword “tennis shoes”, your ad will show for the following keywords…

[tennis shoes] – Exact Match = tennis shoes
“tennis shoes” – Phrase Match = red tennis shoes, buy tennis shoes, tennis shoes photo
tennis shoes – Broad Match = shoes, tennis, running shoes, tennis balls

As you can see, Broad Match is the WORST choice you can make when trying to create a targeted campaign. BEWARE: Broad Match is Google’s default keyword matching option. I think they want to make advertisers work for their wins.

B3) Use Negative Match to remove unwanted terms from your broad match and phrase match keyword lists. In the examples above, you would want to use Negative Match on the terms “balls”, “running”, and “photo” since they bring you nothing but irrelevant traffic that won’t click or buy.

B4) Create multiple Ad Groups that each contain tightly grouped sets of 5-10 keywords, then write ads that speak directly to those keywords.

Step #2 is…
MONETIZING YOUR CLICKS

There are two options here…

1) Sell your own stuff
2) Sell somebody else’s stuff, and earn an affiliate commission.

I’ll write more on this topic later, but for now, check out the free advice available from…