VIDEO - AdWords Glitch in Action

In two posts earlier this week, I talked about the glitch some AdWords advertisers are currently experiencing with the Keyword Analysis Tool. Below is a short screen recording I made of the glitch so you can see what I'm talking about:




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AdWords Keywords Analysis Glitch Appears to be Global

Judging by the comments I received on my post Broken: AdWords Keyword Analysis Tool, it looks like the AdWords technical glitch is not limited to Australia.

An AdWords advertiser in Ireland and another in China reported that they are having the same issues as we are. The Keywords Analysis tool still shows the same results for all keywords. I'm really surprised this hasn't been reported on the official AdWords blog yet. Maybe they're waiting for more complaints.

I was not happy with the initial reply I got from AdWords support, so I wrote them another email:

Hi [name removed]

Thanks for responding to my enquiry. However this technical glitch is costing me money as I can't accurately tweak my keyword bids if I can't check the keyword quality information and I can't check if my ads are showing for my current bids.

I'm not very happy about this. Is there an ETA on getting this fixed?

Regards
Kalena

Google responded with this:

Hello Kalena,

Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry you're having difficulty. Please
know that the Quality Score column displays your keyword's Quality Score to help you monitor your keyword relevance. This column is a customizable column visible via the 'Keywords' tab of your Ad Group Details page. It's disabled by default for new accounts and can be enabled at any time.

Keywords can have one of the following three Quality Score states:

-Great: The keyword is very relevant and may have a high clickthrough rate (CTR), relevant ad text, and a unique, relevant landing page. The minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bid for this keyword may be low. If you'd like to lower your costs further, you can optimize this keyword's ad group by using more targeted ad text or improving your landing page content. Otherwise, this keyword is very relevant and effective for your ad campaign.

-OK: The keyword may not be as relevant as it could be. It may have a mid-range minimum CPC bid, and while the keyword may not be very costly or extremely general, we still recommend optimization for the ad group. Optimization can lower your overall costs, draw more clicks to your ads, and result in a better return on your investment (ROI). To optimize, try using more targeted ad text and keywords or improving your landing page content.

-Poor: The keyword isn't very relevant to users, and as a result may have a very high minimum CPC bid. We recommend that you remove this keyword and replace it with a more specific keyword. If you'd like to keep advertising with this keyword, you can optimize instead. To do this, try lowering the minimum CPC bid, writing a more targeted, relevant ad, or improving your landing page content.

To see your keywords' Quality Scores within your account statistics:

-Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
-Select the campaign, then select the ad group for which you'd like to see keyword Quality Scores.
-Click Customize columns at the top of Keywords tab in the ad group table.

-Select Show Quality Score from the drop-down menu.
-Click Done when you're finished.

Additionally, you can create a report for minimum bids through your Reports tab. To learn how to run a report, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=66213&topic=11441

Also, please know that our engineers are currently working to solve the problem and hope to reach a resolution shortly.

If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at https://adwords.google.com.au/support, where you'll find the answers to many of our frequently asked questions.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

[name removed]
The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team

Er, thanks but I didn't really need a lesson on how to use the Keyword Analysis tool. Telling me how it works or how to implement it doesn't help me if it's broken. Duh. And creating a minimum bids report doesn't help one iota if I'm trying to determine my keyword status so I can tweak my bids.

The only sentence in that whole email that helps me is the one I've highlighted in bold. Engineers are working on the problem. Great. That makes me feel so much better. NOT! Think I'll go spend some more money at Yahoo and Microsoft AdCenter.


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Broken: AdWords Keyword Analysis Tool

Not sure if this is a regional issue or not, but Google have confirmed a technical bug with the Keyword Analysis tool for some AdWords accounts, including mine.

For the past 24 hours or so, whenever I try to view the Keyword Analysis tool for any of my keywords, I get the following message:

----------
Ad Showing? No
The keyword phrase doesn't currently trigger any of your ads. There are several possible reasons your ad isn't showing for this keyword, such as:

* You just added the keyword to your campaign. You may experience a short wait as your keyword goes through the review process.
* Our server is experiencing a delay.
* Your ad delivery is being spaced throughout the day.
------------

I get the same message for every keyword in my account, but the keywords are not new, I'm getting click-throughs and my daily budget is large enough to prevent ad delivery spacing. In response to my email, Google wrote:

Dear Kalena

Thank you for your email. I understand that you are concerned about the Keyword Analysis reasons. I'm sorry to hear that you've had trouble with your AdWords account. We've identified a known technical issue affecting a limited number of accounts. Our engineers are currently working to solve the problem and hope to reach a resolution shortly.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team

Let's hope they get this fixed pronto! Anyone outside Australia having this issue?


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Q and A: How do you know what keywords are adequate for each page?

Dear Kalena...

I am just knowing your blog and I am admiring it because: first, you are a very savvy writer about the SEO subject; second, I can see that you have many readers in the FeedBurner feed; and, well, a PR of 5, not bad at all. My question is this: Many websites have no keywords in their pages. When I see the source code, nada. Of course many of these pages are really sales letters and maybe is not interesting for the owners to concern about meta tags. So, what is the best way to know which keywords are the more adequate for a certain page if I intend to use PPC as an affiliate? Thank you in advance and I would like to read your answer.

Regards,
Jesus in Mexico

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Jesus

Keyword research is a tricky business. Sites that don't use keywords within their visible text and META tags may not be looking to rank well in the organic SERPs. Perhaps they are using PPC landing pages, email marketing or social media to drive traffic. Or maybe they just don't know how to optimize their pages.

Targeting keywords is a different kettle of fish for SEO and PPC. If you are researching keywords to use within your regular site pages to help the site rank in the organic search results (SEO), I recommend using services such as KeywordDiscovery and WordTracker. WordTracker actually have a 15 percent discount offer on until the end of November, so be sure to use coupon code us-annual-15 if you decide to subscribe.

If you are looking for the best keywords to use for your PPC campaigns, I would recommend that you use the Google Keyword Tool, the Overture Keyword Selector and/or the keyword suggestion tool built into Yahoo Sponsored Search. If you plan to use landing pages for your PPC campaign, you don't necessarily need to optimize them for crawlers. If the page content is very similar on each, you might want to prevent them from being indexed by search bots anyway.

No matter what keyword research tools you plan to use, start your search by compiling a seed list of keywords and phrases that you imagine your potential customers/visitors might type in to search engines. Ask your family, friends and colleagues for more keyword ideas and build up your seed list until you feel confident you have exhausted all avenues. Then start using the keyword tools. You'll be amazed at how many more keyword combinations you'll find!


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Search Industry Job Of The Week: PPC Specialist

Job Title: Pay-Per-Click Specialist - Experienced

Job Reference #: Unknown

Position Type: full time

Name of employer: ROI Revolution

Location: Raleigh, NC

Date Posted: 4 October 2007

Position description:

Experienced Pay Per Click Specialist needed to join the winning team at ROI Revolution immediately!

As a Google Analytics Authorized Consulting partner (read our blog, study our website), ROI Revolution is experiencing rapid growth. Further, we are often privy to cutting-edge developments in the ever-changing Internet landscape. When you join the ROI Revolution team, you'll have the opportunity to help us help our clients achieve ROI-driven marketing results, learn about ground-breaking announcements before the news goes public, and meet industry leaders and Google insiders.

ROI Revolution is a rapidly-growing company composed of a tightly-knit 13 person (and growing!) team and an innovative work environment. Enjoy complimentary company lunch on Fridays, a very casual dress-code, and a break room stocked with free snacks, sodas, and other goodies. Work with friendly, fun, yet passionate/focused colleagues.

We have an immediate opening for an internet savvy and energetic team player who is a creative and proactive thinker to plan, manage and optimize successful Pay Per Click marketing campaigns. We are searching for a talented, creative individual with at least 12 months experience with pay-per-click advertising to join our team. Compensation commensurate with experience and ability.

Work hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities include:

Create, categorize and refine keyword lists to create a comprehensive campaign that drives qualified visitors to client sites. Implement successful bidding strategies and effective keyword management. Continually monitor, revise, and optimize ad text as necessary. Analyze and assess the performance of campaigns and translate quantitative and qualitative data into recommendations and plans for revising the campaign strategy. Communicate regularly with clients on status, timeline, budget, deliverables, performance reporting, and competitive intelligence analysis.

Job Qualifications:

Analytical and problem-solving skills to find solutions to various pay per click advertising problems and prioritize work. Self-starter with “can-do” attitude and strong work ethic. Excellent phone ability; extreme Internet and e-mail proficiency. Strong knowledge of business and an excellent command of the English language, both oral and written.

Education and Experience Requirements:

Bachelor's degree from 4-year accredited college Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher 12 months or more of Pay Per Click experience Preferences: Google Adwords Certification a plus. Knowledge and experience with HTML and Google Analytics is also a plus.

Computer Equipment and Software Requirements:

Proficiency with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office Tools Suite. Intermediate Excel skills.

This is an immediate opening. Relocation assistance is not offered with this position. Please do not apply unless you live in the Raleigh, NC area or are ready to move to the Raleigh, NC area in the next two to three weeks.

This job description reflects the current assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned, and may be revised, at any time, as business needs warrant.

Salary range: Negotiable

Closing date: Unknown

More info from: [www.roirevolution.com]

Contact: Send resumes via online form to: [www.roirevolution.com]

For more search industry job vacancies visit: Search Engine College Jobs Board

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How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign

SiteProNews published my latest article on their site today: How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign.

In the article, I dissect a client's Google AdWords campaign to find out why it has been unprofitable to date and uncover 14 major problems. Once these problems were addressed, the campaign turned a corner and started making a profit again.

If you're an AdWords advertiser, you should read this article and make sure you're not making the same blunders.

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Q and A: How do I create landing pages without creating duplicate content?

Dear Kalena...

I have a question about Google AdWords landing pages. I have done a campaign, sending people to pages on my site. I read everywhere that landing pages should reflect the ads & keywords and my web pages are too general. If I want to set up a unique landing page just for AdWords, how & where do I set it up without it being part of the main site? Because I don't want duplicate content.

As always, Thanks for your help.

Regards
Ros

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Ros

Easy peasy. Simply include NoIndex, NoFollow robots meta tags in the HTML code of your landing pages, or put them in a sub-folder like www.site.com/PPC/ and prevent search robots from indexing that folder by excluding it in your robots.txt file.


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Q and A: Is it possible to work from home as an SEO and PPC consultant?

Dear Kalena...

I have got 2+ years experience as an SEO and PPC consultant. I'm also good at copywriting. Now due to some personal problems I have left my job. I have worked for US & UK based clients from my company in India. Would it be possible that I can get such type of job by working from my home? Please advise.

Thanks
Sarvar

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Sarvar

Yes, absolutely! With the type of demand out there for someone with your skills, you should have no problem getting freelance work.

A lot of people assume you need venture capital or a bank loan to start your own business, but it's just not true. I began doing freelance web design and SEO in my spare time and was able to create my own company after a short period of time. If you're interested in how I got started in this biz, you can read about it here.

These days, things are a lot easier for the freelance SEO/PPC/SEM expert. You can register at Elance and pitch for small (or large!) projects and you can search the hundreds of jobs available in the search industry at niche sites such as Jobs in Search and Search Engine College's job board. You should also hang out on various webmaster forums where people are often seeking help with projects. Become a regular poster, network with others in the search industry and you'll not only learn a lot and contribute to a valuable community, but you'll start to benefit in terms of client leads and referrals.

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Q and A: How much should I charge to manage an AdWords campaign?

Dear Kalena...

I operate an ad agency in Seattle, mostly working with small business and specializing in media planning for print, outdoor, TV, and radio campaigns. I've recently decided to become certified in Google Adwords and offer an additional service to my clients, managing a SEM campaign. I'm wondering a competitive rate to charge my clients on a monthly basis for a SEM campaign. Can you tell me what rates you have commonly seen charged to small busineeses for this service?

Thanks,
J

Kalena's Answer:

Dear J

Unfortunately, this is another of those "how long is a piece of string?" issues. SEM fees vary widely between agencies and there really is no recommended range I can give you. It depends on so many factors, including:

• whether keyword research is required
  
• number of keywords targeted
• number of AdGroups created
  
• number of ads created
• size of client
• size of client's budget (these are two different things!)
  
• what type of ad creatives are used (text, image, video)
  
• whether landing pages are included
  
• how competitive the industry is for the client's product/service
• how often the campaign will require tweaking and who will do it
  
• whether new keywords will be added regularly
• whether the click charges will be billed to you or your client (think credit card interest)
  
• whether detailed reports and analysis are required
• what the client's daily and monthly budgets are
• what geographic targets the client wants to reach
  
• how long the campaign will run
  

See what I mean? You'll need to have many of these factors sorted out before you can quote, so no two PPC campaigns are generally costed at the same amount. My best advice is to quote an hourly rate and estimate the number of hours the campaign will take to create and manage for each client well in advance.

Whatever you do, don't underquote. PPC campaigns require a much larger time commitment than you may realize.

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Q and A: Is it best to use single keywords or variations and phrases in PPC campaigns?

Dear Kalena...

I am in the process of setting up a PPC campaign on Google AdWords and I have found a keyword that looks promising. So what I have done is to use the Google Estimator.

With this keyword I have used exact match, phrase match and broad match and the google traffic estimator gave me estimates for my keyword. I notice that the traffic estimates vary a lot through the three of them. So I just tried one keyword and the estimates were higher.

Is it best to use one keyword or is it best to use the variations on the keyword you like? I hope you know what I mean.

Graeme

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Graeme

You've got to be very careful when choosing your keyword matching types. Broad match and phrase match will always show a higher number of searches in the Keyword Estimator than exact match because using those matching options result in your ad being shown for more variations of your keyword.

The use of broad match for your keywords will trigger your ads to appear for a much wider number of search queries and save you time researching an exhaustive list of related keywords to target. However broad matching can drain a PPC budget very quickly and result in your ad being shown for unsuitable or less relevant search queries, lowering your conversion rate and increasing your overall cost-per-conversion. For these reasons, broad matching options should be used cautiously and in close consultation with negative keywords.

In my campaigns, I use a combination of phrase match and exact match and I use 2 or 3 word keyword phrases and variations instead of generic keywords. It requires more keyword research, but it means I know *exactly* what search combinations will trigger my ads to appear so I can better design my ads to suit. It also saves me money. Knowing which matching options to use for which keywords and phrases and when to adjust them will give you much better control over your campaign’s performance and click-through costs.

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Q and A: How do you ensure your AdWords ads appear above organic results?

Dear Kalena...

On Google's SERPs, sponsored listings appear above organic results, as well as on the right of organic results. How does one achieve sponsored listings above organic results, as opposed to on the right of organic results?

Nick

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Nick

The sponsored listings above the organic results are generally AdWords advertiser's ads that have the highest ad quality score based on Google's ad-ranking algorithm. Advertisers that bid higher than other advertisers and/or have a higher quality score for their ads appear in the highest two or three positions. These positions usually appear above the organic results, but not always.

Sometimes you'll see a SERP with ads only down the right hand side. This positioning is entirely determined by Google's ad display algorithm and cannot be influenced. You can make sure your ads have the best opportunity to be displayed above organic results by ensuring they have a higher quality score than other advertisers and a higher bid amount.

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RUMOR: Google to allow AdSense publishers to specify own ad formats?

I don't usually like to take part in surveys. My time is pretty valuable and I find them tedious. But when Google asks, I ALWAYS take their surveys. Why? Because I get an insight into what features they're planning to roll out by the questions they ask.

Take the latest AdSense Publisher Feedback Survey for example. Under the question "Which of the following AdSense features would you like to see Google implement in future?", they listed:

1. Selecting ad categories to appear on your site
2. Selecting the types of advertisers that appear on your site
3. Managing other publishers' AdSense accounts for them
4. Specifying your own ad formats and sizes
5. Paying for phone support
6. Applying AdSense earnings towards AdWords marketing
7. Gathering information about your visitors

Wow! Some of those made me sit up and pay attention, especially # 3, # 4 and # 6. I manage AdWords accounts for clients now so it makes sense to offer a similar service for their AdSense accounts. The ability to choose your own ad formats would be awesome, as would the ability to transfer AdSense earnings to an AdWords account.

Now this is all speculation on my part. But if enough publishers request these features, I wouldn't be surprised to see Google roll them out quite quickly. Watch this space!

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Q and A: Should we create domain names incorporating our major product keywords?

Dear Kalena...

We run an ecommerce site and my boss would like to take advantage of the strong demand for a couple of our products in particular. One of the ideas being tossed around is creating domain names that incorporate these keywords so that search engines find them more quickly (i.e., www.sitenameproduct1.com, www.sitenameproduct2.com)

What are your thoughts on this approach? Is this considered 'black hat' and could this get us in trouble with the major search engines?

Thanks
Kelly

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Kelly

Creating new domains for this purpose is a really, really bad idea. Although they are getting better at it, many search engines can't distinguish keywords within domain names unless they are separated by hyphens and there is really next to no ranking advantage for having keywords in a domain anyway.

It's not black hat, but it's a total myth and hasn't worked since about 2001. In fact, trying to get brand new domains ranked in Google takes up to a year now because of the aging delay so to launch new sites for this purpose is definitely not a good strategy.

You'd be much better off creating a few new pages on your existing site dedicated to the popular products and optimize them well for related keywords. For example, create some articles about the products or people's experience with the products and link to the product detail pages from within the articles using target keywords in the anchor text of the links.

Your existing site has great PageRank and link popularity and it is the best place to put content about your products. If you place a link from your home page to the new product articles/pages, that should help the search engines find the new content quickly and hopefully provide more rankings for keywords relating to those products. The other option is to boost the number of product related keywords in your pay per click campaigns and create dedicated landing pages for them so they convert better.

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Q and A: Why have my Google ads disappeared from my site?

Dear Kalena...

What does it mean when your google ads disappear from your blogs and website?

Marc

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Marc

I'm assuming you are an AdSense advertiser and all your ads have disappeared? Sounds like:

a) Your AdSense account has been cancelled due to non-compliance with AdSense policies (or)

b) Your AdSense code has been corrupted and is no longer displaying ads

Survey says a). Have you emailed Google to ask what the problem is? Have you been warned that your account may be cancelled? Better follow these instructions and get the news from the horse's mouth.


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PPC Proves Sweet for Some

Picture this: rival manufacturers of gourmet chocolates in two different US States both set up Google AdWords accounts. The California-based manufacturer blows $3,000 with only 3 sales, the Vermont company makes $30,000 in annual sales via PPC.

Why did one succeed and the other fail so spectacularly? Simple: the Vermont firm had a staff member vigilently monitoring, testing and tweaking their campaign over a long period. He researched thousands of long-tail keywords, added logical negative keywords and continuously reworks the wording of their ads to improve ROI.

Just goes to prove that PPC is not a set-and-forget undertaking. This is something we try to drill into our PPC 101 students.

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Q and A: Does Google favor sites running AdSense?

Dear Kalena...

It's nice to see language I can understand! You make instructions very clear thank you. I have a new website with Google ads on it. If I get 10 clicks per day on my ads, does Google favor my site over and above others that may be in the same category that don't run Google ads? I was thinking to some extent they might, so they can make more money. Do you know anything about this? Thanks, and I look forward to your reply.

Dean

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Dean

When AdSense first launched, there were many sceptics in the industry who predicted that Google's algorithm would favor successful AdSense advertisers. Thankfully, they were wrong. I've never seen any indication that Google gives any type of ranking boost or favoritism to sites running AdSense. The only possible technical advantage to having AdSense units on your page would be that Googlebot might visit more often. But even that is not proven.

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Microsoft and Yahoo Plot to Beat Google

I am toooo tired to process a reader question tonight, so I'll leave you with the latest eye-opener circulated by the rumor mill: Rumors Fly on Microsoft and Yahoo.

A choice quote:

"Microsoft officials said Friday that they would not comment on speculation about an acquisition of Yahoo. But a person briefed on the companies’ discussions said one option that had been considered was the linking of advertising networks to generate additional Web traffic."

Can you imagine Yahoo Search Marketing combined with Microsoft adCenter? It would be PPC on steroids. Might explain the continued delays with the new adCenter rollout.

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Q and A: Can you offer any recommendations about bid management software?

Dear Kalena...

I am currently assessing whether it's worth investing in some sophisticated bid management software but am unsure a) which ones to trial and b) how much real advantage this type of software gives - once convenience vs. cost is taken into consideration.

The tools offered by the individual engines have sufficed to date but the scope of some (client) campaigns (2000+ keywords) can make regular bid management a time consuming process.

Have you any experience with bid management software? Can you offer any recommendations or advice?

Best Regards
Giles


Kalena's Answer:

Dear Giles

It just so happens that I reviewed a number of PPC bid management software programs a few years ago.

As a result of my original review article, we ended up choosing BidRank as the best of the lot and I still use it. I really like the gap surfing feature of BidRank and they update their software very regularly so it always works with new releases of PPC programs. If I recall correctly, Google recommends them as a 3rd party product to work with AdWords and they also have a product that works with Yahoo Search Marketing. Read my full review of BidRank for more information.

I became an affiliate for BidRank as I was so impressed and so all the links to the program within this post are my affiliate links. If you decide to purchase BidRank and you are happy to use our affiliate link, make sure you reference Coupon Code WR007 for 5% off of your purchase. If you'd rather not use my affiliate link, the direct link is here.

I must admit that I haven't reviewed any of the programs that have become available in the last two years, so you might want to check those out and compare them to BidRank before purchasing.

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Q and A: How do you avoid duplicate content problems with similar landing pages?

Dear Kalena...

My question is regarding your SiteProNews article Think Global Act Global, in particular your comment:

"What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas".

If you create a separate landing page and it has the same content apart from spelling differences, how do you avoid the problems of duplicate content?

Ros

Kalena's Answer:

Hi Ros

Nice to hear from you again! Because of their purpose, pay-per-click landing pages can contain almost identical content, particularly if you are split testing two or more pages with only a slight change to each. For this reason, I recommend that you prevent search engines from indexing landing pages. You can achieve this by sticking a noindex, nofollow robots tag on the pages or a safer option is to stick all your landing pages into a folder on your site and instruct search engines not to index that folder via your robots.txt file.

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Q and A: Should I pause my AdWords campaign on weekends?

Dear Kalena...

I have another question. I get quite lot of clicks on my Adwords campaign during the weekend but I've never made a sale during this time or even Mondays. Do you think it would be a good idea to time adwords by pausing the campaign during the weekends?

I am looking for the best way to save, my cost is sky rocketing ;-)

many thanks
Damien

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Damien

Yes, if you've tracked your sales for a long period and your campaign never converts on a weekend, it seems logical to pause it during that time. Many of my clients pause their campaigns over the weekend.

Regarding your low conversion rate, if you are using the Google Content Network, often the quality of clicks and conversion rate is much lower than the search network. Try switching the content network off and see if that improves things. Also, make sure you use targeted landing pages for your destination URLs. These pages should be super-targeted to the keyword/phrase that triggered the ad. This usually boosts conversions.

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Q and A: Should I use an affiliate program instead of PPC to generate sales?

Dear Kalena...

I am fed up spending hundreds ($350!!!) per week in Google/Yahoo PPC for only 2 sales per week, week after week. My Adwords are getting more expensive, it is ridiculous.

My task for this week is to develop an affiliate program. I have installed software to manage the affiliates and I will contact as many relevant blogs and websites I can to offer them $100 per sales. Which strategy do you reckon? Using an affiliate network? Which one? is $100 (25%) ok? Do I have to give a bonus at the registration ($10 ok?). Do you have some advice to attract affiliates? What can I write in the letter I will email to them that will motivate them to register? If you already have received some interesting letters asking you to be affiliate, would it be possible to forward them to me?

Damien

Kalena's Answer:

Hi Damien

That's a lot of questions for a single cup of coffee! Here are my suggestions:

a) Try bidding on less-competitive keywords/phrases in your PPC campaigns. Research and focus on the laser-targeted 2, 3 and even 4 word phrases. These are cheaper and generally convert better.

b) Review all your ads and your keyword matching options to see if you can improve their quality score and performance. Your ad headings and copy should be laser-focused on the keywords you are bidding on.

c) Are you sending all PPC visitors to a single destination URL? Try developing targeted landing pages for each keyword theme or product and send ad clickers to these instead. Landing pages should include your keyword phrase in the heading and copy of the page and lead visitors directly to your conversion goal without any competing navigation or distractions.

Regarding your affiliate program:

a) I don't use an affiliate network as such, so I can't recommend any in particular. We have just upgraded to JROX Affiliate Manager software for our Search Engine College affiliate program and it seems to be extremely powerful and effective so far. It does involve a lot of setting up and customization, but it pretty much runs itself after that.

b) Regarding your affiliate commission - you could either have a percentage of sales (somewhere between 5 and 25% is common) or a flat fee per sale. Depending on the affiliate program you use, you could even set it up as a pay per click commission where affiliates receive a small fee for every visitor they send your way. Whatever makes the most sense for your product and market.

c) It's up to you whether you you offer a sign-up bonus. It's not that common. We offer a $2 bonus just to get people started, but again, it depends on your market.

d) Regarding attracting new affiliates, you really need to convince them they will make money by promoting your product/service. Ideally, you should have a product that sells well online and is of high quality. Make sure you have a lot of marketing tools for affiliates to choose from (banners, links, buttons etc.) and a very detailed list of features and benefits they can refer to in their own marketing efforts.

In your pitch email, you should give potential affiliates a dollar figure they will make from selling just one of your products so they can get an idea of the potential income they could expect. I personally wouldn't cold-call to find affiliates, unless the product is unbelievably tailored to their site content. Instead you should create banners and promotional pages about your affiliate program and try to attract people to them. A PPC campaign to attract affiliates or leads generally converts better than one to attract sales.

Once you've got some affiliates in place, make sure you give them a very easy way of tracking referrals and commissions and keep in regular contact with them with ideas for how to promote your product/service.

Good luck!

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Q and A: Why have my minimum bids on AdWords jumped to $10 per click?

Dear Kalena...

First - I have been a constant visitor to your blog and thanks for all the useful insights you share. Coming to my issue - we do PPC advertisements on Google. Our campaigns have been running fine for 2-3 years. Suddenly last week Google dropped 2 of our important keywords saying the 'quality' is not good and we have to increase our minimum bids to $10 per click to get it back.

I do not understand this - nothing much has changed - our CTR is almost the same as in past - we bid enough to be in top 2-3, our daily budget is not expiring. And our ads compare well with our competitiors (atleast thats what we think) and we have good conversion rate from people who come. Although CTR (~1%) is low - but that is expected from such a generic keyword. Can you shed some light on this issue and help us? By the way - I created a new campaign by deleting the old one, with same keywords and ad text - and that is working fine.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martin

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Martin

Thanks for the blog backslap! Re your AdWords issue - relax, it's a bug. As reported by Search Engine Land, the Google AdWords Quality Score had a major bug last week that saw ad prices spike for ads that were previously performing well.

Apparently it was an unexpected side-effect of Google's improvements to their Quality Score Algorithm. Improvements have been completed this week and so I'm assuming the bug has been resolved. Advertisers can now switch on their Quality Score Column to see which ads are performing better than others as rated by Google. More info on the changes at Inside AdWords.

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Click Fraud on Google Less Than 1%

While interviewing Shuman Ghosemajumder of Google today, Andy Beal was able to expose the fact that the undetected click fraud rate on Google AdWords is less then 2%.

Ghosemajumder showed proof to backup his numbers and then later clarified that those figures included "invalid clicks" so he claims the true undetected click fraud percentage was more than likely a fraction of 1%.

I wonder. I see a lot of "click quality adjusment" credits in my account on a monthly basis. If they are catching this much click fraud, I doubt the stuff they miss is such a small fraction.

Q and A: What is the best way to promote a new SEO product?

Dear Kalena...

We have created an amazing SEO toolkit. What do you think is the best way to promote it? Channels?

Mike

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Mike

Using AdWords to promote your new product is a good start, especially if you opt-in to the Google Content Network so your ads are shown on search-related sites via AdSense. You should also consider advertising via Yahoo! Search Marketing to reach a larger chunk of the search market, including MSN searchers.

Here are some other excellent ways to jumpstart buzz about your product:

- Create a professional press release and circulate it via distribution channels such as PR Web.
- Send the press release to key bloggers in the SEO industry and ask them to blog it.
- Send the press release to editors or widely-read SEO newsletters, ezines and publications.
- Send a free evaluation copy of your product to journalists in the search industry and/or influential names in the industry and ask them to review it. If they like it, they will most likely blog and/or write about it.
- Start an affiliate program for your product and begin recruiting affiliates and sub-affiliates.
- Write an article/review about the product yourself and syndicate it via search-related article announcement groups such as those described here and in our articles about article marketing.

Best of luck!

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Q and A: Do you think the Yahoo! Publisher Network will catch up to Google AdSense?

Dear Kalena...

I read your article on Top 10 Adsense Tricks, very informative. I am using the Yahoo equivalent, the Yahoo Publisher Network. Do you have any information on how they perform?

My results vary widely from day to day, sometimes as much as 50 %. Do you think Yahoo is adjusting the numbers as they go, or is it more likely the advertisers adjusting theirs?

It also seems that the inventory of ads is small on Yahoo's Network. Maybe that will change once they are out of beta test mode. In any event they have a lot of "catching up" to do.

Thanks
Brian

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Brian

I applied to become a BETA tester for Yahoo's Publisher Network as soon as I heard about it, but unfortunately they are limiting testing to U.S. users at the moment so my application was rejected, *sob*.

So I'm afraid I can't comment on YPN just now. But I would guess the you are seeing is pretty normal for a testing phase and it should settle down once the service comes out of BETA. Will be interesting to see what sort of CTR and income levels YPN provides compared to AdSense. Especially as AdSense is changing the lives of people all over the world by providing an income previously out of their reach.
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Q: Where can I find information about how to create successful landing pages?

Dear Kalena...

I am about to launch a new pay per click advertising campaign on Google AdWords for our camping supplies company and I want to make sure the landing pages I create do the job properly. Do you know where I can find landing page templates or information on how to design successful landing pages?

thanks
PPC Newbie