Who should consider buying Pay-Per-Click advertising? Those selling high-profit goods and/or services. These are high Return on Investment (ROI) situations. To understand why, let's cover...
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Fundamentals
Bid to place your Ad in front of a searcher's eyeballs while s/he is searching for a certain keyword that is of relevance to your business. Essentially, you bid for keyword positioning in the advertising (or "sponsors") section(s) of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
For example, if you had a villa in Anguilla and wanted to rent it out (a high ROI situation), your site about Anguilla would certainly have pages about "Anguilla villas." And at least one of those pages will specifically
be about your villa.
Bid on "anguilla villas" and send those who click on your Ad straight to your page about your villa. There will be Ads for other villas, of course, on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). So bid to obtain sufficiently high positioning among all the Ads in the Ad section.
Each time someone clicks through to your site via the Ad on the SERP, the PPC (Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, etc.) charges you the amount that you bid for your Ad's position.
Pay-Per-Click advertising brings you guaranteed "Page 1 positioning" for your keyword. Keep in mind, though, the trade-off. It's an Ad. So...
You pay for the guaranteed exposure. That saves you the "time and
aggravation" that you would normally spend to create content pages that
get listed and found (for free) by the engines, true. But...
... yes, there is always a "but"...
The popular keywords in any niche are now very expensive. And the highly profitable niche keywords that are directly tied to a sale (ex., "anguilla villas" or "anguilla real estate") also cost a pretty penny.
So you have to develop targeted campaigns, carefully selected keywords
for renting your anguilla villa or selling your anguilla DVD, for example.
MI! helps you find the best of those. (More on general PPC info in DAY 10 of the Action Guide.)
The main benefit of advertising is its short-term, immediate delivery of
targeted traffic. Its major drawback?
Advertising does not develop free, ongoing, PREsold traffic. It stops when
you stop paying for it. And no one is "PREsold" by advertising. Only Content
does that.
So PPC advertising should never be more than a supplement. You own your business when you own free, "editorial-search" traffic.
PPC-buying is, of course, just peachy if you are specifically trying to sell a high-profit product or service. Use it as a supplement (in some cases even if you're found for your keyword) to drive targeted traffic directly
to your high-profit monetization page(s).
Monetize It!'s PPC-Buying module helps you find cheap, targeted keywords to drive targeted traffic to your product or service, allowing you to see opportunities that are invisible to other small businesses. In short, it maximizes your ROI on PPC.
Which Provides "Better" PPC Advertising, Yahoo! or Google?
Important Note: Yahoo! Search Marketing is no longer compatible with Monetize It!. Although you'll see buttons and links in MI! for Yahoo, please ignore them. Version 3 of Brainstorm It! will have MI! built in. You won't see mention of Yahoo! then. Please ignore mention of Yahoo! in the balance of this help file.
Which is better? The answer, in a word, is...
... "Yes."
As you'll see, Monetize It! helps you build campaigns in a practical way that's optimized for each PPC. And remember, each one (Microsoft's "ContentAds" is coming) is different...
You have better control over bidding with Yahoo!. It is simpler, more direct.
Google AdWords takes more "figuring out." You have to trust the technology.
Google AdWords does drive more traffic. It tends to better reflect the monetization value of keywords. Bidding the same keyword to the same position may cost you less at Yahoo!, but Google tends to bring you more clicks, impressions and conversions (i.e., they deliver your "Most Wanted Response" more often). Its superior targeting may be why it tends to convert better than Yahoo!.
In any event...
Monetize It! shows you how to find your best opportunities. You generate the best possible ROIs for your high-profit goods and/or services. Let's get started!
This Help & Strategies page covers how to get the most out of the PPC-Buying MI! module... how to "Search & Sort" your way to maximal ROIs by bidding for keywords through Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing (MS's ContentAds, too, when they launch).
You can reach this page via the...
- large
icon (above the QUICK JUMP menu at the top of PPC-Buying module)
- Table Of Contents (above), for navigation within all of Monetize It!'s help
- small
icon in various spots -- ex., click on the beside Google to learn more about the 3 Google sub-headings (# SEHQR, CPC and PCDM), like this...
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If you click on the blue-linked headings, you sort the column by each, same as in Content-Building and Ad-Selling.
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Use PPC-Buying's Search and Sort functions to find the "best bargain keywords" that will form your PPC Campaign at each engine. In general, you're looking for cheap keywords with reasonable demand.
All in all, it's everything you need to build stable, smart programs. No
constant chasing and bidding or all the other time-consuming nonsense that
you may read elsewhere...
... if you make the mistake of reading elsewhere.
PPC-Buying Quick Tour
This section tours you quickly through the heading of each column of the
PPC-Buying module. (The eight column headings are in the screenshot above.)
Keyword This column contains all the keywords from your Master Keyword List (MKL) in Brainstorm It!. Goals for PPC Buyers? Buy low. Find the "best bargain" keywords. Maximize ROI. Use PPC-Buying Monetize It! to work with this list of keywords to...
1) Identify cheap keywords that promote your service and/or product directly and well.
2) Find high-Keyworth keywords for which you have created Web pages but which are not yet ranking at the engines and/or delivering traffic. If you can find "penny" words at Google that are worth substantially more at Yahoo!, you have an opportunity!
Sort this column by clicking on the Keyword heading link. It sorts the keywords alphabetically.
Demand Demand is the number of times each keyword was searched in the most recent month at Yahoo Search Marketing's database and at Wordtracker. This tells you how "in-demand" each keyword is.
Two sources for Demand (i.e., having data from both Yahoo! and Wordtracker) enable you to do useful cross-checking. Scan down both columns and compare Wordtracker Demand to Yahoo! Demand for each keyword, across all your keywords, to get an idea of how Wordtracker usually compares to Yahoo!. Once you have established that "frame of reference," use it as a test...
If Wordtracker Demand seems "off" to you for a certain keyword, compare it to Yahoo! Demand. And vice-versa, of course. If the two agree, then the Demand value is probably OK. But if they vary widely, "pick" the value that seems reasonable to your human judgment ("take advantage of the human brain").
See the Action Guide and online help for Brainstorm It!'s Master Keyword List for more information about Demand.
Supply
Google Supply provides the number of Web pages that contain each keyword. It gives you a rough idea of how difficult it will be to rank in the Top 10. The higher the Supply, the more competitive the situation.
See the Action Guide and online help for Brainstorm It!'s Master Keyword List for more information about Supply.
NOTE: When you Seed-Search-and-Sort on a combination of Demand, Supply, and the imported MI! data from Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, tremendous insights happen. More on this below.
Profitability
Profitability is "Demand" divided by "Supply," multiplied by 1000. It is a rough indication of the profit potential of a keyword.
A keyword with high Demand and Supply will have the same Profitability number as a keyword with proportionately lower Demand and Supply. But remember...
Ranking in the Top 10 is an "all-or-nothing" event. You either do or you don't. It's harder to rank in the Top 10 for the higher Demand keywords, but if you do manage it, the rewards are far greater. So...
Be patient. Gain traffic first for the easier words. Eventually, you'll conquer your tougher, and finally your toughest, keywords.
Important: The Myth Of KEI
If you ignore the advice about focusing on SBI! and ignoring all the "mis"-advice that runs rampant "out there," you will come across the concept of KEI. Ignore it. It erroneously emphasizes the high Demand keywords.
In fact, the best way to build a genuine, long-term-successful, content-based Web site is from the bottom up, starting with the easiest keywords and working your way up in the world. The last keyword to score in the Top 10 will be your Site Concept Keyword.
If this is not clear, please re-read the Action Guide and Brainstorm It!'s online help, and...
If you have no idea what KEI refers to...
 Good! Keep on reading.
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The Google And Yahoo! Sections
The Google and Yahoo! sections contain all the juicy data that you imported into MI!. Each section has three columns showing three vital pieces of information...
i) SEHQR This column gives the SE HQ Keyword Ranking for each Specific Keyword, at each engine. It gives the highest ranking if you have more than one page with that Specific Keyword.
If a number (1-30) appears in bold, it means that a page
that has that keyword as its Specific Keyword ranks for that keyword, at that engine. Why is that important?
A bold SEHQR means that page is a direct landing page for that keyword from that engine. That in turn may influence whether you want to advertise for it or not. If you're in the Top 10 for a keyword, you likely do not need to advertise for this keyword. On the other hand, if the ROI justifies it, having both a strong "editorial" (content) ranking and an Ad virtually guarantees a visit.
If you see a number from 1-30 that is not bold, you do not actually rank for the keyword for any page that uses it as its Specific Keyword,
but you do rank for at least one of your other pages (usually your home page, sometimes a TIER 2). This, too, may impact your advertising decisions.
Click here to review what bold means, and the special ways to search SEHQR, then click your browser's BACK button to return here.
Sort this column by clicking on the SEHQR heading link.
Bolds sort above plains, which sort above >30, which sorts above "-" (not indexed).
ii) CPC
Cost Per Click (CPC) is how much an advertiser pays Google or Yahoo! when a surfer clicks on an Ad. Since you are the advertiser in this module, it is the Cost Per Click that you need to bid to (usually) attain the highest-placed Ad position.
Standardizing CPC
Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing calculate and report CPC differently. It's important to "standardize" the two to make them as comparable as possible.
Basically, the Cost Per Click is the price Yahoo! or Google charges an advertiser
when a surfer clicks on an Ad. To compare apples-to-apples, MI! asked you to do the Google and Yahoo! imports in a specific way. As a result...
1) Google CPC -- the Google value is the CPC required in order for an advertiser to "win" the top advertising position 85% of the time. When Google gives a range, rather than an individual number, the MI! Import process takes an average of the range.
2) Yahoo! CPC -- the Yahoo! value is a penny more than the second-place bid (or $0.10 if there is only one bid, since that is what that bid is).
Apples-to-apples! Each gives you the value to reach the top.
NOTE: The CPC spot is empty if the page uses a Specific Keyword that is not in your MKL.
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Sort this column by clicking on the CPC heading link. Highest CPC sorts to the top.
iii) PCDM
PCDM ("Predicted Click Demand per Month") is the number of clicks that
Google or Yahoo! predicts for that keyword, at the above CPC bid level, per month (i.e., assuming that you followed the process when importing your MI! data). Occasionally, Google gives a range in their PCDM calculation, rather than an individual number. When this occurs, the MI! Import process takes an average of the range. PCDM is another indication of Demand.
Sort this column by clicking on the PCDM heading link. Highest PCDM sorts to the top.
Keyworth
This column provides the "Keyworth" of each keyword. Keyworth? This was explained in Content-Building. A quick review...
Keyworth (KW) is a measure of how much a Keyword is worth. It is an important concept that factors in all the important variables (Demand, Supply, CPC and PCDM) to calculate the financial worth for each keyword. Details? Click here and then return.
If a Keyworth value is blank ("-"), it means that you're missing essential data.
Keyworth is an important concept. You use PPC-Buying MI! to find high-Keyworth keywords for which you do not yet rank well, at a cheap price. More on this later.
Sort this column by clicking on the
KW heading link. Highest Keyworth values sort to the top.
Campaign
This is what it's all about! This is where you build your campaign(s) for buying keywords low and converting that traffic into high ROI through the sale of high-value goods or services.
Since we have almost finished the Quick Tour and are about ready to start, let's run through a sample of the campaign-building process...
1) Search for the group of keywords you want to work with. For example, find keywords that have a CPC less than $0.15 at Google AND a Demand at both Yahoo! and Wordtracker over 1,000, like this...
... and click on the KW column heading to sort the resulting keyword lists by highest Keyworth on top.
This finds solid bargains. If you search for Demand over 1,000 at both Wordtracker and Yahoo!, you are searching for relatively high demand and eliminating any keywords for which Yahoo! and Wordtracker do not agree with each other. So this search finds solid-high-demand keywords "selling" for a cheap price.
Multi-Field Searching
There are so many revealing searches possible. Knowing how to Seed-Search-Sort is important. Click here for a refresher course (in the Content-Building section).
If you verbalize, understand and keep the goals in mind and know how to use multi-field searches, you'll be able to build a variety of specialized, high ROI campaigns.
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2) You are now ready to build your campaign in one of the Campaign columns. Scan the list of words. Build your campaign by checking the keywords you want to bid on. In this example, we notice that we can buy two keywords at Google for a nickel (circled in red)...
See the cursor pointing to $3.09 in the Yahoo! CPC column? Advertisers pay that much to Yahoo! when a visitor clicks when visiting for that word!
Hmmm... why not buy for a nickel (right down to a penny!) at Google and put up a Yahoo! Publisher Network Ad up on a page with that Specific Keyword?
This is an example of how even a clever infopreneur (with no high-profit
good or service to sell) could use PPC to make a profit. S/he checks off two words in the Google column (shown above) and clicks others as she scans down the list.
Do each PPC one-at-a-time. Why?
Because each PPC has its own subtleties. Errors are likely to arise if you try to think "horizontally." Think "vertically" instead, PPC by PPC. If you do that, you'll emerge with the best campaign(s) possible for each PPC.
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All set? Great!
3) Once you work your way down the entire column, you'll notice the export section. Check the "Export Keywords only" checkbox and then click the "Export Checked" link to export a campaign for that PPC. (For more information, see the help for the Export section, immediately below this.)
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We will cover a more typical campaign example below, for those who want to sell high-profit goods or services. This particular example, for infopreneurs, is sophisticated and risky. It was intended only to show you how far you can push Monetize It!. By comparing Google to Yahoo!, you can essentially
arbitrage your way to PPC profits!
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4) Log into your Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing account. Create a new campaign and then copy-and-paste these keywords into it (or add to an existing campaign if it belongs there).
Important Tip
Name your new campaign so that it's easy for you to remember the next time(s) you log into Google or Yahoo!. You'll thank me if you develop many campaigns at each PPC.
More on this and other Google-specific and Yahoo!-specific PPC strategies in
the SBI! Help & Strategies pages for each (below).
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And that's it! Now that we've completed the tour of the column headings, let's take a quick peek at the bottom of the PPC-Buying module...
Export
You do not have this function in Content-Building or Ad-Selling. But it is most useful for PPC-buying, as well as for the math-heads who love to analyze data.
Exporting is an important function in PPC-Buying. Click here for the introduction to exporting in "The Big Picture" help for Monetize It!. Then click the BACK button on your browser to return here.
Now for the nitty-gritty...
The three export links ("All," "Current," and "Checked") each export a set of keywords, together with all associated numerical data...
If you check the "Export Keywords Only" checkbox, only the keywords are exported. Do that if you want to copy-and-paste exported keywords into a Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing Campaign.
Uncheck that box to export a complete set of all MI! raw data for study in a spreadsheet.
When you export, a CSV file is saved to your desktop (i.e., it has the .csv extension). After you click on one of the Export links, a dialog box asks if you want to open or save the file...
- Windows Internet Explorer users -- choose to save the file, then explore to the desktop, and then click "Save."
- Windows Firefox users -- choose "Save to Disk." This saves your CSV file onto your desktop.
- Mac users -- it may save directly to your hard disk without asking you where you want to save it.
If you do not see the file on your desktop, it may have been saved to a default folder instead. Do a search on your hard disk for the file name.
A CSV file can be opened from within any text editor. For example, open Notepad and then FILE > Open. Then print it out.
Why CSV? Beyond working with it in text, CSV is specially formatted to allow you to import all your MI! data for your keywords into any spreadsheet or database program. And from there, you can manipulate, research and otherwise work with your data as much as you like.
The three Export links are...
1) Export All -- this exports all of your MI! keywords, whether you are currently showing one or all of them. The file name for this export is all_keywords.csv
2) Export Current -- this exports the current set of keywords that are being shown by MI!. For example, if you did a search for "anguilla" after choosing "caribbean" as the Seed Word, those are the keywords (along with all their data) that will be exported. The file name for this export is current_keywords.csv
3) Export Checked -- this allows you to export a totally custom set of keywords. Set pagination to show all keywords on one page. Then check all the keywords that you want. This export delivers all the keywords that you checked. The file name for this export is checked_keywords_google.csv for a Google export, or checked_keywords_yahoo.csv for a Yahoo! export.
If you UNCHECK Keywords Only, the file name will be checked_keywords.csv (no "yahoo" or "google").
And That's It!
That's the end of the Quick Tour! Ready to go?
Give the rest of this page a quick read so you'll know where we're going. Then go to the PPC-Buying module and "do" it all thoroughly while re-reading this page. You'll emerge with a solid understanding of how to squeeze the most out of this powerful module.
A Valuable Google Tool
As you've seen, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a useful adjunct for Ad-Selling. But Google really built this tool for PPC-buyers. So spend some time playing with it.
I suspect you'll develop even more high ROI PPC-buying campaigns... at least, that's what Google is banking on!
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Search & Sort Your Way To High ROI PPC Campaigns
Usage of the PPC-Buying module divides into two basic scenarios.
Right now, though, my job is to get you up to 80-20 speed! And so, without further ado, here are the two basic scenarios...
- Small Businesses selling high-value/high-profit goods or services
- Infopreneurs earning lower-dollar-per-transaction affiliate/Google AdSense/finders-fee income.
Let's start with the first one, the "classic" application of PPC advertising...
Scenario #1 -- Small Businesses Selling
High-Value/High-Profit Goods or Services
Let's say that you're selling your services as a JAVA programmer. You have a global audience. Each new client is worth thousands of dollars (more like tens of thousands if you're a decent programmer and generate repeat business, which does not cost you an additional penny of advertising). So you can afford to mount a serious PPC campaign.
Or maybe you sell exquisite, hand-turned wine goblets at $100 each, minimum of 6. Perhaps you're a real estate agent? I think you see where this is going, right?
Suppose you were the owner of anguilla-beaches.com and suppose, too, that you own a villa in Anguilla. Each weekly rental brings in $4,000... and likely a 25% repeat rate... those are lifetime customers! A single rental generates a value of more than $5,000, on average, with near-zero expense excluding the advertising itself.
You figure that 1 in 500 clicks to the Web page about your Anguilla villa converts to a rental (and you can verify that by tracking Conversion Rates, as you will see when you review the Help & Strategies pages for Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords). So...
You're willing to pay a maximum of $1,000 to acquire a new customer. That means you are willing to pay a maximum of $2 per click (500 clicks x $2 per click).
Based on that maximum CPC...
... think as you scan through Monetize It!.
Very interesting data! Let's start with Yahoo!, on the far right...
Let's contrast the two words circled in red under the Yahoo! heading...
There's one keyword, "anguilla resorts," where the CPC (Cost Per Click) is less than $2.00 at Yahoo! ($0.94), and where your page is not yet indexed by Yahoo!. Since anyone looking for "anguilla resorts" is also likely to be looking for a place to stay in Anguilla, this is a good opportunity.
What about the other one? "Anguilla vacation" costs less, but you do have a ranking for it, and the nature of the keyword itself is less specific. While they're interested in vacations in Anguilla, the "quality" of this search is not as focused on what you're trying to sell, a rental in your villa. Recommendation? Borderline.
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Note that "anguilla resorts" has a pretty decent PCDM (Predicted Click Demand) of 62 clicks per month. If she finds 8 more keywords like that one, that's 500 clicks per month, which amounts to 1 villa rental per month.
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What else should be included in the "yahoo-anguilla-rental" campaign. Look at that juicy "anguilla villas." The cost is only $1.03 and it's so well-targeted that it may pay off in spades, especially since your ranking is only 19.
But "anguilla real estate" is likely a money-waster. These surfers are not looking to rent your villa. When you want to sell it, though, this would be a winner! OK, let's formulate some guidelines based upon what we've learned.
Common-sense rules of thumb...
1) Are you ranked in the Top 10 in SEHQR? If so, only advertise if the keywords are very cheap (if at all) and focused.
2) Is the keyword very focused on what you're selling? The tighter the fit, the better. You might advertise even if you do have a Top 10 ranking. On the other hand, look at the broadest, least focused keyword,"anguilla" (not circled). It only costs $0.64 and receives an estimated 925 clicks per month. Remember, though, "anguilla" is a non-specific word. You might not convert 1 out of 1,000!
3) If you have a Top 10 ranking for a Specific Keyword, which page has the ranking?
- If it's the page that rents your villa, BINGO! You likely do not need to advertise.
- If it's a page that links to your villa-renting page, that's good. But you still might want to buy an Ad if the price is right.
- If it takes more than one click to reach your "sales page," consider advertising.
4) You'll find some sweet words that are "money traps." In this case, "caribbean villa rental" is tempting. But "caribbean" is a big sea. They first have to be sold on "anguilla." And at $2.70 per click, you can lose a lot of money trying to sell people on anguilla. Yes, they're "thinking villa." But the trap is that they don't likely know about "anguilla." Too expensive.
Why The Top 10?
A ranking of <30 is good. It means that you're doing a lot of things right. Don't optimize (SEO) those pages. Keep building more content.
But when it comes to PPC-advertising and renting that villa, a ranking of 28 (i.e., bold) is not going to get you many direct visits, especially if the landing page is not the direct sales page. That's why the discussions here, in PPC-buying help, talk about "Top 10" rankings.
If you rank worse than The Top 10 (bold), you are less likely to get the"editorial click." And if you rank greater than 30 or not at all ("-" or "NP"), you will not get a free click. Consider advertising if the CPC is right.
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OK, let's sit down again and...
... think about Google this time.
Scanning down the list, our eyes fall on a nice "penny-to-nickel patch" (4 keywords circled in red in the same screenshot, above.) Ignore the PCDM of 1, because both Yahoo! and Wordtracker show solid Demand, and Yahoo! is telling you that PCDM is good. With an upper limit of $2.00 per keyword, these are no-brainers. So...
Now we're ready. We've only been scanning and thinking so far. With Google and Yahoo!'s two very different situations, we are now ready to construct...
... two different smart searches!
STEP 1) Search
Here's a search for Yahoo!, based upon the observations above...
This finds all keywords with a ranking greater (worse) than 10 at Yahoo!
that cost less than $2.00 per click, and that have a PCDM less
than 500, which keeps costs down and also tends to find keywords
that are more specific than "anguilla"
And here's a search for the Google campaign...
This finds all keywords with a CPC of less than $0.25 at Google,
and which have a Demand of greater than 100 at both Yahoo! and WT
which is important because it "overrules" the PCDM that Google says is 1.
This search at Google just may let you find some very nice keywords
that are both in demand and that only cost a penny-to-a-nickel!
I hope you love Monetize It! as much as I do. It pulls data together from a wide variety of sources, so it allows you to see opportunities that are invisible to other small businesses.
When you create a specific campaign, set your criteria so that you find at least 20 keywords or so. You'll end up picking the best 5-10. Of course, you may do a search that brings back 100 keywords. No problem, I have a nice tool to handle that...
STEP 2) Sort
Yup, the second part of "Search & Sort." Sort by Demand, Supply, CPC, PCDM, Keyworth, to discover good opportunities. It's a super way to find your best opportunities after you do any particular search.
What's the best way to get the most out of sorting? Think!
The key is to think about what your search delivered, and what each sort would "send to the top."
By now, I should be boring you when I repeat how important Seed-Search-Sort is. But if it's not clear, click here and review #3, 4, and 5. Your financial health is at stake.
SBIers are an extremely motivated and clever breed. As you "get into" Monetize It!, you'll discover the incredible power and depth of MI!.
Please do share your best ideas. Add more rules of thumb. Where? At the Monetize It! forum. And please don't hesitate to ask for help and check for those creative suggestions and strategies in the MI! forum, too...
http://forums.sitesell.com/viewforum.php?f=84
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Step 3) Build Your Campaign... Check Those Keywords
As you search-sort-scan-and-think, applying the rules of thumb, check the keywords that belong in a high-ROI campaign. Here we are, continuing the Google example above...
Do it one engine at a time. Do not check keywords from both columns during the same campaign. Do it one engine (vertical column) at a time.
As mentioned, Google offers some super-low-priced no-brainers in this particular example...
Solid Demand, confirmed by both Yahoo! and Wordtracker.
And Yahoo!'s own PCDM data is also excellent (screenshot higher above).
Three good indicators of Demand likely outweigh Google's low PCDM. For a nickel per click (or less!), you just may generate some good, cheap traffic. Even if it's less targeted, you can afford it, at these prices!
So start checking those words in the Google column of the campaign section of PPC-Buying. Scoop up these penny-to-nickel words.
Why would you want to bid on words if you already have a free editorial SE Ranking at #3 (ex., "anguilla real estate" above)? Simple! When you have determined that you have an ROI and Conversion Rate that justifies a $2.00 CPC, and you can buy a decent word for a few pennies, why not do so?
If visitors click to the site, it costs 5 cents. If they click on a Google AdSense Ad worth $0.50, you'd be ahead. And even if only one visitor in 10,000 (instead of 1 in 500) rented a villa, which rents out at $4,000, the cost of acquiring that customer is only $500 (half of the acceptable cost of acquisition)! You're way ahead!
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Once you've completed building your Google "bargain" campaign, you export the list of checked keywords (see next section).
Then repeat the process, building a targeted Yahoo! campaign that selects the type of higher-priced, but highly focused keywords that we discussed above. This time, you'd check "anguilla resorts" and "anguilla villas" and so forth in the check boxes in the Yahoo!column.
Think and plan more clever Seed-Search-Sorts and build as many campaigns as you like.
Ready for the final MI! step before heading back to Google or Yahoo! to actually build and start your campaign? Let's do it!
Step 4) Export
Once you've "sucked all the marrow out of this bone" and checked off all of the high-ROI, super-cheap keywords, scroll to the bottom of PPC-Buying.
Click on the Export Keywords only checkbox. All set? Last chance to review. When ready, click on the Export Checked text link.
This export delivers all of the keywords that you checked. The file name for this export is checked_keywords_google.csv. You're ready to head over to Google AdWords and launch your first Google campaign.
What about Yahoo! Search Marketing?
The process for Yahoo! works exactly the same way. When you compare our Google vs. Yahoo! example, your Yahoo! words happen to cost more. But you get what you pay for (more targeted keywords). If you can convert $500 of PPC expense (to acquire one customer) into $4,000 of villa rental, you're happy, right?
Once you have finished checking the keywords in the Yahoo! column, export in the same way. (The file name is "checked_keywords_yahoo.csv".)
Summary
Think your Seed-Search-Sort through carefully. Pick your keywords by understanding what the surfer is likely looking for. How targeted is s/he? How close to the sale?
The more expensive the CPC, the pickier you should be, the better the fit and the closer the sale. Same for high PCDM words... what are they really delivering? If it's a lot of cheap-but-untargeted traffic, is there a point? There might be, but the key point is that you should know what it is.
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Scenario #2 -- Infopreneurs
No doubt about it. Monetize It! identifies outstanding high-ROI opportunities for those with relatively high-profit goods or services to sell or rent.
What about Infopreneurs? They don't make thousands of dollars for a single MWR delivered. Heck, they do well to make $1.00 for a click on a Google AdSense Ad. Sure, thousands of clicks do add up, but each one is a pretty thin profit.
Ditto for affiliate commissions. They usually only pay a few dollars or less.
Some affiliate sales do pay substantially more. For example, SBI! pays $75....
HINT, HINT!
The principles remain the same. If you earn a large affiliate or finder's fee (ex., by referring visitors to real estate agents), that is Scenario #1. However...
If your individual PPC advertising payouts are on the order of $2 to $10, then you're basically in the hunt for "penny-to-nickel words" from Google AdWords.
Creative, multi-field searches in Monetize It! will turn up "arbitrage" opportunities where you buy words at Google for pennies and sell a Yahoo! Publisher Network Ad on your site for a dollar.
Click here for an earlier example of this concept.
Remember this basic strategy...
You want to buy keywords for a nickel or less at Google, with a good chance to convert that into a dollar or more at Yahoo!. If you can also earn an occasional affiliate sale or finder's fee, that's a great bonus! But if that's the primary goal, we are back into Scenario #1.
Once you have "searched & sorted" and checked keywords to build a good list for a PPC campaign, export those checked words to the same "checked_keywords_google.csv" and "checked_keywords_yahoo.csv" files. Don't forget to click the Export Keywords Only checkbox.
The 4-Step Dance Summary
Search and Sort, Check-Export... Cha-Cha-Cha!
No matter what your business and monetization models are, all PPC campaigns boil down to a simple, four-step dance. Let's summarize the process into four simple words...
Do that simple little 4-step for each campaign and you will hear the sound of your favorite music...
Click-Cha-Cha-Cha-Ching! And that will really make you dance.
Great! That officially ends Monetize It!'s job. You're finished with its tools, for now. But...
You're not finished with me yet!
We still have some work to do. But here's the good news...
This is where it gets really fun. Let's head over to Google or Yahoo! and convert that exported MI! file into money!
Convert Your Export Into Ads With High ROI
You've exported a campaign of carefully selected keywords... there's gold in "them thar files"... ("checked_keywords_google.csv" or "checked_keywords_yahoo.csv"). Now, you're all set to return to Google AdWords and/or Yahoo! Search Marketing to assemble your bidding campaign.
Return?
Yes, you first went to Google and Yahoo! to generate the CPC and PCDM data that Monetize It! needed.
MI! PPC-Buying presents Google and Yahoo! data side by side, together with Yahoo! and Wordtracker Demand, Google Supply and Keyworth. You have unmatched power to find superb PPC-buying opportunities.
In other words, the first time at Google and Yahoo! was for research.
This time you mean business.
You start exactly the same way. Repeat the copy-and-paste procedure that you used to research at...
This time, though, you are not after CPC and PCDM data from Google and Yahoo!. You already have it. You're going to bid instead.
You won't actually bid on all of those keywords. Even though you've narrowed your keyword list down to a tight campaign, think of each list as your "finalists." Some keywords won't be appropriate, as you'll see when you review the Help & Strategies pages below.
How do you bid? Here's the "in-house" information...
Bidding At Google Demo
http://services.google.com/tutorial/bpr/bpr.html
Bidding At Yahoo!
https://secure.overture.com/help/olsTutBid.do
And here are my own unbiased <ahem> Help & Strategies. These help pages are not meant to be the "be all and end all" of bidding at Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing.
After all, there are professionals who do nothing but sell their services helping companies build campaigns. MI! has taken you 90% of the way there. And the following help is your 80-20 guide to doing the rest of it yourself...
Google AdWords Help & Strategies
Yahoo! Search Marketing Help & Strategies
If you find that PPC becomes a significant part of your business, you will just naturally progress to devouring all the info on each PPC's site. It's comprehensive. You will seek out expert books. See the SBI! Resources HQ.
For now, though, the above help files will get you started. Supplement, as needed, with each PPC's online help/FAQ.
One final piece of advice before you're off...
ROI, Tracking, and Tracker Library
With PPC advertising, you have to spend money to make money. If you can turn $1 of advertising into $5 of income, that's one heck of a positive ROI.
But how do you know? You have to verify and measure.
If you can verify the click-reporting, if you can measure that you are making money, then you're rock solid. Here's how to do that for every campaign you build.
To verify click-reporting, use Tracker Library. For each campaign, create an appropriate tracking word, "google-anguilla-travel" for example.
Important Tip
The name you give it, "google-anguilla-travel" in this case, should be based upon the same name you gave each campaign at Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing (see "Important Tip" above), preceded by either "google-" or "yahoo-" to identify the engine/campaign combination.
Example... "google-anguilla-travel" is tracking your "anguilla-travel" campaign at Google AdWords. And "yahoo-caribbean-real-estate" tracks your "caribbean-real-estate" campaign at Yahoo! Search Marketing.
If you develop many campaigns, this is an invaluable tool. Sooner or later, everyone does this. But the reorganization, if you have not done it upfront, is a major inconvenience.
This way, everything stays in sync... the name of the campaign at Yahoo! (ex., "caribbean-real-estate") translates into "yahoo-caribbean-real-estate" in the Tracking Library.
Easy!
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Notice what this SBIer is doing (screenshot below). She is sending the Tracking Link to the ultimate destination URL, "http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/caribbean-real-estate.html".
Forget how the Tracking Library works? Here's the quick summary...
Add the "Special Tracking Word" ("yahoo-caribbean-real-estate" in the example above) to your root domain URL ("http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/") and you have a Tracking URL ("http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/yahoo-caribbean-real-estate").
Here's the "general format" of a Tracking Link...
http://www.<YOUR-DOMAIN.COM>/tracking-word
In the above example, "http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/yahoo-caribbean-real-estate " is counted every time someone clicks upon it and then redirects to the ultimate destination, "http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/caribbean-real-estate.html".
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Set up a Tracking Link for each campaign at each engine. In the example above, you send all Ads in the "caribbean-real-estate" campaign at Yahoo! to its specific tracking link. Do NOT enter the ultimate destination at Yahoo!. Enter the Tracking Link.
Each time someone clicks on the Ad at Yahoo!, SBI! counts the click and THEN sends the visitor to the real ultimate destination.
Now here's the key...
Never use any Tracking Link for more than that purpose. Don't use it in an e-zine. Don't use the same Tracking Link for the same campaign at both engines. One Tracking Link per specific-engine-campaign.
Easy. Fool-proof. It's a great way to audit, to be sure you're getting the clicks that are being reported.
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At the other end of the spectrum, you could just trust Google and Yahoo!. Or spot-check one or two campaigns. After all, you know that enough people double-check that it's highly unlikely for their reporting to be wrong.
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How Do You Measure If You Are Getting Your MWR?
Google and Yahoo! also provide tools (called "Conversion Tracking") that allow
you to track clicks right through to conversion. You can even put this code in
Form Build It!'s "Thank You" pages!
Bottom line? From the click all the way through to the delivery of the MWR, you can indeed verify and measure all you need to know, right down to the ROI.
Well, that's it. My job is done. The ball is in your court.
Buy Low, Sell High! Happy Campaign-Building!
Help
and be helped at the Monetize It! forum.
Next: Google Adwords Help & Strategies
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