If you split test your Adwords ads (or MSN/Yahoo ads, etc), you are only getting half the information you need to determine which ad is bringing you the most bang for your buck.

Normally, people choose a winning ad with split tests based upon the highest click thru rate over a given period of time. But the highest clicked ad may not be the ad that drives the most sales.

In fact, it can be very common that an ad with a lower CTR be the ad that is driving the majority of conversions. There are a number of factors that might be at play here, including: Read the rest of this entry

As some PPC marketers are aware, the primary ingredient in finding profitable campaigns is to test, test, test. But testing can be quite expensive and quickly leave you feeling discouraged when your campaigns don’t work as planned. That’s why a smarter way to test is using OPM (other people’s money).

Testing PPC campaigns using Google Adwords may not be the best route to take for a number of reasons. For one, the clicks are much more expensive than that of Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN AdCenter. The competition is also much more fierce, so obtaining premium ad positions can be tricky and/or costly.

Also, Google will only allow its users to have one Adwords account, meaning that redeeming new coupon codes again and again for Adwords isn’t a possibility. (In actuality, multiple Adwords accounts are possible, but not recommended in the case that Google finds out and deletes ALL your accounts, not a good thing. Read the rest of this entry

It is often said that content is king online, and when it comes to getting love from the Big G using Adwords, having quality content on your landing pages is no exception. But often times, the laziness often attributed with being a PPC affiliate gets the best of us, making building quality landing pages a royal pain in the ass.

Basically, the secret to a good quality score with Adwords follows many of the same best practices normally performed when optimizing a website for SEO. Using proper titles, descriptions, h1, h2, h3 tags, having a privacy policy, contact page, about page, and a disclaimer are just a few of the on page factors that can determine how Google evaluates your quality score.

But in terms of relevant content, there are a few shortcuts we can use when adding quality to our landing pages, or at least simulate the “appearance of quality” as far as the Google spiders are concerned. Warning: Now entering Blackhat PPC territory. Read the rest of this entry