Many bloggers are adding an additional stream of traffic to their websites!

Pay Per Click Advertising! [PPC]

The big advantage of PPC traffic is that you can buy traffic that is targeted and likely to convert.

While this guide is aimed at Google AdWords beginners, we are including additional step by step links for experienced and inexperienced PPC advertisers at the end of this post.

Lets get started…

Here is an example of ads that display in the search results for “outdoor furniture”:

Anyone looking for outdoor furniture would be attracted to any one of these ads and click through to find out more. Since the ads are relevant to the search query, those clicks are likely to result in a conversion.

It is claimed that businesses generate an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on AdWords.

But while advertising on this platform can be incredibly lucrative, it can also be overwhelming for beginners given its learning curve.

Simply diving in without putting any thought towards your account structure or keywords is a guaranteed way to burn through your budget with little to show for.

Sadly, this is what we see happen a lot.

AdWords For Beginners – Account Structure

Account structure cannot be emphasized enough. When you have multiple campaigns and ad groups running, you need a system in place to keep your efforts organized.

Here is what a typical Google AdWords account structure looks like:

Depending on your business model, you might create campaigns based on:

• Products or services you offer
• Geographical locations
• Brand vs generic names
• Different budgets

Another reason why a well organized account structure is important comes down to performance. By creating a separate campaign with ad groups that contain tightly related keywords, you are able to display more relevant ads to your target market. This in turn leads to higher click through rates and more conversions.

A common mistake that new advertisers make is having a single ad group. Setting up an account like this is problematic for obvious reasons as you would have to use a more generic ad.

Imagine if you were searching for “men’s leather shoes” and you see these two ads in the search results.

OR

Which one would you be more likely to click on?

Probably the first one.

The headline on the first ad includes the exact query while the second ad is simply too generic.

A well organized account structure lets you better manage your campaigns and create more targeted ads for each.

AdWords For Beginners – Keyword Research

Keyword research has a large impact on the success of your campaigns.

The keywords you bid on trigger your ads whenever someone searches for those phrases. So you would want to target keywords that are related to your products or services. The challenge then is identifying those keywords that will drive traffic that converts.

Here are some tips to help you with the keyword research process:

Your website

Start with your website first to identify the main categories to group your keywords around. Here is an example from a site that sells outdoor furniture.

The keywords in red are a great starting point to create ad groups around. Organizing by theme helps to keep your campaigns organized and relevant.

From Google

Another way to find potentially lucrative keywords is directly from Google. When typing in a search query, Google automatically displays suggested keywords. Here is an example of what this looks like:

Google also displays related keyword results at the bottom of the page:

Jot down any keywords that are related to your products or services.

Keyword tools

Using tools is another way to find related keywords that you may not have even thought of. Keyword Planner is included within AdWords which provides traffic and competition estimates:

Google makes it easy to add keywords directly into your campaigns.

KeywordTool.io is another excellent tool to find keywords to target. It even lets you easily search other search engines including YouTube, Bing, and even Amazon.

Just with these tips, you should have a list of keywords to target for your campaigns. But you don’t want to simply add them all into your ad groups either. Here are tips to refining your initial keyword list:

• Start small: Aim for quality rather than quantity. Only choose those keywords that are closely related to what your business offers. You can always add more keywords later on as you discover them.
• Don’t go too broad: A common mistake is to target keywords that are too broad. A keyword such as “furniture” likely generates a ton of traffic. But the keyword is too broad and not very targeted. You have no idea what the intent is behind that search.
• Don’t go too narrow: Similarly, you don’t want to target keywords that are too narrow either as they likely don’t generate much traffic. Aim for keywords that are at least a few keywords in length with decent search volume.

Keyword research is an ongoing process.

Some keywords will result in sales to your business while others will barely generate any results. You might also discover lucrative keywords in your own analytics data which you can add to a new campaign.

AdWords For Beginners – Landing Page

You have an organized account structure based around your products.

You have a list of potential keywords to your campaign.

And you have compelling ads written for each ad group.

So now it’s time to start advertising right?

Not quite.

Just getting a visitor to see and click your ad is not enough. You need to convince them that your products or services are the solution to what they are looking for. The landing page is perhaps the most important then as this is where the conversion takes place.

If someone is searching for outdoor lounge chairs but lands on a page about outdoor sofas, they are likely to hit the back button. But if they land on a page that closely matches their search query and also has a compelling offer, they are more likely to convert.

Here is an example of a rather generic landing page from Citibank:

The problem with the page is the lack of a clear offer and benefits. Another problem is the amount of information that visitors are required to enter in: [OK, to be fair, they are a Bank and regulations will apply to them that does not apply to most businesses]

=> Lead Generation Tip

If you are a business that requires a lot of background information (such as a financial institution) it will often be better to make that process – two step.

For example, in step one, collect a name and email address (in return for example a free report) and then in your second step, follow up with a series of emails to persuade the ‘lead’ to take further action.

You are likely to generate many more leads that way – but of course what really matters is how many of these leads end up taking the further action.

For this reason, it is essential to always be testing your approach and trying to beat your CONTROL. It is not a given that a two step approach is best, but it most likely will be!

Here is an example of a simple, yet effective landing page from Shopify:

This landing page has a clear headline and offers several benefits for those looking to start their own online store. It is also incredibly easy to get started with a free trial.

Here are some tips to creating effective landing pages for your ad groups:

• Keep clutter to a minimum: A cluttered design with too many elements on the page makes it difficult for visitors to make sense of anything. Keep the design simple and consider removing any distracting aspects such as navigation menus or sidebar widgets.
• Write clear copy: Copy is what ultimately sells your products or services. Your landing page has a greater chance of success if the headline is clearly written and in a way that offers a clear benefit to your target audience. A headline such as “Best Accounting Software” is simply too generic and not likely to convert well.
• Offer benefits: Turn technical features of your products into benefits that visitors can relate to. Use bullet points to make your message easy to read.
• Ask for minimal information: Asking for too much information right away can turn visitors away. Keep any forms on your landing page to a minimum and only ask for enough information to get started with an account such as a full name and email address.

Instead of simply directing visitors to your homepage, create targeted landing pages for each ad group. It requires more effort but taking this approach makes your campaigns more relevant.

Opening your first Google Adwords Account

Depending on where you live, Google often offers incentives for first time users.

Below is one such offer available in the UK.

There are also AdWords Specialists available to help with getting your first Adwords campaign of the ground.

That said, we would however suggest that for most entrepreneurs this is something you will eventually wish to outsource to a PPC Agency,  especially if you are spending a lot of money.

Conclusion

Getting started with AdWords can be overwhelming, especially for new advertisers as there is a slight learning curve. When creating an account, put some thought into the account structure as having a system in place will help keep your efforts organized.

Identifying keywords to target and building out targeted landing pages are also important areas to prioritize when developing a Google AdWords strategy. Doing that now, will save a lot of wasted money later.

Want Information On Google Adwords?

This article is meant to serve as a guide of sorts on how to prioritize for best results when you’re just getting started with google adwords. For a more detailed explanation on how to maximize your return on ad spend from Google Adwords, take a look at this Google Adwords mastery guide which covers the basics of setting up campaigns, choosing a strategy and getting profitable.

Author Bio: Emily Reiffer is content marketer and Manager at Digital Monopoly – parent company of Paid traffic.

The post Google AdWords For Beginners: What to Prioritize When Starting Out appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

It could be anywhere from 20% to 400% depending on what we’re advertising.

Needless to say, it’s worth sharing with you guys.

We’ve learned everything we know on this subject from Brian and Scott Moran at Get10kFans and their Facebook Ad Academy course.

If you haven’t already, I would suggest reading my ‘Top 10 Facebook Advertising Mistakes To Avoid‘, as it will start you on the path to making money more before you’ve even started.

The Basic Premise

Lets say you’re selling a $100 (for the sake of round numbers) digital product online. Every sale makes you $100 clear profit.

So long as you spend less than $100 on advertising that product (and make a sale), you’re making a positive return on investment.

Just how much that return on investment is all comes down to how you market the product.

So how do you advertise the product?

Advertising Option 1

We’re first going to look at a popular technique of collecting emails first, and then redirecting people to sales pages, and chasing them up with emails.

Step 1 – Collect The Email

You set up a Facebook ad campaign to advertise a free ebook / report / course, in return for someone’s email address. This can be done with a page template in OptimisePress, and a whole host of other software.

When they enter their email address, they get added to your list, and the first followup email they receive contains the free offer.

Step 2 – Direct Them to a Sales Page

You have their attention; don’t waste it.

You can automatically redirect your leads when you collect their emails. Either when they enter their details, or confirm their email address. This is when you want to send them to a sales page.

I send people to my sales page, only I change the video to include a small introduction so that I can connect with people, rather than just saying ‘Here, buy my stuff before you’ve even received the free stuff I promised you.’

This is called a thank you video, and my introduction goes a little something like this:

“Hey, thanks for signing up for your free ebook, it’s on its way to your email inbox, but real quick, while I’ve got you here…”

And then I lead into a sales pitch.

That’s just one way of doing things though.

You could send people to a one-time-offer page, where they can a limited discount on a product if they purchase within the next hour.

Or you could send people to an affiliate page.

Or you could send them to a page with a bunch of discount codes for multiple affiliate products.

I’ve tried all three, and I prefer the first method as I can easily do the other methods later on through email too.

The possibilities are endless, and you should test for yourself, but there’s one thing that they all have in common: each page is monetized.

This means that the traffic you’ve paid money for is then being sent to pages which will make you money.

Step 3 – Add Them to an Auto-responder

You’re only going to make an initial return on investment from a handful of people in step 2, so it’s important that you keep in contact with these leads, providing them with a mixture of content and sales.

Because there’s still loads of money in that list.

Auto-responders are a different subject altogether though.

The Cost

Lets say for example that it costs you 20¢ a click to send someone to your squeeze page from Facebook.

And that your conversion rate on the squeeze page is 40%.

That means that for every dollar you spend, you will get two leads.

50¢ a lead, if you will.

Now, looking back at our $100 product, we know that for $100 we can get 200 people to our sales page, while collecting 200 emails at the same time.

All you need to do is ensure that your page converts, your offer is great, and you’re targeting the right people on Facebook.

If you can get everything right, and one in every 100 people purchases your product, you will double your money.

It’s that simple.

It’s not always that easy, but it is that simple. The most important factors here is making sure you have an offer which converts, and you’re targeting the right people.

If you can get that right, you’ll be laughing.

Of course, you can completely skip step 1 and 3, and send people directly to your sales page, but I find it’s best to build a list at the same time.

After all, the money is in the list.

But lets look at that option now.

Advertising Option 2

You can simply send people directly to your offer.

Why would you want to do this?

Well, for one, if you’re paying 20¢ a click still, then you can send 2.5 times as many people to your page before breaking even. Rather than sending 200 people, you could send 500, which is quite an appealing idea.

But this is not an option I recommend, and I’ll show you why now.

3 Reasons Why I Rarely Choose Option 2

First, it’s unlikely that you will still only be paying 20¢ a click.

Your cost per click depends on your click through rate (how many times your ad is shown before it’s clicked on), and people are much more likely to click on an ad for a free offer, than a paid one.

This means that your CPC goes up. In my experience, it’s usually by around 50%.

Second, if people choose not to buy your product, then you’ve kissed that advertising money goodbye. At least if you send people to a squeeze page first, you can collect their email.

Third, people like to know who you are before they buy something. Especially if it’s an info product, and not software.

They want to see that you can provide quality content to them, before they start paying for it. Which you can do in the form of a free report or ebook.

You have to make that human connection.

As I sell info products, I rarely choose option 2, but there are times when you might want to.

When To Choose Option 2

If you’re targeting your fans with information on a sale you’re having, then option 2 is a great idea. They already know who you are, and they’re much more likely to buy from you then.

It’s also a good choice if you’re marketing an affiliate product. I’ve seen lots of people advertising OptimisePress 2.0 in the past few weeks, because it’s killer software which people actually want to buy. All you have to do is send people to the page, and the software’s found, James Dyson, does all of the hard work.

Another good idea is if you’re advertising a customer testimonial.

Brian Moran, the founder of Get10000fans runs a sponsored story every day, detailing a customer’s testimonial for his Timeline Blueprint course. The reason that ad runs every day, is because it converts like mad. It leads people direct to his sales page, but the conversions on the ad are great.

Bonus Tip: Be Careful About Tracking Conversions with Facebook

I’m not saying you shouldn’t track conversions using Facebook’s methods, as it does work; you just need to be careful.

If you’re running a campaign and you have it optimised for CPC, and then you go in and edit the campaign to track conversions, Facebook will automatically change the ad from CPC to ‘Optimised for Conversions’.

This essentially means that you’re going to start paying a lot more for those clicks.

That’s at least what happened to me.

Rather than paying 20¢ per click, I ended up paying around $2.50, with terrible results. It spent my whole daily budget in just a couple of hours.

I don’t know if Facebook is trying to be sneaky with this one, but watch out for that.

So there you have it, there’s an introduction to Facebook advertising.

Read more: ‘Drive Traffic With Google Adwords’

The post How I Doubled My Money With Facebook Ads appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Free traffic sucks.

This is something I learned the hard way.

I have over 17,000 fans, and not only is the traffic minimal, but when I get it, the quality sucks.

And I can prove it.

Last week I was running a Facebook ad campaign. Nothing major, just a couple hundred bucks on a free ebook squeeze page.

And I’ve just started using OptimizePress 2.0, so I was split testing three different page templates at the same time.

Below is a screenshot of the conversion rate of this split test, over the top of the when I was spending money on Facebook ads.

It’s pretty clear from that image that when I paid for high quality, targeted traffic from Facebook, the conversion rates on my squeeze pages went up.

Way up.

We’re talking the difference between 10-20% and 40-50% conversion rate.

If you have something to sell, then you need to send quality traffic to it if you ever want to make any money from it.

So long as you’re seeing a positive return on investment from your ad spend, you can ramp up your ad spending, and watch your profit increase.

Today I’m going to help you get a positive return on investment by pointing out the top 9 mistakes that Facebook advertisers make.

Avoid these and you will be well on your way to turning a profit with Facebook advertising.

#9 Targeting Your Fans

Your fans already know you, they know what you have to offer; you don’t need to advertise to them.

They’re your fans, so if you want to reach them, just create a status update.

Offer them something good for free to that it gets shared and liked and commented on, and then when you’ve got their attention with that, you can then sell to them.

The only time I ever advertise to my fans is when I’m having a sale on a product, and that’s usually in the form of a promoted post.

#8 Not Setting Clear Goals

I can’t believe how often I see this.

Ask yourself a very simple question when you set up your Facebook ad. “What do I want to achieve with this ad?”.

More sales?

More opt-ins?

More free sign ups?

Whatever you’re advertising has to have a goal which is ultimately going to make you money. Don’t bother with page views if they’re not going to make you any money.

#7 Choosing The Wrong Landing Page

Don’t advertise your Facebook page, or blog post.

This is a just a great way to burn through piles of money.

Fans look great, they’re social proof, and they make you feel good, but they don’t do a whole lot to your bottom line.

And that’s what it’s all about – making more money.

You need to choose a landing page that will make you money somewhere down the line.

Advertise your products, or a squeeze page. This way you will either make a sale, or gain a new lead, which you can sell to in the future.

This ties in nicely with setting the right goals.

#6 Broad Targeting

Facebook allows you to be really specific about who you target, so pay careful attention to this.

You can target people based on age, location, gender, sexual preference, language, education, interests and more.

The most important of those is interests.

I’m going to use myself as an example here.

My target market is beginner photographers, but it would be a big mistake to go into Facebook and choose people whose interests are ‘photography’.

Why?

Well, because my mum likes photography, but has no interest in learning about it.

You need to be much more specific than that.

What I do is search for entry-level camera models that I know amateur photographers use. Canon EOS 550D, Nikon D3200, etc.

If someone has listed these as one of their interests, then they’re likely to be amateur photographers.

Think carefully about who the people your targeting are, and what their interests may be.

#5 Weak Ad Images

I’m a photographer by trade, so I’m pretty good when it comes to creating images that get attention.

When it comes to images, we are drawn to those with the strongest ‘visual weight’, as it’s known in composition.

We’re naturally drawn to certain elements in a frame, and I’m going to list the top three now, so that you can use them to get your ad clicked on.

First and foremost is human eyes. Whenever we talk to someone, or look at someone (for the most part), we look into their eyes. If you look at a photo of a person, whether you realise it or not, this is where your eyes are drawn.

And remember, you’re competing for attention on the sidebar, against 4-5 different ads. Yours need to stand out the most, so adding a human element to your sidebar is a good idea.

The ad below has been in my sidebar for months. It wouldn’t be if it wasn’t still converting.

The next most powerful visual weight is size/color/contrast. Something that stands out in the frame.

This is a little harder with the limited space you have on Facebook, as you can’t really create anything too big.

If it was just a big orange box (not sure if that would be approved), it would certainly stand out, but it doesn’t really advertise what you’re selling, so bare that in mind.

The third most powerful visual weight is writing. Specifically the ABC alphabet. We’re naturally interested by writing, and want to read it, so we’re drawn there quite easily.

So there’s a brief introduction to visual weight, for more information on how to create ads that get clicked on, keep reading.

#4 No Clear CTA

I see this time and time again, and I’m going to show you a couple examples.

Which text do you think drives more people to click on the ad, this one:

Or this one:

The second one, clearly.

It doesn’t just say what it does, it commands you to click on it with ‘Click here’.

#3 CPM Rather Than CPC

CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions (M being the roman numeral for 1,000). CPC stands for cost per click.

You want to use CPC bidding, because then you can control the price of your bid. It will save you money in the long run as you will never go over that price.

You see, as your ad starts to get older, and people have seen it a few times, they’re less likely to click on it. They become blind to your ad. But this doesn’t mean Facebook will stop showing it, which ultimately results in you getting less clicks for your 1,000 impressions.

#2 Using The Suggested Bid

This scared me when I first started using Facebook Advertising.

I entered in exactly who I wanted to target, and Facebook told me that my suggested bid was 67¢. When I ran the campaign, I was only paying 13¢ a click.

Don’t be put off by Facebook’s suggested bid, which tends to always be grossly exaggerated.

#1 Not Tracking

How are you supposed to know if your marketing efforts are working if you’re not tracking them?

There’s countless tools on the market for tracking, including Google Analytics, which is completely free. You’d be a fool not to track everything you do.

In internet marketing, there’s two things you should be doing. Always be tracking, and always be testing. That way you will get the best possible results, and know how you should move on.

If something’s not working for you, it’s important to know about it.

Read more: ‘How I Doubled My Money With Facebook Ads’

The post Top 10 Facebook Advertising Mistakes To Avoid appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

I got started in August 2009 when I created Train Baseball. I played college baseball and wanted to use my success in college to help young players, parents, and coaches. After using Facebook to get Train Baseball off the ground, I decided to start Get 10,000 Fans.

Now, both of those sites are booming, and earning far more than I make in my full-time job. Yes, I should have quit a long time ago, but I wanted to give it a year before I left my job, especially after getting married in 2010, I have a wife to take care of.

I anticipate leaving my job in 2011 and working on my businesses full-time.

Currently, I’m working about 20 hours per week on both businesses, combined.

After starting Get 10,000 Fans, it took me only 2 months to replace my income from my full-time job. In just 8 months, I’ve been able to reach over 30,000 people using Facebook alone.

Useful Info Box:

Book Your Currently Reading?

Kickass Copywriting Secrets – John Carlton

Best Business Purchase?

MacBook Pro + iPhone. Facebook Ads. Hiring my brother full-time as soon as he graduated college.

Favourite Business Resource?

OptimizePress because it saves me so much time and money and makes me look like an awesome designer.

Biggest Inspiration?

My dad is really who got me started. He engrained in me the desire to never work for anyone except myself, and I can confidently say, at 24 years old, I will never again take orders from someone else.

Favourite Business Website?

AllFacebook.com

1. What gave you the idea for your business and what motivated you to apply yourself and get it done.

When facebook started really working for Train Baseball, I was showing a mentor of mine everything I was doing and he encouraged me to start a new website based on what I learned. I saw an opening in the market and knew Facebook was a hot topic. The instant results are what kept me working hard at it.

2. Comparing your business from back then to now, what has been the main thing that allowed you to expand your business?

Investing my profits back into my business. I used the income I generated to purchase more advertising, buy more traffic, buy the tools I needed to save more time, hired freelancers to get things done faster, and purchased licenses of products I could sell to generate more customers.

3. Whats the most profitable aspect of your online business, why do you think this is and how can others apply this to what they are doing.

Using Facebook Ads. The amount of leads and new customers that FB Ads brings in keeps my entire business running without me.

4. How Do You Work:

I get home from work around 3pm, hang out with my wife, then check email before dinner and get a few things done. Then I’ll work from 6:00-8:00pm on creating products, networking, etc. I focus only on the things that will bring in money that day or the next so I don’t get distracted or off track.

5. When did you realize you were successful/made it.

After my first product launch in February 2011. I was sitting at work running the launch and before I left for the day, I had made more than my yearly salary. The feeling was something I can barely describe. I knew I had a lot of work to do, but knowing that I had done the work myself and seeing paid off was an awesome feeling.

6. Looking back, what could you of done sooner to of got to that point quicker.

Taken the first action. I had the idea months before I started.

Brian with friends in Spain: Myself, James Dyson, Brian Moran, Aimee Moran & Clement Yeung

7. What should other Internet entrepreneurs reading this be focusing on to expand their own Internet business.

Learn as fast as you can. Study everything. Find someone doing what you want to do, and introduce yourself. Ask them questions. Learn from them. If they are where you want to be, they can help you get there.

8. What do you consider the main differences between those people who have been successful in your industry and those who have failed?

The successful ones don’t get distracted and they know what works They don’t chase after endless opportunities looking for the next dollar. They create valueable products and unrefusable offers.

Want to find out more about how Brian makes money from Facebook? Visit his Fan Page Now!

The post Brian Moran – Why Get 10k Fans Is Successful appeared first on How To Make Money Online.