Teddy e-mailed me the other day dying to know what the deal was with this second ad:
Count those characters in the headline. More than 25, which has been the standard headline-character limit on Google since they launched AdWords in 2002. Twenty-nine characters, to be exact. What’s the deal?
I went and searched on this keyword myself. Sure enough, the same ad showed up.
Just shortly afterwards I got a note from my friend David, who had just spoken with his Google rep. Yes sir, she told him, we’re testing this. No fanfare, no public announcements, no media releases. Just quietly testing headlines of more than 25 characters in some corners. We may stick with it; we may not.
Some users have reported ads with 31-character headlines.
So that’s the deal. Have I been able to make this work? If so, how?
I haven’t yet. But here are three possible ways you might test and make this happen:
(1) Working some magic of your own with AdWords Editor and Google’s API,
(2) Using DKI (dynamic keyword insertion) in the headline, with an exact-match verbatim keyword phrase of more than 25 characters.
(3) Using DKI with a broad- or phrase-match term of exactly 25 characters.
Why that last one? Because Google may serve up a plural version of it that’s 1 character beyond the limit. A term like “Mortgage Loan Refinancing,” which is exactly 25 until you make “loan” plural:
I got this idea from one writer who suggested that Google may have already been doing this in rare instances anyway.
I’ve got one test up and running right now and I still haven’t seen it produce an extended headline. But I’m working on it.
Has it worked for you? Post your comments below and tell the rest of us about it.
Professor Pepperhead and the Black Mamba
I stumbled upon another rabid market niche last week. A crazy, masochistic market niche that likes to show off through acts of self-torture, at barbecues and chili feeds and beer parties and on YouTube videos.
It’s the red pepper and fiery hot sauce crowd. The folks who are collectors of hot, pain-inducing foods and condiments. There are thousands of sites just for them, and I just now discovered how deep this rabbit hole actually goes.
You see, on Tuesday night Perry did for our Bobsled Run group what is always the most interesting and powerful coaching call of the series: 6 Concepts that will Rock Your World. At the top of the list of 6 is the 80/20 Principle, the law of nature that says that more than 80% of your results come from less than 20% of your efforts. As a member of the human population you’re always on either the good side or the bad side of that curve. It’s either boosting your efforts, or it’s punishing you.
One corollary of 80/20 for the business owner is that if you can spread your net wide enough and grow a big enough list, you will eventually discover a top 20% of the top 20% of the top 20% of your list that will rabidly, happily consume everything you put out, and beg for more.
So it is with the hot sauce market. There’s this tiny edge of the far right end of the curve that consists of rabid consumers – literally “consumers,” probably more men than women – of the hottest spices and sauces known to humankind. They collect them and show them off to friends and use them on their foods as a hobby.
Some fascinating factoids about “hot” food you’ll be interested in knowing:
(1) The hottest pepper grown on earth is called the Naga Jolokia, indigenous to India. Close behind it is the 
Mexican Habanero pepper. The hottest natural sauces are made from these peppers. You can see videos online of stupid teenage boys eating raw Naga Jolokia peppers, and paying the consequences.
(2) The stuff that makes hot sauce “hot” is a chemical called Capsaicin.
(3) You can buy pure capsaicin extract online, sold in tiny eyedroppers. One single drop of the stuff would render a bowl of Texas chili too scorching hot for most novices to handle. Pure capsaicin can sell for anywhere between $40-$100 a bottle.
(4) There’s a semi-scientific unit of hotness: The Scoville. It measures the number of times you have to dilute the substance in order not to taste it anymore. Tabasco clocks in around 1,000-2,000 Scovilles. Pure capsaicin sits at somewhere around 16,000,000.
(5) Just ate something too hot? Drink milk. The proteins in it act as a detergent that helps separate the chemical from your tongue or mouth. (Sorry, water won’t do the trick.) One reason why in India they serve yogurt with meals.
I was nudged indirectly into this fiery online world by Perry and his wife, who for Christmas gave me three big fat bottles of OriginalJuan.com’s “Pain is Good” hot salsa. (Tops out around 3,500-4,000 Scovilles.) Delicious stuff. Bless their hearts.
He knew I had a special place in my heart for spicy foods, as I once lived in southwestern China for four years, just a couple of hours from Sichuan Province, home to the hottest foods on the planet.
And as it occurred to me that I could probably find even hotter sauces, I stumbled upon this fascinating little micro-corner of the online world last week. I finally broke down last week and ordered a bottle of Mad Dog 357 (350,000 Scovilles) and a little tiny bottle of Black Mamba (2,200,000 Scovilles) from Professor Pepperhead (www.TasteWhatsHot.com).
My Chinese friends from the local university confirmed for me that the latter is in fact the hottest anything they’ve ever tasted. So I felt good.
And Professor Pepperhead sent me an e-mail immediately after my purchase. A friendly message that was kind and engaging. He thanked me for buying, and reminded me that within 48 hours if I ordered again he would send me a free bottle of one of his specialty sauces. Bless his heart.
It reminds me of the perennial power of a good e-mail strategy, reaching out to the rabid buyer immediately after he spends his money with you, offering him more for his dollar. I passed on the offer, though I know that there’s a good percentage in this market who will always take it. The Professor can keep selling to those guys over and over again.
And when I’m done with my bottle of Black Mamba, I’m going back for more. Maybe one of those cute little 16-meg eyedroppers.
Analytics: Watch Out for iPhones
The world is redesigning itself for the iPhone. I’ve just upgraded to my second. Decided I wanted the extra 8GB and the 3G speed a bit too much. Now I do my Facebook stuff from the iPhone-only Facebook app that you can download for free through iTunes.
Every month that goes by more of your visitors are finding you on their mobile device. The iPhone especially.
I’ve already recommended to you that you test a mobile-dedicated ad group in your Google account. Create a new campaign and go into the campaign settings, and under “Device Platform” turn *off* “desktop and laptop computers.”
You can aim for either the content network or Google search. (Or both.) But be aware that on iPhone browsers you only see 2 AdWords ads per results page.
Are you wondering whether this is even relevant yet? Not a problem. You can set your Analytics account to tell you whether your keywords and pages are getting traffic from iPhones at all:
Just log into Analytics, and on the dashboard at the far right click on the dropdown next to “Advanced Segments,” and a menu will come up to let you see visits from iPhone users.
Your ability to capture, befriend and understand iPhone and mobile users over the next 2-5 years may make or break your entire business. Yes, it’s that big of a trend.
Sputnik Mania
History is fascinating because individuals are fascinating. One odd little beachball-sized radio transmitter (“spherical but quick pointy in parts!”) launched into space in October of 1957 set the world on its ear.
Sputnik. Was it the greatest single scientific milestone of the 20th century? It may have been. Planned in 
complete and utter secrecy, once it was announced that it was in orbit, planet earth was never the same. Americans could go out into their backyard and see it fly by, or tune in to its eerie beep-beep-beep transmissions over their ham radios.
An American frenzy of fascination and nuclear sci-fi terror – an absolute and utter frenzy – ensued. My, what a little fear can do. The Sputnik story is a fascinating lesson in pop culture, politics, the power of new technology and the power of ideas rippling through populations, rippling through markets.
Check it out: A harrowing and entertaining 90-minute documentary from the History Channel, which you can get now on DVD:
Gonna build me a rocket ship,
Bryan Todd
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18 Comments on “Black Mamba & Professor Pepperhead Meet AdWords, iPhones & Sputnik Mania”
He keeps repeating it every where…I think I heard it first on the on the Guerrilla Marketing CD. One approach could be a sales letter offering the guide (of x value) along with a minimum order of rip cards. Another send the guide with a coupon. Another send a sales letter just for the guide selling it a x value and when they buy include a coupon in the guide for the rip cards. You never know which will work. Test, test, test.
Only caveat being that the guide should deliver and not be some info marketing junk. And there are tons of time tested ideas that Perry tosses out for free so you should have plenty of fodder to prepare your report.
Actually I have not seen / read that White Paper From Perry, but I would be very interested in it. Is it posted on his website somewhere? I will for sure go look for it, but if you / anyone know where it is, please send me the link….thanks in advance.
I like your idea of how to Package it…I am already pricing myself as well as at least “trying to” position myself differently from a regular business card…However, I have not created a “14 page guide” of how to gain customers through referrals …that is a good idea and I will figure out how I best can do this.
Do you suggest I ONLY make this guide available if they BUY the product or make it available anyhow? And if you have any creative ideas of what should / must be inside there I am all open / ears to hear about that as well…Or maybe I should ask, are there others in another industry that I can Get some ideas / lessons from that any of you out there can recommend I learn from?
Thanks again Abey for the feedback.
Again, if anyone would like to chime in I am very interested in hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Alf
Inventor
http://www.RipCard.com/get-more-referrals.php
If you’ve listened to/read much of Perry’s stuff you would have come across the need to transition from being an “uninvited pest to a welcome guest”. What Perry’s saying is that the business card category is at the bottom of the business food chain and full of “pests”. Wafer thin margins, “come back tomorrow” customers, and everything precariously balanced on your ability to squeeze the last bit of saving out of everything. In contrast – the referral and lead gen category sits right up there in the stratosphere. Tell me who isn’t interested in a novel way to acquire new customers. I am quite certain Perry’s advice would be to repackage it @ 3x the price and sell it as a referral tool with a 14 page guide on how to gain customers through referrals. Or mail out the guide with a coupon for buying a bunch of Ripcards.
Thanks for the comments, both Abey and Perry.
I am not 100% sure I understand the reply back from you Perry…
Or maybe I should explain myself / the Benefit of the RipCard a little better?
The RipCar’s biggest Benefit is that it enables a person in business to more easily Ask for And Get more referrals by tearing the Card in half, hence the word, Rip Card and then also being able to Track where the referrals are coming from – since each half of the RipCard is uniquely numbered …and the half that you keep (the owner of the RipCard) is where you Jot down contact information of the person you just gave the other half to so that you know later on when it comes back to you whom referred you that new Client.
Anyway….what I am trying to get to here is how do I best drill in to the Business Card Category (or do I at all) to Nichiefy myself to get in front of potential customers that do not even know that this product exists…OR is there a better way to do it like Abey is suggesting to …where the people go that are looking for referrals and Lead Generation…..OR do I approach it totally differently?
This is a really important question for me as it all obviously relates to the Keywords and USP and positioning I take when I “attack” the market.
Feedback is very welcomed.
Sincerely,
Alf
Inventor
http://www.RipCard.com
Alf,
Selling business cards is PURE commodity. By itself, one of the worst businesses you could be in.
Generating leads and referrals: If you can do it and they’re quality leads, that is NEVER a commodity. There is always a determine-able value for that and it’s high.
Perry
IMO you need to reach out to all those people worrying about referrals and lead gen more than those looking for a biz card.
I have always been dying to figure out how to drill deep in to a Niche where there seems to be Oh…SO Darn Many competitors already.
I am sure many of you other Marketers that is studying / learning from Perry have had the same thought? right?
Well, I am sure many of you can relate to what I am about to say next then?
I am in the Nich of Business Cards….However, my Niche can ….I think…quite easily be Nichified to the Side of that…since I have a product that Practically is a Business Card, however, Technically and Reslutswise (sorry for the bad English here) it is NOT a business card, but a Business Tool to Get a TON more referrals when you hand it (the business card) out. In case you are curious to know what it is it is called The RipCard ( http://www.RipCard.com ). PS…there is a short video of 4 minutes on the first landing page if you are really curious as to how it works…
What I am wondering….how to I Reach All the people that Would Want a Business Card, but YET do not realize they could have a MUCH more Useful / Powerful Tool in their hand had they even KNOWN about the RipCard?
….I am asking that question as Most of the people that could potentially have been my Clients…. don’t even get to me since the Big Guys / The Established guys are on the Top of the Google ads…and it is costly to stay on the top.
Can anyone give me any suggestions?
I dated a Hindu that would agree with Abey on the “hottest food on the planet” title belonging to India.
She probably ended up marrying a Scoville. :)
I couldn’t resist. Took a bite of the jolokia, lasted all of 3 seconds, had to chase it down with a ton of curd. It seems jolokia was a minor ingredient in the dish. Eating the jolokia raw is definitely an exercise in masochism!
The spookiness continues: Chillies so far have just been either green or red and the preferred quantity “lots”. Since your post Bryan I’ve been wonderin about this hottest-pepper-in-the-world and guess what? A week ago a friend from Manipur gave us a packet of chillies and said that its “very hot” and they call it “king chilly” and is also known as Oo-Morok which turns out to be … Naga Jolokia!! I didn’t make the connection till today when she sent over some beans mixed with the Jolokia powder. It don’t seem all that bad. I’ve had hotter. Or it could be that dried jolokias lose some of their potency.
David, Vindaloo is still somewhat tame. Try “authentic chettinad” if you can find it.
And with that folks I give up on obsessing about chillies and retire to just requesting for “lots” in my food. :)
Vindaloo? Hoo boy.
As Adrian said in ‘Good Morning Vietnam’:
“It’s hot! It’s damn hot!”
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
how does “vindaloo” stack up in the hotness scale? It’s my favourite!
David
Bryan,
Thanks for finding some info on this for me so quickly and for writing this post to expand on it.
I’ve been testing it in several campaigns trying to duplicate it as well. I think #2 is the way to get it from my discussions with others who have contacts deep inside google.
And I totally agree with the iPhone thing. The mobile market is a H U G E opportunity especially for local businesses. I can’t wait!
Teddy
Hi guys,
On new google features: Google is remembering what you searched on in previous searches. The other day I searched for “temporary fencing”, and then something else. On my 2nd search I got more ads for “temporary fencing”. Maybe that’s not new, but I’ve never seen it before.
On iPhones: I’ve used one for about a year, and the downside of any ad I click on is that I’m disinclined to give my info. It takes too long to fill out a form – even to just type my email.
And sure as hell I won’t give my phone number away.
So the challenge is, by what mechanism do you actually get the conversion?
Hey Abey,
I was just waiting for you to speak up! If Andhra “hot” beats Sichuan “hot” then I’m happy to transfer the title.
I’ll check out those curry recipes. In the meantime, thanks for the StatCounter link. It’s refreshing to see Firefox slowly whittling away at IE. And watching mobile slowly take over.
Our engineer- and tech-based list tilts heavily toward Firefox. Every business’s list has their own quirks, their own techno-demographics, so it’s always vital to know them in order to capitalize on them.
Bryan
I let it pass the first time you said it. But not anymore!
You keep givin the hottest-food-on-the-planet title to Sichuan. As a chilly lovin Indian am offended (thot we had that one in the bag!). Why don’t you belay handing out the title till you check out Andhra cooking or the Kerala fish curry :)
Also check out http://gs.statcounter.com gives you some high level stats on browser/OS (including mobile) usage around the world. Useful especially when you want to plan your mobile content strategy and combine it with geo targeting.
I had one client call me about seeing a long AdWords title. I went and checked and found only regulation size titles.
There have been days when I would have killed for an extra character or two to use in a title. The current limit is especially frustrating when working with long-tail keywords.
John
Regarding Google testing the longer title line length, I’m not sure the theory on #3 holds water.
The thing is, even if your phrase- or broad-match keyword with 25 characters gets matched with a plural variation of 26 characters, DKI will insert your keyword, not the raw query.