The easy days of AdWords are over.
But you would not guess that from reading most of the launches, sales letters and make-money-online pitches on the Internet.
Yes, there are lots of people volunteering to teach you AdWords but most of them are still pretending it’s 2006. If you do what they teach:
-You’ll promote some affiliate program that they are somehow tied into, which means they’ll always make at least some pocket change even if you lose thousands of dollars
-You’ll do things that p*** off Google and might even get you banned
-You throw good money after bad in a frenzy of constant changes and attempted fixes, ultimately throwing up your hands in total exasperation
-They teach you a whole set of bad habits that’s sort of like Internet Bulimia. A vicious, addictive cycle that some never escape from
AdWords started in 2002 and back then, nobody understood it. The way you succeeded back then was, you threw a whole bunch of mud against the wall, AND you split-tested a whole bunch of things (it’s not like it was a total crap shoot, even then!) and some of it stuck.
Back then, you could win just by having a bigger keyword list than the next guy.
Today if you use that strategy, you’ll run out of money in about 3 months and birds will be eating your carcass.
The reality of Google AdWords in 2009 is:
-In most markets worth playing in, you’re up against 30 to 100 bidders. Big money markets usually have 150 or more. And if you’re not on the first page of results – one of the top 8 to 11 – then you might as well forget it.
-New advertisers are distrusted by Google and often pay 2 to 3 times as much for their clicks as established ones – until they earn Google’s trust
-New ads are only shown 10-20% of the time and if Google doesn’t like you almost immediately, your ads vanish and you get slapped with $1.00, $2.00, $5.00 and $10.00 minimum bids
-The new Google AdWords interface feels like a jumbo-jet airline cockpit, and having ONE wrong setting can wreck your entire campaign
It doesn’t have to be that way.
I have helped more people drive their stake deep into the first page of Google and keep 100+ competitors at bay than anyone else on the Internet. So if you’re ready to master Google AdWords I’ll help you do it in 30 days.
It starts June 9.
You also need to know that getting from the bad side of Google to the good side is well worth the effort. Story continues here:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/bootcamp/
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
2 Comments on “The easy days of AdWords are over”
Here’s another one:
You work and work to get high CTR’s, but then realize the high CTR’s you create also create higher conversion costs.
If the plain ad that hasn’t been changed in months pulls 2% CTR and 10% conversion rate, then after doing some split testing and pulling in a 6% CTR, one would think the conversion rate would remain similar and you’d be a hero.
Well, it ain’t that easy.
As I cranked up the CTR’s for a site, the conversion rates began to sink, driving up conversion costs, creating a site owner wondering the heck I’m doing.
The ads did not seem to be changed that much, but judging from the conversions, they appear to be bringing in more tire kickers.
Obviously costs matter, but which one should we really be chasing?
In the end, the only thing that really matters is cost per conversion. CTR is just a step along the way.
Perry