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Blitz Ezine # 161 April 29, 2002

Note: This is an archived issue. Some links and/or content may be outdated

The Blitz-Promotions News Letter.
Issue no. 161, April 29, 2002
************ In This Issue **************
Comments
Food for thought
100 Ways to promote -
The Classifieds
Next Issues
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Blitz Comments
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I love getting comments like the one below - it's one of the reasons we're in business.

Back about last November, I bought your book (The Web Page Planner). The person who wanted a simple site developed, the reason I got your books, couldn't sit still long enough to provide me information. So, I developed a site for my business. And it went live today.

I am so proud of myself I can hardly see straight. Much of the confidence I developed to even begin the process is contributed to you and your efforts.

I still need to register with search engines and I know where on your site to look for them. I also will be re-tooling the logo and some other aspects of my site, now that I've bought a graphics program!! I also will be doing some mouse overs, thumb nails, etc., but all in good time. Today is a banner day for me. Between you, and the fine folks at EvrSoft, I have a finished product.

If you do desire, please visit
http://www.ddhconsulting.biz

Thank you so much. Best of everything.

! --- Hoffmann Deborah Dee

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Food for thought
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Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory.
Author: Norman Vincent Peale

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Guest Article
How small advertisers can compete with the big boys through
Google’s Adwords Select Program
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Google’s Adwords select has soon become the focus of many online marketers simply because it’s the best pay-per-click advertising options ever to grace the Internet. Many PPC search engines like Overture had one fundamental problem. Big advertisers with deep pockets were always able to out bid the rest. And the rest did not have any means of competing other than bidding a higher price per key word. Google’s Adwords Select is unlike that.

In order to maintain a high standard and yet enable both the advertisers with deep pockets and those who have a limited budget compete equally, Google’s Adwords select enforces the 0.05% minimum click through rate or CTR cutoff. Simply put, if your ad was shown 1000 times and it was not clicked on 0.05% of the time or 50 times then the ad is disabled. You might think that this is a brutal rule to be enforced. But here’s how it can level the playing field and help small advertisers compete with the giants!

Let’s take a typical advertising scenario. Imagine that you are selling home made muffins. You have a budget of just $50. In order to have your ad displayed, you need to first choose what key words or phrases you want to trigger your ad. In other words, you need to pick a few keywords or phrases that when entered by a person in a typical search, would result in your ad been shown along with the search results. Let’s say you bid on the phrase “home made muffins”. It’s pretty straightforward. And you are willing to pay $0.05 for each click. This is the lowest bid possible in the program.

There are 8 slots that your ad can possibly appear in. Slot 1 is the top most one drawing the most clicks and slot 8 is the bottom most one with the least amount of clicks. People are most likely to click on it the higher positions. This would result in your ad getting a better CTR which means your ad is pulling in more visitors to your site.

Well this works like a dream. But let me burst your bubble! You aren’t the only person who’s chosen “home made muffins” as their key phrase. Lets say that there are 20 other people willing to pay for that key phrase. And let’s say that a very rich lady owns the bakery down the lane. She is willing to bid $1.50 for the same phrase you are bidding for! How can this affect you, you ask?

If someone is willing to pay more than you for a key word or phrase then her ad will be placed higher than yours in the slot positions. This means that your ad is not the top most ad and this in turn will decrease your CTR. Lesser number of people click your ad and your sales drop. You are doomed!

What can you do to stay alive? You might try to increase your bid. But you can’t match $1.50 can you? Not with your budget of just $50. And even if you do manage to bid higher, the baker might increase her bid as well. This leaves you at square one!

What’s happening here is that someone who can afford to pay a high price per key word is forcing you out of the competition? Fortunately for you, Google’s Adwords Select has a system that helps you get back into the game.

If your ad keeps pulling at least 0.05% CTR and the baker’s ad does not, then Google will drop her ad immediately! Yes you heard right. Even if someone is willing to pay a thousand dollars a click but cannot keep their CTR above 0.05% that ad will be dropped! This gives smaller advertisers a chance to compete with bigger ones by way of better ad copy, relevant ads and better organization of key phrases rather than just over bidding your opponent.

I know what you are thinking right now. So how can you make sure that your CTR does not fall below 0.05%? Here are a few simple techniques that you could use. First don’t try to bid for popular keywords. I know this sounds crazy since doesn’t popular mean more people search for them? And if more people search for them, doesn’t it mean that you need to get your ad in front of them?

Theirs is more that one way to skin a cat. And there’s more than one way to maintain a good CTR. Rather than bid for popular keywords or phrases, you can bid for similar keywords that have a similar meaning to the popular phrase. For example, rather than bidding on “home made muffins” you can bid on “freshly baked muffins” or “oven fresh muffins”. Remember, a populate phrase does not necessarily mean that that is the ONLY phrase people use. There are many variation of the same phrase that you can use. And many of them will not cost you as much; yet still give you good impressions. So while you bid 5 cents for the phrase “oven fresh muffins” your previous competitor is paying $1.50 for the phrase “home made muffins” even if you both have the same CTR who do you think ends up with a better deal? You of course!

I hope this little tip helped you increase your CTR and give your competition a fight for their money. May your advertising efforts always be fruitful!

Khemal Dole, Online Marketer,
http://quickpaypro.com/

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Quick Link
PHP Design tips
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Take a PHP online course - 6 weeks for $20.00
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PHP manual
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PHP builder - some nice tutorials
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