Master Google AdWords and AdSense

These days, it comes as no surprise that nearly every online company has attempted to do keyword marketing or "pay-per-click" campaign on either Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing. The alarming statistic is how many small business owners have stopped their "pay-per-click" or cut way back because they are unable to make enough sales to cover the ever rising costs per keyword.

Looking at Google's stock price, it's obvious that keyword marketing can and does payoff for a large number of companies. The problem is most don't have the knowledge or expertise to make keyword marketing convert at a rate that allows them to continue using the service, much less expanding on it. So they end up throwing a bunch of money to be #1 for a week or a month for an ultra competitive keyword only to end up spending a ton of money and not having many customers to show for it.

Everyday I talk to new and prospective customers who are looking for professional help doing a keyword campaign that have all made the same 4 mistakes . If you avoid these 4 simple mistakes, you will be on your way to mastering Google Adwords and AdSense.

First - Stop Bidding on the Wrong Keywords

Most people I talk to ended up bidding on keywords that aren't relevant to their site. As a surfer, there is nothing more annoying than doing a search, clicking on a link, and not finding what you're looking for. If you have an online store that only sells "oak furniture", don't waste your money and surfers time bidding on "pine furniture" and "mahogany furniture" just because they are similar and the Google keyword wizard recommends them to you. Focus on what you have and get creative. Try buying "oak chair" and "oak table" and other relevant keywords that describe what you sell.

Second - Don't be the Number One Keyword Listing

So many keyword campaigns I get handed have the site owner paying out the nose to be #1 for a high quality keyword. I'm not sure if it's just in our nature to be at the top or what, but in "pay-per-click" you should ideally be around the 3rd postion. I consider the top spot to be the "Kill Zone" because all the lookee-loo's will absolutely kill your conversion rate. So instead of paying $1.25 or $4.00 to be in the top spot, just throttle back and pay about half of what the top spot person is paying to have everyone look at their site but not not buy anything. If you move back, but still stay on the 1st page you will lower your "per-click" cost which will give you more margin. With the money you save, use it to bid on other keyword phrases to make up for volume loss.

Third - Add the Keyword Tracking Code

Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing provide a snippet of code that you need to put on your site. Why? It will tell you exactly what you are spending on each keyword and when you get a sale from that keyword. It is flat out a must have if you're going to be spending any kind of money on paid search.

Let me show you an example: You spend $1,000 in the month of July on 64 different keywords on Google at an average of $0.25 per keyword that nets you 4,000 unique visitors. You also get 125 sales and make $1,250 in profit. All you really know is that you made more than you spent on marketing.

If you use the tracking code, you would also see a correlation of sales by keyword. So, you can discover which keywords are profitable and which aren't converting. With this additional knowledge, you can spend more on converting keywords and increase margin by avoiding dead keywords.

Fourth - Use Google Adsense to Sell Your Traffic

Since you probably won't be converting every potential customer that clicks on your Google Adword banner, you can offset your costs by selling them. Google Adsense determines relevant Adword banners to show on your site based on the predominant keywords per page.

If a visitor to your site determines they don't want to buy what you have, they may see a relevant Adsense banner and click on it. Google Adsense pays you for every click-thru from your site. Here's an example of how Adsense will reduce your advertising costs: You get 1,534 visitors to your site in a month. Of the 1,534 visitors, you receive a 2.28% click rate (35 clicks) on your Adsense. Google then determines an eCPM (per 1,000 impressions) rate, which in this case is $10.48. You would receive $16.08 in Google Adsense revenue.

Google Adsense will really start to pay off once you get organic search engine traffic. It also works really well for subscription based sites or similar sites that have returning customers.

Google Adwords and Google Adsense Help

There are many ways that you can benefit from both Google Adwords and Google Adsense. For most web site owners, it just takes an initial setup to understand how it all flows. If you are struggling to setup or manage your Google Adwords or Adsense campaign find a reputable traffic optimization company to do this for you. The rates for these services are surprisingly affordable and will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.