Saturday, February 28, 2009

How To Get A Better Clickthrough Rate With Google Adwords

By Dennis J. Thomas

Creating highly effective ads on Google Adwords is an ongoing process, and you'll probably spend weeks and months tweaking analyzing your strategy as you build your campaign. Still, you don't have to settle or a trial and error process every step of the way, especially when it comes to increasing your clickthrough rate (CTR). Internet marketing strategists such as Perry Marshall and countless others have already harnessed the power of Google Adwords by employing several strategies that generate results from the start.

Interested in how you can increase your clickthrough rates? Read on to learn about two proven strategies that, used properly, offer a foolproof path to Adwords success.

Doing Negative Keyword Research

Since Adword ads rely so heavily on the correct use of keywords, you will want to run frequent keyword reports. This can be done using various different software tools, many available online, and some even for free. Wordtracker, one such tool, offers a free keyword selector as well as a subscriptions. By creating a spreadsheet filled in with all the effective and relevant keywords, you can learn a great deal about how best to focus your ad campaign on potential customer. Also important, however, are negative keywords.

Negative keywords and key phrases are those that are related to your specific niche, product or service, but do not offer immediate value. After identifying what your ideal customer may be searching for, you'll be able to conjecture the specific key terms (positive keywords) they may use to find you. For example, if you are selling referral tracking software, you want to identify customers who are typing in key phrases such as 'buy referral tracking software', 'using referral tracking software', etc. Those who might type in 'free referral tracking software' do not fall under your target market radar, and need to be eliminated. You can employ this strategy with every niche and keyword list, paring it down until you have a very refined, highly targeted listing of keywords that apply only to your ideal customer.

Split Test to Create More Effective Adwords Ads

Throughout the history of marketing, split testing has been employed in the quest to figure out what specific elements make customers tick. By formulating two or more pieces of marketing material with minor difference from one another and noting which performs best, you can gain information about what your ideal ad looks like.

For those using Google Adwords to attract customers, the strategy of split testing is equally enlightening. After you've done the keyword research described above, and considered which keywords will not be effective in attracting potential customers, you can further hone your advertisements by running multiple versions with slight differences. The ultimate result will be the ideal ad: one containing only information and keywords with CTR-maximizing information, and no distracting, extraneous elements.

With the aforementioned strategies of first determining which 'negative keywords' simply take up space without attracting your target audience, and proceeding to split test different versions of your ad, you can build your Adwords ads into an unbeatable online marketing campaign. These two key steps are two of the biggest reasons that the pioneers in online marketing, including Perry Marshall, have found Adwords such an exceptionally effective medium in which to market. By following the advice of this article, you can maximize your ads' clickthrough rates and achieve the results that the Internet marketing greats have in the past. - 17943

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