AdWords Adviser

How to Run a Twitter Contest

February 9th, 2010 | Author: Editor

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Welcome to “Guest Author Tuesday”!

No online business owner should rely on just one method to promote their website. In this series of articles we invite guest authors to introduce us to alternative marketing methods that you can use to attract visitors.

To contribute an article, please email it to editor@adwords-adviser.co.uk .

Todays guest author is: Phyllis Zimbler Miller

If you want to attract online attention to a particular product, service or cause, consider running a Twitter contest. Because of the 140-character limit and public tweets, Twitter is an ideal social media platform for this marketing strategy.

How to Run a Twitter Contest to Promote a Product

Let’s say you want to promote a new product – we’ll call it “Miracle Copy-writing” – that sells for $89. You tweet about this new product, including the link to your site where the product is sold.

You’d like other people to tweet this link also. What will motivate them to do so?

You launch a contest that everyone who tweets the link will be entered in a random drawing to get a free copy of “Miracle Copy-writing.” (You can track who tweeted by using tweetbeep.com to let you know whenever the link appears on Twitter.)

You send out the information on the contest through your email opt-in list, you post the announcement on your website, and you create an announcement through twitwall.com to tell people on Twitter about the contest.

Now if you write a good headline for the twitwall announcement, you can get extra exposure for your product. Perhaps the headline will be: You Only Need to Tweet Once for a Chance to Own “Miracle Copywriting”

How to Run a Twitter Contest to Increase Your Email Opt-in List

Let’s take another imaginary scenario: You run announcements on Twitter about a contest for the top five essays by Internet marketing college students. To enter, contestants go to your website, where they find an opt-in offer for a free report on top tips for Internet marketing.

Then, of course, you would post the winning essays on your website as well as tweeting about these essays. More people would be motivated to come to your site to read these winning essays – and again be exposed to your opt-in offer.

How to Run a Twitter Contest for a Non-Profit Cause

Now let’s say you want to use Twitter for fundraising. You can attach a contest component to the fundraising efforts. For example, you can solicit gifts for the top five largest donors. And to encourage people to give more, you can tweet about these gifts.

And the way to extend the reach of this type of contest is to solicit partners on Twitter – and preferably partners who have their own blogs. Then each of you blog about the contest, tweet about the contest, upload videos to YouTube, and whatever other online methods you want to use to get out the word about the contest for who donates the most money to the cause.

Warning: While the variations on running a Twitter contest are many, an effective Twitter contest does take work. It requires:

- Planning – how long does the contest run for; when is the best start date

- Coordination – are your Twitter partners on board

- Consistency – a few tweets are not enough; you must continually find new ways of announcing the contest so Twitter doesn’t slam you for tweeting the same thing over and over again

- Transparency – everything you do in connection to the contest must be public with no hidden affiliate relationships
And, remember, the saying “you get what you put into it” is particularly true for running a Twitter contest.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant whose power marketing website is http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com . If you liked this article, you’ll love her FREE report on “How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert” ‘ grab your report now from http://www.millermosaicllc.com/free-twitter-report

Mobile Ads Targeting Gets Razor Sharp On AdWords

February 8th, 2010 | Author: Editor

Just suppose you wanted to sell cases for iPhones and you’re targeting the UK, with mobile ads delivered by AdWords.

Anyone that knows anything about mobile phones will tell you that until recently, you could only buy an iPhone in the UK if you registered for the O2 network.

But at the end of 2009, Orange and Vodaphone reached agreement with Apple to also sell the iPhone. Handsets should be available on those two networks early in 2010.

Are you beginning to see your problem as an advertiser?

Your ad for iPhone cases is only going to be of value to users of those three networks. Any ads sent on the 3 or T-mobile networks would be wasted as they are very unlikely to be seen by an iPhone owner.

And what about all those mobile phone users that don’t have an iPhone? Your iPhone case is not going to be much good to them either.

Imagine what it would be like if you could target your mobile ads at a particular network. And wouldn’t it be amazing if you could even narrow your target audience to a particular type of phone. You now can with Google’s new targeting options for mobile ads.

In a few seconds you can add targeting options to any mobile ad that will restrict it to show only on phones connected to a particular network. All five UK network operators are included.

With just a few more clicks of the mouse you can also restrict the types of phone on which your ads will be seen. Currently, the Android, iPhone (& iPod) and Palm can be individually targeted.

Picture the power of these new ad options on your mobile advertising campaign.

Maybe you’re selling an app for the new Android phone. You can now target your ads at only those phones. Or maybe your website doesn’t display right on the Palm. You can now create specialised landing pages and direct Palm phone users to them instead.

The possibilities are endless!

Inside AdWords: New targeting options for mobile ads

New targeting options for mobile ads. If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers. This feature makes it easier for you to reach …

Publish Date: 01/20/2010 18:41

http://adwords.blogspot.com/

New Mobile Ad Targeting Options and App Downloads With Google …

Google advertisers can now target ads based on devices and carriers of the users. This will enable better results if …

Publish Date: 01/22/2010 9:58

http://www.pagetrafficblog.com/

Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting | WebProNews

“If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers,” says Kurnit. “This feature makes it easier for you to reach the right users if you …

Publish Date: 01/20/2010 20:13

http://www.webpronews.com/taxonomy/term/21/0

http://www.revenews.com/adamviener/

Google Now Targets Mobile Ads (and App Download Links) By Device (techcrunch.com)
Google Now Targets Mobile Ads by Device (seekingalpha.com)
Google AdWords Enables Mobile Device and Carrier Targeting, Plus Special Link for Mobile Apps (searchenginewatch.com)

5 Proven Steps To Checking Your AdWords Market

February 4th, 2010 | Author: Adrian

You’re intelligent enough to know that creating demand in a market place for a product where none currently exists is extremely difficult. And your AdWords market place is no different to any other.

Don’t spend hours creating huge keyword lists, writing creative and imaginative ads and linking them to perfectly matched landing pages without testing your market place first.

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.

George S Patton Jr

Wise words from one of Americas foremost combat generals of World War II.

The harsh reality is that if there are very few people who are actively searching online for your product or service, then AdWords probably is not for you.

And it’s better to learn this at the start of your advertising campaign before you’ve even opened an AdWords account rather than after days, even months of hard work, not to mention heaps of money in wasted advertising.

Here’s 5 steps you should take to evaluate your AdWords market before starting your next campaign:)

Use a keyword selection tool to find about 10 very popular keywords for your offering. Perform a search on Google using each keyword and count the number of sponsored ads at the top and down the side of the page. If there are no ads or only two or three for each keyword, then the chances are that your niche is not going to be very profitable.
Using the same keywords, note the websites and ads that are shown most often. These are your main online competitors. Visit each website and review their offering. Take notes on the quality of their offering, the price, and how easy it is to make a purchase. Also look at their trading policies like returns and delivery charges. Can you compete? Do you have a competitive advantage that you can use?
As you begin to research your keyword list, don’t spend weeks or months finding every single phrase. Keep everything simple, start with a small list of keywords that are often searched on and see how you get on.
When creating a keyword list ignore any keyword phrases that have less than a few hundred impressions. They’re not worth the effort.
If your small keyword list starts to work, then gradually expand it to include more keywords. If it fails, then try to understand why.

In recent years, I’ve looked at a number of campaigns for clients where the products great, the ads are well written, landing pages are good, and the keywords are a good match, but the demand has not been there.

It’s hard to tell someone who’s been spent hours and hours banging their heads against the wall to try and make their AdWords campaign work that they never stood a chance.

Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you check the AdWords Market for your product or service, and launch your advertising slowly, a little bit at a time. If the response is good, then move forward. But if nobody bites, don’t be afraid to get out!

How Can I Improve My Quality Score?

February 3rd, 2010 | Author: Editor

Welcome to “Q & A Wednesday”, where the AdWords Adviser answers some of your questions.

This week we’d like to thank Eileen for her question:)

How can I improve my Quality Score?

If you’re like everyone else who uses AdWords, you’ll encounter problems with Google’s Quality Score feature at some time or another. Improving Quality Score sometimes seems like the “Holy Grail” of AdWords – the ultimate goal that can never be reached.

Increasing your Quality Score by just a single point for one keyword can make a huge difference to the amount you pay in bids on that keyword. It therefore comes as no surprise when people tell us about the frustration they feel when they spend hours working on their account for little or no return.

The fact of the matter is that this is really too big a subject to cover properly in a single post, but here are some general pointers that maybe useful.

Keep the keywords in your ad groups closely related to each other with no more than 5 or 6 keywords in each group.
Remove any keywords from your account that don’t attract lots of clicks. Obviously you should keep any low volume keywords that regularly convert. But, get rid of all those keywords you’re keeping running just in case they become the next big search term.
Link your ads closely to the main keyword in each ad group. Include the keyword in the heading, text and display url (if possible).
Design landing pages for your ads that are also closely linked to your main keywords, but don’t over do it. Put your most popular keyword in the heading, three or four times in the text (top, middle and end ideally), in the url to the page and if possible, within a url from the page also.
Don’t force your landing pages by including in it every keyword in your ad group. Google is intelligent enough to know that words like mobile phone & mobile cell phone are related. Choose one variant and keep to it.
Write landing pages that your visitors will find useful and informative. If selling products, don’t copy content from the manufacturers website. Use original content that will add to the debate and inform your readers.
Most important tip of all: Be patient! The biggest mistake that most advertisers make is that they expect their changes to have an instant effect. The fact is that improvements to your campaign can take days, weeks and sometimes even months to fully show up in higher Quality Scores.

Landing Pages, Split Testing And A Whole Lot More …

February 1st, 2010 | Author: Editor

——————————————————————————————————————————–
Adrian Key’s Monthly Newsletter for the AdWords Adviser:
Making AdWords more profitable for you.February 2010

In This Issue: Landing pages, split testing, AdWords optimization center,
click to call, AdWords account make over, display url rule change
———————————————————————————————————————————This month’s newsletter is packed full of advice about how to:

make landing pages that Google will love,

split testing to improve your ads performance,

click to call for the Mobile Internet,

and a whole lot more …

Enjoy!

Adrian Key
Editor of AdWords Adviser, making AdWords more profitable for you.

Post Of The Month

How To Create AdWords Landing Pages That Google Will Love

Creating landing pages that AdWords will love does not have to be difficult.

http://www.adwords-adviser.co.uk/how-to-create-adwords-landing-pages-that-google-will-love-2

Take Advantage Of AdWords Split Testing And Improve Your Ads Performance

AdWords split testing is a powerful tool for testing two ads to see which performs best. It is the easiest and most effective way of improving your ads performance.

http://www.adwords-adviser.co.uk/take-advantage-of-adwords-split-testing-and-improve-your-ads-performance

Google’s New AdWords Optimization Center Inspires Advertisers

Google launches the new AdWords Optimization Center, but opinion is mixed.

http://www.adwords-adviser.co.uk/googles-new-adwords-optimization-center-inspires-advertisers

Google’s Click-to-Call Takes The Mobile Internet To The Next Level

Google announces the new Click-to-Call feature that can now be included along side your mobile Internet ads. But, what is this new feature and is it any good?

http://www.adwords-adviser.co.uk/googles-new-adwords-optimization-center-inspires-advertisers

The 4 Secrets You Need To Give Your AdWords Account A Quick Make Over

Every advertising campaign has lean times. Use your next lean period to improve your accounts performance during the good times with these 4 AdWords make over tips.

http://www.adwords-adviser.co.uk/the-4-secrets-you-need-to-give-your-adwords-account-a-quick-make-over