What Comes First?
You know, the fun thing about AdWords - and I have to be totally honest here - is that while I consider myself pretty successful with it, the system is also pretty humbling at times.
I'd find it refreshing to hear a guru or two (not calling myself that, mind you) admit "Hey, I really stunk up the place this week. I thought I'd hit a home run, but it was a total dud."
And so it was this week, that I ventured into the land of feather beds, comforters and such. I discovered a program with a decent EPC. I thought, well, the rest of the world is competing bitterly for mortgages, credit cards and web hosting. I'm going to look for a "softer" market.
5 days and . . . 0 clicks! Amazingly terrible.
On the Adword Mentor bulletin boards, there are some people doing great. While others have struggled or just plain lost money. And I think it's very refreshing to have all of those experiences shared.
Ultimate PPC success requires a little luck (I think it really helps to stumble over a gem or two) and a lot of testing. Because testing is the great equalizer. You try product A against product B. Somebody wins. You try ad A against ad B, title A against title B, URL A against URL B, and etc. The numbers will tell you what people like and what they don't and it usually isn't what you think - or at least it isn't what I think.
Sometimes the product has no demand. And sometimes the person writing the ad or selecting the keywords just hasn't made their way into the right ballpark.
So that brings me to my point; where to start?
I've had good success by starting with a couple of products and building campaigns around the product. But while the money is good, I have to defer to advice recently received from John Reese. There are "money maker's" and there are "businesses". "If you're smart, you build a business."
The difference between a money-maker and a business is that when I'm just selling a product, I make one sale and that's it. I have little to no relationship with that customer and it's highly unlikely I ever will.
If I'm building a business, then I'm looking at a general market. It's the difference between marketing to the person who's looking to buy a wool blanket versus looking for someone who will eventually furnish their entire house.
And so, I point you to exhibit A. The Abundance Course
This is a site I built as an affiliate. That's right. I built a site, complete with a series of follow-up autoresponder messages. That's a little beyond just placing a banner ad, or writing a Google ad that sends my customer (and my investment) to the parent site in hopes it converts the sale. The parent site, BTW, doesn't convert particularly well - only about 1/3 as well as the site I created. That's a more advanced route you can take - find a great product with a lousy web site and sell the product like it's your own.
So, I've gone from marketing a product (The Release Technique, aka, The Abundance Course) to targeting a broader range of people interested in goal setting, self improvement and wealth creation. And I've set up a very nice lead generation system in the process. I hope those people will buy the Abundance Course because I think it's excellent material. But, if not, I have additional avenues to go with these people and I know they have interests that extend beyond just this one course.
And my point is/was . . .
Many people start with a product or a company they want to promote based upon potential earnings or demand. It's easy to see, for example, that Britney Spears has a high search demand. But is Brit going to be hot a year from now? Three years from now? Who knows. Maybe that market will continue and maybe it won't. The better bet is to identify the market that follows Britney and determine the various interests they have. Because then you've gone beyond selling Britney posters and CD's to selling clothes, dance lessons, diet plans, beauty aids, etc.
You see, Britney isn't the market - Britney is bait for the market. And maybe the cost of luring someone to your site with Britney bait might be spendy while you could use a different lure like, I don't know, Christina Aguilera (Britney's a bad example because I'm really out of my element here).
So, start with a market. If you want to look at what's been hot, from a product or persona perspective, then identify the "who" that's seeking it and try to determine what they might be looking for next week, next month, and next year.
Best wishes, John
I'd find it refreshing to hear a guru or two (not calling myself that, mind you) admit "Hey, I really stunk up the place this week. I thought I'd hit a home run, but it was a total dud."
And so it was this week, that I ventured into the land of feather beds, comforters and such. I discovered a program with a decent EPC. I thought, well, the rest of the world is competing bitterly for mortgages, credit cards and web hosting. I'm going to look for a "softer" market.
5 days and . . . 0 clicks! Amazingly terrible.
On the Adword Mentor bulletin boards, there are some people doing great. While others have struggled or just plain lost money. And I think it's very refreshing to have all of those experiences shared.
Ultimate PPC success requires a little luck (I think it really helps to stumble over a gem or two) and a lot of testing. Because testing is the great equalizer. You try product A against product B. Somebody wins. You try ad A against ad B, title A against title B, URL A against URL B, and etc. The numbers will tell you what people like and what they don't and it usually isn't what you think - or at least it isn't what I think.
Sometimes the product has no demand. And sometimes the person writing the ad or selecting the keywords just hasn't made their way into the right ballpark.
So that brings me to my point; where to start?
I've had good success by starting with a couple of products and building campaigns around the product. But while the money is good, I have to defer to advice recently received from John Reese. There are "money maker's" and there are "businesses". "If you're smart, you build a business."
The difference between a money-maker and a business is that when I'm just selling a product, I make one sale and that's it. I have little to no relationship with that customer and it's highly unlikely I ever will.
If I'm building a business, then I'm looking at a general market. It's the difference between marketing to the person who's looking to buy a wool blanket versus looking for someone who will eventually furnish their entire house.
And so, I point you to exhibit A. The Abundance Course
This is a site I built as an affiliate. That's right. I built a site, complete with a series of follow-up autoresponder messages. That's a little beyond just placing a banner ad, or writing a Google ad that sends my customer (and my investment) to the parent site in hopes it converts the sale. The parent site, BTW, doesn't convert particularly well - only about 1/3 as well as the site I created. That's a more advanced route you can take - find a great product with a lousy web site and sell the product like it's your own.
So, I've gone from marketing a product (The Release Technique, aka, The Abundance Course) to targeting a broader range of people interested in goal setting, self improvement and wealth creation. And I've set up a very nice lead generation system in the process. I hope those people will buy the Abundance Course because I think it's excellent material. But, if not, I have additional avenues to go with these people and I know they have interests that extend beyond just this one course.
And my point is/was . . .
Many people start with a product or a company they want to promote based upon potential earnings or demand. It's easy to see, for example, that Britney Spears has a high search demand. But is Brit going to be hot a year from now? Three years from now? Who knows. Maybe that market will continue and maybe it won't. The better bet is to identify the market that follows Britney and determine the various interests they have. Because then you've gone beyond selling Britney posters and CD's to selling clothes, dance lessons, diet plans, beauty aids, etc.
You see, Britney isn't the market - Britney is bait for the market. And maybe the cost of luring someone to your site with Britney bait might be spendy while you could use a different lure like, I don't know, Christina Aguilera (Britney's a bad example because I'm really out of my element here).
So, start with a market. If you want to look at what's been hot, from a product or persona perspective, then identify the "who" that's seeking it and try to determine what they might be looking for next week, next month, and next year.
Best wishes, John
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