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How Small Advertisers Can Compete With The
Big Boys Through Google's Adwords Select Program
© 2002 Khemal Dole
Google's Adwords Select has soon become the focus of many
online marketers simply because it is 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
0.5% minimum click through rate or CTR cutoff.
Simply put, if your ad was shown 1000 times and it was not
clicked on 0.5% of the time or 5 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.
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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 which pulls in 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.
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 0.5% 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
0.5% 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 0.5%? 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 those key
words? And if more people search for them, doesn't it mean
that you need to get your ad in front of them?
There 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. Good Luck!
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Khemal Dole is an Online Marketer and a Microsoft
Certified Solutions Developer who has contributed content
to many well- known ezines and websites. His latest
project QuickPayPro.Net provides a total website
automation solution to any business in just 7 1/2 minutes,
Guaranteed! The future is here!
Visit him at http://www.quickpaypro.net
or write to him at mailto:Webmaster@QuickPayPro.net
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