How To Double Your Response In Google Adwords

The #1 mistake that costs online advertisers thousands

95% of advertisers make this mistake. As discusses in my other
article titled "How Google evaluates Your Adwords Campaign",
Google works very differently from other search engines
concerning pay per click campaigns.

So what's the #1 mistake that costs the average advertiser
thousands? The answer is encompassed in two simple words –
"Content Network". Google will probably never tell you this
because they make too much money from unknowing novices
spending more than needed, being unaware of their "Content
Network".

When setting up any pay per click campaign in Google (Google
Adwords), there are three main areas in which you can display
your ad:

Google Search
Google Search Network
Google Content Network

Google Search and Google Search Network normally deliver
relevant searchers. By default however, Google already has
their Content Network checked for you on their ad set-up page.
But how closely matched is the Content Network to your Adwords?
Usually it's not well matched at all. You will get lots of
clicks from responders to these extended relevance sites,
however, the quality of this traffic is horrific at best. Not
only is the traffic terrible, your click rate will be much
lower when including the Content Network. What's worse, if you
remember my last article, one of the key factors that affects
your ad position is your "average click rate", so this can be a
double negative whammy. By just de-selecting "Content Network"
(in the "Edit Campaign Settings") you can significantly improve
the click rate of your campaign which will then also give you
better ad positioning.

Remember, the better your click rate, the higher your ad will
be positioned. If your click rate drops below about 0.5%, your
ad will rarely display at all. On the other hand, if you have a
click rate of 2%, 3% or even higher, your ad will be positioned
much higher than if evaluated by price alone.

One more negative alert – click fraud within the "content
network" is much greater.

Another great way to improve your ROI and lower your cost per
click is to examine where your traffic is coming from within
the Google Search Network. If you determine that a lot of
traffic is coming from partner sites like www.ask.com for
example, you could eliminate the "Search Network" targeting as
well and save some additional money. Advertising on these
partner sites directly will save you about 50% for each click.
The downside, of course, is that it will take more time to
manage the extra campaigns. It also depends on your overall
budget. The more you invest, the more it is worth looking at
the option of eliminating the Search Network as well and
setting up separate campaigns on sites like ask.com.

The bottom-line is that, just by de-selecting "Content Network"
you will dramatically improve your results and save huge amounts
of money.

Look for our next article, where we'll look at the 2nd biggest
mistake when doing Google Adwords. Sign up for our "Marketing
Insight" ezine and be one of the first to view it.