Adwords Copy Writing and the Taguchi Sequence

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:00:03 -0500

Adwords Copywriting and the Taguchi Sequence

For people that are always probing the secrets to Google Adwords, testing different ads that get a better clickthrough rate, so that you can reduce your costs, is an ongoing game. Taguchi gives a new level of this testing. For those not familiar with the Taguchi method, the basic idea is that instead of simple split testing, you can test many variables at once. So instead of testing two web pages, each with a different headline, you can test 40 different versions of the page, like different headlines, different graphics, different forms, including a testimonial or not, shifting the order of copy, whatever you can think of.

What the system does then is uses some complicated math to figure out which factors contribute the most to your desired outcome, and you can then rapidly look at all the factors and make your optimized page. The way marketers have been testing things for years is much different. You make two pages, each with a different headline, and do a test to find the winner. Then you make two different pages where you change something else, and find a winner from that. By the time you have tested all 40 elements, you would have spent a lot of money in testing indeed.

One of my first thoughts when I started reading about this method was how it could be applied to Adwords. If you could test for one keyword, all the combinations that could get your ad the best response and optimize it dynamically, that would be pretty hot. It turns out that Cringely already made this test, and a follow up to it, and the results are pretty hot, and then, not so hot. This is only one experiment, and more experiments should definately be done along this line. If you are a developer who wants to make a Google api to do this, definately drop me a line at steve@Adwordstraining.org and I'll make you rich, famous, and with all the chicks digging you.

At the bottom of this entry I'll give you a lot of interesting links I found so you can learn more about Taguchi and all the software that is available, and if you find something new I'd appreciate it if you drop me a line and let me know.

Now, for Adwords enthusiasts, the obvious question is, can Taguchi help me optimize automatically to get the best Adwords ads our there and destroy my competition? Well, the answer is yes, then no, then yes. Apparantly there are a couple of hidden factors that mess up the Taguchi sequence when you try to apply it to Adwords, although in theory Taguchi should work every time.This is only one test though, and Taguchi works amazingly well for web pages, so I think it has a lot of potential still.

The interview the profit doctors did with the guy who talked about the"Taguchi method" of multi-testing many variables at once, instead of simple a/b split testing, got me interested in looking to see if there were any resources that cost less than $150,000 per test.

Actually at the SES convention there was a company called http://www.optimost.com/ , which did tests like this for companies like ask.com and ebay, for around $30,000 per test, and I am sure they
are using the Taguchi method for this.

Free Adwords Copy Writing Seminar

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:19:03 -0500

Free Adwords copywriting seminar:

I spent a little time with Michael Yared and
Scott Bosley, who are respectively, an amazing
Adwords analyst and an amazing Adwords
and landing page copy writer, and added
my two cents in with theirs in this hour long
special edition teleseminar about adwords copy
writing.

It is about an hour long, in mp3 format, and
filled with copy writing advice and tips from
some of the best. I wish the sound quality
was a little better, but what the heck. The
information contained I think you will get
a lot out of.

Hope you enjoy it:)

Adwords Copywriting Secrets for Beginners

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:00:27 -0500

The secret of Adwords Copy Writing

As you progress in your Google Adwords efforts,
sooner or later you run into this- no matter how
great your keyword choices are, unless you can
make good ads your campaign is dead in the water.

What is the secret of a good Adwords ad? Read on
and find out.

The biggest problem you face is that Google considers
a "good" ad to just be one that gets clicked on
the most, but you need an ad that is going
to bring people to your site that are actually
real customers, and not freebie seekers,
if you are going to actually make some profit.

That is one of the hardest things about Adwords,
it is actually a delicate balance between ads that
get clicked on a lot, that Google considers "relevant"
and the ads that have the highest possible return for your
advertising dollar, which are often not the same thing.

This article is going to present a few ideas starting
at the basic level, and then continue with some pro
refinements to add to your Adwords campaigns.

GETTING TO SQUARE ONE WITH GOOGLE

A lot of marketing of anything is like a funnel:

At the biggest end of the funnel you need a lot
of people that are coming into your store.

Not all of those people are going to become customers
but your advertising has brought them in, so they
are mildly interested in what you have to offer, and
they are willing to take advantage of free information
and learn a little bit more. They are easily turned off.

A certain percentage of those people above will be
willing to take your free pamphlet, or give you their
email address to sign up for your free newsletter or
download something that they think will help them
learn more.

A certain percentage of THOSE will call, contact a salesperson
or if it is a small item, buy it right there.

An even smaller percentage will become your customers,
and if you do a good job, become your lifeling customers, and
buy more products from you.

These percentages make or break your business,
regardless of what you are selling.

How does this relate to Adwords? Your Adwords
strategy should mirror your marketing strategy
for your entire business, with a couple of
added tweaks.

The first thing we are going to do is, for the people
that are frustrated with their Adwords campaign,
getting words inactive or disabled and not being
able to really get the campaign off the ground, we
are going to build the first part of your marketing
funnel, which oddly enough is exactly what
Google wants you to do!

What Google wants is relevant search results.

This probably won't ever change, and hasn't
changed in at least 5 years now. If you can
deliver an ad that delivers relevant content
to what a person is searching for and offers the
solution to that problem as a benefit statement, you have
won half the battle right there.

There is more to this than you think, and tapping into
this Adwords secret is actually a major marketing
secret, if you can do it. Some people can't.

What you need to do is...(drumroll please)

PUT YOURSELF IN SOMEONE ELSES SHOES.

Can you do this for real? If you are in an argument
with your wife can you stop and look at everything
exactly like she would? Can you look at the world
the same way the mechanic does who fixes your
car? If your kid wants candy, can you actually look
at the world like your kid would?

If you can, you have mastered the ultimate
Adwords copy writing secret, and the secret of
master marketers.

Or to say it a different way, its not about YOU,
its about THEM

Here is how to use this secret in Adwords, and why you
need to use it to the hilt:

When people search for something on the internet,
they never go with the intention of buying something,
they go to research and find out about things, and
they usually want their information FREE.

They came to the search engine in the first place
because they wanted to solve a problem. Find
out what that problem is, and give them the solution
to that problem AS A BENEFIT STATEMENT and
you will kill most of the other Adwords advertisors
out there in your market.

The key, the mantra from Google is relevance.

The key for you, is relevance, and what problem
are they trying to solve with doing that search.

Lets say someone is searching for "cheap
childrens shoes"

That problem is obvious-the person wants some shoes for their kids,
and doesn't want to pay a lot for them.

Ok Sherlock, now answer these questions:

Is the searcher a man or a woman?

How old is the searcher?

What is their economic status?

What kind of house do they live in?

What kind of computer are they probably using?

Are they a Democrat, Republican, or Other?

You are right- You don't know. But there are
some statistical probablilties if you are in
the US.

There is a very high probability that it will
be a woman, who is internet saavy, and there
is a good chance that her household actually
has some good disposable income. In other
words, she may not consider herself rich,
but she is definately not poor, and probably
considers herself a smart shopper as well.

So this ad should be written to HER if possible.

Just for fun, I went to Google, searched for cheap childrens shoes,
and I found the following ads. Here they are, in order:

Kids Clothing
OldNavy.com Summer's Must-Have Styles For Kids- Old Navy - Fun, Fashion & Value

Children's Shoes
www.angelcovers.org Sandals that are fun for kids! The squeaks are a great parental aid.

Those were on top of the page, we would consider those positions 1 and 2.

Here are the ones on the right side of the page in positions 3-10:

cheap kids shoes
Over 300 shoe brands.
365 day return policy at Zappos.
www.zappos.com

Kid's Shoes at Shoebuy
Free Shipping. No Tax. All Sizes.
Plus Free Returns & Great Savings.
www.shoebuy.com

Kid's Shoes
Learn About ReNForce Sneakers -
Durable Shoes for Your Active Son!
www.NewBalance.com

Children's Footwear
Find the Latest Styles for Children
At Affordable Prices - Shop Online!
www.JCPenney.com

Compare Prices at BizRate
Bargain Prices.
You want it, we got it!
BizRate.com

Find Shoes at Shoes.com
Shop Over 200 Brands at Shoes.com
Free Shipping, Free Returns, No Tax
www.Shoes.com

Save on Discount Shoes
Save 35-70% on Discount shoes.
Web Only Sale-20% off select items
www.SierraTradingPost.com

Sandals - Free Shipping
Your online shoe source
Free Returns & 110% price match
www.shoedini.com

Which ads were best? It depends.

The ultimate test is to do this same search
3 months from now and see who is still
there. That is the ultimate test of
what is "best".

One thing is that the ads that are listed
on the top of the actual search results
have to have a minimum click through
rate that is pretty high, in order to be
featured there, and a pretty high cost
per click, which is why you will often
find big lazy corporations in the top spots.

They just pay for the number one spot, and
in most cases that's just the way it is. Just
try to outspend them. You can't.

So in this case if you have a small shoe
store, forget about trying to compete with
Old Navy. That won't happen.

As you look over the ads, you find a
couple sandal manufactures, a shopping
comparison site with a kind of generic ad,
a shoe manufacturer, another major retailer,
JC pennys, and a couple sites that seem to have
exactly what the searcher is looking for,
lots of shoes at discounted prices.

So what copy would get you to click on these ads?

Here's the benefits, extracted out of all these ads:
*Discounts
*Fun
*Huge Selection
*Return Policy
*Lowest Price Guarantee
*Desireable Styles (only in the old navy ad)
*No tax

Note that if you have done your market research,
( Check out http://www.dataresourceconsulting.com/marketing-surveys.htm
for how to do this )You should know what the
most important concerns are for your customers.
The only way to know for sure is to ASK THEM.

If you don't know the key benefits your target
market is seeking, or what the key problems
or concerns they are facing, you can't write
an effective ad. For the purposes of this article
we will just use these benefits above and assume
they are correct.This might not be the case, and
out of all these benefits only one or two will be
the most important, but just be aware that market
research fits in right here and is very important.

For now, we will just assume that our market
research shows that shoe shoppers want low prices,
great desireable styles, an easy return policy, lots of shoes
in stock, and lets add fast shipping to that list for fun.

Remember all we want to do at this first level
for you, the frustrated advertiser is make an ad
that people will click on, so that your advertising
program won't be constantly disabled by Google
and you can actually start getting some visitors
to your site.

What is the weapon? Lets stay with relevance
first. One of the other advantages of relevance
is that if you use the keywords in your ad that
the user types in, Google automatically makes
them bold by default. So you can get a bold
ad for the same price as a regular ad, just by
making it more relevant.

This helps you, especially in the title.

Not one advertisor here actually used the
actual search phrase in the title. So lets
use that to our advantage. Here's a first try:

Cheap Childrens Shoes
Childrens Shoes-Cheap Prices, Major
Brands, With Free, Fast Shipping!
www.mysite.com/discount

In this ad, the title and most of the first line
would be bold, which will help us. Also we
are tweaking the display url, and using that
as an additional, subtle benefit.

Here's another idea:

Cheap Fun Childrens Shoes
Thousands of Name Brand Discounted
Shoes, Shipped Fast with One Click!
www.mysite.com/freeship

This one does the same thing, but
emphases convenience and instant
gratification, something that works in lots of
industries and something that internet surfers
are notorius for demanding.

Like anything else, you have to try
a few variations. I have no idea how
well these ads would do, and I have
no affilation with any online shoe store
or company, this is just based on
a 30 second quick look of one search, but
It is a decent first stab at it.

Now that we have conquered relevance,
lets take the next step:

DON"T BE CHEAP

When you have a couple ads that you
want to test that you think are pretty relevant
to the keywords, and you have the first
ads to test, start out by bidding high enough
to get your ads in the first 4 positions.

Make your budget enough that you will
be one of the first ads that people see,
so you can be fair about how it performs.

If you start off with the idea, "well I can
only afford 30 cents a click" you have already
lost the game.

You might have a great ad, but if you bury
it on the second page of search results
you are going to have more automatic
software visiting your ad than actual searchers,
and your click through rate will be abysmal.

If your budget isn't high enough your ad just
won't be shown enough for you to be able
to tell how good it is. You need at least 200-400
impressions (times your ad was shown) for even the
smallest test and the smallest budget, and Ideally all done
the same day, or you will drive yourself nuts.

Once you have tested your ad, either it will
have a better than .5 Click through Rate
(this means one out of every 200 people clicks on the ad) or it wont.

If it does, you can then optimize the
price. If it doesn't, keep testing new ads
until you can get something that works.

Once you get your ad with at least a .5
click through rate you can then move onto
more advanced concepts, including optimizing the price.

Free Resource to learn more about Adwords
copywriting:

Try the Adwords podcast at http://www.aardvarkabductions.com/

There is a free one hour mp3 all about Adwords copywriting
that you can listen to, with several leading copywriters

This article ended up being a little longer than I planned, and is a little
bit to digest in one sitting, so I am going to quit here, and save the
optimization techniques for a second article.

Here's to beating the system and cracking the Google Adwords code!

Adwords Copy Writing Tips

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:02:13 -0500

Some Amazing Adwords Copy Writing Secrets

Ok, here's some copy writing tips:

I don't have any problem with Click Through Rate in most industries. My ads kill.

But, the rubber really hits the road when you try to teach this stuff to someone else. Its not enough to write great ads, or I would be doing this for the rest of my life, and that's not my job. My job is successful e-businesses. So in an effort to teach people how to make good Adwords campaigns, the first step was to just get multiple people making ads and to hire professional copywriters. That worked like a bomb. But, if you are the only copywriter, kind of lonely, looking at the adwords computer screen, what do you do?

First get your friends to help you. Anything you can do to get more people making ads besides yourself will pay off in spades. Have your friend make one ad in each of your ad groups, and then you make one, and test them against each other. See what happens. You might be surprised.

What else can you do after that? Well now we have to get into Adwords Copywriting.

There are always lessons to be learned from the old time direct marketing guys. Before there was an internet, people have had to solve the problem of how to write copy that would get people to respond, No matter the medium, people either respond to advertising or they don't. There is only one way to find out. TEST.

Fortunately, we have almost a hundred years of copy and tests done by people who have devoted their lives to this subject. One in particular, named John Caples had a 49 year career as a copywriter, never doing any else but write copy. 60 years later, his methods are still being used. There is no better testament to his effectiveness as a copywriter than that.

Adwords ads, while being different than classified ads are similar in that there is a limited amount of space. Some people even look at them as search results, which is what Google really wants. That's why there are all these restrictions on what you can or can't say in Google ads. But some of the same problems and solutions apply to these ads, as they do in classified ads. And for that, we can tap into a wealth of experience and knowledge from the direct marketing masters.

Lets take the headline first. If people don't read your headline, it doesn't matter how brilliant the rest of your copy is, because people that don't read the headline will not read anything further. There is a split second where people are glancing at the page. Some headlines catch their eye, others don't. Why?

According to Caples, headlines that people actually READ (as opposed to headlines that are clever, or that advertising agencies like, or that clients or even copy writers think are good) Contain 4 important elements in approximate order of importance:

Self Interest
News
Curiosity
Quick, easy way

By self interest we mean not how great you think your product is, but what is in it for your customer. Cory Rudl used to always put it like "What's in it for me?" and that is the key thing. So the first rule is that a headline like "Our most amazing car is now available that goes 100 miles an hour" while having a "benefit statement" really is written from the point of view of the advertisor, not what is in it for the reader. "What is in it for me is actually missing.

"Zoom at over 100 MPH" is a much better subtle restatement of this headline.

I will continue this thread on Adwords copywriting in my next post.

Adwords Marketing News - adwords copy writing

Adwords Copy Writing and the Taguchi Sequence

Free Adwords Copy Writing Seminar

Adwords Copywriting Secrets for Beginners

Adwords Copy Writing Tips