This post is probably going to be very long, but if you can understand and implement it, it is going to make your business successful, here we go…
I am going to assume your market is going to be in the US, that’s why you are using adwords instead of YSM, as you are probably aware, YSM is more popular in Taiwan.
Google has the most volume, but also mostly researchers looking for info, go ahead and do your keyword research and test your keywords on yahoo/bing. As far as conversion rate goes, yahoo/bing tops google, but google has volume. yahoo/bing is also cheaper.
Tip 1 - Test your keywords in bing/yahoo, find out what’s converting then import the converting keywords over to google
PPC algorithm goes like this… They give you some initial impressions depending on your keyword set to gauge your
- ad relevance
- ad ctr (click through rate)
after the initial stage, they assign you a quality score, if your ad is not related to your product or your ad not getting clicks (they are not making money), your quality score goes to shit and they either stop serving your ad or they you have to bid crazy high bid to get impression.
If you keep creating ad just to get free impressions, after a few sets of ads, your account will be banned and you can kiss your adword account goodbye and you won’t be able to create another one if you are banned. They track IP/credit card and everything to stop you from creating another account.
Tip 2 - forget about using ppc advertising for exposure, it is for performance marketers or branders with huge budget
If you want exposure, you are better off finding blogs and forums and buy banner spaces directly from the owners, cheaper, you can negotiate if you buy bulk, also no quality score bullshit you gotta worry about.
Set up your tracking, track every keyword from ad click to thank you page, split test everything and optimize your website. If you don’t have those set up, forget about ppc advertising.
Tip 3 - Track every single click and highly optimize your site for conversion.
Some tips on how to pick converting keywords, take coffee for example.
People searching for coffee - browsing mode, looking to buy/drink some coffee, doing research
People searching for starbucks coffee - research mode, they are done w/ initial research, decided they want starbucks coffee
People searching for Caramel Macchiato - buying mode, they are done with research, know what they want, ready to buy
Look at everything at the broad scale, think like a consumer, think about the entire research process when people buying your product, and find your golden, converting keyword from there. Set your base with converting keywords, so you don’t lose money like crazy from advertising, once you have your base set, expand it to browsing mode keywords for volume.
Tip 4 - Set your base w/ converting keywords and expand from there for volume.
Forget about broad match and phrase match, just do exact match then expand to phrase match and broad match once you know your ppc game inside out. You may not get as much volume from exact match, but unless you have a huge budget, just stick with exact match.
Tip 5 - exact match only at beginning
There is way more internet marketing / advertising you can do than just PPC, learning curve is going to be huge. Do not buy anything from those fucking gurus, they are useless, you can find everything on the internet for free and the best way to learn is to just spend money and test.
Some software you will need to be able to succeed.
Google analytics
google website optimizer
prosper202 <-- gear more towards affiliates, but it is a great tracking tool
alexa.com, google ad planner and quantcast
good luck in your new business.