A reader whose entire online business consists of a $20 book on a health topic wants to know how she can compete, AdWordsily, against big pharmaceutical companies bidding on the same keywords.

My answer: Read the rest of this entry »

If you ever wanted to run image ads on the content network (that is, ads made up of pictures rather than plain text), you needed to engage the services of a graphic designer. And if you wanted to test different versions of an image ad, you probably ended up spending hundreds or thousands of bucks on graphic design.

Those days are over, my friend (gee, who am I channeling?). Google has just released a "Display Ad Creator" that, allegedly, allows even graphically impaired advertisers like me to create beautiful and effective image ads.

Will I be able to hack it? Will you? Watch this 5-minute video tutorial:

http://askhowie.com/lomsplus/display-ads

Don’t forget to check out the sneaky link below the video… :)

It turns out that a blog install on GoDaddy is pretty quick and easy. Just log in to your account, find "Hosting" and then at the top, click the "Manage Apps" button.

Choose "Blog" and then "WordPress" from the dropdown menu:

Follow the wizard instructions, making sure you write down your user names and passwords. Jackie Davis of Roomscape.com wants to remind you that these user names and passwords are case sensitive!

Why am I telling you this? Because a blog is one of the best ways to elevate your site in Google’s eyes. If you’re having quality score issues with AdWords, it may be because Google doesn’t think much of your content. A blog is the quickest and most effective way to start delivering high quality content in a search engine friendly format.

So Go Forth and Blog!

A reader reaches out for help:

What does it mean if Google AdWords says your average position is 5.8, when in fact, it’s not? When I type in the keyword [actual keyword omitted], it doesn’t show on the first several pages of results. What’s the scoop?

My response:

Read the rest of this entry »

From the “unintentional irony” department, comes this Google ad that showed up next to my gmail:

I haven’t taken the time to visit the site, but would you trust them? :)

And why are they throwing away money on AdWords?

Let the consumer of marketing education beware, and be aware of “Do as I say, not as I do” marketing…

Two noteworthy pieces of mail today, both of which rocked my self-image:

1. My AARP card (for gosh sake, I’m not even 44 yet - where do these people get their mailing list?)

It would have to be a pretty big discount for me to whip that thing out at Whole Foods or Costco or Priscilla’s! Talk to me in 7 years, AARP!

2. Three copies of AdWords Für Dummies - the long-awaited German translation of AdWords For Dummies. I heard a rumor that in Bad Godesberg, the line at the DBH bookstore stretched all the way from the checkout counter to the little rack of Godiva chocolates and greeting cards right next to the checkout counter.

It’s a weird feeling, looking at this book I supposedly wrote, not being able to understand a word. I haven’t felt this way since I found my PhD dissertation while cleaning the house looking for my squash racquet. 

The other thing is, the Google gift card on this book is 25 Euro, which is like $7000 post Lehman and AIG. That makes AdWords Für Dummies an attractive investment instrument. Plus a great baby shower item, graduation present, and Bar Mitzvah and communion gift.

Me, I’m opening a Swiss bank account and filling it with AdWords Für Dummies and Godiva chocolate. When that AARP card kicks in, I’ll be sitting pretty.

Last night I was showing my almost 9-year-old son the bass guitar intro to "Brown Eyed Girl" (you know, "da da da da-da, da da da da-da, da da da da-da da, da da-da").

In my mind, I’m racing ahead to the family band performing at some large outdoor arena (I probably watched a few too many Partridge Family episodes in my youth), and I assume that E gets that the last "da  da-da" is the bridge, the part that allows the whole thing to repeat. But he doesn’t. After we finish playing the riff once (and I’m trying my best not to burst out in a traumatizing "Yooouuuu…." in the middle), I go into it again.

But E wants to know what to do next. 

"Just start over," I explain impatiently, eager to get to the "sha la la la la la la la" part.

"From where?" he wonders.

Sometimes the simplest things aren’t obvious. And my lyrical spasms aren’t helping; they’re just confusing and distracting him. ("Do you remember when…")

So to teach him the concept of the repeating chord structure, we have to set Van aside and pick up a nice, simple, two-chord tune, "Hush, Little Baby." Not quite as  cool as Van the Man, but much more useful to an aspiring rocker in that moment.

So in honor of aspiring AdWords rockers everywhere, today’s HowTo blog post is dedicated to a reader who asks a very fundamental question: "How do I edit my ad?"

How to Edit an Ad

1. Log in to your AdWords account.

2. Navigate via the top tab to "Campaign Management >> Campaign Summary".

3. Click the name of the campaign that contains the ad you want to edit.

4. Click the name of the ad group that contains the ad you want to edit.

5. Near the top left, you’ll see one of your ads. Below that ad, click the tiny link that says, "View all." 

You’ll now be in the Ad Variations tab:

6. Click the "Edit" link to the right of the ad you want to edit. You’ll then open the ad for editing:

7. Change anything you like in the headline, description lines, display or destination URLs, and click "Save Ad".

That’s it! Now you never have to sing about AdWords, "So hard to find my way / Now that I’m all on my own."

And here’s a short video that shows the same thing:

 
How to Edit and Create New AdWords Ads
Uploaded by askhowie

Here’s an excellent question from a reader:

I purchased AdWords for Dummies and have dutifully read the first 116 pages. I have paused to ask one overarching question I hope you can answer. It appears to me that the primary audience for your book is someone working on a national AdWords campaign – someone who would like to find a niche, design a product around it, and exploit the power of AdWords to dominate that market. What about those of us who have an existing local business and want to peddle our wares? So far it seems like most of the analytics you describe depend on more data than, for example, a [type of professional] in a city of 200,000 people is likely to accrue (before the next ice age).

There are always useful web analytics you can look at. I agree that some types of testing cannot be done in a small market, but others can, and the harder it is and the longer it takes, the more likely that your competitors will not avail themselves of this data.

For example: landing page bounce rate and time on page. Improve those two metrics, and you will almost certainly increase sales and ROI. And you can get those numbers from a very small sample size.

Split test for how far down the page your visitors read, or for how long they stay on the page. You may not have enough traffic to split test for sales, but look for meaningful proxy measures - steps on the way to sales. What page will a hot prospect almost always look at? Split test ads for page views. Eliminate keywords that don’t lead to those page views.

Remember Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? He had a very small sample (one - Andie McDowell’s character), but he had patience and nothing but time on his hands. And so his slow split testing (”… no white chocolate”) eventually paid off.

I spoke this morning with Imal Wagner, my publicist, about ways to get online and offline PR for any size business.

I have to admit, when I hired Imal to sell loads of books for me, I just did what she said, showed up for interviews, and didn’t pay much attention to what she was doing and how she did it.

So this 25 minute call was my attempt to get up to speed. AdWords is great, but when the keywords are too competitive or expensive, or when you’re just starting out on a small budget, it’s nice to have ways to get traffic that just require focus, empathy and creativity, without the credit card.

In this interview, Imal shares her expertise about becoming an "A-list" blogger in your industry, pitching the media on your stories and interviews, and getting booked on radio shows.

Pay special attention to the story about the kid who was living in his parents’ basement and was trying to figure out how to pay for his education. If Imal’s methods worked for him, they can work for the rest of us as well.

Imal’s been working with high-profile clients for a long time, and today she’s opening up her practice to folks who want to learn how to do their own PR, rather than hire it out. Rather than send you to a long sales letter about her 12-week group coaching program, I invite you to email Imal (say that 5 times fast!) to set up a conversation to determine if her program is right for you.

You can reach her at imalwagner AT gmail DOT com.

Oh, and here are the links Imal mentioned about where to find radio stations:

wsradio.com - compendium of Internet Radio Shows

radio-locator.com - searchable list of every radio station in the US and Canada

A reader wonders:

Hi Howie,

I read your book and I found it very helpful. However I have a question regarding Account History and Quality Scores. I understand that account history affects quality scores. Being new to Google Adwords, I inevitably made some mistakes that affected my ad performance.

I bought your book due to my difficulties with Adwords, however, the mistakes that I have already made have obviously affected my account history.

I have about three weeks worth of running ads and semi poor performance. I understand that it is sometimes reccommended that someone scraps their old account and starts fresh.

My question is, what is the length of poor account history that would typically warrant someone to start a new account? Is two or three weeks too short? Too long?

Thank you very much for your help and writing such an insightful book!

My response:

Thanks for your kind words - that’s exactly the sort of thing I love reading in an amazon review (hint hint :) What was your question again?

Oh, yeah, the quality of the entire account.

The short answer is, I don’t know how Google calculates quality score for the entire account. They’re not telling. But if I were them, I wouldn’t penalize new advertisers for their beginner mistakes.

Google has the market capitalization of a small solar system, and almost all that revenue comes from AdWords. They want their new advertisers to succeed, and to be happy and feel good.

So I wouldn’t advise you to scrap your existing account just because of quality issues. If it’s a complete mess, and you’d rather set fire to it than clean it up, by all means use the $25 gift card at the back of the book and start afresh. But it’s probably not necessary from a quality perspective.

Sudden Thought:

It depends what sorts of mistakes you’ve been making. Hopefully they’re not the "Oops, I’ve been advertising online porn sites that harvest credit card numbers and sell them to identity thieves" variety. If Google thinks you’re being a bad boy on purpose, they’re much less forgiving than if they just see you as clueless.

Hope this helps!