I'm a UK adword convert after buying and reading your book. I'm running what I think is a reasonably successful campaign and learning all the time. Recently one of my competitors adverts has been carrying underneath it a little blue cross and the words "show products from ….http://co.uk" when you click on it his advert extends and you see four of his products complete with images and descriptions. I've tried using google help to find out how to do it for my adverts but have drawn a blank. Can you tell me how to access this feature please?

My reply:

You can access this feature by setting up a Google Merchant Center account and connecting it to your AdWords account.

For those of you who aren't sure what we're talking about, here's a quick visual tour:

The first and third ads both have "Product Plus Boxes", such as the reader describes in his question. When a searcher clicks the plus sign (at no charge to the advertiser), they see an array of relevant products:

If you sell physical products that people are searching for by name, make, model, function, or price, and you're not using Product Plus Box and your competitors are, you're at a definite disadvantage. 

So let's take a quick look inside AdWords to see how to set that up.

First, though, you need to get a Google Merchant Center account at http://www.google.com/merchants. Then you have to do all sorts of complicated things, like set up XML product feeds, upload products directly, or use the Google API to let Google know what you've got to sell.

Then, go into your AdWords Campaign settings to hook up the Merchant Center:

When you click the "Edit" link within the red box above, you're given an opportunity to connect the Merchant Center:

The bad news about this is that it isn't something you can put together in a couple of hours. The good news, of course, is that this isn't something your competitors can put together in a couple of hours, either. 

Oh, and one more thing

If your eyes were peeled as you were looking at the Google screen shots above, you may also have noticed the "[Merchant] is rated [Number of stars] on Google Products" feature next to select ads.

Right now, Google automatically shows this line if you have at least 30 reviews averaging 4 stars or higher. And the advertiser doesn't get charged for a click if the searcher goes to the review page. Here's an example of what you'd see if you clicked the amazon ad:

So as the title of this post says, if you're not moving with AdWords, you're falling back rather than standing still.

If you'd like help navigating the ever-changing world of AdWords from folks who spend a lot more time than you do fretting over these things, here are some options from the world of askhowie:

1. Get an AdWords X-Ray with me 
2. Hire me to tell you what to do with an AdWords Genie
3. Hire my online marketing company, The PPC Agency, to manage your AdWords and Facebook accounts on an ongoing basis
4. Join the Ring of Fire and get answers to your marketing questions, as well as interviews and group coaching calls, starting at $20/month

To get more clicks, more leads, more sales, more profit.

That's what people want out of their AdWords campaigns, after all.

But in order to achieve those goals, we have to do something counter-intuitive and maybe even a bit shocking:

We forget about them for 90% of the time at Camp Checkmate.

Why Focusing on Extrinsic Rewards is Counterproductive

In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink reveals one of the most robust – and least respected – findings from social science research:

The bigger the carrot (or the sharper the stick), the less well people perform complex tasks that require creativity.

In study after study, big rewards (or the threat of big penalties) hampered performance of complicated tasks.

And if you look up "complicated task requiring huge amounts of creativity" in the dictionary, you see a picture of yourself trying to market your business.

Narrow Focus is the Enemy of Creativity

When we are consciously motivated by the money we'll make if we get it right, we narrow our focus. We look for the straight path to success. We miss lateral opportunities.

And as marketers, thinking about our needs is the exact mindset that prevents us from thinking about – and thinking like – our ideal customers.

Camp Checkmate is One Big Bait and Switch

So even though you signed up for Camp Checkmate Chicago June 10-11 (you have signed up, right ;) because you want to increase your business, that's not the focus of the middle 90% of Camp Checkmate.

We start there, by looking at the competitive landscape (for about 15 minutes) and consciously looking for ways to outmaneuver and outsmart our competitors. We do that to get our subconscious minds oriented toward the ultimate goal.

And we end there, when we return from the land of creativity and breakthrough and divergent thinking during the last hour of Camp Checkmate. We harvest the fruit of our creative output and plan to deploy it in the days and weeks ahead.

But in the middle, we leave the ultimate goal at the door, and concentrate instead on creative curiosity and playful expression.

Because that's the mindset that produces the truly profitable breakthroughs.

Today's the last day for Early Bird pricing. Sign up by midnight tonight and save $800 off the full tuition.

Help Me Help You

Which of these models are you most interested in learning more about? Take this quick poll and I'll find guest experts who can show you how to advertise profitably and painlessly with  the new models:

Join me for a Camp Checkmate preview call Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 1:00pm EST, where I'll take you through a 30-minute exercise that will give you insight into what your market wants and isn't getting. 

You'll discover how to play the Google search results page like a 1955 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 guitar, so that you can cut through the clutter and become the obvious choice for your market.

Full disclosure: this is a preview call for the Camp Checkmate live event coming up in Durham NC in 3 weeks, on April 1-2. Frankly, I've done a sucky job of promotion so far, so my plan is to entice you with my best stuff and then make you an offer you can't refuse. 

Click here to register for the webinar.

You can Google his name and find photos of the operation, which I have chosen not to reproduce here in the interests of I just had lunch.

You can also read a fascinating description of the operation in the British Medical Journal.

This isn’t the sort of how-to information that one hopes will be useful some day, but it certainly puts the toil of writing AdWords ads in perspective.

And that, funnily enough, is what I want to talk about today.

Are You Removing Your Own Appendix?

I’m a huge believer in business owners taking responsibility for their marketing. They can outsource execution, but should be driving the strategic direction. They can outsource customer outreach, but must intimately understand the customer.

So when I tell you that you are probably the worst person to be writing your own AdWords ads, you are right to look at me quizzically.

But that’s what I’ve decided.

Writing your own marketing messages is in some ways very much like trying to remove your own appendix.

No matter your skill at the operation, you’re still a little too close to the action to be as effective as you might want.

To say nothing of the pain.

I discovered this by accident, during a mastermind group I was leading last year.

One of the participants, let’s call him Doug (even though his real name is Alfred), requested help with his ads. So the rest of us grilled Doug on his product, his ideal customer, his top competitors, etc.

And I must have been getting tired, because I suggested that we all take a few minutes working independently, writing ads and then handing them to Doug.

The results were astonishing.

From spinning his wheels in a Google Rut three inches wide and two miles deep, Doug now had a dozen radically new messages to test.

And many of them were brilliant.

And all of them were inside him, but he couldn’t get them out himself.

Much like that infected Russian appendix.

How to Outsource Marketing Messages

OK, so I’m not suggesting you just hire someone to write your marketing message for you.

You wouldn’t pay a doctor to insert an appendix, would you?

(This is a crappy and illogical metaphor; I’m aware of that. But I’m on a roll, it seems to me. So on I plow.)

No, what you want is someone who can draw insight and empathy out of you. Who can see with a clearer perspective what your customer cares about. Who can accurately see how you are truly different from your competitors.

You provide the raw material, based on your experience.

Your “marketing surgeon” provides a third-party view and fresh eyes.

Click here for a PDF tutorial on a 7-step exercise that you can do with a friend that will give you tremendous insight into your Ideal Customer.

Proof

At Perry Marshall’s exclusive Roundtable meeting in Orlando last month, I led a Checkmate exercise that culminated in members writing ads for each other.

Each participant had six minutes: two to describe their ideal customer, two to answer a specific set of questions from other members, and two to sit back and watch the other folks write new ads for them.

Here’s a short video montage of their reactions to this exercise:

The exercise worked so well because everyone in the room was oriented in Checkmate methodology (that took 20 minutes), everyone understood the power questions that lead to breakthroughs (10 minutes), and everyone was sincerely interested in being of service to each other (that’s thanks to Perry, and everyone’s upbringing – I can’t claim credit there ;)

Buoyed by the success of a brief Camp Checkmate exercise at Perry’s Roundtable, I am taking Camp Checkmate on the road.

But I’m keeping the workshops small, so I can manage the interactions and ensure that everyone leaves with new marketing copy and a polished and streamlined strategic direction.

As in, these workshops will sell out because there’s scarcity built right in.

I Outsource My Own Appendix Removal

I finally bit the bullet and hired a copywriter to help me describe Camp Checkmate. As fine a writer as my mother tells me I am, I was just getting in my own way. I wasn’t describing the benefits of Camp Checkmate clearly and powerfully. I was getting too caught up in process description, and not articulating the amazing outcome that everyone who has gone through the process has experienced.

So I’m waiting for the new and improved sales letter, which should be ready to go by March 1.

But that leaves me 3 weeks just sitting here staring at my own appendix, and my fingers are getting twitchy.

So if you’d like to be one of the few, the proud, the Camp Checkmate grads (note to self: look into Camp Checkmate t-shirts, hats and water bottles), then skip the rush when the good sales letter comes out, and reserve your place now.

Camp Checkmate Details

East Coast Camp: April 1-2, 2010: Durham NC

Midwest Camp: June 10-11, 2010: Chicago IL (with guest appearances by Perry Marshall and Glenn Livingston)

Cost: $1497, or three payments of $532, and you can bring one guest (significant business or life partner) for an extra $95 to cover the cost of food and materials. (Just click the "Camp Checkmate – Colleague" link at the bottom of the shopping cart page.)

Includes: Two full days of Camp Checkmate, full lunch and refreshments, course materials, the AdWords Checkmate Deluxe digital home study course, and one year of the Chess Club, a monthly coaching club for Checkmate grads.

Act Now, Save Big

Early bird discount for Gold Key Members, good until Friday February 12, 2010. When you click one of the links below, you'll save $500. As in, Camp Checkmate for just $997, or three payments of $366. 

Go here for the single payment plan.

Go here for the three-payment plan.

Once you register, I'll be in touch with all the details, and you'll get immediate electronic access to the complete Checkmate Deluxe package.

Looking forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming Camp Checkmate workshops!

They're also key components of menu psychology.

Check out this NY Times article by Sarah Kershaw on research into how menu decisions can affect restaurant profitability (thanks to Mark Hurst of CreativeGood.com for bringing it to my attention).

Decoys: A Powerful Marketing Technique

Using decoy items is one of my favorite marketing techniques. Writes Kershaw,

"Some restaurants use what researchers call decoys. For example, they may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other dishes look more reasonably priced; research shows that diners tend to order neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middle. Or restaurants might play up a profitable dish by using more appetizing adjectives and placing it next to a less profitable dish with less description so the contrast entices the diner to order the profitable dish."

Decoys work so well because they capitalize on our brain's powerful tendency to save energy when making decisions. Instead of considering all the possibilities the universe has to offer us, we focus on the select few right in front of our nose. As a marketer, if you can influence the set of options, you can influence the final decision.

That's the whole principle behind my AdWords Checkmate method, which I'm finally ready to share in all its glory with the online marketing community. 

To get the early bird scoop, go here.

A couple of attendees had nearly instantaneous "aha's" about ways they could connect better with their prospects. Very powerful and deep insights that will now begin to play out in all aspects of their marketing – assuming they make it past the AdWords Split Test Reality Check.

Why did this occur after a body exercise, when the participants had been thinking and strategizing about this market for years?

Where We Keep the Data

The body is a way to do an "end run" around the defense of the Reticular Activating System, the RAS. Basically, the RAS is a filter that takes the millions of bits of information that he have predecided are not pertinent to our big goals and shunts them away from consciousness, into the murky waters of the unconscious.

Here's Richard Bartlett, from page 132 of Matrix Energetics:

"The conscious mind is like a gatekeeper whose job is to filter and delete any information that doesn't fit the paradigm of what could be called a 'need to know basis.' If the information appears irrelevant… then it is usually relegated to the 'back room' of your subconscious. It [the subsconscious] can process something along the magnitude of eleven million bits of data per second, compared with the left brain's paltry sum of just seven bits per second (plus or minus two bits). So pay attention to your flashes of intuition and your hunches, for they are likely to be based on far more information than that of your normal conscious state. [italics in original]."

The body stores and accesses all the data that isn't present to our "need to know" mind, the one that reads marketing books and analyzes AdWords reports and types questions in the Ring of Fire. So tapping into the body can open that storehouse of information that we didn't realize was key, because of our preconceptions.

No "Faith" Required

And the nice thing about operating from intuition in the AdWords space, is that our insights and hunches are testable. We don't have to take anything on faith. As we test, we learn to trust certain intuitional experiences and modalities, at least to the point where we begin to routinely pay attention to them.

Accessing the Unconscious with Clients

I find that when I talk with clients and prospects on the phone, I often "get a hit" – some thought or image or sensation comes unbidden to my attention. For a long time, I wouldn't even notice it. Then, I would notice it fleetingly but push it out of the way: "Hey, I'm trying to concentrate here!"

Then I would notice it with curiosity: "Why am I seeing a submarine here?… What's the significance of the movie "Empire Records" to this client problem?… "Why is my right shoulder suddenly aching?"

Sometimes I mention it on the phone now. Sometimes I take the time to translate it into an innocent question, so the client doesn't think I'm crazy. Almost always, the image or sensation begins to make sense, pointing to some aspect of the situation that hadn't been communicated or acknowledged. A "larger container" or context in which to operate.

Anyway, the exercise took about 8 minutes, so what do you have to lose?

Got stories of intuitions, images, or sensations guiding you to wise action and positive outcomes? Please share them in the Comments section.

Ambiguous Keyword Example

nanny placement agency

Who's looking for that? Families looking for nannies, and nannies looking for jobs.

As you can see from the screenshot of the Google SERP (search engine results page), the advertisers focus on the families. There's more money to be made by placing a nanny with a family than by getting another candidate on your roster.

And a nanny looking for an agency is likely to dig into the website to find the "Apply for a Job" page. Because they might be more motivated and therefore willing to put up with more steps, it's logical that the advertiser would make them second banana to the family looking to hire Mary Poppins this minute.

So the landing page would focus primarily on parents looking for nannies, with a link somewhere for the nannies looking for families. Not a perfect solution, but the best one we have available to us.

Actually, had.

New: Ad SiteLinks

Google has just introduced a new AdWords feature called "SiteLinks" that allow you to specify up to 10 specific landing pages in addition to your main one. Here's an example:

It looks like this feature – currently in limited beta – is available only for ads in the premium positions – above the organic links on the left, rather than down the right side. And there's no word about partner or content networks at this point.

So soon you'll be able to run your nanny ad with some additional links:

For Parents    For Nannies
For Kids         For Julie Andrews

Keep a lookout for this new feature in your account – it will appear in campaign settings, under a tab named "Ad extensions".

And start watching the SERP for good and bad examples of this new feature.

In Germany, people bring their dogs everywhere. Stores, restaurants, you name it – Fido (or Augustus Sterk, as a Dresden dog might be called ;) is as welcome as their owner’s wallet.

But not here, in the punk section.

Isn’t This Store Losing a Lot of Business?

Possibly. A lot of dog owners might not only be discouraged by the sign, but actually offended by the image of the handgun with a finger on the trigger.

But in this neighborhood in Dresden, it seems that some percentage of residents might prefer to shop in a store that caters solely to two-leggeds, who don’t shed (much) or hump (indiscriminately).

So the “Go Away” sign for dog owners functions as a “Come In” sign for dog haters (or at least, dog-averse shoppers). It flags their attention by singling out another group for exclusion.

Are Your Ads For Everyone?

If you’re advertising to appeal to every single searcher on your keyword, you’re probably wasting a lot of money. First, by attracting non-ideal-prospects to your site. Folks who are unlikely to buy.

Second, by not attracting the group you don’t want to exclude.

The goth shop probably does a great business selling to disaffected, anti-establishment, unemployed youth who still live at home and can’t afford a dog. A group likely to smile at the gruesome image of Fido about to get wasted, and likely to buy the studded bracelets and obscene black t-shirts and thick-soled black boots on offer inside.

If you want to attract singles to your site, then announce, Not For Married People.

If you sell software to advanced users, let your searchers know that it’s not for beginners.

And so on.

Do You Know Your Ideal Customer?

This process of disqualification not only brings you fewer non-buyers and more buyers, but it does something even more subtle, basic and powerful:

It helps you identify and target your ideal customer.

Once you know who you’re selling to (and you’ve given up the fantasy notion that you can sell to everyone), everything about your marketing gets easier.

Discover how to use the web and a few minutes of smart research to discover your ideal customer in the upcoming Traffic Surge course. Starts October 7, 2009.

If you aren’t getting enough qualified traffic to your site (i.e., not enough impressions or clicks, or the wrong impressions and clicks), then Traffic Surge will turn your fortunes around in eight weeks. Guaranteed.

Learn more about Traffic Surge and sign up here.