photo by the brownhorse

Google AdWords is a whole different game than it used to be several years ago. The unsuspecting new player in this game is often chewed up and spit out within a few short weeks (or even days) of starting a new campaign. I can’t tell you how many people come to me upset and complaining how they lost their shirt with PPC advertising. And this is understandable, especially when you see your hard earned money dissolve into the vast cyber abyss faster than you can say “…where the hell did all my money go?”

It’s a good bet that most people starting out, and companies for that matter, fail miserably at AdWords – as well as with any of the other pay per click options available today. For those of us that have stayed relentlessly involved in this form of masochistic, humiliating and ultimately humbling form of advertising, you probably have come to the realization that just maybe, if the stars are aligned just right and it’s a leap year, that this is still the best advertising game around.

So I’ve put together a short list of “pointers” for the unsuspecting AdWords nubie who is ready to jump in and make their on-line fortune.

Be Smart: Jumping into PPC without doing your do diligence is just plain stupid. You’ll have a much better ROI going to Vegas – I kid you not. Read a lot. Read every thing you can get your hands on, and then read some more. For starters, one of my favorite books is AdWords for Dummies by Howie Jacobson. Not only will Howie give you a great 30,000 foot view of the AdWords landscape, he’s funny too.

Be Social: When you are starting out with PPC, you probably don’t even know what questions to ask. Spend some time on PPC / AdWords forums. If you don’t feel comfortable asking what you think may be unintelligent questions, see what others are asking, see what are areas of concern, and eventually get into the conversation. If you do ask too many or even one stupid question, you’ll be slapped around a little and told to review the FAQ’s or previous posts… unfortunately there’s a bit of an arrogance level with some of these ‘experts’, I guess that just comes with the territory.

Be Relentless: This just may be the most important pointer. So many people jump into PPC advertising thinking they can spend few dollars and shop for retirement property in Aruba. You’ll need to dive into this and give it your total attention. You’ll even need to fail miserably to see what does and does not work. You’ll need to see what trends are working, do spit testing of different types of ads, and build spreadsheets with your keywords lists. None of this is particularly difficult, but it is time consuming and frustrating. With that said, if your money holds out and your interest level, you will start to see positive result. It may take weeks, and probably months for this to happen. Go back and read that sentence again… weeks or months to see any kind of positive consistent PPC results.

Be Prepared: PPC is expensive and not for the faint of heart. If you have limited funds to start your PPC/AdWords campaign, you’ll need to be extra careful with your daily budgets. Be very watchful of your individual keyword cost per clicks (CPCs). It’s very easy to haphazardly raise your bid price from .30 cents to .75 cents in one fell swoop, but don’t do it, often raising bids by .5 cents or even a penny will get keywords accepted again.

Tools: There are more tools available today than my Uncle Ted has in his wood shed. Keyword tools are great and necessary, but don’t make the mistake that many of us have made and start signing up for too many of them all at once. They can be expensive and before you know it you’ve spent $200.00 and they will automatically pull that money from your credit card each and every months – money you’ll need for your PPC campaign!

Get Help: When I first started our with AdWords several years ago, I failed terrifically. I cursed Google until I was blue in the face and then starting using Yahoo search just to get even with them. Well I’m back Googling again now and have taken back control of my emotions. I also got smart (or least smarter) and invested my time and money to learn PPC from the true experts. For instance I attended “The PPC Summit.” The two day learning seminar was packed full of classes with real-world helpful tips and techniques to build successful PPC campaigns. It also offered the opportunity to meet and network with other business people in the same boat, I think I learned as much from you fellow attendees as I did from the instructors.

There are also businesses set up just for managing your PPC campaign for you. If you can afford it (it ain’t cheap), I strongly recommend you try this – especially for those just starting out. It is imperative that you find a company that will work with you on your own AdWords account and will not have a super long $$ commitment. If things don’t work out you will want to walk away with your AdWords campaign in your name – the data / information you will gain is yours and imperative to your ultimate success. You will also want to stay highly involved in the daily campaign management – and provide as much info as humanly possible about your products or services. All this will only help the management team create a more effective PPC campaign. This will also be a great way to learn the ins and outs of how to properly manage PPC campaigns if you want to take the reigns yourself later on.

Mark McGinnis, BringYouSuccess.com

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