When I attended PPC Classroom LIVE last year I had a chance to see Kirt Christensen, the renowned Adwords expert talk, and I also had a rare opportunity to talk to him about how he does Adwords.
Frankly, I was blown away, and since I’ve implemented some significant shifts in my thinking and strategy as it applies to Adwords.
Here’s one BIG idea/strategy I was able to steal from Kirt :
Setup a system to continually split test ALL of your Google Adwords Ads.
The advantages of actually doing this are ENORMOUS. First off 99% of advertisers and affilaites do NOT do this. If you’re really serious you may split test your ads 5-10 times before you settle on a winner, but not continually.
Small changes to your Google ads, such as changing one word, adding a question mark, etc can potentially make a HUGE difference in your CTR. Overtime if you’re continually improving your CTR and your landing page quality score (I’ll get into that later), you’ll BLOW AWAY your competitors by having the best quality score.
So how exactly do you setup a system to continually split test your ads?
It’s not as hard as you think! Here’s how you do it in a nutshell :
- Sign up for Winner Alert. Winner Alert is a program that sends you weekly (or daily) reports of all the split tests in your account that have winning ads within a certainty of 95-99%. It takes 5 minutes to setup.
- Have the winner alert reports sent to an outsourcer and have then write a new ads for each winning ad by making a small change : switching description line 1 & 2, adding a question mark to the headline, etc, etc. If you have access to a copywriter and can afford the fee, have the copywriter write new compelling ads once you’ve gone through the whole gamut of possible small changes to your ad.
- Have your copywriter/outsourcer send you a file with : the winning ads, the new ads that are to compete with the winning ads, and the losing ads to be deleted. Make sure they’re all in Adwords editor format so you can quickly delete the losing ads and upload the winning ads through Adwords Editor. This is 5 minutes a week of work!
- Repeat the above process every week.
The real key here is understanding that you if want to win in the Adwords game long term you’ve go to think in terms of continually improvement otherwise you’re as good as dead.
Do YOU have a system in place to continually split test your ads, split your landing pages, and improve you landing page quality score?
Hi Amit,
I have subscribed to your blog since from some time and let me tell you that yours is a straight talk, direct from the heart and not beating-about-the-bush stuff on affiliate marketing.
Am very much new in this arena…I would like to go through each and every post of yours whenever i can squeeze time from my schedule.
Well seeing you, I just wonder how come all Amit do wonders on the net. Whether its Amit Agarwal on labnol, Amit Varma on IndiaUncut or yourself
Suggestion: Why don’t you publicize this blog more…might be through Adwords or (well… you are a better marketer)
Hey Amit,
You’re far too kind my friend
Hope your blog readers take this post to heart, it’s one of the easiest ways to reach that elusive “tipping point” with their Adwords campaigns!
Keep up the great work on this blog, I check it daily, waiting for the next morsel that you so generously dish out!
Kirt
I am a brand new subscriber, mainly thanks to this post, everybody says that you need to split test, but you are the first to actually tell us how to do it. I am gonna be sure to implement this on a couple of my campaigns.
Why anyone would build a business that solely relies on Google simply baffles me.
Big tip for those trying to make money on Adwords:
If you do not have a lot of cash and access to all of the business systems, outsourcing and networking in place (like Amit does) You will lose.
What Amit does not tell you about is the underlying structure of his business which benefits from some heavy hitters in the marketing world and costs a pretty penny to be sure.
The faster you realize that Google is the LAST place you want to get your traffic, the better off you will be.
Why would you try and build a business where you rely on a company who can change their algorithm or attitude at the drop of a dime and shut off your revenue instantly? Like building a business on quicksand.
hey JL,
I agree to you in one way. But i suppose Amit and the rest of the super affiliates would love Google’s sudden change of algorithm because it shuts off competitors for them and for Amit and the rest, they are aiming to build long term business that is following closely to Google’s changes so that they will never be eliminated and those people who are only looking for profits will have a hard time catching up with Google.
Am i right to say that Amit?
The key is to build long term business so that you never have to worry about Google slap or any other slap that comes about because you already have a solid foundation that will unslapped everything for you.
Think about it!
Regards,
Ivan Ong
http://ivan-ong.com
A Dream To Make A Full Time Income Online
Hello.
Amit, I always look forward to reading your blog, JL your right on the money. I use adwords and Loose a lot, I can get the clicks and write ads, split test, tight adgroups always have a good qualty score but the sales are far and few
I believe I do all the right things, buy domains for the top programs that I promote, but sales are nonexsistent for me, what the Hell am I missing. I know if I stick with it I can break on through to the other side, never quit! Everrrr.
Cheers,
Jim Novak
Hi Amit, I’m sure you’ve posted it before, but do you have a recommended product for split testing landing pages? I’m coming at this from a CB publisher’s perspective, but I’m relatively new at this. I would assume the same techniques for testing a landing page would apply to my pitch page. Thanks so much again for your posts!
Split testing is a shift in thinking? Welcome to 2004!
I call BS on all these “Supper Affiliate” Blogs.
I also agree with JL. And love how all these blog like to stress how “When I started out, I was dirt poor”
Well, I guess if having an extra $500 a month laying around to blow on adwords is dirt poor, then I wonder what the next step down is. Because that would make me beyond dirt poor.
No “super affiliate” runs their own PPC campaigns (if they still do, they are a moron).
Focus on creating a BUSINESS
That means:
-You DO NOT want to become a PPC expert. You want to hire people who are already experts to do it for you. No cash? Get a loan. If you think you can go from zero to multi millionaire without significant investment, you are doomed.
-Need content or niche research. OUTSOURCE IT.
-STOP READING AM eBooks and biting on every opportunity you see. IM is a hugely profitable niche for ESTABLISHED MARKETERS. Never forget that when you are in the endless eBook buying phase, you are the market and you are giving them money because they are marketing to you.
-No one will EVER give you their secrets. Even Amit on this blog. You think that you are getting the keys to the kingdom but all this blog is is generalities. Everything he suggests you do is OUTSOURCED.
-Work ON your business not IN it.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
This article is another great example of how this site is continually delivering great value. One payoff from learning PPC is that the principles can carryover and be applied to your organic search program.