Sunday, February 20, 2005
Adword Test Results Update
I'm continuing to test Reese's Adwords headline method on my Corey Rudl review site. So far in 2005, Reese is beating my control ads in 3 out of 4 campaigns.
In Campaign #1: My control ad is currently getting a CTR (click-through-ratio) of 8.5% with a CDC (cost per click) of $0.57. The ad using Reese's method is getting a CTR of 9.9% with a CDC of $0.55. (Reese wins by 1.4%, 2 cents per click.)
In Campaign #1: My control ad is currently getting a CTR (click-through-ratio) of 8.5% with a CDC (cost per click) of $0.57. The ad using Reese's method is getting a CTR of 9.9% with a CDC of $0.55. (Reese wins by 1.4%, 2 cents per click.)
In Campaign #2:My control - CTR 4.0% CPC $.0.48 Reese Example - CTR 6.5% CPC $.0.42 (Reese wins by 2.5%, 6 cents per click)
In Campaign #3:My control - CTR 10.3% CPC $.0.14 Reese Example - CTR 8.6% CPC $.0.14 (My control wins CTR by 1.7%, ties Reese for CPC)
In Campaign #4:My control - CTR 2.9% CPC $.0.27 - Reese Example - CTR 3.5% CPC $.0.27(Reese wins CTR by .6%, ties control for CPC)
I also launched a test for my Adwords campaign for MasterSiteReviewer.com
In Campaign #4:My Ad - CTR 4.9% CPC $0.62 - Reese Example - CTR 4.3% CPC $.0.67 (I win CTR by .6% , 5 cents per click)
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Reese's tactics applied to another website
Earlier, I reported that one of John's key suggestions for writing Adword ads wasn't performing well for me at all. In addition to the tests I ran on http://www.Create-Ultimate-Ebooks.com, I also tested the techniques in my Adwords campaigns for http://www.RudlReport.com.
Initially, the results didn't show me any gains. However, over time, his suggestions have increased my click through ratios in some campaigns.
In Campaign #1: My control ad is currently getting a CTR (click-through-ratio) of 8.2% with a CDC (cost per click) of $0.59.
The ad using Reese's method is getting a CTR of 8.4% with a CDC of $0.53.
In Campaign #2:
My control - CTR 9.3% CPC $.0.37
Reese Example - CTR 5.3% CPC $.0.45
In Campaign #3:
My control - CTR 2.9% CPC $.0.26
Reese Example - CTR 3.5% CPC $.0.25
In Campaign #4:
My control - CTR 8.1% CPC $.0.14
Reese Example - CTR 10.5% CPC $.0.18
I'm starting to test this in more of my campaigns and will report the results after I've had a significant enough amount of clicks.
Bottom Line:
In Campaign #1, Reese's method saved me 6 cents per click over a 5 week period. That particular campaign had 738 clicks last month. So, Reese's method should save me $44.28 per month for that campaign.
In Campaign #2, I had 240 clicks last month and saved me 8 cents per click. So, that's $19.20.
In Campaign #3, I had 83 clicks last month with a 1 cent savings so only 83 cents total.
In Campaign #4, I had 42 clicks last month with a 4 cent per click savings. So, that's $1.68.
Add the numbers and Reese's method saves me $65.99 per month for these four campaigns. At that rate, I'd recoup my $1,000 investment in John's course in just over 15 months. However, these numbers only represent 4 campaigns. I run dozens of Adwords campaigns. If I can get similar results on all of them, my monthly savings will be far higher.
And, of course, we're not talking about the impact of John's entire course, this is just one technique.
Does that mean everyone should run out and buy his course? No. Especially not if you're a newbie and $1,000 means going into debt. However, if you're using Adwords or Overture and spending $500 or more per month, this single technique from Traffic Secrets will probably help you cut your Adwords bill by 20% or more.
I'll continue to apply this and other Reese tactics to my campaigns and report the results. Although my earlier comments would seem to suggest that Reese course wasn't worth it, in retrospect, the mistake I made may have been testing it on a site that's not particularly suited to Google Adwords.
Now, I'm testing Reese's tactics against websites where I've already been using Adwords successfully. That's one reason I'm suggesting that if you currently run successful PPC campaigns, you're a better candidate for Traffic Secrets than a newbie.
If you're just starting out, try experimenting with PPC first on your own to see what kind of results you get before trying Traffic Secrets. This is assuming you limit your daily budgets in Adwords. Don't spend $1,000 experimenting with Adwords if you don't know what you're doing. Newbies can also deposit $299 in an Adwords account and Google will setup your initial campaigns for you. That may be a good way to test the waters.
That's all for now...
Bill
Initially, the results didn't show me any gains. However, over time, his suggestions have increased my click through ratios in some campaigns.
In Campaign #1: My control ad is currently getting a CTR (click-through-ratio) of 8.2% with a CDC (cost per click) of $0.59.
The ad using Reese's method is getting a CTR of 8.4% with a CDC of $0.53.
In Campaign #2:
My control - CTR 9.3% CPC $.0.37
Reese Example - CTR 5.3% CPC $.0.45
In Campaign #3:
My control - CTR 2.9% CPC $.0.26
Reese Example - CTR 3.5% CPC $.0.25
In Campaign #4:
My control - CTR 8.1% CPC $.0.14
Reese Example - CTR 10.5% CPC $.0.18
I'm starting to test this in more of my campaigns and will report the results after I've had a significant enough amount of clicks.
Bottom Line:
In Campaign #1, Reese's method saved me 6 cents per click over a 5 week period. That particular campaign had 738 clicks last month. So, Reese's method should save me $44.28 per month for that campaign.
In Campaign #2, I had 240 clicks last month and saved me 8 cents per click. So, that's $19.20.
In Campaign #3, I had 83 clicks last month with a 1 cent savings so only 83 cents total.
In Campaign #4, I had 42 clicks last month with a 4 cent per click savings. So, that's $1.68.
Add the numbers and Reese's method saves me $65.99 per month for these four campaigns. At that rate, I'd recoup my $1,000 investment in John's course in just over 15 months. However, these numbers only represent 4 campaigns. I run dozens of Adwords campaigns. If I can get similar results on all of them, my monthly savings will be far higher.
And, of course, we're not talking about the impact of John's entire course, this is just one technique.
Does that mean everyone should run out and buy his course? No. Especially not if you're a newbie and $1,000 means going into debt. However, if you're using Adwords or Overture and spending $500 or more per month, this single technique from Traffic Secrets will probably help you cut your Adwords bill by 20% or more.
I'll continue to apply this and other Reese tactics to my campaigns and report the results. Although my earlier comments would seem to suggest that Reese course wasn't worth it, in retrospect, the mistake I made may have been testing it on a site that's not particularly suited to Google Adwords.
Now, I'm testing Reese's tactics against websites where I've already been using Adwords successfully. That's one reason I'm suggesting that if you currently run successful PPC campaigns, you're a better candidate for Traffic Secrets than a newbie.
If you're just starting out, try experimenting with PPC first on your own to see what kind of results you get before trying Traffic Secrets. This is assuming you limit your daily budgets in Adwords. Don't spend $1,000 experimenting with Adwords if you don't know what you're doing. Newbies can also deposit $299 in an Adwords account and Google will setup your initial campaigns for you. That may be a good way to test the waters.
That's all for now...
Bill
Friday, January 14, 2005
Update & Project On Hold
This week, I pulled the plug on the Traffic Secrets experiment. In December, we ran up well over $500 in Adwords expenses for the http://www.create-ultimate-ebooks.com campaign. Yet that campaign yielded only a single $79 sale. A great deal of the expense was coming from one or two keywords or phrases that were costing around $1.50 per-click.
I've got competitors in this niche that are comfortable spending $3.50 or more per click. I've seen their products and services and, in my opinion, they're losing money but seem to be corporations where the person doing the bidding isn't the person who's actually paying the bills.
At the same time we've been running this PPC campaign, other promotional methods like writing articles, marketing to our own lists, etc. have yielded thousands of dollars in sales. While I'm not convinced PPC won't work for this particular site, it definitely has not been profitable to date. When we ran up another $200 in PPC costs for the site in January without a single sale, I temporarily paused the campaign.
Does that mean John Reese's methods won't work? Not necessarily. John suggests adding thousands of low-cost keywords to your campaign. With the holidays and other projects in the works, I have not been able to devote more time to doing further keyword research and even finishing John's course.
One conclusion I have made to date that I can share with you. In Traffic Secrets, John says that making your Adwords headline a question will yield a higher click-through-ratio than a statement style headline. In other words using a headline like "New to Internet Marketing?" rather than "Internet Marketing Secrets". John said the question headline would blow away the traditional ad.
I tried this on several of my campaigns and the results were mixed. In some cases, the question style headline outpulled the traditional headline but just as often, the reverse was true.
Based on what I've seen so far, I think that Traffic Secrets would be far more effective outside the 'make money online' niche. For one thing, I'd be willing to bet that 75% or more of the people using this course will be marketing to that audience. With a couple of exceptions, I'm not sure that PPC is the most effective way to promote a 'make money online' type of product.
Also, there's been a few noticeable changes since this course was released. For one, costs have been rising steadily. Across the board, PPC advertisers reported cost increases of over 20% in December alone. Some say this is due to holiday advertising. Personally, I think this is just the result of more and more people using Adwords.
For my longest running Google Campaigns (running since early 2003), I've seen costs triple for the same amount of traffic. In certain niches, I still find Adwords to be profitable but it is becoming quite a bit more expensive than it used to be.
Bottom Line: It would be unfair to pan this course without having finished it and applied all of John Reese's tactics. I'd like to try this again with a site that promotes a product outside the 'make money online niche'. In the meantime, I'll consider applying Reese's tactics to see if I can improve other successful PPC campaigns I'm already running.
When I do, you'll see the results here.
Bill
I've got competitors in this niche that are comfortable spending $3.50 or more per click. I've seen their products and services and, in my opinion, they're losing money but seem to be corporations where the person doing the bidding isn't the person who's actually paying the bills.
At the same time we've been running this PPC campaign, other promotional methods like writing articles, marketing to our own lists, etc. have yielded thousands of dollars in sales. While I'm not convinced PPC won't work for this particular site, it definitely has not been profitable to date. When we ran up another $200 in PPC costs for the site in January without a single sale, I temporarily paused the campaign.
Does that mean John Reese's methods won't work? Not necessarily. John suggests adding thousands of low-cost keywords to your campaign. With the holidays and other projects in the works, I have not been able to devote more time to doing further keyword research and even finishing John's course.
One conclusion I have made to date that I can share with you. In Traffic Secrets, John says that making your Adwords headline a question will yield a higher click-through-ratio than a statement style headline. In other words using a headline like "New to Internet Marketing?" rather than "Internet Marketing Secrets". John said the question headline would blow away the traditional ad.
I tried this on several of my campaigns and the results were mixed. In some cases, the question style headline outpulled the traditional headline but just as often, the reverse was true.
Based on what I've seen so far, I think that Traffic Secrets would be far more effective outside the 'make money online' niche. For one thing, I'd be willing to bet that 75% or more of the people using this course will be marketing to that audience. With a couple of exceptions, I'm not sure that PPC is the most effective way to promote a 'make money online' type of product.
Also, there's been a few noticeable changes since this course was released. For one, costs have been rising steadily. Across the board, PPC advertisers reported cost increases of over 20% in December alone. Some say this is due to holiday advertising. Personally, I think this is just the result of more and more people using Adwords.
For my longest running Google Campaigns (running since early 2003), I've seen costs triple for the same amount of traffic. In certain niches, I still find Adwords to be profitable but it is becoming quite a bit more expensive than it used to be.
Bottom Line: It would be unfair to pan this course without having finished it and applied all of John Reese's tactics. I'd like to try this again with a site that promotes a product outside the 'make money online niche'. In the meantime, I'll consider applying Reese's tactics to see if I can improve other successful PPC campaigns I'm already running.
When I do, you'll see the results here.
Bill
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Update
So far, the results have been less than stellar. I used John's suggestions for split testing ads in Adwords, something I'd never done before. He also made a couple of suggestions regarding how to word your headlines in those ads. My results were quite different from his.
For the most popular keyword phrase, "how to write a book", using the method he said always gets the best results for his ads, generated the lowest results for me. That ad generated a mere
0.8 CTR (click-thru ratio) although it did offer the lowest CPC (cost-per-click) at .78 per click of the three ads I tested.
What I would say was his 2nd strongest recommendation (which is what I've been doing myself for quite a while) was the winner with a 6.4% CTR although the CPC was almost double at $1.47. The 2nd place ad got a 1.7% CTR and had a $1.35 CPC. All three ads used a negative qualifier, which was displaying the price in the ad to limit the CTR to serious buyers. Without that negative qualifier, the costs were getting out of control.
This particular campaign to date (and this includes the period before I added the price to the listings) has generated the following results:
[How to write a book]
Total Clicks: 188
Avg. CTR: 6.0% (CTR=Click Thru Ratio)
Avg. CPC: $1.51 (CPC=Cost Per Click)
Avg. Rank: 2.0
Total Cost: $283.50
Total Sales: 0 ($0)
The 2nd most productive campaign (in terms of traffic), has generated
[Internet Marketing]
Total Clicks: 102
Avg. CTR: 0.7%
Avg. CPC: $1.13
Avg. Rank: 7.6
Total Cost: $115.59
Total Sales: 1 ($79)
The entire Adwords campaign to date for http:www.create-ultimate-ebooks.com has generated:
Time Frame: Dec 8-21
Total Clicks: 441
Avg. CTR: 1.2%
Avg. CPC: $1.10
Total Cost: $486.48
Total Sales: 1 ($79)
Net Gain/Loss: -$407.48
The lion's share of the costs went to the first two campaigns. The other 40 or so campaigns have generated very little traffic or expense so far.
I have not been able to spend as much time on this campaign as I'd like and I have not finished the course yet. As you can see, the results so far, have been less than satisfactory.
Let's compare these results to my regular monthly Adwords campaigns for my one of my other websites.
Time Frame: Dec 8-21
Total Clicks: 498
Avg. CTR: 3.7%
Avg. CPC: $0.51
Total Cost: $253.64
Total Sales: 41 ($704.20)
Net Gain/Loss: $450.56
Now this campaign is for a lower price product and it's a group of campaigns that I've been testing and tweaking for 2 years so the results should be better. It's also sending traffic to a sales letter I've been testing and tweaking for almost three years, too. The sales letter at Create-Ultimate-Ebooks.com isn't bad but it hasn't been updated at all since I wrote it a few weeks ago.
I have to say, though, that after 3 weeks, my tests using what I've learned from Traffic Secrets have cost me over $400, while my existing campaigns generated $450.56 (and that's not counting the additional backend income from that site).
Hopefully, with more testing and tweaking and adding more keywords, we can turn this around.
That's all for now...
Bill Hibbler
For the most popular keyword phrase, "how to write a book", using the method he said always gets the best results for his ads, generated the lowest results for me. That ad generated a mere
0.8 CTR (click-thru ratio) although it did offer the lowest CPC (cost-per-click) at .78 per click of the three ads I tested.
What I would say was his 2nd strongest recommendation (which is what I've been doing myself for quite a while) was the winner with a 6.4% CTR although the CPC was almost double at $1.47. The 2nd place ad got a 1.7% CTR and had a $1.35 CPC. All three ads used a negative qualifier, which was displaying the price in the ad to limit the CTR to serious buyers. Without that negative qualifier, the costs were getting out of control.
This particular campaign to date (and this includes the period before I added the price to the listings) has generated the following results:
[How to write a book]
Total Clicks: 188
Avg. CTR: 6.0% (CTR=Click Thru Ratio)
Avg. CPC: $1.51 (CPC=Cost Per Click)
Avg. Rank: 2.0
Total Cost: $283.50
Total Sales: 0 ($0)
The 2nd most productive campaign (in terms of traffic), has generated
[Internet Marketing]
Total Clicks: 102
Avg. CTR: 0.7%
Avg. CPC: $1.13
Avg. Rank: 7.6
Total Cost: $115.59
Total Sales: 1 ($79)
The entire Adwords campaign to date for http:www.create-ultimate-ebooks.com has generated:
Time Frame: Dec 8-21
Total Clicks: 441
Avg. CTR: 1.2%
Avg. CPC: $1.10
Total Cost: $486.48
Total Sales: 1 ($79)
Net Gain/Loss: -$407.48
The lion's share of the costs went to the first two campaigns. The other 40 or so campaigns have generated very little traffic or expense so far.
I have not been able to spend as much time on this campaign as I'd like and I have not finished the course yet. As you can see, the results so far, have been less than satisfactory.
Let's compare these results to my regular monthly Adwords campaigns for my one of my other websites.
Time Frame: Dec 8-21
Total Clicks: 498
Avg. CTR: 3.7%
Avg. CPC: $0.51
Total Cost: $253.64
Total Sales: 41 ($704.20)
Net Gain/Loss: $450.56
Now this campaign is for a lower price product and it's a group of campaigns that I've been testing and tweaking for 2 years so the results should be better. It's also sending traffic to a sales letter I've been testing and tweaking for almost three years, too. The sales letter at Create-Ultimate-Ebooks.com isn't bad but it hasn't been updated at all since I wrote it a few weeks ago.
I have to say, though, that after 3 weeks, my tests using what I've learned from Traffic Secrets have cost me over $400, while my existing campaigns generated $450.56 (and that's not counting the additional backend income from that site).
Hopefully, with more testing and tweaking and adding more keywords, we can turn this around.
That's all for now...
Bill Hibbler
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Update
I've started creating my Google AdWords campaign using John's recommendations. It's very tedious using John's methods as opposed to what I've done in my AdWords campaigns in the past. I get it, though, a lot of marketers setup campaigns for the obvious keywords and leave it at that.
What's John's recommended means a lot more work but should mean more profitable campaigns that are easier to track. It also means including a huge number of keywords and phrases. I've got a list of over 1,000 using techniques from John's Keyword Discovery CD-ROM.
So far, I've created campaigns for 50 different keywords or keyphrases. I should also add that even though I've been using AdWords for two years, John taught me some new tricks that I was totally unaware of.
The results have been unimpressive so far but there has not been enough traffic yet to get accurate numbers. Out of 2,973 impressions, I've gotten 45 clicks for a very weak 1.5 clickthrough ratio. 0 sales against a PPC cost of $32.40.
Half of those keywords have been up for a little over 48 hours, the rest about 24 hours. I'll be adding another 25 keywords over the weekend.
That's all for now...
Bill
What's John's recommended means a lot more work but should mean more profitable campaigns that are easier to track. It also means including a huge number of keywords and phrases. I've got a list of over 1,000 using techniques from John's Keyword Discovery CD-ROM.
So far, I've created campaigns for 50 different keywords or keyphrases. I should also add that even though I've been using AdWords for two years, John taught me some new tricks that I was totally unaware of.
The results have been unimpressive so far but there has not been enough traffic yet to get accurate numbers. Out of 2,973 impressions, I've gotten 45 clicks for a very weak 1.5 clickthrough ratio. 0 sales against a PPC cost of $32.40.
Half of those keywords have been up for a little over 48 hours, the rest about 24 hours. I'll be adding another 25 keywords over the weekend.
That's all for now...
Bill
Friday, December 03, 2004
Volume 1 - Pay Per Click Mastery
This first DVD ran just over 90 minutes. The primary focus is pay-per-click. and, to a lesser extent, other forms of paid traffic. I've been using PPC search engines for three years now so a lot of what Reese covered was familiar to me. However, he makes some excellent points and I still learned quite a bit.
If you're new to PPC, this is really solid info. In addition to John's strategies, there is quite a bit of audience participation. And I'm not talking about newbies asking questions. People like GaryHalbert, Perry Marshall and Bob Silber are adding solid advice, too. One tip that came from Bob Silber was simple but brilliant and I can't believe I never thought of it. Don't ask me to reveal it, though. As I said at the beginning, I'm testing and reviewing Traffic Secrets, not giving all the secrets away.
Also, as you listen to these DVD's, you'll be amazed by the people in the audience and they're not speakers that just happen to be there, they are paid attendees. Besides the names I mentioned, Jimmy D. Brown, Jeff Alderson and several other well-known marketers are in the audience.
John talked quite a bit about negative qualifiers and PPC in this video. If you're not familiar with the term, you will be after watching this video. And I can verify that his suggestions work because I've been using a couple of them myself for quite some time.
As I'm getting into this program, I've got a clearer idea of how things are going to work. After the quick start CD and the testing and tracking DVD, we're supposed to watch the five DVD's that make up the live event. Then we start on the CD-ROMs. The next DVD in the series is Volume 2 - Web & Email Advertising Success. I may cheat a bit and start working on some of the PPC strategies on the CD-ROMs so we can start generating some traffic.
That's all for now.
~Bill
If you're new to PPC, this is really solid info. In addition to John's strategies, there is quite a bit of audience participation. And I'm not talking about newbies asking questions. People like GaryHalbert, Perry Marshall and Bob Silber are adding solid advice, too. One tip that came from Bob Silber was simple but brilliant and I can't believe I never thought of it. Don't ask me to reveal it, though. As I said at the beginning, I'm testing and reviewing Traffic Secrets, not giving all the secrets away.
Also, as you listen to these DVD's, you'll be amazed by the people in the audience and they're not speakers that just happen to be there, they are paid attendees. Besides the names I mentioned, Jimmy D. Brown, Jeff Alderson and several other well-known marketers are in the audience.
John talked quite a bit about negative qualifiers and PPC in this video. If you're not familiar with the term, you will be after watching this video. And I can verify that his suggestions work because I've been using a couple of them myself for quite some time.
As I'm getting into this program, I've got a clearer idea of how things are going to work. After the quick start CD and the testing and tracking DVD, we're supposed to watch the five DVD's that make up the live event. Then we start on the CD-ROMs. The next DVD in the series is Volume 2 - Web & Email Advertising Success. I may cheat a bit and start working on some of the PPC strategies on the CD-ROMs so we can start generating some traffic.
That's all for now.
~Bill
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
John Reese's Traffic Secrets Test - Testing & Tracking
After the Getting Started CD, we're directed to view the "Testing & Tracking" DVD. In addition to the DVD's, a transcript is included in the training guides so if you prefer to read rather than watch, you have that option. You'll also find copies of the powerpoint slides used on the DVD in the training guide.
John is a fanatical tester and he taught me the value of doing the same a long time ago. Much of what I saw watching this DVD was familar to me. For testing, John recommends Clickalyzer or ProAnalyzer. I've used Clickalyzer in the past and they're probably the best service available but I get most of what I need included in my current shopping cart service so I no longer use them.
ProAnalyzer installs on your server and costs $97 with no monthly fees. I plan on reviewing them in a future issue of Ecommerce Confidential.
So, this DVD provides important info you need to know to measure your progress. Since I already have a tracking solution in place, I'll be moving on to the next DVD: "Pay-Per-Click Mastery". I'll cover that in my next post.
~Bill
John is a fanatical tester and he taught me the value of doing the same a long time ago. Much of what I saw watching this DVD was familar to me. For testing, John recommends Clickalyzer or ProAnalyzer. I've used Clickalyzer in the past and they're probably the best service available but I get most of what I need included in my current shopping cart service so I no longer use them.
ProAnalyzer installs on your server and costs $97 with no monthly fees. I plan on reviewing them in a future issue of Ecommerce Confidential.
So, this DVD provides important info you need to know to measure your progress. Since I already have a tracking solution in place, I'll be moving on to the next DVD: "Pay-Per-Click Mastery". I'll cover that in my next post.
~Bill
