So I took control of another project, setting up an AdWords account for a client. Nothing too exciting, hadn’t really done it in a while, but I’ve done it plenty in the past. So I go about doing my research, build my keywords, use some nifty tools (both created in house and available online), and got myself all set up to start the task of uploading the account.

What I forgot about is AdWords Editor. It’s a fantastic program that lets you do some great manipulation of the account. It’s available for both Windows and Mac. That’s awesome. I run Linux…

Because I function as a developer most of the time, I have the luxury/hassle of having a computer for each operating system: Linux, Windows XP, Vista, and Mac. So thankfully, I installed Editor on my Mac and fired it up. I got all my keywords uploaded, created several different ads, and set my budgets and bids for them all.

And here’s where the beauty of Editor comes into play. I was working on some longtail keywords, adding geographical locations and such. The client has several locations and so services a vast expanse of the east coast and a good bit of the west. Naturally, I decided to use the names of the states and their abbreviations. Seemingly easy, but in my speed as I was assembling the keyword list, something in my brain told me the abbreviation for Connecticut was CN, as opposed to CT. Blame it on lack of sleep, lack of caffiene (ran out of coffee two weeks ago), or just lack of attention, but I did it. Because of the way I had my keywords structured, this little blunder made it’s way into over 600 keywords.

Imagine trying to fix that by hand, it’d be ridiculous. I’m very busy as is, and I was doing all this work on Sunday, what should be my one day off, and it was already 10pm.

Editor to the rescue! After yelling several obscenities at my mistake, my friend Steve, who’s much more familiar with AdWords and Editor than I am, suggested I just do a find and replace…

No way it could be that easy, but what do you know! After banging my head against my desk a few times, I quickly changed all 600+ keywords in a matter of seconds. Then I created a few new ads, applied them to all of my adgroups across my four campaigns, and finished up my work before 11pm.

Now if only Google will make Editor for Linux…

Share on Facebook

Filed under: Uncategorized by Tim Caspersen
No Comments »

So I’ve been very busy the past couple weeks. There’s only one of me, it’d be great if there were two. I’ve been having a terrible time concentrating, sleeping, and getting things done. I’ve been hammering caffeine in hopes that I’ll get jittery and focused enough to work my magic. Well, it worked for a while, but after three weeks straight of this, it stopped having it’s effect. So bad, that I had pounded two Red Bulls inside 15 minutes and was asleep less than an hour later. For a normal person, this might’ve made their heart jump out of their chest, but after my addiction, it didn’t really do much.

So I made a challenge with myself. On Monday, I swore off caffeine. Just for a couple days, though. I’ve been getting withdrawal headaches, I’ve been irritable, and it’s generally been a miserable experience. I finally had caffeine today, and while it wasn’t Earth-shattering, I do feel better and more alert. It also helps that I got a full nights sleep last night.

I’ve run across campaigns that work the same way. Well, they don’t run on caffeine, but I anticipate clicks coming from a certain source. In fact, I rely on it, it’s my crutch, such as promoting solely through PPC. I’ll pour money into a campaign, it’ll be getting good clicks, but it’ll start getting stale after a while. I’m only going through PPC, and usually only through Google, so all my traffic comes from the same place. So sometimes, I have to step back and re-evaluate my plans. PPC is great to drive traffic, but sometimes you need to detox from it and look down another avenue. When I’m running affiliate offers, I’ll usually start with PPC, but something like AdBrite would be a great alternative. It offers a different traffic stream, for a reasonable cost. It’s not as targeted or as quality, but sometimes shaking things up will improve things overall.

So that’s just a small example. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as they say. Don’t rely on just one avenue; step back, detox, try something else. You might return to the original, but hopefully you’ll do it with a better viewpoint.

Oh, and stay the heck away from my coffee and Red Bull.

Share on Facebook

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Uncategorized by Tim Caspersen
No Comments »

Ah yes another glorious Monday.  The beginning of the work week and for me another blog post.  So after some thinking I finally figured out what to write about…….keywords.  Keywords are an important aspect of any search engine marketing campaign whether it’s PPC or SEO.  Developing a good solid keyword list is a tedious task.  There are a few steps you must take to get the best possible list that will improve your ROI.  Now on to the important part of this post…the steps, so pay attention!

The first step is to identify your target market and apply this to your next step; brainstorming.  Brainstorming will take some time.  If your target market is for a younger generation, keep that in mind.  Remember that people in our generation think, speak, and search differently than an earlier generation.  In your brainstorming step you will be thinking of all keywords possible.  Start a master list spreadsheet and start loading it up.  This is your rough list so just keep putting in keywords you think will work.  Take notes and put everything you think of down on paper.  Once you’re done brainstorming and coming up with keywords, TAKE A BREAK!  That was a lot of thinking and writing so take a break so your brain don’t melt.

Now that you have your master keyword list it’s time to go over it and get it more specific.  Take out any doubles you might have put in.  Remember to use the keyword matching options: broad match, phrase match, exact match, and negative match.  (I’ll go into more detail on those another time)  Just remember to make your keyword list very specific to what you’re advertising.  The more broad your keywords the more impressions/clicks you might get but less conversions.   And don’t forget about misspellings.  Typos are a very common thing on search engines, so keep that in mind when your compiling your list.

Try to make multiple lists and test different keywords.  As usual testing is important, just because you think you have a solid list doesn’t mean anything.  In the online marketing business there are surprises around every corner and I cannot stress enough how important testing is.  After some time you will find yourself with a strong keyword list and it will greatly help your business.  Just take your time and think about everything logically and you’ll be fine.

Share on Facebook

Filed under: Uncategorized by Matt Fern
No Comments »