Can I Teach This PPC-CPA Stuff?
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源代码网整理以下When I started becoming highly successful brokering traffic from pay per click search engines to CPA lead offers, the question in the back of my mind was whether this stuff could be taught to and replicated by others. 源代码网整理以下That is when “Project Guelph” was born. 源代码网整理以下Guelph is the city where my brother-in-law (his name is Waseem) attends university. It is about 1.5 hours south-west of Toronto. 源代码网整理以下The whole idea was to have my brother-in-law stay with me during the summer and see that if he could replicate any of my successes. 源代码网整理以下The college degree that he is completing is in human resources management and he may have taken only one marketing course in his college life. 源代码网整理以下He had absolutely no prior Internet marketing experience. 源代码网整理以下Zip. Zada. Ziltch. 源代码网整理以下All he knew was that I was making large amounts of money every day. 源代码网整理以下It wasn’t after months when I started talking to him about pay per click did he realize what I was doing. 源代码网整理以下Based on what he heard in the past, he thought I was in the “paper clip” industry. 源代码网整理以下No bro, it is “pay per click.” 源代码网整理以下I cut him a deal and said that I would teach him all my methods and see if I could get him to make money. 源代码网整理以下Not only could I prove to myself that this stuff is teachable and write an entire course on it, I figured I could get an awesome testimonial from my brother-in-law if I ever did release a course. 源代码网整理以下So he came to my house in mid-May 2006. I was to be his mentor and he was to be the apprentice. 源代码网整理以下Basically, I was Yoda and he was Luke Skywalker as he kept insisting. 源代码网整理以下I made a phone call to one of my favorite affiliate managers and had him approved for Primary Ads CPA network in about 24 hours. 源代码网整理以下I have a white board in my office, so I sat him down and started from scratch. 源代码网整理以下I explained to him: 源代码网整理以下1. What CPA lead offer was. 源代码网整理以下I drew out on the white board the concept of driving paid targeted traffic to CPA lead offers and making money. 源代码网整理以下We converted half of the my baby son’s room into a small office so my brother-in-law could work from there on a separate computer. 源代码网整理以下I told him to open up an Google Adwords account and pick an offer from Primary Ads to promote. 源代码网整理以下The guy is a fanatic about cars (especially luxury cars) so he picked out a car quote lead offer that was paying about $6.25 a lead. 源代码网整理以下I told him the basics of doing keyword research and setting up a Google ad. 源代码网整理以下He used a software tool called Keyword Elite by Brad Callon to research his keywords and went about setting up ad groups. 源代码网整理以下I told him to keep the keywords within each group very specific and targeted towards the theme of the ad group. 源代码网整理以下For example, and Honda related keywords should be in a Honda ad group so that we could write a targeted ad for prospects looking for Honda quotes. 源代码网整理以下He then set about creating his ads and ad groups quietly while I worked in my office. 源代码网整理以下Big mistake. 源代码网整理以下I had basically thrown him into a lake without giving him enough swimming lessons. 源代码网整理以下He started getting clicks coming on his ads, but NO conversions. 源代码网整理以下More clicks kept coming, but NO conversions. 源代码网整理以下I started thinking to myself, okay well this is a crap offer. 源代码网整理以下** Note ** 源代码网整理以下In my experience, around 7 out of 10 campaigns you start will either breakeven or not be profitable at all. No big deal. Mo need to cry over spilled milk. Just move on to another. 源代码网整理以下** End of Note ** 源代码网整理以下Then I realized a couple of things. I logged into Primary ads and discovered that the car quote offer lead stats were not real time and that we would have to wait until the next day for those leads to be imported into the network stats. 源代码网整理以下Okay I said, that is one reason why we are not seeing anything. 源代码网整理以下Then I logged into his Google Adwords account and was stunned at how badly written his ads were. 源代码网整理以下Dude, you need Copywriting 101. 源代码网整理以下His click-thru rates were not very good, so I told him to rewrite his ads from his prospect’s point of view and try to make it more benefit oriented. 源代码网整理以下At the same time, I told him to start other easier campaigns such as the ones that only ask for a zip code or email address. 源代码网整理以下Here is where things got really screwed up. 源代码网整理以下Whenever he set up another ad group, Google would charge outrageous minimum bid prices. For a particular CPA lead offer he wanted to promote at a $1.25 payout, Google wanted a $1.00 minimum bid on most keywords. 源代码网整理以下Ummmm, how the heck he supposed to make money promoting a $1.25 lead offer while paying $1.00 per click. He would have to have close to a 100% conversion rate to make any decent money. 源代码网整理以下Why, oh why, are you doing this Google?! 源代码网整理以下Then it hit me… “Quality Score.” 源代码网整理以下You see, Waseem’s overall “quality score” was low because of that stupid “car quote” campaign and because Google looks at your historical account click-thru rate, they were effectively punishing Waseem for his initial ad campaign. 源代码网整理以下Google basis the quality score of any keyword you bid on based on these factors: 源代码网整理以下1. Click-thru Rate (CTR) 源代码网整理以下Google had really nothing to go on as far as click-thru rate or historical keyword performance for his second ad campaign, so they looked at Waseem’s ENTIRE account when determining bid prices. 源代码网整理以下So now Yoda is getting pissed and Skywalker is getting frustrated. 源代码网整理以下So at this point… I cheated and told him to get out of the room and put my son to sleep in the other room while I worked on his campaign. 源代码网整理以下So I am staring at the computer screen trying to figure out how I am going to make it work with Google Adwords now that my brother-in-law has a bad historical record. Google is basically going to punish him for anything new he sets up, so now what? 源代码网整理以下I had the option of just starting an entirely new Google Adwords account to get a fresh start. 源代码网整理以下** Note ** 源代码网整理以下If your Google Adwords account has a bad history of low click-thru rates and crappy ads, you may want open a new account and start fresh. 源代码网整理以下** End of Note ** 源代码网整理以下I didn’t want to start a new account and based on my experience, I knew of a way around this problem. 源代码网整理以下But it would *cost* my brother-in-law money. 源代码网整理以下I decided to place the minimum bid at $1.00 for the $1.25 lead offer and let the campaign run, but only AFTER I wrote the ads for him hoping that Google would reward this account if I wrote ads that were very keyword *specific* and had a good click-thru rate. 源代码网整理以下So, boom! I let it run knowing that every click was costing my “college-broke” brother-in-law a full dollar. 源代码网整理以下On May 18th, 2006, Waseem generated his first (2) leads at $1.25 a piece for a total of $2.50 in affiliate commissions. 源代码网整理以下But it took him (6) clicks to generate those leads for a total cost of $1.00 x 6 = $6.00. 源代码网整理以下Ouch! He lost $3.50. 源代码网整理以下But a 33% click to lead conversion. Now that is great! 源代码网整理以下So I tell him to keep running the campaign at a loss and he is looking at me with this serious “I am a college student, $3.50 is a huge amount of money to me” look. 源代码网整理以下Trust me, I say. 源代码网整理以下The next day, four clicks and zero leads. 源代码网整理以下Not good. 源代码网整理以下But wait, the click-thru rate on the ad is over 10% for the last two days. Are the Google Gods watching? 源代码网整理以下Not bad ad writing Gauher, pat yourself on the back. 源代码网整理以下But Waseem is still looking at me with that “$4 is almost a full lunch at McDonald’s” look. 源代码网整理以下Hang in bro. 源代码网整理以下The next day I figured Google must be loving me for my great click-thru rate and I decided to drop the bid drastically. 源代码网整理以下I was hoping that I wouldn’t see the dreaded “Keyword Inactive: Minimum Bid $1.00″ message beside each keyword. 源代码网整理以下Do you want to know what happened? 源代码网整理以下Story to be continued… 源代码网供稿. |
