PalatnikFactor.com

One thing people are quick to base their success with search engine marketing as they first launch a campaign is conversion rates. Sure, conversion rates is probably the most important aspect of your campaign but the way to make sure you get good conversion rates meeting a good ROI is making sure you pay as little as possible for that click.

If you read the post below, #1 Quality Score Factor in Google: Quality Ad, you will see that the campaign I'm working on started decent…actually…pretty good CTR's but my quality score was still not what it could be with those numbers. Within 24 hours of that post, here is what happened (image shows pertaining to one particular ad group):

I was never TOO concerned about my conversion rate cost at first, but rather making sure to have a good CTR so Google would allow me to pay as little as possible for a click with good ranking. I am now seeing the reward and making tweaks to pay as low as I possibly can per conversion. Again, it does all come down to ROI (Return on Investment), but make sure you are willing to go through the motions to get there.

**For further information on Quality Score, you can read a post I did for the Search Engine Journal, Ads in a Quality Score World.

No matter how many things you try to figure out to see how Google is judging your ad to determine your cpc (cost-per-click), YOUR biggest concern should be the quality of your ad.

Maybe you really haven't thought about it, but what you should worry about most is creating the most compelling ad for searchers and THAT will result into clicks and hopefully conversions for you. So, what is that you may be doing wrong? For one, I used to create campaigns and let them be. We're so busy with so much stuff that we forget that tweaking certain things in your ad can make the biggest difference to an eye and turn into a click.

Let me give you an example. I created a campaign that had decent clicks but I thought I should get more…way more. As time is always a factor, my ads were pretty decent but I didn't really see what my edge was vs. the competition. Why would someone click on my ad and not their ad? What makes my ad different then the other guy with the same product at almost the same price? Do I offer free shipping? What do I have that they don't? WHAT MAKES ME STAND OUT?
**The image below is in a 4-hour span.

{please note I cannot specify what product I am selling and what my ads are for some obvious reasons to readers, hope you understand =)}

Anyway, I did research into the product itself and how the brand identified itself and how I would be able to do the same. I posted a new ad to compare CTRs (Click-Through-Rates) and of course, the results were great. My click through rates were way better and yet to make more tweaks. What's your edge? Your identity? Ask yourself those questions when creating your ads.

Sure, Google can give you a POOR quality score result for certain keywords but with a QUALITY ad, you can change that in days. Make sure you give yourself a chance but bidding enough to place in the front page.

I have never really post financials about certain things I do but the reason I am doing this is because I want people to know and understand making money online is very possible, just takes time and patience. You win some, you lose some, but you never quit! Not if you can avoid it.

As I still use this campaign, I can't reveal too much but I will tell you some of the things I've done that have worked. This was a campaign for lead generation in the financial sector.

One Month:

One Day:

Notice the conversion rates! YES, different channels will give you different conversion rates but the trick is to have the right landing page. Testing takes lots of time. You hear everyone saying test, test, test. While I agree 100% testing is very important, reality is most people dont have the time to change a landing page a few times and A/B test each landing page. My advice, make the best, simplest, quickest way for the user to perform an action while making your landing page look nice. Try to have all your information above the fold of the monitor and centered.

How did I generate traffic?

- PPC. PPC is the quickest way you'll generate traffic to your site. Bid on as many related keywords as possible and see how many ad groups you can make that will be relevant to your product/service. Google's quality score is killer so make very tight ad groups and try to have dynamic text to follow the QS guidelines.

While these numbers arent GREAT, this is with one campaign and if you keep trying things, eventually, you'll find something that sticks, and like most things, they also end…could be a short period of time…can last for a while.

I'm starting my own affiliate program for a site that is working well for me, if you're interested, shoot me an email at pablo @ etrendmedia.com. I am only accepting certain people to join this program.

There is so MUCH talk about these commercials that as dumb as I think they are (and ridiculous) I guess they make good advertising and marketing for each candidate, or bad actually.

So, these commercials are based around an important phone call coming in at 3am when it's "crunch time" and who would be best qualified to take that call as commander in chief. Hillary Clinton started this campaign and as dumb as I think it is, it's pretty successful because not only did the media talk about it for days, but other candidates jumped on board to replicate the commercial in their own way.

Here is Mine:

So, I was at Search Engine Strategies in New York at a contextual advertising session when something very funny happened…to me at least.

They were asking volunteers to show their sites on the big screen monitor to critique their sites and how they are using adsene to monetize their content/site. One man volunteered.

This story is what NOT TO DO at a search conference or think before you do, at least read the guidelines.

This guy had a content site reviewing prescription drugs which apparently, I didnt know but it is known, is against the Google Adsense guidelines.

Who was on the panel? GOOGLE. It was kind of an akward moment to be honest and of course the guy from Google (MAYBE), jotted the site down.

Anyway, it's a lesson…Hours of work probably for nothing. I wonder if Google would have found the site and how they go about chasing down sites that don't follow the guidelines.

So, you can just get a digital camera or whatever and put a video up that you made and BAM, 13 million views can happen. If you have no intention of anything, that's fine…but why not capitalize on that? As easy as it may seem for a video to go viral, it's really not. It really has to stick and be something that really catches on, and I'd say most things don't and if they do, they last for a very short period of time.

I'll give you what is the latest thing that was shown to me that when I watched it, I wanted it to show to other friends. At the same time of watching it, the whole time I kept thinking, "how are they making money of this?" Sure, not everything people do is to make money, if not the world would suck, right? But still, if you have the chance too, why not?

Warning: This video contains Graphic Language:

The video is called "My New Haircut" and it's a guy making fun of New York/Jersey guys that all pretty much somehow, grow up to be the same, its a stereotype. I AM NOT STEREOTYPING but I have met a few of these characters in my life so the video is funny. Since it caught on and I believe this came into the scene a few months ago, many have replicated the same video with their own stereotypes of Asians, Jews and others.

My New Haircut - Jewish Edition (over 1 million views so far)
My New Haircut- Asian Edition (Over 2 million views so far)

Back to my point, where is the money in all this? Or, how could he have capitalized on this video? A website or a blog would have been a great way to start. Blogging about this stereotype or basically making a site or blog revolve around this video could have been a score with the amount of hits and links it's getting. A few Adsense ads would make you money or I think making a Zazzle site with some merchandise based on this could have done well.

Getting to the point, if you see you're video is catching on, think fast because there are ways to make a quick or maybe long lasting buck from a video going viral.