Sherwood and Johanna decide on the best search terms by using the search term suggestion tools mentioned earlier. Both aim for specific terms when possible (“french sailor shirts” vs. “french shirts;” “voga for sports” vs. “yoga”’) for higher conversion rates (the percentage of visitors that purchase) and lower cost-per-click (CPC). They aim also for second through fourth positioning, but no more than $.20 CPC.
Sherwood will use Google’s free analytical tools to track “orders” and page abandonment rates— what percentage of visitors leave the site from which pages. Johanna will use www.wufoo.com to track e-mail sign-ups on this small testing scale4
Cost to both: $0.
Both Johanna and Sherwood design Adwords ads that focus on their differentiators. Each Google Adwords ad consists of a headline and then two lines of description, neither of which can exceed 35
characters. In Sherwood’s case, he creates five groups of 10 search terms each. The following are two of his ads.
SAILOR SHIRTS FROM FRANCE
SAILOR SHIRTS FROM FRANCE REAL FRENCH SAILOR SHIRTS French Quality, Shipped from U.S. French Quality, Shipped from U.S. Lifetime Guarantee! Lifetime Guarantee! www.shirtsfromfrance.com www.shirtsfromfrance.com
Johanna creates the same five groups of 10 terms each and tests a number of ads, including these:
YOGA FOR ROCK CLIMBERS YOGA FOR ROCK CLIMBERS DVD Used by 5.12 Climbers DVD Used by 5.12 Climbers Get Flexible Fast! Get Flexible Fast! www.yogaclimber.com www.yogaforsports.com
Notice that these ads can be used to test not just headlines but guarantees, product names, and domain names. It’s as simple as creating several ads, rotated automatically by Google, that are identical except for the one variable to be tested. How do you think I determined the best title for this book?
Both Sherwood and Johanna disable the feature on Google that serves only the best-performing ad. This is necessary to later compare the click-through rates from each and combine the best elements (headline, domain name, and body text) into a final ad.
Last but not least, ensure that the ads don’t trick prospects into visiting the site. The product offer should be clear. Our goal is qualified traffic, so we do not want to offer something “free” or otherwise attract window shoppers or the curious who are unlikely to buy.
Cost to both: $50 or less per day x 5 days = $250 Investing or Divesting Five days later, it’s time to tally the results.
What can we consider a “good” click-through and conversion rate’? This is where the math can be deceiving. If we’re selling a $10,000 abominable snowman suit with an 80% profit margin, we obviously need a much lower conversion rate than someone who is selling a $50 DVD with a 70% profit margin.
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