Using Google Website Optimizer To Improve Marketing Results?

When doing business online, every little bit helps - especially when it comes to conversions. Google website optimizer is a free marketing tool that that I've used to help me test like webpages, determining which page can produce a more effective result.

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Google optimizer allows you to perform two types of split tests on your website:

1. A/B split testing - Choose 2 pages on your website to split test. 50% of your visitors will see page A. The other 50% will see page B.

2. Multivariate testing - Allows you to break your web page up into blocks and show different content (in different combinations) for each block.

For most marketing professionals and website owners, A/B split testing is easy to understand. For example, you might keep your current home page, page A, and create a new version of it with different introductory text and colors. Google website optimizer will show page A or page B randomly to website browsers. When they buy from your webpage a conversion will be recorded and show you which page the customer saw, A or B.

Multivariate testing seems to confuse a lot of people but is really just a way to test different combinations of content on a page. The end result shows you which combination of content generates the most conversions.

One way to think about multivariate testing by considering that your page is divided into multiple blocks of content. You would us multivariate testing to randomly show different combinations of content for each block and, based on conversions, determine which combination of blocks drove more sales on my website.

After using multivariate testing, Google website optimizer provides you with the "winning combination" of content with actual behavioral data. Once you find the winning campaign, you go live with that page format and content. Then, you start your next test, continually trying to improve conversion rates.

This type of testing, either A/B or multivariate can help you succeed online. The key is to keep testing.

Is Your PPC Performing?

In today's tough economy, there are lots of marketers and small business owners who want to do more with less. That being the case, today we're focusing on your PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns.

The burning question I often get is, "My PPC results aren't what they used to be, now what?" To answer that question, we need to first see where we are:

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1) Keep a log of PPC activity.

You can do this using advanced PPC management software. If your software does not have this feature, you can view your change history in Google. For other search engines like Yahoo and MSN you must keep a manual a log of all of your activities and changes. At the very least be sure to note that you made edits to a particular ad group within a given campaign on a specific date.

2) Look at PPC reports.

Choose the most recent block of time prior to the degrading performance of your PPC campaigns. I recommend one week before the problem occurred to the day before the problem occurred. Then choose up to a one-week time frame after the problem initially occurred.

3) Look at your logs.

See what changes occurred in that time frame. Analyze your reports by campaign and by ad group to see what campaigns and ad groups have changed for the worse in that time frame.

4) Analyze the data.

You can now isolate to a single variable or a set of variables that caused the problem. Learn from what happened and adjust your campaigns moving forward.

Once you've gone through this process, you should be able to determine which changes or variables had an impact. If you are unable to track the information properly or are still unable to discern what caused the drop in PPC results, then consider the following questions:

Could it be your conversion rate? Here are some things to check.

1) Is your landing page still working? Is it up and fully functional? Click on one of your PPC ads within your Google interface. Go through the Web page as if you were an actual user, click on links and fill out forms to make sure everything works as it should.

2) Have you switched landing pages and not documented the change? Additionally, were changes made to your calls-to-action or layouts on any of the landing pages?

3) How about your tracking? Is your tracking code working properly? Test your pages and make sure they are being tracked.

4) Review your analytics. Do you see a jump in your bounce rate? If no changes have been made to keywords, landing pages or destination URLs, is your website loading slower than it used to?

Now is a great time to diagnose your PPC campaigns from start to finish. Make sure that your ads, landing pages, and tracking code is working properly. You can then assess what's working and what isn't. Also, be sure to check out your overall traffic (clicks) to determine if there has been a change in volume. These tips should help you discover why your ads are not performing as well.

Can You Earn Money With Adsense?

How much can you earn with Google Adsense? One website I work with sees about 10,000 uniques a day earn about $50 a month. However, another site with the same traffic may earn $5,000. It is not easy to predict how much you will earn from Google Adsense. The only true way to learn about the earning power your website has with Adsense is to implement it.

Your Google Adsense Earning Power depends on a number of factors:

1. The Responsiveness Of Your Audience. For example, a travel website that provides information on travel to Italy will attract visitors looking for ways to arrange their travel plans and spend money on their vacation.

Your site might provide the information but the Adsense ads will provide hotels, travel agencies, tourist destinations, car rentals. These ads are highly likely to get the attention of the users of your site. This is a site that will most likely do well with Adsense. However, if you are a gaming website where the main purpose of auser is to play games on your site, then Adsense will not perform as well.

2. The format of Your Ads. Some ad types and formats do better than others. This depends on your content and layout. For some sites, large rectangles in the middle of the content is best, while skyscrapers may not generate as much as income. Experiment and measure the results to determine which formats work best for your site.

4. The Display Color of Your Ads. Sometimes ad perform better based on color and the contrast they have with your website. Experiment with blends as well as custom match.

5. The Number of Ad Units Per Page. Some sites are limited to 5 ad units per page, comprised of display ads, links, and a search box. Consider the appropriate number for your page based on usability and design. You want users to click through your ads at a high rate, so focus on layout.

The key with optimization Adsense revenue is to start with a baseline. Determine your weekly earnings before making any changes. Then, make a small change to your settings and run your ads for 2 weeks. Measure the results. Keep making small changes and experimenting to find which ad set up generates the best results.

Learn Your Marketing From A Bunch of College Students And Go Far

Ever wonder how to hire marketers for free? Alloy Media + Marketing has the answer. They sponsor the Caples Student Campaign of the Year competition, which recruits U.S.

undergraduates to compete against each other and test their marketing skills in creating a campaign for a given brand. The grand prize is $5,000 and tickets to Caples Award, where they are honored for their creativity and problem-solving skills.

This year, the challenge for students is to “design a campaign for Pentel of America's Recycology pen line highlighting its eco-friendly aspects and inspiring college age students to learn more about the product.”. Hopefuls from around the nation are wrapping up their campaigns, as the January 16^th due date is quickly approaching.

New York University students, Daniel McCoy and Erica Swallow, two contest entrants, are confident that their campaign, Spin the Pen, has a lot to offer. In approaching the prompt, they focused on originality and fun. The first question was, “What’s fun about these pens?” Instead of taking the obvious direction towards environmentally-friendliness, they took a new direction: pen spinning.

After a few Google searches, they figured out that pen spinning was an international hobby held by many. They logged onto YouTube and got connected with the pen spinning community and were recommended to two NYC pen spinners, Xero and JC, within a day. The following video commercials were produced:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgfG2nsXyA&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X9EcrUmSrk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yabIcC938Vk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IchdyvEEeuk&feature=channel

The campaign features a YouTube channel, Facebook group, and Spin the Pen website.

So, what can marketing professionals learn from college students in this competition?
1.) Reach out to highly-involved communities in concentrated areas.
Dan and Erica examined all possible audiences and picked the communities that would most welcome Pentel Recycology into their lifestyles. Of course, environmentalists were on that list. But pen spinners were at the top. Messages within this small, international community are highly viral. The community lives mostly online, as most of their competitions, tutorials, and events take place through video uploads and virtual meetings.
2.) Use social networks wisely.
Implementing interesting and useful campaigns on social networking sites can be tricking. In the case of the Spin the Pen, Dan and Erica decided to use Facebook and YouTube to pass around campaign information. They limited their efforts to these two sites, where their target audience had the largest presence. “The key to success,” says Erica. “is uploading lots of meaningful information and updating your page constantly.”
3.) Don’t over-use the environmentally-friendly card.
Although Pentel Recycology’s biggest attribute is that all products are made with a minimum of 50% recycled material by weight, messages that are purely environmentally-focused could be the next cliché. Many people interviewed on the NYU campus by Erica and Dan said that they were growing tired of the environmentalist gimmick. For Spin the Pen, taking a new direction was essential.

Keep a look out for more Pentel Recycology campaigns, as a group of college students near you may have been recruited to participate in the Caples Student Campaign of the Year contest.

Marketing On A Dime

In today's rough economic times, most marketers and small business owners are looking for creative ways to reduce costs. As always, reducing expenses is only one way to be successful in maintaining a healthy business. The other side of the equation is revenue. What are you doing to grow your business?

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You might be saying, "How can I grow revenue while cutting expenses?" I believe the answer is knowing what marketing tactics are generating a positive return on investment and which are not. If you want to begin reducing your expenses, treat them subjectively.

Late last year, I began cutting back on a number of services I use to run my online businesses. The first step was to make a complete list of all my expenses. Once complete, I evaluated each one based on:

1. Critical to business operations.
2. Important but not essential.
3. Nice to have.

By categorizing expenses in this way, I found it easy to determine which ones had to go and which ones had to stay. Additionally it gave me an opportunity to consider what level of service I needed. There were many instances where, instead of paying for the "premium" service, I simply downgraded my service - saving me hundreds per month with little or no impact on revenue.

Revenue Generating Tips

Once I reviewed my expenses, I took a closer look at opportunities for revenue growth. Because we're all trying to grow "on a dime", I thought I'd brainstorm innovative ways to enhance my sales.

My list was short but actionable. Here's what I decided:

1. Spend more time asking for and getting referrals.
2. Focus on high margin products.
3. Bundle products to generate a higher price point.

By implementing these revenue generating ideas, I hope to make 2009 another profitable year. When focusing on cost reduction and revenue growth at the same time, you're sure to be successful.

Affiliate Marketing for your Business?

What is Affiliate marketing? According to Wikipedia, Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.Affiliate marketing gives your business access to a vast network of sites to promote your products. This vast network drives traffic to your website. Most

How To Generate More Ad Revenue Online

Nearly one third of online adults will immediately leave a website if they perceive it to be cluttered with ads, and more than 75% of those who remain on cluttered web sites pay less attention to the ads there, according to findings from Burst Media survey.

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So what does this mean for your website and your web audience? I think it’s simple, less is more. The survey of about 4,000 web users found that cluttered sites not only annoy their audience, but they also diminish the effectiveness of ads. They sited lower recall, click throughs, and overall poor performance. If you’re trying to earn a monthly income on Google Adsense, then take note.

The more you crowd your site with tons of affiliate offers, ads, content, etc., the more difficult it becomes for browsers to know where to navigate. Worse yet is that browsers are leaving sites when they cannot quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. If you want to optimize ad revenue, take a new look at your website.

Is it cluttered? Does is have a simple navigational path? Can you easily find what you’re looking for? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then perhaps you need to rethink your layout.

More specifically, respondents to this particular survey said they accept that advertising will appear on websites but have low tolerance for any more than two advertising units per page. Keep this in mind when trying to overload your ads per page. Keep your ad units to a maximum of two and no more.

Clutter can affect perception of advertisers too. The survey also found that ad clutter has a negative impact on consumers' perceptions of an advertiser's products and services:

• One out of two respondents has a less favorable opinion of an advertiser when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered.
• One-half of women claim clutter negatively impacts their opinion of an advertiser.
• Additionally, the survey showed that women are more likely than men to abandon a site that appears cluttered (about one third vs. twenty percent).

Ad clutter has a negative impact on how browsers respond to your website and their behavior. Don’t chase your audience away, engage them. Keep your design and layout simple, easy to follow and intuitive. This will keep users on your site longer and allow them to find what they’re looking for.

Are You Using Clichés In Your Marketing?

"Examples of exaggeration can be found in almost any advertising medium. The use of the superlative is altogether too prevalent. Phrases like; the finest, the best, the greatest, the purest, the most economical, and so on ad infinitum, are hurled at the public everywhere. Surely not all products of the same class can be the best or the finest." —Daniel Starch

No one should be using these words on their landing page: greatest, hottest, best, fantastic, amazing. These clichés have been used so much over the last 50 years that they have lost the ability to ping a reader's emotions. The average American hears or sees about 12,000 advertisements each week. They have become experts at picking up on weasel words and sensing when they are the target of a snow job. Your sales pitch should come off as being authentic and personal, not like what a carnival hustler yells at everyone walking by his stand.

You want to avoid sounding like a hustler. For example, the worst headline you can use is, “Best Deal on the Most Amazing Book on Earth!” When your prospect sees this kind of headline, it is a huge red flag that signals that what they are reading is nothing more than hype, and certainly not a solution to their problem or need. As soon as your reader feels like she might be the target of a hype job, within four seconds she will hit the back button and take her business to one of your competitors.

Not only can you spot an amaeture marketer by the clichés that he uses in his headlines, but how often he uses an exclamation point. The idea is that using an exclamation point pings the emotion of excitement in his reader. This is simply not true. A business that came to me for help with their sales copy had the headline, "Buy! Buy! Buy!" As if yelling at someone is going to make them buy your product or service.

A property management company asked me to write an ad that would increase call volume on an apartment complex. The units were priced competitively to other similar units in the area, and the location of the apartments were in the middle of town. Defining the unique selling proposition (USP) for the apartments was a challenge, but it seemed to be location. Being that the apartment complex was located in the center of Fresno, it was not really far from anything.

When I looked at the current ad, the headline read, “Best Deal.” Using Claude Hopkins’ reasoning, I dropped the cliché “Best Deal” and used specificity to create a new headline: “Last Chance At The Cheapest Close To Everything Homes In Fresno.” To strengthen the “last chance” claim, I had the price removed from the ad and added a starburst bubble below the headline that read, “Rent So Low We Won’t Publish It Here—Call Now.” To bolster the “Close To Everything” claim, I used specificity in the text of the ad to make a personal connection with readers (pinging the emotion of anger which is a subset of fear): “Angry At Rising Gas Prices? Near Freeways 41, 168, and Over 100 Businesses.”

The ad was a great success, causing an increase in call volume of 250% and resulting in the manager renting all the vacant apartments.

Here is what the father of marketing, Claude Hopkins, wrote about using clichés in your Internet marketing:

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make.

By Lance Jepsen author of Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Website

How to Write Articles Super Fast! Instant Article Wizard Pro

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More Email in 2009 - Improve Email Response

One thing that worked extremely well in 2008 was email marketing. Despite continued issues with email deliver-ability, SPAM, and other issues commonly associated with email marketing, 2009 promised to be another great year for email marketing. Here are some helpful email marketing tips to ensure email marketing success:

1. Review what worked and what didn't work last year

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Before you jump into your new campaigns for 2009, take a close look at your 2008 e-mail marketing successes and failures. If done correctly, you can repeat the winning campaigns and cut out the under performers. Ideally, you want to update your 2009 campaigns by combining elements of your most successful email marketing tactics and stop doing those emails that generated a negative ROI.

2. Clean up your e-mail lists

Maintaining a good list is a real challenge for businesses of all sizes, especially small business owners who often don't have dedicated staff to handle such tasks. Start the new year off right by scrubbing your email list before sending your first campaign. You'll improve your e-mail marketing performance, your reputation and deliver-ability rates. The first step is make sure your unsubscribe requests are up-to-date and error free.

3. Make an e-mail marketing plan and stick to it

One really great way to improve e-mail marketing effectiveness is to look at the calendar through your customer's eyes. Ask yourself what business and seasonal cycles are most relevant to your target audiences, then create an e-mail marketing campaign calendar mapped to those cycles. Putting in a few hours to plan out your key campaigns for the year will ensure that your e-mail marketing campaigns are timely and relevant.

4. Personalize your e-mail marketing campaigns

It doesn't take much to customize your email campaigns. As simple first name will do. You also can build more targeted, segmented lists based on additional customer data you may have. Even if you don't use a customer relationship system, you can still segment your lists based on purchasing data. You also can conduct a quick poll through your e-mail marketing service to gather more information from your customers that will help you improve the targeting, relevance and the timeliness of your email marketing campaigns.

5. Test new campaigns

Email marketing requires constant testing and evaluation. Challenge yourself this year by trying something new in your e-mail marketing campaigns. You could add a video or audio file, send to a new segment, or step up your split testing. Adding multimedia can make your campaigns more interactive and generate a higher response. Setting up automated trigger campaigns also can improve the timeliness and relevance of your e-mail marketing campaigns. It might sound too complicated or time intensive, but a good e-mail marketing service should help you implement this.

No matter how successful you were last year, there's always time to improve your results. Begin with a plan based on last year's success. Build on that and you will continue to see improvements throughout the year.