By Nettie Hartsock
For this edition, we turned to Andrew Goodman, author of Winning Results with Google AdWords
In this interview, Andrew shares his wealth of knowledge about PPC and how to use it to your best advantage.
WhitePaperSource: Hi Andrew. Tell us a little bit about your background and experience.
Goodman: I like to think, like all businesspeople, that I’m self-taught. This “self-taught” concept may sound pretty strange coming from an overeducated Gen X slacker who nearly completed a doctorate in political science before switching over to the business world. I co-launched Traffick.com, “The Guide to Portals” in 1999. I offered my first consulting to clients in 2001, including something I called a Pay-Per-Click Jumpstart. I published the Google AdWords Handbook in March 2002, and rapidly grew a marketing consulting business from there. There is a lot of detail in between and afterward.
WhitePaperSource: Let’s talk about the PPC world. How can utilizing PPC efforts enhance a white paper’s exposure?
Goodman: Paid search is classic direct marketing in the sense that you narrow your market down to a very specific subset (in this case, those typing specific keywords into a search engine out of curiosity). White papers are wonderful lead generators because they offer a “stepped” conversion process and establish your firm as an expert. It isn’t like falling off a log, but the process is very systematic, scientific, and sensible.
A white paper, like a book, stays in a prospect’s hands and advertises you for a long time afterward. When I say “stepped,” I mean a fr-ee download is a quick and frequent on-site conversion from a paid search click through, which means you can track your cost per download back to the source quite effectively; something you can’t do with infrequent high-dollar sales with long sales cycles. This is lead generation 101. Tracking the process all the way through to revenue (post-download, maybe several months later) is all well and good, but campaign refinement is much quicker when you’re measuring the marketing cost of those frequent “low or no cost” user actions on your site.
WhitePaperSource: What are three tips you give out in regard to PPCs?
Goodman: (a) Organize your campaign thematically. A messy campaign is hard to track and interpret later, and it therefore becomes harder to bid optimally on different sets of keywords. (b) Track several metrics - cost per lead, return on ad spend, and then possibly look at some looser website behavior data using a log analyzer-type product such as Clicktracks Optimizer. (c) Don’t assume, test. Run tests to determine which types of ads have better ROI or cost per lead numbers, for example. Bonus tip (d): Don’t let Google and Yahoo tell you how to advertise, or which features of their platforms to use. Understand how to remove the features that will hurt your targeting effort.
WhitePaperSource: What do you think is most misunderstood in regard to how the PPC process works?
Goodman: Many assume that one factor, such as ad copy, keyword selection, conversion rate improvement testing, or bidding, determines outcomes. There are 12-15 areas that make or break a campaign and they all need to be addressed. Another huge misconception is that everyone is out there at all times waiting to hear from you.
People search *occasionally*. There are limits to how many people will search for your company or how many of those searchers are even interested in your offering. Not everyone is a prospect, period. Be realistic! Focus hard on true prospects before you start casting about hoping the whole planet needs sock warmers today.
WhitePaperSource: Why is utilizing and tapping into the power of PPCs an important strategy in marketing?
Goodman: First, it’s profitable. If it doesn’t help you acquire customers at a lower cost than comparable options, or acquire more good customers at a reasonable incremental cost, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Second: Data. You get rapid feedback about what people do in response to certain offers, for a very low cost, in a highly structured format. It’s the world’s cheapest market research.
WhitePaperSource: If you could give one piece of advice to a white paper marketer on how to best utilize PPC and AdWords, what would it be?
Goodman: White paper marketers are probably weakest on keyword research and can engage in what I refer to in my book as “insider thinking.” I’d start there. Zero in on the mentality your prospect might have when they’re typing in search queries. It’s not just keywords that describe your product or industry in their “official” nomenclature that you need to target, but a wide range of searches that might jump off from industry publications, specific product failings, etc.
Standard keyword research products still do a poor job of targeting such lateral search brainstorming. You don’t just want to put longer phrases that include your core phrases into your PPC account, you want your ads to show up on unusual but highly relevant industry terms, preferably where few or no rivals are showing up. It’s harder now than it once was, but if you bid low, have consistent visibility on a range of terms important to your customers, and stay up there for years, it’s worth doing today as part of your overall marketing strategy.
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