Modeling vs. Copying
It is extremely important to point out that you shouldn’t mistake “modeling” after your competition with “copying” your competition. The difference is huge, and most newbs find out the hard way. Not only is copying a competitor’s campaign looked down upon and straight up unethical, but it’s also absolutely retarded in the sense that you do not stand a chance. Your competitors already have an established CTR and account history which will make their CPC substantially lower than anything you could come close to starting off with.
With this being said, it would be very hard off the bat for your ad variation to be ranked higher than that of the person you are copying from and if they are listed above you, why would a user click on your ad variation as opposed to the competitor’s? They won’t and if they go to you AFTER they went to your competitor’s landing page, what exactly is it about yours that would make them buy from you? Moral of the story: DONT COPY!
Now “modeling” off your competition on the other hand is completely different. When you model after your competition, you are looking at HOW they are promoting their offer(s) and analyzing the best ways to promote that niche (ex: Review Page, Flogs, Direct Linking). Based on this, you develop your OWN landing page using similar tactics, but work to IMPROVE what you feel you can. This can be as simple as a better color scheme, better pictures, more attractive banners and so on.
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Mastering the Content Network
There’s more to Google than just their search traffic, this much is certain. By not taking advantage of the Google Content Network, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table and that’s just plain wrong. The traffic is there so consequently, the opportunity is there. All you need to do is take action and grab a piece of the pie.
A lot of people make the foolish mistake of thinking that the Content Network and AdWords Search are governed by the same (written as well as unwritten) rules, nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s take a moment and analyze the two, shall we?
The Content Network vs. AdWords Search
There are basically three important differences between the two, so let’s not waste time and get right to the point:
1) The CPC (Cost Per Click) is going to be significantly higher with AdWords Search, simply because you’re targeting an audience that you know is looking for the exact answers, services or products you are providing. If someone is searching for “cheap cars”, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine what the person in question is interested in. On the other hand, with the Content Network, your ad will mostly appear on pages which contain an article about cheap cars from a website which doesn’t really have cheap cars as its main focus. If someone has a personal blog that’s monetized via AdSense and writes a random article about cheap cars, your ad will probably appear there and it’s easy to understand why the traffic is not as targeted as with AdWords Search. Does this mean that AdWords Search campaigns are always more profitable? No! Does this mean that Content Network campaigns are more profitable? Nope! It’s all a matter of testing, some campaigns perform better on the Content Network and as far as others are concerned, AdWords search represents the best choice. It’s as simple as that.
2) The quality score algo is different. While your CTR practically makes or breaks your Content Network campaign, things are a bit more complicated when it comes to AdWords Search because there are other factors involved as well.
3) Traffic quality fluctuations are a lot more obvious with the Content Network. Of course, you will see variations with AdWords Search as well but things are a lot more “predictable”.
Now that you understand how things work, let’s move on to what’s really important:
Content Network Tips
As always, data is your most important ally but that doesn’t mean that general guidelines do not exist, not by a long shot. By keeping the following tips in mind, you will be able to save a lot of time and money by focusing on the things that are important and not learning a lot of painful lessons the hard way:
1) Create different campaigns for AdWords Search and the Content Network. The reasons should be more than obvious now, there’s really no need to waste time by referring to them again.
2) Limit the number of keywords you use per ad group, keeping track of things will be a lot easier that way.
3) Image ads tend to work better. That doesn’t mean that there are no exceptions but generally speaking, the previous statement is true.
4) Add a lot of negative keywords. Seriously, a lot! Given the fact that Google doesn’t take phrase and exact match into consideration when it comes to the Content Network, you need to do most of the dirty work yourself.
5) Sometimes CPM campaigns perform better, sometimes CPC campaigns are the better choice. There’s really no way to determine which option represents the smartest choice without having a lot of data to back up your claims. Create separate campaigns and see what sticks, it’s your best and only option.
6) Grab people’s attention. Remember, the traffic isn’t as targeted. In other words, a lot of people may not exactly be interested in what you have to offer. Convince them that they should be. Think outside the box because if not, people will end up ignoring your ad. The result? An awful CTR which will ultimately end up being the reason why you’ll end up paying significantly more for each click. Use an image or ad copy that makes people stop for a second and ask themselves a few questions. Test, test and test some more. Try as many different ads on for size as you can and stick with the ones that work best. Don’t go overboard though, keep the ad related to the product or service you’re offering because if not, people will simply visit your website and then leave.
7) Block sites that are known to send traffic that converts poorly.
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The Ultimate Quality Score Guide
Things sure have changed a lot over the years as far as AdWords search is concerned. Receiving a lot of exposure used to be a lot easier in the past than it is now, simply because there weren’t as many variables involved. Back in the day, if your CTR was high enough, you didn’t have to worry about anything else and were in a great position to milk the keyword(s) in question.
There’s a lot of money on the table, you need to understand that: Google remembered the fact that search represents an extremely important part of their business model and acted accordingly. If you’re interested in making a lot of money via AdWords Search, you need to start by understanding:
Why Changes Were Implemented
A lot of people who are new to the game ask themselves: why bother with all of this Quality Score nonsense? If you think about it for a moment though, the reasons are definitely logical.
Google makes money because people use the search engine on a daily basis. Why do they use the search engine? Because it helps them find answers, because it’s useful. The sponsored listings occupy a lot of each page’s “real estate”, so what would happen if the ads bring people to nothing but useless websites? Exactly, their user experience would end up being anything but pleasant and they would start considering alternatives.
As you can see, they would have been sacrificing long-term profits for short-term gains by not making Quality Score a part of the equation. They didn’t do it to make your life harder as an affiliate marketer, they did it so that the sponsored listings are relevant to each query.
Making Quality Score Work in Your Favor
The fact that the rules are stricter does not necessarily have to represent a disadvantage. Why not make quality score work in your favor? Always keep the following aspect in mind: Google wants your ad and website to be as relevant to each query as possible, so if you can make that happen or at least trick Google into thinking your ad and website are extremely relevant, the war is practically won.
It’s not as complicated as you think it is. First of all, there are things that you can implement right away (ad copy and page content). On the other hand, there are things which only show their effect in time (a great link profile). Let’s start by finding out how you should:
Play the Ad Copy and Page Content Game
In case you haven’t noticed by now, Google highlights each and every “exact match” instance of the keyword found in your ad copy. For example, if someone searches for “cheap cars” and you have “Find cheap cars now” in your ad copy, “cheap cars” will be highlighted. The result: a visual advantage which increases the chances of your ad getting noticed, the chances of you having an excellent CTR. There are also direct Quality Score benefits associated with using exact match keywords in your ad copy but they’re not as important as they used to be.
Google always crawls the destination page in order to make sure that it is relevant. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that keyword stuffing is a great idea. It might have been a couple of years ago but not anymore. Google has the technology necessary to “make connections” such as “cheap cars and inexpensive vehicles are terms which practically represent the same thing”, so keep it natural and you’ll be just fine. Alright, let’s move on and go:
Back to the SEO Drawing Board
If you want a great Quality Score, you have to “prove” that your website is relevant and you can do that via link building. In most cases, some basic SEO should be enough. If you have a decent number of links with relevant anchor text pointing to your website, you get the message across that you’re here to provide value to the person who searches on Google and will be rewarded with a good quality score.
At the end of the day, it’s a fine balancing act. Doing it right is a lot more complicated today but it’s definitely not impossible. You simply need to think about it from Google’s perspective as well as from the perspective of the people who perform the searches. If your ad is relevant and attractive enough to generate a high CTR, if the destination page is relevant and if it also has quality links pointing to it, you’re good to go.
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The Ways of Marketing
Most people associate the idea of marketing with billboards and TV commercials. They think that spending some time brainstorming, picking a random concept and “invading” the market is all there is to it. Things are unfortunately quite a bit more complicated than that.
Sure, you can just pick a random concept and have your campaign ready in a matter of hours but by doing that, you’d practically be throwing a lot of money down the drain. Understanding that you always need to test and tweak is one thing but you do need a starting point that’s at least decent. You need to:
Understand Your Target Audience!
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that using your better judgment will be enough. If you’re a man and want to target women, for example, you need to spend time and money gathering as much data as possible. No matter how smart you are or think that you are, you just don’t know what’s inside a woman’s head.
The same principle applies if you’re interested in selling to people from another country. We’re talking about different cultures, different values and yes, even different surfing habits. There’s just no way of knowing what your target audience is expecting without having a lot of data at your disposal.
Remember: you ‘re not the one who has to buy the product! For example, if you’re 40 and married with 3 children and interested in selling a video course about how to stay healthy and look great by eating the right things, you’re probably more tempted to focus on the health side of things. In other words, explain why you need to stay healthy so that you can be there for your family and use that as a selling point. And yes, that works great if you’re planning to advertise to people who are also in their forties and have children.
But if you have to advertise to let’s say high school guys, things change. At that age, they’re not really all that interested in the long-term benefits of a healthy lifestyle, they’re far more interested in looking great and impressing the ladies. If you want to sell the video course to them, you have to see things from their perspective. You have to explain how that product helps THEM, what THEY would have to gain by paying for the video series you are promoting. In other words, you have to leave the things that you would normally be interested in aside for a moment and mainly focus on what’s important to THEM.
How to Gather Data?
Gathering data is actually not all that complicated if you’re smart about it. Be creative and understand that if you have to sell to teenagers, for example, you have to hang out at the places where you’ll find… teenagers!
Do you want to find out what’s important to them? Then go ahead and ASK. Head on over to a high school near you and organize a poll, a discussion session or something similar. But you know high school kids, they would probably just make fun of your attempt and not get involved unless there’s something in it for them.
Offer some prizes to the most active people, talk with their principle and ask for a favor such as getting them out of a class they hate. Now’s the time to score some points! You have no idea just how much money you can make using the data you’d be able to gather.
Of course, you can make things happen online as well. Again, be creative! Sign up for an account at a forum you know teenagers frequent, use facebook and so on. There are lots of worthwhile approaches, all you need to do is take action. Again, focus on the “what’s in it for them” part if you truly want to convince them to contribute.
The same way, if you’re 20 and want to target people who are 40-50, you need to take action and interact with them. It’s really not all that complicated and once you get the hang of things, it’s actually fun.
“Can’t I Skip these Steps and Just Move On to Making Money?”
No! This is the mistake most beginners make, they’re not willing to put their research shoes on and choose foolish approaches such as following their “marketing instincts”. Some do it because they’re just too lazy, some do it because of their ego and so on.
This much is certain: skipping the research part is a surefire way to lose money. People who think that being a marketer is a piece of cake don’t have a clue. Understand your target audience! Understand your target audience! Oh and don’t forget to understand your target audience!
That’s really all there is to it and you always have to research in order to gather data. There’s unfortunately no easy way out, you have to be where your potential customers are. It’s always like this: if you’re interested in making a lot of money via a profitable long-term advertising campaign, you need to initially put in a lot of effort because otherwise, you’ll end up banging your head against the wall again and again and again.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, just focus on what has been proven to work. There is simply no way to make money consistently without working, there never was and there never will be. Stop relying on luck, stop thinking like a beginner who doesn’t have a clue and start making some real money!
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I figured I’d let you guys know the scoop on my history with affiliate marketing, and how I got to where I am today. So here is how I can best explain it:
The Beginning
As a kid, I always had a passion for sports and computers. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a wildly passionate sports town definitely contributed to my love for sports, but my passion for computers had a quite twist to it. From the age of 4, my parents forced me to use the computer for an hour a day, learning the basics of then popular DOS. Ever since then, computers have been a huge part of my life (I even remember learning to read from basic DOS video games).
The evolution of the internet in 1995 soon led to further my obsession of technology to the next level. I learned Visual Basic and C++ in 6th grade. It was around that time that I developed my first application, a program to help consolidate the functions of AOL users (the tool went on to have over 50,000 downloads on then popular Download.com). By 2001, my business partner, Mike Vellucci, and I started our first website. We were in 9th grade at the time, and was exactly when we learned the power of internet advertising.
Our first site started with a week long intense “learn how to build a website” sabbatical. From there, Mike and I created a site that helped high school with vocabulary memorization. The site, made by Mike, was complimented by an application that I made in Visual Basic 6.0. Instead of charging a fee for this application, we gave the user the option to fill out a CPA Offer. The miraculous part of this story is that we somehow were featured on a popular vocabulary site that bolstered over 20,000 hits to our newly developed site. A week later, we had over $3,000 in our affiliate account just after a week of going live. From there we realized the endless potential that the internet brought to us.
Our profits made from the vocabulary site led us to our next major venture, a full scale wholesale business. We sold everything from computers to shoes. The majority of our sales came from eBay and then led into a website warehouse. We stuck with our wholesale company our entire high school years.
My Other Passion
During this time, I also became heavily involved with sports. During high school I earned 10 Varsity letters, 7 in track and 3 in football. Although I was heavily involved with our wholesale business, the majority of my goals were directed towards playing at a competitive Division 1 school. My senior year was entirely tied up into being a state champion in track and proving I was good enough to make it big time athletically. I was a sprinter on the track and a utility player (mainly WR/CB) for the football team. I worked my butt off week by week to be the best I could be, and ranked amongst the fastest sprinters in the state of Pennsylvania my senior year. This led me to accept a spot on the Track team at Syracuse University.
Athletic Career Ran Short
On February 1st, 2005, a week before the state indoor championship for track, I tore my hamstring entirely, bringing my senior year state championship aspirations to an end. I was in crutches for about a month and the next race I would run would not be until my freshman year at Syracuse. As tragic as this was at the time, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
College Track
After over a year of rehabilitation on my hamstring, my attempt at running college track never panned out. With my hamstring still nagging, I was only able to compete in 3 meets total my entire college career, all of which did not work out too well. My legs lost the long term endurance that made me successful during high school. At this time I started dabbling around more with internet marketing for some side cash, however, my athletic career was not over.
Division 1 Football
With my track aspirations being hampered by a nagging injury, I sent my high school football tapes over to the football coaches at Syracuse. After explaining my situation to the coaches, I was offered a spot on the football team. I went on to play for a year and a half. This was a major event in my life as I learned several unexplainable life lessons that helped develop the core framework of my ambitions and personality. The ability to relate current life issues to comparable situations that I encountered during my athletic years are irreplaceable, and I credit my success thus far to this realization.
From Spare Time to Full Time
During my football days at Syracuse, Mike and I would pick up some spare cash during various internet marketing ventures. Of which was a site dedicated to Breast Cancer where we would promote various breast cancer products and give a portion of our earnings to The National Breast Cancer Foundation. During the development of the site, I learned the “in’s and out’s” of internet marketing from all aspects. I also found a major need in the industry for consolidation and management assistance. This ultimately led to the idea of Bevo Media. I also started dabbling in search marketing during this time as well.
Our breast cancer site was rocking, there was a point where we were averaging 10,000 unique visitors a day, with over 8,000 members joining every month. When we saw how well our Breast Cancer site was doing, we decided to start a number of additional sites with the same idea, just different themes. We ended up managing 6 different sites and developed them all to reach over 50,000 unique hits a day combined. In May of 2007, Mike and I sold off all of our sites for an extremely large sum of money. We planned on using this money to start our main idea of Bevo Media. However during the website process, our search marketing started taking off big time that would make our site acquisitions seem marginal.
Search Marketing Prodigy
Unlike most people starting off with search marketing, my very first search marketing attempt was a gem. I threw up a basic email submit campaign using the Poll Method and made $500 my very first day from only $50 in clicks. Since then, I became complete and utterly obsessed with search marketing. Once email submits started to scrub, I moved onto the more competitive niches. Since the competitive niches have a substantial amount of traffic and much higher payouts, I began to blow up.
The skills I have developed during my search marketing efforts have benefited me greatly in the development of Bevo Media, and has also given Mike and I the opportunity to bootstrap a project that would normally cost millions of dollars to develop.
Bevo Media
I won’t get into too much detail about what exactly Bevo Media is until we have officially launched for open beta. But I will say that Bevo Media is a major project that I believe can impact the industry substantially. We have been developing the platform for close to two years and have a full team of programmers working hard at work 6 days a week. If you want more info… you can ask to be a beta tester! 
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