From the category archives:

AdWords Cost

* FREE PERRY MARSHALL WEBINAR:
February 2010 on the island of Maui, Perry Marshall unveiled a new technology for creating ad campaigns that stand out from everything else in the marketplace. The students he taught used his methodology to beat their own best ads, landing pages, and emails.  Powerful results started to emerge…
- One of his students was able to finally beat their previously “unbeatable” ad after spending $200,000 on Adwords traffic.
- Another student used the concept to increase his conversions by 79%.
But for the past several years he’s been selective about who got access to this technology.
Last week I found out that he’s telling the whole story for the first time – including his journal notes about how he came up with the idea.
The odd story behind it all is that he was on vacation in Costa Rica and was wandering through the forest admiring the efficiency of Mother Nature when all of a sudden he connected the dots to Google Adwords.
(If you know Perry – you know that it’s not at all weird for him to be thinking about Google Adwords while vacationing in the rain forest. For anyone else, very strange)
His notes are a bit cryptic but he’s doing a presentation next week and says he’ll also be
explaining his “Jungle Journal” in more detail in the coming days.
Here’s the link to Perry’s Jungle Journal notes:
* FREE PERRY MARSHALL WEBINAR:
Definitely worth attending in my book :-)
(Of course, as you probably know, I’m also an affiliate, and you’ll be helping finance my “master plan” if you should buy anything after clicking and/or attending the FREE event)

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The Unlimited Traffic Technique

by admin on 6:37 am

Way back in 2003 I heard Jonathan Mizel describe something which literally blew my internet marketing mind.

He called it “The Unlimited Traffic Technique” and the essence of it was this:  IF you’re the guy/gal who makes more money off a web visitor than everyone else in the market, AND you offer a very generous affiliate commission, then most of the traffic in that market should tilt in your favor.

For example:  I make $25 per lead, everyone else makes $10.  I offer a $12.50 so the other merchants say “why the heck should I bother with customer service, cost of goods, shipping, product development, and all these other hassles when I can make  $2.50/lead more with Glenn for doing NOTHING but sending him the traffic?”

See what I mean?

And that’s what Dan Kennedy means when he says you need to “engineer the economics of your business so you can PAY MORE for a lead than everyone else in the market”.  (This is contrarian to say the least… while every other business is trying to pay as little as possible, obsessing about efficiencies… you figure out how to pay MORE  and you can dominate the market)

IF you can reach this position, the experience is literally mind blowing. Because whereas you previously had to beg for joint ventures,  eek out a profit on exhaustively optimized advertising, or expend eons of precious time on search engine optimization or social media… all of a sudden everyone needs YOU.

It’s like holding a glazed ham in a room packed with Doberman Pinchers… you’ve actually gotta take care to protect yourself, they come at you so fast.

BUT  (there’s always a “but”, isn’t there), what I want to talk to you about today is the PRACTICALITY of owning and controlling this dominant position in a market.

Because while it all sounds wonderful in theory, and it’s DEFINITELY something we should all be striving for, in practice, it’s pretty damn hard to get to.  (I’ve only REALLY done it once, and am just now putting the finishing touches on my second grand slam)

Here’s why it’s much harder to do than it sounds (followed by the SOLUTION which finally hit me in the face like a monsoon in the desert).

First of all, it’s only natural for we left-brained-electron-chasing-internet-marketers (that particular breed which clings to the seductive fantasy of having computers suck money out of cyberspace and deposit it by the millions in our electronic bank accounts) naturally gravitate towards AD/LANDING PAGE/SALESLETTER OPTIMIZATION as the quintessential solution.

Friends, I’m here to tell you it is NOT!

Which is not to say you shouldn’t be testing and tracking to optimize your conversion like a wolf on the hunt. (You definitely should).

But in the end, especially if you’ve done your research, most systems reach a point of diminishing returns on your optimization effort.

For example,  if you start with a 25% profit and you test and tweak the hell out of that system, you can frequently get it to 150% or 200%.   Not too shabby, to be sure, and you can definitely build a business on it, … but it’s usually not enough to fund the unlimited traffic phenomenon.

Because many competitors will be optimizing their sites too.

To fund the unlimited traffic technique, you’ve really got to be making at least twice as much as compared to everyone else.

And the much faster way to get there, I’ve finally learned after years of pain, isn’t so much by optimization, but by turning your business into a REAL business… one which cultivates repeat customers, and offers a multitude of ultra-high end solutions.

In other words, where everyone else is trying to sell ebooks and information products, you hammer the market with a high end, guaranteed, done for you service with a continuity component.   While they’re going after  $100 or even $1000 of profit at a time, you go after a lifetime value of $25,000.

To quote a line from a bad remake (of a great movie)… “There IS no defense!”

Of course, optimization plays a role in this pursuit.  But it’s not as much of an economic role as we’d all like to think.  We’ve all got the dream of finding “just the right ad” or “just the right headline” and then striking it rich, when the truth is, we should be thinking about “just the right OFFER” and “just the right BUSINESS STRUCTURE”.

Because, if I’m making $25,000 from a customer, does it really matter SO much if I pay $10 vs. $20 per lead?

What matters is I figured out how to make $25,000 per customer.

Now, optimization DOES help us figure that out, because every test gives us more insight into what the market really wants.

But optimization is just a cog in the wheel… it’s a part of the process, it’s not the goal in and of itself.

Optimization is a necessary but NOT sufficient condition for achieving the ultimate goal – unlimited traffic and market domination.

It took me a LONG time to learn this.

At first I was obsessed with my click through rates in Google, and with a psychotic energy not dissimilar to having to master Asteroids and Ms. Pacman as a child,  I learned how to get more traffic at a lower cost.

Then I transferred this obsession in to learning how to CONVERT the traffic (using my research systems, etc).

Now, you’d THINK that should be the end of the story…

Because TRAFFIC x CONVERSION = $$$ Right?

Not quite.

And that obsession almost killed me.

Because while Traffic x Conversion DOES generate money:

Traffic x Conversion x High Ticket Items x Repeat = FORTUNE

So here’s the real take-away.

Given a basic proficiency with traffic and conversion, you get a LOT more leverage, by focusing on the second half of the equation! (High Ticket x Repeat)

This usually means giving up the fantasy of getting 24 hour a day massages while someone feeds you bon bons and money is electronically deposited in your bank account.

It means embracing a real business, where you deliver high end products and services, and require some assistance to make it all run.

I really wish I knew this 5 years ago when I came onto the scene.

Because in my own struggle to relinquish this fantasy, I believe I may have erred in encouraging others :-(

I’m sorry!

But there it is in plain sight for you above.  And I’ll say it again so you can tell your Mom something really important this Christmas (and make sure she’s listening, will you?):

Traffic x Conversion x High Ticket Items x Repeat = FORTUNE

Given a basic proficiency with traffic and conversion, you get a LOT more leverage, by focusing on the second half of the equation! (High Ticket x Repeat)

Have a Happy Holiday Everyone, … I’ve got GREAT things in store for you next year!

Dr. G :-)

www.HyperResponsiveMarketingSecrets.com

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PPC Remarketing Advice from Rocket Clicks

October 21, 2010

One of the MOST powerful (and controversial) marketing innovations of the past few years has been RE-MARKETING… your chance for a second bite at the apple… the ability to reach people who’ve visited your site AGAIN as the browse OTHER people’s sites on the Display Network.
It’s kind of a mysterious animal, and difficult to get [...]

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There are NO AdWords Geniuses

August 4, 2010

This might seem like a strange thing for the owner of a PPC agency to say, but there really are NO AdWords geniuses!
I frequently hear people talking about so and so as an “AdWords Genius.”
But when someone says that, I immediately know that they don’t thoroughly  understand AdWords.   Because saying someone is an “AdWords [...]

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Important Split Testing Innovation

May 19, 2010

Like everyone else in direct marketing, I spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of split testing.  As well I should, because with ongoing, small improvements, implemented like a bull dog, you can radically change the performance of your whole sales systems.
Unlike everyone else, I urge people to have the patience to do their [...]

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Hal Varian – Quality Score and The Google Ad Auction

March 31, 2010

Hal Varian is the chief economist at Google, and certainly one of the main forces behind the economics of the Adwords Auction AND Quality Score.   Google’s had this video available for over a year now, but NOT ONE PERSON I’ve spoken with about their Quality Score concerns had watched it. (Thanks to Rob [...]

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“So Little Time, So Many Liars” (Recorded Consult with Glenn)

February 10, 2010

Know the biggest problem we face as internet marketers?
LIARS.
A Darwinian economy creates ruthless temptation to lie, exaggerate,  distort, and mislead.  And the PPC auction puts that on steroids.
Every time you look at the results of a split test you’re faced with a moral dilemma.   Because the majority of the time, strengthening your claim beyond [...]

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Why Ignoring AdWords is Never an Option

January 29, 2010

Here’s a conversation I repeat often which makes my brain hurt!
It goes something like this:
MARKETER:  ”I think Google’s become entirely too random and unfair with their Quality Score system, so I’m just going to focus on SEO”
GLENN: “OK, well, where does SEO Traffic come from?”
MARKETER: “Uhm, well, I guess it comes mostly from Google”
GLENN: “So, [...]

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The Problem with Making Too Much Money

January 27, 2010

I know, I know… you’re all saying “I’ll take that problem”, right?
But as a site starts to grow “fat on the land”, a strange phenomenon develops I call “making money in spite of yourself”.
What does that mean and why is it a problem?
Spend some time examining the most successful sites in any market and [...]

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Rambo Sucks at Marketing

January 25, 2010

There’s a repetitive conversation I’ve had with my coaching students about choosing the right market, and more specifically the right ENTRY POINT into a market, which I think bears your close attention.  (It came to a head a few weeks ago with a new student who shall remain nameless, but rest assured I see this REPEATEDLY)
As [...]

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