The Coming Adwords War

Foreword
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THE COMING ADWORDS WAR

Michael Reining
From EBay Strategist to Bedroom Entrepreneur
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Why I Became an Entrepreneur

From Flying in Private Jets to Joining the Pajama Posse
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My Battle With AdWords

The First Sign of Trouble
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8 8
It Was Time to Fight Back
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Why Im Sharing My AdWords Secrets With You Why Are Small Businesses Dying in AdWords? The 3-Phase Plan
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PHASE I: BOOT CAMP

The AdWords Resource Center
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How To Look At Your AdWords Plan Like A Military Strategist

This Five Step Model Will Ensure That Your AdWords Campaign Has An Unfair Advantage Over Your Competitors From the Beginning #1: Position
The Unfair Disadvantage Small Businesses Face
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#2: Mobility
If You Dont Move Faster The Big Guns Are Going to Blast You Out of Google by 2009
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#3: Ground Conditions

The Crucial Fact That Small Businesses Refuse to See
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#4: Resource Provisions

Why Small Businesses Struggle to Survive
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#5: Hazard Mitigation

What 95% of Small Businesses Dont Know and How This Means They Get Hit By the Google Slap
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What is the AdWords Doom Loop?

95% of Small Businesses Are in the AdWords Doom Loop Burning Money So Most Likely This is Happening To You Too 29
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What is the AdWords Money Loop?

All It Takes is a Few Key Strategies for Your Campaign to Make Oodles of Money
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Staying Out of the AdWords Doom Loop And Staying in the AdWords Money Loop
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
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PHASE II: CONQUERING YOUR BEACHHEAD

The 8-Part Battle Plan to Conquering a Beachhead And Setting Yourself Up For Long Term Domination
Battle Plan #1: Divide & Conquer
Have Many Targeted Ad Groups
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Battle Plan #2: Attack The Weakest Link

Start in the Weakest Markets
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Battle Plan #3: Prepare for Landing

Setup Your Landing Pages
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Battle Plan #4: Use Overwhelming Force

Start with High Bids
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Battle Plan #5: Start From a High Position

Start with A Preferred Ad Position
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Battle Plan #6: Survival of the Fittest Kill off Your Weakest Links Immediately Before They Kill You
Split Test Your Ads Rapidly
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Battle Plan #7: Retreat and Attack Again

If Youre in the Doom Loop, Delete and Restart
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Battle Plan #8: Slowly Dig In

Slowly Lower Your Bids
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PHASE III: ADVANCED BATTLE TECHNOLOGY

Winning The Coming AdWords War
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2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 3
FOREWORD
MI N D V AL LE Y A RE S H I NI N G S T A R S The MindValley guys know what theyre talking about. And I recommend them strongly. I asked them to help me promote one of my products, Attraction Accelerator. Within 7 days they snagged the #1 spot on Google for the keyword Attraction Accelerator and then proceeded to sell 300 copies of my product within a week using blog and newsletter marketing. These guys are shining stars watch out for them. ~ Stephen Pierce, Internet Marketing Guru and Business Optimization Specialist
T HE F I R S T G U I D E YOU SH OULD READ Written by industry professionals who have shaped technologies that thousands of companies use successfully to sell online. MindValley has used these strategies to grow their own online businesses year after year and have been profitable since year one. This should be THE FIRST ecommerce guide you read! ~ Vic Sithasanan, Technology Director, Leading Online and Interactive Marketing Agency in Asia Pacific
Once in a great while on the internet, you come across a resource so special and helpful, you wonder how you ever got on without it. For me, MindValley Labs is that resource. On a scale of 1-10, its an 11. Not only do MindValley Labs show you the mechanics of how to structure PayPer-Click (PPC) ads and web-pages that work they go way, way beyond, to give you the actual content the words and phrases that deliver proven winners. Whats more, they give you real-life examples, showing their advice in action. To prove it all, MindValley hands you the actual test data and you see the results with your own eyes. In over 10 years on the internet, Ive found nothing like them. Theres no better resource for PPC advertising or web-business in general, than MindValley Labs. I wonder how I ever survived without them.
This is a must for entrepreneurs and small businesses to make your venture successful in todays highly competitive and ever changing online world. It includes endless number of tried and tested Modules that big companies pay thousands of . dollars to implement.
~ Paul Hynek, Founder, EZNumbers.com
~ Roger Hall, AdWords Certified Professional, BetterClix.com
THE COMING ADWORDS WAR

Fact: Small businesses are facing a tremendous threat. The AdWords playing field is changing so rapidly that if they dont adapt, theyll be squeezed out by 2009. Ever since the big guns rolled onto the field and Google introduced their black box of rules with their Quality Score, small businesses are quickly finding themselves increasingly at loss with AdWords. Report: In this report, I will lay down piece by piece the evolution of AdWords. I will analyze exactly where small businesses stand today in AdWords and then I will go into the challenges and threats that have arisen in recent years challenges and threats that small businesses can no longer ignore.
Mission: I will then go into the strategies of not only overcoming these challenges and threats, but I will also let you in on a powerful secret so that you not only survive but you will thrive in The Coming AdWords War. But before I get ahead of myself and jump into details, let me tell you about myself.
MICHAE L REINING
F R O M E B A Y S T R ATE G I S T T O B E D R O O M E NT RE P R E NE U R I remember the day that I had my moment of eureka very well. I was sitting at my fiance Michelles home in Vancouver. It was Christmas and I was meeting Michelles parents for the first time. And yet despite the fact that it was Christmas dinner despite the fact that this was the woman I deeply loved despite the fact that this was the family I would soon be making my family I SNUCK AWAY. No it wasnt cold feet. It was AdWords. Yes, believe it or not I had built a business on AdWords and my life had become dependent on it. I know I shouldve been out there for dinner its Christmas! And I know what youre probably thinking couldnt I have just waited till after dinner to work on AdWords? But you see after a long-haul flight I had to spend at least an hour on AdWords and I had to do it right there and then. The urgency was because if I didnt do my tweaking for the day, my business could lose $1,000 or even more and I couldnt afford that. And thats when Michelle burst into the room, yelling and screaming at me but it was when she threatened to leave me that it really hit me. I suddenly realized the weight of
the situation. It was at that very moment that I saw clear as day where AdWords had once been a blessing for me, it was now a curse. How did I get myself in this position? Well, this is the story that I want to tell you. Everyone has their story, and Im sure you have yours too. But here I want to tell you mine because I want you to know where Im coming from before I tell you why I want to help you make money from AdWords.
Lets flashback a little bit here I wasnt always a bedroom entrepreneur. In fact, I dont think you would actually believe what I did before I joined the pajama posse. Heres my story
I was born in Germany, but after a world trip with my dad and brother when I was 14 years old, we found ourselves in the idyllic Californian beach town of Santa Cruz and decided to stay. Permanently. And so Ive been an adopted Californian since the age of 14 and to this day people still mock my funny German-Californian accent. My career started soon after graduating from the University of Michigan Business School. After graduating with a 4.0 I went on to work with the prestigious Boston Consulting Group as an ecommerce consultant. I ended up getting a full scholarship to do my MBA at Stanford and straight from Stanford I went on to work for eBay. At eBay my rise was fairly rapid and within a year I was Head of New Venture Strategy.
$3 Billion Worth of Deal Making

At eBays New Ventures Strategy, our goal was to identify new growth opportunities for eBay and I was responsible for some of eBays biggest expansions. I led the team through a number of eBay's key expansions, including: Convincing eBays executives to buy a 25% stake in Craigslist for a mere $25 million. Today, Craigslist would easily be valued at a min. of $1B and some estimates go as high as $5-10B thats a 10x return on investment for eBay. Developing a global launch strategy for Kijiji.com which is now the second biggest online local classifieds marketplace in the world.
For my efforts I was awarded eBays most valuable employee award in 2004. Things got better and better, and at the peak of my career in the spring of 2005 I was in a private jet with Meg Whitman flying to London to meet Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis to seal the Skype acquisition deal. Now, Im not telling you this to brag in any way, but I want to give you some sort of an idea of how my life turned. You see at eBay I was riding high. And yet three months later everything changed. I quit eBay of my own accord. And I plunged into the risky world of entrepreneurship.
WHY I BECAME AN ENTREPRENEUR

F R O M F L Y I N G I N P R I V A TE J ET S T O J O I NI N G T HE P A J A M A P O S S E
Now a lot of people think that you become an entrepreneur when your actual business is failing. They think that people only become entrepreneurs because they werent accepted in business school or they were working a regular 9-5 job and were at the risk of burn out. That wasnt me.
The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity
~ Peter Drucker
I became an entrepreneur because Im a strategist. Im a very analytical person. And I knew what I wanted out of life. I also knew that no matter how great things were at eBay, I was never going to achieve my dreams working for someone else. Im sure this is why you became an entrepreneur. Well, let me carry on with my story
I Discovered That Bedroom Entrepreneurs Running 5-Page Websites Were Earning More Than Stanford MBAs
During my time at eBay, one of my friends Vishen Lakhiani quit his job as Director of Business Development in a fast growing Silicon Valley firm to start his own website selling something he was truly passionate about personal development products which he was marketing using Google AdWords. In the very same year that I was flying high in private jets reaping sweet success in Silicon Valley, I saw Vishen who was working in his pajamas reach dizzying heights of success. In just a few solid months, Vishen was earning almost as much as I was. Yet, while I was busting my back working 80-hour weeks at eBay, Vishen was achieving success in a relaxed lifestyle in his New York apartment with his wife, working a mere 30-40 hours a week and spending the rest of his time traveling around the world. I was at a loss. Firstly, here I am with my Stanford MBA with my huge connections and I have to slave away to make the same amount as my friend, Vishen, who works in his pajamas and gets up every day at 11am? Thats when I realized I was in the wrong business. I realized I wanted to taste the same freedom I wanted to do what I love. It was as clear as day that quitting the madness of the corporate world was the next logical step. I approached Vishen with a proposal to start a business together and he agreed. With my Silicon Valley experience, and his entrepreneur experience, we partnered up to create MindValley. And that was how I went from flying around in a private jet to working in my pajamas at home and Ive never looked back.
MY B ATTLE WITH ADWORDS

T HE F I R S T S I G N O F T R O U B L E At first, fortune was with us. We picked up Perry Marshalls guide, setup our AdWords account and soon MindValley was earning over $423,000 per year just from AdWords alone. Back in 2003, we were one of the earliest advertisers on AdWords. And boy, it was like the California gold rush. We felt like we were the first people to get there with a pick and shovel and we made a killing. We went on to launch several companies on the AdWords model. We got so good in fact, that we started giving AdWords consultations at $5,000 an hour and selling books and resources on AdWords. Our blog on AdWords became one of the top blogs in the field. And clients were banging on our door. It was almost too easy and I shouldve known better that it wouldnt last forever. While riding this wave, I ignored some key lessons from eBay. You see it was at eBay that I actually first gained an in-depth knowledge of AdWords. But despite my inside knowledge (Ill let you in on this later), I remained oblivious that it would affect me. That was STUPID and CO STLY. Next thing I knew, by the end of 2006, things were going downhill. Just as the price of oil has reached over $100 a barrel AdWords inflation was rising even faster. Things that cost $0.10 to bid on in 2003 were costing $0.25 in 2004, $0.30 in 2005 and $0.50 last year. Where we were once 1 of 3 advertisers, we had now become 1 in 30. Things were getting a heck of a lot tougher and our Google bills got higher and higher. Believe it or not, one of our websites reached a stage where 75+% of all our revenue was going into AdWords. Can you imagine running a business a mom and pops store and have 75% of your revenue go to one service provider? It sounds crazy, but thats what was happening. And we knew we were not alone because many of our consulting clients those people who came begging to us reported the same thing.
IT WAS TIME TO FIG H T BACK

From a few hours a month on AdWords to spending countless hours tweaking and adjusting my AdWords account in vain, I officially became an AdWordsholic. By 2007 we were losing money and I was on the road to losing more than I was ready to bargain for.
Remember earlier I told you about the Christmas in Vancouver when I was supposed to meet my soon to be in-laws and instead had my fiance Michelle yelling and threatening to leave me?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
Well, trust me, if thats not a wake up call to fight back, I dont know what is. I knew I had to change something. Over and over in my head, I kept hearing a quote that one of my mentors used to say a lot, The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So I stopped to think things over. I recalled my eBay days and what they did to be AdWords #1 advertiser. I wondered can we do the same? I decided there was no other way but to take the challenge upon myself and duplicate at MindValley what eBay had done. It was do or die. Thats why over the past year, Ive dedicated my time to studying the terrain and Ive formulated a detailed strategy of how to not only survive but to thrive in The Coming AdWords War. The trouble is though while information is power its just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, I had the strategy, but I didnt have an army or any fighting power. I needed more than just strategy. I needed weapons. So we decided that we needed to hire PhD mathematicians and a team of world-class developers to take our AdWords optimization process to a new level. The problem was we couldnt afford PhDs or world-class developers. As you all know these guys cost an arm and a leg. So we needed to attract them with other perks. We made the decision to move our office to Kuala Lumpur, in the center of South East Asia. We created such a unique office environment that it allowed us to attract a worldclass team from eight countries around the world. One of the other perks that helped attract people was that everyone could also spend their weekends basking in the sun on some of the worlds most beautiful beaches. Just check out how much fun everyone had at our last company getaway (by the way, Im the third guy on the left in the last row). So, in Kuala Lumpur, we managed to build up a 24-person company, and half of these people were world-class programmers from eight different countries. And thats when we assigned our programmers the biggest project can they crack the AdWords code? Can they come up with the algorithms to automate the optimization of AdWords? Just as there have been many wars that were won with superior strategy and weaponry our investment produced the strategy and weapon that completely blew the competition away.
And an added bonus for me is that Michelle didnt end up leaving me over my AdWordsholic problem and on September 29 2007, we got married in Spain on the tropical island of Mallorca in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. So yes life has been real sweet since. Everyone was so glad that I got myself out of the AdWords doom and gloom, and for the longest time, I havent shared my strategy or weapon that got me there. But please dont get me wrong Ive not been keeping it to myself because I want to be a conqueror I simply wanted to test and refine EVERYTHING until I was 100% certain that it was the winning formula to bring to combat. Now that it is refined and ready for guaranteed success, I have some great news for you: Im going to share with you the battle plan we formulated the exact step-by-step strategies that gave MindValley guaranteed success each and every time and by the end of this, Im also going to make available to you the weapon that we produced. Yes, you read that right Im going to successfully prepare you for combat.
So pull your chair up closer and start taking notes because if youre not armed with this battle plan and weapon youre not prepared to survive and thrive in The Coming AdWords War.
WHY IM SHARING MY ADWORDS SECRETS WITH YOU

So you might be asking why am I releasing our secret battle plan and superior weaponry to the world and more importantly why should these things that I am going to give matter to you? Heres why. Well first, I know I have a unique perspective. Why? Because I started out with the big guys but I switched ranks. By 2006 I was a solo entrepreneur. But having been on the other side, Im cautious of the big guy because I know how the big guys work. I can see the threat that solo entrepreneurs are going to face.
It's adap t... or die.

Far fetched? Not at all. Let me backtrack a little bit here do you recall earlier when I mentioned that despite my inside knowledge that the AdWords game was going to change, I remained oblivious that it would affect me? Remember how I said that this was a STUPID and COSTLY mistake? In fact, this mistake was the beginning of a chain of events that eventually led to my then fiance Michelle threatening to leave me.
Listen carefully because Im now going to let you in on the key inside knowledge I gained from eBay but ignored at my own peril.
I must take you back to my eBay days. As Head of New Ventures Strategy, eBay put me in charge of competitive analysis where I analyzed the evolution of Google and Google AdWords to strategize how eBay should respond to the coming challenge and opportunity from Google and AdWords. Now, I remember one very particular day at eBay. In fact, the event that happened on this day was so crucial that I actually remember the exact date. I also remember what I had for breakfast it was a Grande cup of coffee at Starbucks and a banana chocolate chip muffin
But lets get back to the story the pivotal date was January 21, 2005 and I was headed to a meeting in eBay's boardroom with the top 40 executives from eBay. I was to give a presentation on Google AdWords and a market analysis of who was advertising on AdWords and how this was going to evolve over the coming years. As I shared with everyone my findings that over 62% of the ad space on Google AdWords was taken up by small businesses, the conversation got very heated. For a start, the validity of the data was questioned because the common belief that AdWords wasnt for small businesses but eBay was. That's because prior to AdWords, eBay was probably the single best way for small businesses to reach customers online. The second counter argument against me in the boardroom was that while small businesses had taken up the majority of the ad space on Google, everyone insisted that this was going to rapidly change. I still remember very clearly what they said... Just wait until the big co mpanies wake up and start moving their ad spending online onto Google AdWords. The little guy will quickly get squeezed out. Back in 2005, I did not want to hear any of that! While I was running New Ventures Strategy for eBay, I already had it brewing in my mind that I was going to start my own business a business largely powered by AdWords!
Just wait until the big companies wake up and start moving their ad spending online onto Google AdWords.
So, I simply did not want to believe their prediction that the findings of my research would be temporary. I wish that I had listened to their prediction in order to better prepare myself for the AdWords battle that was about to hit me. But because I ignored it, my business slid downhill for quite a few years. But you know what? I managed to get myself out of it and now I want to share the lessons I have learned with every aspiring entrepreneur that has to face AdWords so I can help them avoid the pain I had to go through.
The little guy will quickly get squeezed out
Remember Ive been on both sides so I have a unique perspective Ive seen how the big guys dominate, and Ive been through the pain of getting squeezed out by the big guy. I know that increasingly, the Internet and Google AdWords are becoming one of the most important channels to reach potential customers. And I know that there are a whole lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses just like me who hold great promise and yet because of the big brands that dominate the Internet and Google AdWords, they are getting squeezed out I dont want to see that happen to guys like me on the Internet I simply can't stand on the sidelines and watch big business squeeze out the little guy. That's why I want to help that's why I must help.
Because of my unique perspective, I can clearly see the writing on the wall so you better believe me when I say:
If yo u a nd I do n't cha ng e and we d ont adapt, then the b ig g uys a re g oing to simp ly ro ll rig ht over us and you ca n kiss build ing a b usiness v ia Goo gle Ad Words goodb ye.
I know that its not just me that sees this. Other people are noticing the need to adapt too in fact... last month I put up a survey on our blog Blog.MindValleyLabs.com. We asked people to tell us their biggest burning question on internet marketing. I want to share you some sample responses we got.
How hard it is to go from $100 a day spend on adwords to $500 a day and be profitable?
Adwords is burning a hole in my pocket. Dear MindValley what should I do?
... despite studying hard, I still think most of my AdWords advertising is insanely over-priced. Is Google ripping me off?
How can I improve my performance in Google Adwords while spending less money?
Are you as sincerely perplexed as these guys? Well youre not alone. We know because day by day, were increasingly hearing calls for help from small business owners that come to us because AdWords is burning a hole in their pockets. Well, I hope by now you can see where Im coming from and why I want to help. I want to guys like you how to adapt. I have the strategy and the weapon that is crucial for your small business if you want to survive The Coming AdWords War.
So the good news for you is now that I am in the same shoes as you, Im sharing that strategy and weapon with you. But the not so good news is me wanting to help you is not enough. You MUST make the decision to help yourself. So now that I have informed you of The Coming AdWords War, you have two choices in fact you have the same choices that I faced three years ago in the boardroom of eBay on that fateful morning of January 21, 2005
You can:
Ignore the signs that the rapid change in AdWords is going to affect small businesses like you
Or you can:
Equip yourself for The Coming AdWords War
Having been there and done that I strongly advise that you to make the second decision. Now, have you made your decision?
If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete

~ Jack Welsh
Well then, lets get right on with it and let me begin equipping you by first telling you the barriers that are holding you back from reaching your maximum profit with AdWords
WHY ARE SMALL BUSINESSES DYING IN ADWORDS?

Have you ever tried to launch a new Google campaign only to be completely devastated? You build your army of keywords and set out to conquer new landand you never even reach the shore! Don't worry this happened to me all the time... especially when Google kept changing the rules of their "Quality Score". As if having competition is not hard enough, you can at any time get slapped by Google and be dead on arrival before the war even gets started. Its no wonder then that small businesses become easily overwhelmed and thats why theyre dying in AdWords. To make matters worse in addition to not having a full understanding of AdWords, theyre slapped with the unfair disadvantage of being underequipped. Now, let me tell you something I noticed during my years of consulting that you might not believe Seriously put some thought into this.
of small businesses make the
95%
S A ME M I S TA KES
when starting their Ad Wor ds acc ount time and time again
Because Im not kidding you. In my experience, I observed that 95% of small businesses dont actually know how to setup their AdWords account. Theyre making the same mistakes. They dont start on the right foot. But the good news is that these common mistakes are easily rectifiable. Fact is, once I showed them the easy strategies BANG they saw that making oodles of money with AdWords is possible.
And these strategies to make oodles of money with AdWords is exactly what Im going to teach you how to do.
Thats why in this guide, Ive compiled for you a 3-Phase Plan because I want to make sure that you dont make the same mistakes.
THE 3-PHASE PLAN

PHASE I: BOOTCAMP
This is where I make sure that you are properly trained and ready for battl e.

Here, I will show you the importance of entering a war with a winning strategy. Then, I will show you the winning AdWords strategy and how you too can conquer your beachhead successfully.

In the final phase, I will equip you to face the big guns by giving you access to my battle technology. With this weapon, you will be able to not just survive but thrive in The Co ming AdWords War.
OK, are you ready for Boot Camp? Lets get started
PHASE I: BOOT CAMP
Before entering a battle, you must be well trained. Our Boot Camp training that will help get you started is divided into three parts: The AdWords Resource Centre Understanding the AdWords Terrain The AdWords Doom Loop and The AdWords Money Loop - Ignore This And Youll Start Wrong, Learn This And Youll Start Strong
THE ADWORDS RESO URCE CENTER

Dont know how to start AdWords? Dont worry for those of you who are beginners, Ive compiled this 1-page summary of where you can find beginner resources.
Note: Im going to spend very little time on this because what I really want to focus on is the intermediate and advanced level of AdWords. So if youre beyond the beginners level, skip this page.
Gain a basic mastery of Googl e AdWords In order to succeed in battle you have to train yourself and know how to use the tools that Google has made available. Since Google is signing up thousands of new AdWords users every day, they have created an excellent boot camp that is 100% Free of charge. The first place to get started is Googles Learning Center. Google has created a ton of high quality text and multi-media lessons to learn the ins and outs of how the AdWords system works. Then, if you still have any questions about the Google AdWords System, you can also check out Googles comprehensive Customer Support Center. Learn how to setup your AdWords account for lasting success and why 95% of new AdWords us ers stil l get it wrong Setting up your AdWords account for future domination is not that hard the trick is just knowing exactly what to do and more importantly, what NOT to do. 99% of the correct setup has to do with the following: Building a winning keyword list Knowing how to split your keyword list into individual Ad Groups
Building a winning keyword list does not have to be hard. You just need to be thorough and follow these simple steps. 1. Get keyword ideas (go broad). 2. Build keyword lists (go deep). 3. Break your keyword lists into highly targeted Ad Groups.
OK, so you now have all the resources you need to learn the basics. But were still not prepared for battle yet. Lets move on to the second part of our Boot Camp, where I will show you five crucial things you MUST understand
H OW TO L O OK AT YO UR ADWORDS PLAN LIKE A MILI TA RY STR ATEG IST

T H I S F I V E S TE P M O D E L W I L L E N S U R E T H A T Y O U R A D W O R D S C A M P AI G N H A S A N U N FAI R A D V A NTA GE O V E R Y O U R C O M P ETIT O R S F R O M T HE B E G I N N I N G When you dont understand the environment youre in, you arent prepared to react quickly because you dont know whats coming. Similarly, not understanding the AdWords Terrain leaves you unprepared to analyze and tackle changing conditions, which could see your campaign suffer a very costly or even fatal outcome. That is why in this section, I am going to dissect for you five key aspects of the AdWords terrain that you must understand. When I first sat down to analyze AdWords and formulate my battle plan strategy, I knew the best place to start was by looking at how the military prepares themselves for battle. I found five key strategies the military never ignores when running into battle. Though many may skip the analysis, I will not. Because I am a strategist, I feel that this is too important to miss. So in this section, I will give you a rundown on the AdWords terrain from these five crucial aspects. You will then fully understand where you stand in AdWords in terms of your: Position Mobility Ground Conditions Resource Provision Hazard Mitigation
Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success

~ Henry Ford
So lets get on with the next part of our Boot Camp by first getting you to understand position of your business in AdWords
# 1 : P O S ITI O N T H E U N F A I R D IS A D V A N T A G E S M A L L B US I N ESS ES F A C E Position is everything in battle. Naturally, anyone that has a better position will have a better advantage. Do you know what your position is? I dont mean to scare you, but here is the harsh reality:
You think Im being a bit over-dramatic dont you? Well, let me elaborate. Every time someone enters a search query, there is only room for 10 sponsored ads on the first page. Which ads are they going to see? And what position is your ad going to show up in? Would I be wrong to say that increasingly its the big brands that dominate search results? I dont think so. Do you think that you will see any small businesses showing up on the first page of Googles sponsored links? Let me tell you right now you wont. Why? Because they have already been squeezed out by the big brands. Think about what this means for your business. How long do you have before the big brands start bidding on your keywords and squeeze you out of the market? What are you going to do when they come rolling in? If you dont believe me, just look at the search query result for Canon Digital Camera.
Canon Digital Camera is just one example. However, dont just take my word for it. Go ahead and just try any popular products or service category such as toys, jewelry, cars, insurance, etc. and you will increasingly see that most if not all of the sponsored links are taken up by the big brands. Im not trying to dampen your spirits though. Instead, I want you to imagine that you can easily gain a top position in AdWords without having to pay for it! How will you reward yourself when you obtain financial freedom? What will you do with the extra time once you no longer need to spend hours optimizing your AdWords account?
Can you imagine how great that feels? Keep that feeling in mind as you read the following sections
# 2 : M O B I LITY I F Y O U D O N T M OV E F AS T E R T H E BIG GU NS AR E GO I NG T O B L AS T Y O U O U T O F GO OG L E B Y T H E E N D O F 2 0 0 9 Most small businesses Ive seen in my experience dont have the mobility to move their business forward in a battlefield that is constantly growing in sophistication. This is the unfair advantage that big businesses have. Ill share with you what I observed during my time at eBay. eBay used to have thousands of affiliates invest thousands of man-hours to find all the hidden profit opportunities in Google AdWords on their behalf, and it worked wonders. Thats how eBay became the number one AdWords advertiser. It was with the mobility of an army of affiliates. Suddenly however, eBay got rid of their affiliates. In fact, they forbade any affiliate from even competing in AdWords. Now, what could they have discovered to rid themselves of the very resource that had made them the Number 1 AdWords advertiser? Heres the story. eBay discovered a way to amplify the mobility of a hundred thousand men. They invested in their own superior weaponry and developed the Trident - a welloiled sophisticated algorithm that automates what would probably take you years to do in just one minute. eBay has the ultimate mobility an automated super-fast fighting machine. And with this weapon, eBay conquered AdWords. In fact, when eBay rolled out Trident, eBay boosted its ROI from AdWords by over 1,000%. Thats how powerful the Trident is. Thousands of man-hours invested by thousands of affiliates were irrelevant when matched against a powerful machine that keeps running 24 hours, night and day, 365 days a year. Now remember, the Trident was developed with eBays army of PhDs and millions in investment things that people like us simply dont have in our back pockets. Neither is there an army of affiliates in our backyards. Effectively, this means:
You dont have the spare
TIME
to put in the hours needed to fight a power stronger than an army of affiliates You dont have the investment
MONEY
to create your own lean, mean, calculating machine
So, without the time or money for competitive mobility, where do you stand? Are you praying your calculator and thesaurus will shield you from the big guns? If you ask me, its a losing battle from the very start. BUT lets just imagine that it was possible to have an automated super-fast fighting machine how would it feel to have a business that moves on its own in the AdWords terrain? If you think its impossible, I simply ask you to just keep reading because soon Im revealing the weapon that Ive developed with the team of experts and mathematicians that I pooled. I got myself out of the AdWordsholic doom with this yes... this gave me the mobility to launch one ecommerce business a month.
But before I go more into that lets first understand the ground rules of the battlefield youll be playing in.
# 3 : G R O U N D C O N D ITI O N S T H E CRUCIAL F AC T T H A T SMALL B US I N E SS ES R E F US E T O S E E Even with a secure position and enough mobility, if you dont understand the ground conditions, you could find yourself caught in quicksand that pulls you into deeper and deeper trouble no matter what you do. So what are the ground conditions in AdWords? Why its Googles playbook of course. In the terrain of AdWords, Google sets the rules. And here are some of the ground conditions that anyone who steps onto the AdWords terrain CANNOT ignore: Bidding Click Through Rate (CTR)
These used to be the only ground conditions one had to worry about. The higher your CTR, the less your minimum bid needed to be for your ad to secure a good position. So in the early days, the guys that had more highly targeted ad groups were the guys that came out on top. In early 2007, everything changed when Google rolled out a new Quality Score algorithm that measures how relevant each of your keywords is to your ad text and to a user's search query. The Quality Score influences your ads position and min. bid amount. In other words, the Quality Score determines your fate in AdWords. To most small advertisers, Googles Quality Score is largely a black box and it is constantly evolving. So let me tell you some of the additional things that The Quality Score which is at the heart of Googles playbook now also looks at:
The keywords historical CTR The relevance of the keyword related to the Ad The historic CTR of your account across all ads and keywords The relevance of your keyword and ad related to the search query The quality of your landing page (how? Google does not say) The loading speed of your landing pages (added in Feb 2008)
And who knows what the next change in ground condition is going to be? But Im not trying to read into the future here. Im just making the point that ground conditions change all the time and they are getting more and more complex. As it becomes more complex, it is the person with the know-how to read the ground conditions and the instruments to perform this analysis automatically (which means theyre fast enough to stay ahead) that will have the winning advantage. And this is EXACTLY what eBays lean, mean, calculating machine (a.k.a the Trident) does automatically and quickly 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. Theyre way ahead of you because theyre keeping up with the changes. I simply cannot stress this enough Ive seen far too many small businesses forget that the AdWords game lives in an ever-changing Google playground.
Y OU M U ST N EVE R F O R G E T!
Bi d d i ng a n d clic k t h r o ug h r a t e s used to be t he onl y Google rules you had to worr y about, bu t G o ogles pla y b o ok i s co n s t an t l y c h a nging an d y o u M UST KEEP UP
So what do you have working around the clock on Googles playground in order for your business to keep up with the changing rules? Not much? Well isnt it then nice to know that you are very close to saving time and money when I show you that you can have a powerful tool like Trident?
More on that in a moment but first let me show you why you are struggling to survive in AdWords.
# 4 : RE S O U R CE P R O V I S I O N S W H Y S M A L L B US I N E SS ES S T R U GG L E T O S U RV I V E Tapping into the natural resources around you during battle is vital for your survival. What is the natural resource for survival in the AdWords terrain? That resource is keywords. Keywords are the food your business needs for potential traffic and profits online which is basically your survival and growth. Initially, tapping into this resource was easy. The first few inhabitants roaming the land of AdWords had a field day. I know I was there! I felt like a little kid that had discovered a new candy store. Luckily for me, big businesses tend to be rather slow to enter a new market and seize a new opportunity. That is why initially we, the little guys, made all the money with AdWords. These days, AdWords is far too big an opportunity to ignore and everyone wants to get a piece of it for themselves. But the supply of resources has not changed. Let me show you a small piece of the picture.
Remember this is just a small in fact a very miniscule part of the picture. Just think about what your niche looks like. How many businesses are you going to be fighting with to get the keywords you want the resources you need over the following year or just over the next few months to come? Unfortunately for you, this isnt the only problem you face. As in any other business terrain, the law of supply and demand has been pushing up prices since 2001. While the supply (search queries on Google) has grown, the growth in demand (advertisers wanting to bid on the keyword) has far outpaced the growth in supply with the predictable outcome of rapidly pushing up prices.
The law simply states that whenever demand exceeds supply, the price will go up. Whenever supply exceeds demand, the price will go down. What does all this mean to you? It means the keywords that you most likely want are constantly getting more expensive. So now not only does every other kid on the block run into the candy store but the price of the most yummiest candy has shot up.
So ho w do es the reso urce s up ply in yo ur niche look no w?

The big guns dont have much to worry over. With prime position, supreme mobility and complete understanding of ground conditions, they dominate the battlefield resources. But you YOU are stuck in the Trench Warfare. You and all the other small businesses have been pushed into a trench to fight over the leftover resources.
But before I show you the winning battle plan to get out of the trench we have one more terrain assessment to cover. Listen very carefully because this last one is the MOST crucial.
# 5 : H A Z A R D MITI G ATI O N W H A T 9 5 % O F S M A L L B US I N ESS ES D O N T K N O W A N D HO W T H IS M EANS T HEY GE T HI T BY T H E GOOGLE SLA P Nobody who sends their ship to sea with the objective to conquer a new land has the illusion that everything is going to go their way that the seas will be smooth, that the sun will be shining, that the ship wont hit coral reefs and so on so forth. Well, the same goes for AdWords. You cant believe that everything is going to go your way. You need to be aware of the hazards that could hit your business and hit it hard. And the hazard you need to be most aware of in AdWords is the Google Slap which basically is getting hit by a really high minimum bid that costs you dearly. The key to avoiding the Google Slap is preparation. Like I said earlier nobody sends their ship to sea with the delusion that everything will be peaches and cream theyre always prepared. The trained eye understands how to read the signs and knows how to avoid the hazards.
T H E C O M I N G A D W O R D S WA R :
A T RE N C H W A R F A RE 1. On the battlefield, you dont have the TIME equal to an army of thousands of affiliates, nor the MONEY to create your own calculating machine. 2. Pushed into the trench, youre left to fight with other small businesses over the LIMITED RESOURCE of keywords while constantly bleeding your time and energy trying to outsmart your competitor. 3. While youre too busy bleeding time and gambling money on the bidding table for your keywords suddenly you get GO O GLE SLAPPED.
So, what do you train your eye to look out for in order to avoid getting slapped? Ill tell you in a moment but first, lets sum up how, overall, things are looking for you. Is this really where you want to be? Dont you want to get out of the trench and taste freedom? Just think of all the things you can finally do once youre free. Well, Im not going to keep you on the edge of your seat any longer...
So start taking notes. Because in the final part of our Boot Camp, Im going to explain to you the Doom Loop and the Money Loop of AdWords. These two key concepts will be the first step you take towards getting out of the trench and regaining your freedom
THE ADWORDS DO O M LO O P & THE ADWORDS MONEY LO O P

I G N O RE THI S & Y O U LL STA RT W R O N G LEA R N T H I S & Y O U L L S T A RT ST R O N G Yes were in the final leg of Boot Camp and youre almost ready for combat. Lets backtrack a bit. Do you remember the point where I mentioned that in my experience I saw 95% of small businesses not start their AdWords account the right way? Well, sorry to be repetitive but I mention this again because I cant stress enough how important it is to start your account on the right foot. Those who do start their AdWords account right begin by being prepared. They know how to read the hazard signs and this means that they take the right steps and enter what I call the Money-Loop. Getting into the Money Loop means starting out strong so you can immediately catapult yourself to a position of strength and then rapidly optimize from there. If not, well then youve put yourself in what I call the Doom Loop. This is such an important point that I feel I wouldnt be doing you any justice if I didnt tell you more about the Money Loop and the Doom Loop because by getting yourself into the Money Loop, you will learn how to avoid the Google Slap. In this final leg of Boot Camp, I will show you: What is the AdWords Doom Loop?
Learn how to identify if you are making any of these mistakes See why your money gets burned by Adwords Find out how to get out of the money burning cycle
What is the AdWords Money Loop?
See how simple it really is to start your AdWords account right with just a few
key strategic steps
Grasp the overall dynamics that keep you in the money making cycle Learn how to avoid the Google Slap
Stayi ng Out of the AdWords Doom Loop and Staying In the AdWords Money Loop
Start strong stay strong.
W H AT I S THE A D W O R D S D O O M L O O P ? 9 5 % O F S M A L L B US I N ESS ES A R E I N T H E A D W O R DS DOOM LOO P BURNI NG M ONEY SO MOS T LI KELY T H IS IS H A P P E N I NG T O Y O U T O O The AdWords Doom Loop is a term I use to describe a destructive cycle that begins when you dont start your AdWords campaign right. Below are the stages of the AdWords Doom Loop that you will get caught in if you dont start right.
1.
Wrong start & Tweaks
Your AdWords account is not setup correctly. Keywords are not grouped into the right Ad Groups Began on wrong keyword matching strategy First country selection not right The landing pages not optimized for keywords and speed Adopting wrong bidding strategy
Even if you had 4 out of 5 correct, it only takes one mistake and you find yourself sucked into the Doom Loop.
Are you making at least one o f thes e mis tak es ?

2. Low CTR When you make any of the above mistakes, your ads are untargeted. This means your ad gets listed to unrelated search queries. But because your ad doesnt match the search query, not many people will click on it, and the end result is you get a very low Click Through Rate (CTR).
3.
Low Qual ity Score With a low CTR, the space that Google gives you is wasted. And Google isnt going to give your ad a top position if your ad isnt bringing in the clicks, because if they can make more money from your competition, theyd rather give the space to your competitor. So, when Google doesnt favor you so much anymore Google gives you a low Quality Score.
4.
High Minimum Bid Let me remind you: This is Googles playground where Googles rules dictates the ground conditions you stand on and hence, the price you pay. So, if your Quality score is low, theyre going to make it harder for your ads to show up. If you still want your ads to show, Google needs to be compensated because theyll be losing this space to someone with a low CTR. So what happens? Google hits you with a high minimum bid for your ad.
And yo uv e just b een Google slapped .

5. Burn Money The bottom line: Your money burns. And no amount of tweaking is going to get you out of the doom loop. Youre better off killing the campaign and starting all over again.
W H AT I S THE A D W O R D S M O NEY L O O P ? A L L I T T A K ES IS A F E W K E Y S T R A T E G I ES F O R YOUR CAM P AIGN T O M AKE OODLE S OF MONEY Those who get into the AdWords Money Loop know how to start out right. Below are the stages of the AdWords Money Loop that all begin by simply starting out right. 1. Right Start & Tweaks Your AdWords account is setup correctly. Keywords are grouped into the right Ad Groups You have a winning keyword matching strategy Your first country selection is dead on The landing pages are optimized for keywords or speed You have adopted a strong bidding strategy
2.
High CTR Your ads achieve a high CTR because your ads: Are very targeted to specific keywords Have targeted landing pages so that the copy of your landing page matches the copy of your ads Have started BOLD! In other words start with high bids because ads in the top automatically get a high click through rate whether they are good ads or not. And the high CTR is what you need the most to earn a high Quality Score which ensures you maintain a high position for a minimum bid.
Let me re-iterate the last point.
The SINGL E most important f acto r is to ea rn a high CTR and the single bigg est driver of a hig h CTR is yo ur ad positio n, which initially you can o nly ob tain b y bidd ing high.
Dont believe me? Just look at this detailed study that compares the CTR of ads vs. the ad position.
This study shows beyond any doubt that the Ad Position is by far the single biggest driver behind the CTR of your ad. Why do the ads in the top do so much better? Because users pay far more attention to the top of the page than to items (ads) that are listed further below or on the side. Here is a detailed eye-tracking study from Google. This heat map Ive put on the left highlights the areas on a page that most people pay attention to. Not surprisingly, its the results in the top left (which can sometimes be sponsored links those that get CTR above 5%) and anything further down or to the right of the page users pay a lot less attention to.
3.
High Q uality Score Google likes you for your high CTR and the money you bring them, so they call you an Ally by giving you a high quality score.
4.
Low Mini mu m Bids Google rewards its Allies with low minimum bids.
5.
Earn Money The bottom line: You make money. Google makes money. Everyones happy.
And as long as yo u remain o ne of Go ogles Allies, youll hold a g ood positio n in AdWo rds.
S T A YI N G O UT O F T HE A D W O R D S D O O M L O O P A N D S T A YI N G I N T HE A D W O R D S M O NEY L O O P OP TIMIZE, OP TIMIZE, OP TIMIZE So now that you are in the Money-Loop, how do you remain Googles Ally and stay in the Money-Loop? The answer is you need to continually optimize your account, and this is the third and final step that I will be revealing to you soon when I share with you the strategies and weapon we developed. Why do you need to continuously optimize? There are two reasons. When you first enter the money loop you initially have to overbid (i.e. bid more than you can / are willing to pay in the long-term). And then you need to rapidly optimize and tweak your AdWords account to boost your performance while lowering your bids without seeing your ad position drop significantly. This will allow you to maintain a good Quality Score due to the high CTR that you have already earned. The second reason you must continuously optimize your account is that your competitors are constantly on the move. Things are constantly changing and evolving and in AdWords, you either adapt or you die.
Co ngratulations . You ha ve reached the end of our Boot Camp.

Do you follow me so far? Well, just let everything sink in for a minute. because, youve seen NOTHING yet. Believe it or not, were only now just prepared to set sail.
Stay with me and in the next Phase, I will show you how to enter the war with the winning strategy so lets learn how you can successfully conquer your beachhead
Pay attention, because if you dont read or follow this advice:

You will spend at least twice as much per click for the same amount of traffic You will get slapped by Google and face very high minimum bids and never be able to conquer your beachhead You will start from a position of weakness vs. a position of strength, which will make it almost impossible to recover and beat your stronger competitors
THE 8-PART BATTLE PLAN TO WINNING A BEACHHEAD AND SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR LONG-TERM ADWORDS DOMINATION
Before you can conquer your competition, you must conquer a beachhead. Listen carefully, because I know youre going to love this Im going to share with you the detailed strategy I use EVERY TIME to establish a winning and profitable beachhead in the AdWords Territory. Youll learn the 8-Part Battle Plan to win a beachhead and set yourself up for long-term AdWords Domination. The key lessons I will take you through in this phase are: #1: Divide & Conquer #2: Attack the Weakest Link #3: Prepare for Landing #4: Use Overwhelming Force #5: Start from a High Position #6: Survival of the Fittest Kill off Your Weakest Links Immediately Before They Kill You #7: Retreat & Attack Again #8: Slowly Dig In
I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win
~ Michael Jordan
Are you ready to conquer your beachhead? Lets get started then.
B ATTLE PLAN # 1 : DIVIDE & CO N Q UER

H A V E M A N Y T A R G E TE D A D G R O U P S To win The Coming AdWords war, you have to be an agile and nimble competitor. In other words, the secret to success is to do comprehensive keyword research and to split all of your keywords into highly targeted ad groups. Why is this so important? Because the ads that you write for each Ad Group will show for all of the keywords in the Ad Group. So, if you have too many keywords in your Ad Group, then the ad cannot be highly targeted for each keyword phrase. Let me give you an example: In the image below, you see two ads, one is optimized for how to play guitar and the other is not. See how the words How to play guitar make one ad stand out a lot more than the other ad? This is only possible when you split all of your keywords into highly targeted Ad Groups. This tip takes care of one very important strategy: Maximizing the CTR of your ads is only possible if you have MANY highly targeted ad groups. For example, if you had one ad group for meditation, versus 20 ad groups for all of the key, important phrases like meditation techniques, beginner meditation, how to meditate and so on, the result is youre going to have a much higher CTR.
And the CTR is k ey when esta blishing a beachhead. Thats why you need to divid e and conq uer with as ma ny ad gro ups as p ossible.
While this takes more work, it is a must because if you dont do this and your competitors do, then you dont stand a chance. Your ads will get a lower click-throughrate and as a result will show in a lower position, get a lower Quality Score, and a higher min. bid. In other words, youll be caught in the Doom-Loop.
B ATTLE PLAN # 2 : AT TACK THE WEAKES T LINK

S T A R T I N T HE W E A KE ST M A R KET S 99% of small businesses get this wrong. You do it too, and it is costing you dearly! If you had to go to war would you attack your enemy where they are the most fortified or would you attack them where establishing a beachhead is easy? Well, the same strategy applies in the AdWords terrain. Yes the U.S. and Canada may be the best market out there but it is also the most competitive. Everyone wants to get a piece of it, which means that the Trench Warfare is most intense in the US & Canada. And, if you are weak and you enter the most competitive market first, youre going to die. Im not trying to say that you dont try to conquer the U.S. and Canada at all. Im just saying that by the time you do attack the largest market, you want to come from a fortified position of strength. What does it mean in AdWords to be weak or strong and how do you establish a position of strength? Very simple in terms of AdWords, a position of strength equals having a good track record. So, anytime you launch a new campaign you start out weak because you have no track record. The goal then is to quickly establish a good track record. To gain a good track record you need to: Accumulate a high CTR Start earning a good historic CTR in your campaign
Only once you have accumulated a good track record will you be in a position of strength and strong enough to conquer the most desired markets (i.e. the US & Canada). How do you get to this position of strength when you start from a position of weakness?
You attack the weak est links .

Which in this case are markets other than the U.S. and Canada. If you have an English speaking website, start by targeting English-speaking people in all other markets outside North America. By tapping into these markets, you are going to have a higher CTR for a lower bid amount because there are simply less people competing with you. 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 37
Let me share with you the Top 5 English speaking beachheads:
United Kingdom 38 mil lion
Australia 20 mill ion
New Zealand 4 million
Ireland 4 million
Singapore 2.4 million
The 5 countries mentioned add up to 68.4 million potential online us ers. Now thats quite the beachhead. However, you do not just have to limit yourself to purely English speaking countries. There are also lots of other affluent countries with millions of English speakers in places such as Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Hong Kong, etc.
The beauty is that you can buy ads on Google for Non-English speaking countries and tell Google to only show your ads for English search queries. That way, if you target a country such as Finland, your ads will only show up when users are actually performing a search query in English. By starting first in these markets, you will find that you have a cheaper Cost Per Click (CPC) because there is a lot less competition in the smaller markets. You will instantly be rewarded with a higher ad position and start earning a higher CTR. Once you have gained a solid track record (accumulated a good historic CTR) then you will be able to expand the targeting of your campaigns and have a much easier time when you enter the US and Canada down the line.
B ATTLE PLAN # 3 : PRE PARE FOR LANDING

S ET UP Y O U R L A N DI N G P A GE S Remember how Google sets the ground conditions with the rules of their playbook, and how if you dont become their Ally on their grounds, you will get caught in the DoomLoop and be Google slapped? Well, the one of the most recent things that has entered Googles playbook and completely changed the game is Googles new Quality Score. In the past, you didnt need to worry about anything other than your CTR and how much you were bidding. With the new quality score, Google now looks at your landing page. As long as Google thinks they are not targeted you will get slapped. It is as simple as that. Now you need to ask yourself: Is your landing page relevant for the keywords that youve bid on? How do you know? Well, let me tell you all Google is really doing is a keyword density analysis on your landing page. In other words, Google is going to check if your landing page (based on the keywords in your landing page) is related to the keywords that you are bidding on. So if you are bidding on a keyword such as how to make money online and your landing page has nothing whatsoever to do with that, chances are you are going to get slapped by Google, because: Your page is not relevant to the ad Your page is not relevant to the keyword that youre bidding on
What this means to you is that if you dont setup highly targeted landing pages for different groups of keywords, odds are, youll get slapped by Google. And getting slapped by Google means Google is going to raise the minimum bid and may tell you that you have to bid a minimum of $1 $5 or the worst case Ive seen so far $10 per click just for your ad to be shown. So, how do you ensure that Google thinks your page is relevant for the keywords that you have bid on? Easy use Googles free tools and let Google give you the answer. How? Just go to Googles free Keyword Tool and select option 2 Website content and enter your landing page URL. Just go here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google will instantly tell you what this page is all about. If you are bidding on keywords that Google does not find on this landing page then you will get slapped! You are not yet ready to land on your beachhead.
B ATTLE PLAN # 4 : USE O VERWHELMING FO RCE

STA RT W ITH HI G H B I D S I touched on this a little earlier. Remember the chart that showed how the ad position is the single biggest driver of your click-through-rate? Ads in the number one position have a sky-high click through rate, sometimes as high as 10-20%. That is your goal. You want to get the high CTR from the start. Getting into a high position in AdWords is an absolute requirement when you are just getting started. There is no alternative you cannot start from a position of weakness and grow stronger over time. The only way to get into a high position right away is by bidding high. If you bid low, youll get a low position. Having a low position means you have a low CTR. It doesnt even matter if youre a good copywriter. This is going to cost you a bit, but if you cant afford to spend too much, then just set your daily spending limit to a lower amount but whatever you do, make sure your bids are high. Once you have established a strong position with a high CTR, your ad can now hold its high position through the high CTR and you no longer need to be dependent on supporting its position with a high bid. This means that as your CTR climbs higher, you can slowly lower your bids. 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 40
B ATTLE PLAN # 5 : S TA RT FROM A HIGH PO SITIO N

S T A R T W I T H A P R E FE R R E D A D P O S I T I O N I touched on this a little earlier. Remember the chart that showed how the ad position is the single biggest driver of your click-through-rate? Ads in the number one position have a sky-high click through rate, sometimes as high as 10-20%. That is your goal. You want to get the high CTR from the start. Everyone knows that being on the top of the hill in battle gives you a huge advantage in war. The same is true in the AdWords War. If you enter a new battle make sure that you start on top. Remember the ads at the very top automatically get the highest click-through-rate, which is the secret to entering the money loop. How do you do this? As mentioned earlier in the battle plan, you can gain a position of strength by initially bidding high. In the past, this was the only option you had. Today, Google has given you another option in AdWords called preferred Ad Position. This function is ultimately the biggest weapon in your arsenal to ensure that you start from a position of strength. Let me elaborate. Now you already understand that if you want the beachhead, you have to start from the top. Having the option of preferred Ad Position means that when you launch an Ad Group, you can actually tell Google to only show your ad in only the position you want. Yes, this means you can tell Google:
Sho w m e in the #1 pos itio n, or d ont sho w m e a t a ll.

Isnt that just fantastic? By taking full advantage of your preferred Ad Position option, you dont even leave anything to chance. This in turn guarantees that your ad will have a crazy high CTR. How do you activate the preferred Ad Position option in AdWords? Just select a campaign inside Google AdWords and click on edit campaign settings. Then turn on enable position preferences Once you have accumulated a high CTR and gained strength, you can gradually change the position preference and lower your maximum bid amount. 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 41
ADVANCED TIP
When your ads are showing up in the very top (above the search results), then do NOT capitalize the display URL of your ad. Why? Ads that show up in the very top are placed directly above natural search results and the domains of natural search results are never capitalized. So, if you capitalize your domain, it looks more like an ad, which will turn away potential visitors since they rather go to a site than visit the link of an advertiser.
.
How big a difference can such a small change make? In one of our own test results (see image below), the difference was a 206% improvement in the click-through-rate! So while you may not always experience such a dramatic difference, this small tweak is worth keeping in mind.
B ATTLE PLAN # 6 : SURVI VA L O F TH E FITTEST KIL L OFF YOUR WEAKEST LINKS IMMEDI ATE LY BEFORE THEY KIL L YO U
S P L I T TE S T Y O U R A D S R A P I D L Y The whole point of getting a beachhead is to rapidly conquer ground with your best troops. In this case, your troops are your ads, and you must ensure that only the best are out there fighting and advancing without the weak ones holding you back. Now the thing here is, you dont initially know which ad is going to perform well for you and ads will perform incredibly differently even if you just have a tiny change like an added period or an exclamation mark at the end of the ad, you could have a difference thats as high as 200%. For you to maintain a position of strength and really do well in AdWords, you want to keep the ad that is doing well for you. You must also immediately kill the weakest links and get rid of the ad that is weaker in performance. This is important because by not killing the weak ad, you start accumulating a bad track record and in return Google will give you a lower quality score and start slapping you for it. Therefore you must get rid of poor performing ads quickly. Ads
Original Ad Split test 1 Split test 2 Split test 3 Split test 4 Split test 5 Split test 6 Split test 7 Split test 8 Split test 9
CTR
0.50% 0.65% 0.85% 1.10% 1.43% 1.86% 2.41% 3.14% 4.08% 5.30%
Improvement
C umulative Improveme nt
30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30%
30.0% 69.0% 119.7% 185.6% 271.3% 382.7% 527.5% 715.7% 960.4%
Split test 10
6.89%
30%
1278.6%
As you can see from the table, when you repeat the cycle of rapidly split testing your ads is you continually become stronger and stronger. If you get a 30% improvement ten times in a row, thats an accumulated improvement of 1,300%. 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 43
So, with every new campaign or Ad Group that you launch, you must: Split test your ads as quickly as possible. Tell Google to rotate your ads evenly so that you can split test them faster Kill off the losing ads that are slowing you down. Create a new ad to challenge the winning ad of the first round Repeat so you continually become stronger
You may be wondering does the performance of ads really vary that dramatically within the same Ad Group? The answer is a resounding YES! Here is PROOF! As you can see, the winning ad had a 100% boost in CTR over the losing ad, just from changing "Turbo Charge" to "Transform". Our customer base was not responsive to us telling them how the product would change their life. "Turbo Charge" is some heavy verbiage and it obviously didnt resonate well with our audience. So, instead, "Transform" conveys the meaning of change, yet doesnt dictate exactly what change will happen to the user. This lets each person finish their own story of using your product based on their specific desires.
I k no w youre pro bably sk eptical, right? Well, heres MORE S OLID P ROOF.
At first, you may not even notice what has changed between the two ads Take another look. The only difference is that we have added three dots (dot, dot, dot) to the end of one ad. The result? A 135% improvement in the CTR and another 42% improvement in the conversion rate. I am sure that now that the cat is out of the bag, you are going to start seeing a lot more people writing ads like this one. Why did this work? Because it naturally tells people that there is more information waiting behind the ad Did I know this would work? Of course NOT! This was one of those ideas that occurred to me for the lack of ideas and it clearly shows the importance of rapidly split testing your ads. 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 44
Still not convinced? Let me just throw one more at you. I was optimizing one Google Ad Group for the keyword phrase Meditation Music and I was pretty certain that the headline Meditation Music would be the winning headline by a long shot. That is because it directly matches the keyword phrase. However, once again, I was completely surprised by the results:
The winning headline turned out to be Music for Meditation and not Meditation Music. While I am not sure why it does 125% better, it really does not matter because the goal is to keep on testing and tweaking until you end up with a winner.
THE KEY LESSON

Never, ever, ever underestimate the power of split testing your ads! Remember, if you complete split testing your ads successfully 10 times in a row with an average improvement of 30%, you will be 1,279% ahead from where you started!
B ATTLE PLAN # 7 : RETRE AT AND AT TA CK A G AIN

I F Y O U R E I N T H E D O O M L O O P , D E L ETE A N D R E S T A R T If you have a poorly performing ad group or campaign, what should you do? Should you double down and try to make it successful? No. Fighting from a position of strength is infinitely easier. If you start off with a low CTR then you will almost never recover. Once Google knows that you have an ad group that has a low CTR, its far easier to kill it and start over than to try resurrect it from the dead. So delete the campaigns and ad groups that are lingering. Copy and paste it over into a new one. To Google its all shiny new because you dont have a bad history. Bad historical data will only slow you down. Cut your losses and restart using the Battle Plans Ive shared so far. The rule of thumb I like to use is that if your Ads dont start out with at least a 2.00+% CTR, then delete the campaign and start over. This might seem high but remember that if you use Battle Plan #4, your ads will start in the first position and could instantly get a CTR of up to 10%+.
B ATTLE PLAN # 8 : SL OW LY DIG IN

SL O WLY L O WER Y O UR BID S Lets say that your goal is to only pay $0.20 per click. If you start out bidding at $0.20, youre not going to get nearly as much traffic than say if you start at $1 which gets you started on a much higher CTR. Yes, you will have to pay, and initially this often means you overpay. But you have to think long-term. These tips are long-term tips on how to dominate in AdWords and win the war, not short-term tips on how to make a few cents here and there by winning a few battles. Odds are, this is initially going to cost you more than you like but dont let that hold you back because once you make that upfront investment and get a high CTR, you can then slowly start to lower your bid amount which I call slowly digging yourself into the market to get in a very comfortable, solidly entrenched position.
Remember D-day was, in a way, really costly. But it worked out to win the war. It is exactly the same concept here. Establishing a beachhead is costly, but once you have that position of strength and established a promising beachhead you can now start to slowly lower your bid, turn off the preferred ad position and even enter the US & Canada by updating the targeting of your campaign.
The name of the game is to slowly dig in: Start with a high bid Earn a higher CTR Slowly start lowering your bid amounts just above yesterdays average Cost Per Conversion. Keep an eye on your CPC and monitor them to ensure that your ad groups are profitable. Make sure that every time you lower your bid, your ad shows up in the top 4 positions. Dont lower it so much that your high CTR takes a hard fall. My preferred spot is at position #3 or #4 since they get less of the casual clicks and have better conversion rates, plus they maintain a high CTR Keep lowering slowly until your ROI hits the desired target.
Heres another rule of thumb: Your click-through-rate should always be above 1.5% (at least!) so if your position drops to a point where you cant sustain that, you may need to bid a little more. Having said that, obviously you will need to eventually monitor your cost per conversion and make sure that your Ad Groups are profitable. Only pay what you can afford in the long-term. However, in the short term, and to prepare for the coming AdWords war, you have to gain a strong beachhead and the only way to do that is to follow the advanced strategies introduced in this section.
Wa nt to s ee ho w it wo rks rig ht no w?
I just finished a controlled test where I launched two identical Ad Groups on two different AdWords accounts. The first account followed the beachhead strategy that I have just explained to you. The second account did not follow the beachhead strategy. After about one month I had lowered both accounts to the same spending limit (i.e. while the first account started with higher bids by the end of the first month both accounts were bidding the same). The difference was HUGE. Just take a look at this proof.
The Beachhead Ad Group
The Regular Ad Group
The Ad Group that followed the beachhead strategy got 245 clicks in the past 7 days while the identical Ad Group that followed what most people usually do only got 10 clicks. The Should you find yourself in a difference was 24 to 1. Also notice that although the bid in the beachhead strategy costs $0.14 more than the regular Ad Group, the average Cost Per Conversion (CPC) is actually lower by $0.13 per click or 38% lower. At the same time, the conversion rate was 21.63% vs. 10% (over 100% improvement).
chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks
~ Warren Buffett
In terms of conversions, the difference was 53 to 1, that is an improvement of 5,300%! Such is the power of the Beachhead strategy.
Co ngratulations . You ha ve reached the end of our Battle Pla n.
But here comes the BEST part. Now that youve gained a strong foothold its time to pull out the sophisticated technology
Stick close to me and you will learn:

The #1 Under-Utilized Technique That Will See You Easily Outrun Your Competition The Time Saver that Will Earn You in One Minute What You Used to Earn In One Hour Increase Your Chances of Hitting the Jackpot from Thousands of New Search Queries Performed Everyday The Risky Mistake Small Businesses Always Make The Crucial Techniques You Are Missing Out On That Could Save You $3,086 in 10 minutes
PLUS The weapon that lets you achieve all of that

in just 2 minutes & at the push of 1 button
WINNING THE COMING ADWORDS WAR

Co ngratulations .
Youre now well trained and you know the exact steps to successfully securing your beachhead. If you follow the battle plan that I have outlined, you will most likely save thousands of dollars and could make tens of thousands in additional profits that were previously out of reach. But the AdWords War has not started yet! Believe me, this is just the beginning The question is: Whats next? And how do you sustain your unfair advantage and continue to dominate annihilate your competition? Heres the next step: You need to fan out from your beachhead and conquer your niche and to do this, you need to make sure you continuously optimize your account to hold your advantage.
This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50
~ Bill Gates
The Com ing Ad Words War is nea r, b ut yo u hav e nothing to fear.

Now that you do have the advantage over your competition with the battle plan Ive given you, I strongly advise that you stay closely with me over the next two weeks because theres a whole lot more to do. Over the next two weeks, Ill guide you on how to fan-out and conquer your niche in AdWords. Ill show you, using step-by-step videos, how to make your AdWords optimization a breeze. And when I can, Ill also be there for one-on-one consultations with as many people as my time will allow. Youll be learning:
The #1 Under-Utiliz ed Technique That Will Se e You Easily Outrun

Your Competition I will teach you techniques that increase productivity exponentially putting you in control of your ad groups without splitting your head and bleeding your time.
The Time Saver that Wi l l Earn You in On e Minute What You Us ed to

Earn In O n e Hour I will teach you why tracking the cost per conversion is so important. I will then show you step by step how to implement the tracking techniques that we've developed, so that in one minute you can do what used to take you an hour.
Increas e Your Chances of Hitting the Jackpot from Thousands of New

Search Qu eri es Performed Everyday Did you know that everyday 25% of the search queries on Google are unique? In other words, they have never been entered before. Do you know how to seize this opportunity before your competitors do?
The Risky Mistake Smal l Business es Always Make

Ill show you the #1 mistake that small businesses make. Yes, even the small businesses that think they know how to succeed in the AdWords game. It's an easy fix, but odds are you too are making this mistake today.
The Crucial Techniques You Are Missing Out O n That Could Save You
$3,086 in 10 mi nutes There are tens of thousands of partner sites some will be your allies and some just exist to suck your money. I will show you the crucial techniques that will take The Coming AdWords War to a whole new level.
One mo re impo rta nt point before I leav e yo u

Strategy alone isnt enough which is why I am also going to make available to you the weapon we developed the one that gave us phenomenal success with AdWords at a fraction of what it would cost you if you poured in the R&D investment yourself. So stay with me if you want the advantage that gives you optimized power over your competitors. Keep checking www.thecomingadwordswar.com for my latest updates and when the AdWords War arrives, you will be ready. To preparation and combat,
Mike Reining 2008 MindValley :: www.thecomingadwordswar.com :: Page 51

The Coming Adwords War

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The Coming Adwords War

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Foreword

THE COMING ADWORDS WAR

Why I Became an Entrepreneur

My Battle With AdWords

It Was Time to Fight Back

PHASE I: BOOT CAMP

How To Look At Your AdWords Plan Like A Military Strategist

#3: Ground Conditions

#4: Resource Provisions

#5: Hazard Mitigation

What is the AdWords Doom Loop?

What is the AdWords Money Loop?

PHASE II: CONQUERING YOUR BEACHHEAD

Battle Plan #2: Attack The Weakest Link

Battle Plan #3: Prepare for Landing

Battle Plan #4: Use Overwhelming Force

Battle Plan #5: Start From a High Position

Battle Plan #7: Retreat and Attack Again

Battle Plan #8: Slowly Dig In

PHASE III: ADVANCED BATTLE TECHNOLOGY

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~ Paul Hynek, Founder, EZNumbers.com

~ Roger Hall, AdWords Certified Professional, BetterClix.com

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THE COMING ADWORDS WAR

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$3 Billion Worth of Deal Making

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WHY I BECAME AN ENTREPRENEUR

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MY B ATTLE WITH ADWORDS

IT WAS TIME TO FIG H T BACK

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WHY IM SHARING MY ADWORDS SECRETS WITH YOU

It's adap t... or die.

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The little guy will quickly get squeezed out

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Adwords is burning a hole in my pocket. Dear MindValley what should I do?

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Equip yourself for The Coming AdWords War

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete

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WHY ARE SMALL BUSINESSES DYING IN ADWORDS?

of small businesses make the

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THE 3-PHASE PLAN

PHASE II: CONQUERING YOUR BEACHHEAD

PHASE III: ADVANCED BATTLE TECHNOLOGY

PHASE I: BOOT CAMP

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THE ADWORDS RESO URCE CENTER

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H OW TO L O OK AT YO UR ADWORDS PLAN LIKE A MILI TA RY STR ATEG IST

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success

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You dont have the spare

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