Facebook provides a lot of fantastic opportunities for online marketers, but there are also a lot of pitfalls. Here are some guidelines that can help you get started with Facebook PPC Advertising.

We can get clicks starting at 10 cents per click on Facebook. Those of you who were around in the early days of Google AdWords will understand just how profitable that can be.  To our great advantage there is very little competition now and we can get high quality traffic if we do some research.

Target keywords that people use to describe themselves

With Facebook PPC advertising, you can target very specific keywords. However, these are not the same kind of keywords you’d use in Google AdWords campaigns. With Facebook, you need to consider the words people use to describe themselves, their interests and their hobbies. Instead of targeting a search term, you’re going to be using descriptive terms. In my experience, people search Google to solve a problem. Whereas people browse Facebook to check out Facebook pages and to mingle with friends online. This is an important distinction and must be considered when choosing keywords to target for your campaigns.

To read more on this topic: Pre-Qualify Clicks on Facebook

A picture is worth a thousand words

Your image is everything with Facebook PPC advertising. Select 4 or 5 good images that grab your attention and are related (even vaguely) to your topic. Ensure there are people in your image if possible. Of course, you’ll need to test all different kinds of images to see what converts best for you, but one thing I can say is that I try to use people in my ads. More specifically, I’ve found images of smiling, happy women to be very successful for most campaigns I’ve run.

Understand the rules of the game

Be careful. Follow the rules. Understand the Facebook terms and conditions and follow them or your account will be banned. I’m not saying this just to scare you. I want you to know that Facebook are very serious about breaches of their terms. To be successful on Facebook we must follow the rules they have set and be very aware they are very different than Google.  The good news is that if you follow the rules, you can design great ads that will draw high quality customers to your offer/product/service.

Facebook’s advertising rules are different than Google’s. Facebook requires ads to be engaging but not too slick, sexy, or misleading. Your ad text cannot contain trademarked terms or be too shocking or offensive.  Facebook requires that we place an image on all ads, and you can use text in your image. So, get creative with Photoshop if you can.

Click-thru rate is king with Facebook PPC

CTR (Click thru rate) is king on Facebook PPC. They won’t allow an ad with a low CTR to run on their site for very long. It’s in our best interest to test many different versions of our ads, images, and headline till we find a few that convert like gangbusters.  If your CTR can stay high, you’re going to do well. If not, they will disable your ad without warning.

Facebook requires that the ads always remain relevant and interesting to their viewers. If your CTR is not as high as needed after 2 days look closely at the keywords used in your ad to determine if they are really relevant, compelling and not offensive in anyway. I suggest you get creative with your ad copy and your keywords. Think outside the box and come up with some unique combinations to get a killer ad. It’s fun once you get going!

Tips to profit with killer ad copy

Try writing your headlines in the form of a question. Perhaps you can make a bold statement. Whatever your headline, be sure it grabs the reader’s attention quickly so they read the rest of your ad copy and click through to your landing page.

Use an image that tells a story and grabs their attention. If you’re using a photo of someone, try using a smiling face or your image should represent your message and have text on it.

Avoid these mistakes & save time

You can’t use all capital letters or promise “free” stuff when there isn’t anything free. Be careful with email and zip submit offers – Facebook are now frowning on the promotion of these.  When you’re writing headlines and ad copy, remember to use upper and lower case letters and be careful with your spelling. Avoid using slang, abbreviations or code words. Facebook does not permit the use of irrelevant images, symbols or anything offensive.

Watch it or lose it

Facebook PPC is risky and you have the potential to lose all your money very quickly. Be smart and follow these tips carefully. Once you’ve got your ads all set up, you absolutely must watch your campaigns very closely. Set very low daily budgets and don’t leave your computer when you’re testing a new campaign. Traffic comes through extremely fast and before you know it, your budget has been spent.

Facebook PPC Advertising is a dangerous, but exciting game and you’ve got to take it seriously to make money. I got started with Facebook PPC by learning the step by step methods being taught right now at Affiliit – an excellent training forum. I recommend you go there if you want to learn more.

You can also read more Facebook PPC Advertising Tips here.

If you’re up for the Facebook PPC challenge, let me know by sharing your thoughts, ideas, questions in the comments section below!

This means that we can now track which keywords and PPC ads result in a conversion at any time – up to 30 days prior to the purchase.

Google explain it best in their blog post here: New Reporting in Google AdWords

This is worth a closer look if you’re doing anything in AdWords.
Do you think this will be a useful tool for your business?

In case you missed them, PPC Help Part One and PPC Help Part Two are here.

Today we are concentrating on the headline of your PPC ad. This is your one chance to grab the attention of your prospect. Since you only get one chance to make a good first impression, you’ll be glad you spent so much time fine-tuning your PPC headline.

The first line is your headline. This is the most important line of your Ad. This line has to stand out from all of the other ads on the page.

How do you do stand out from the crowd?

There are 3 keys I like to follow:

1) Relevance. If your Ad is relevant, then your ad will stand out from the rest. It will most likely be highlighted by Google for you as well, since it will probably have at least a word or two that are also found in the user’s search.

2) Keywords used in headline. I like to use the main keyword from my ad group in the headline if at all possible.

3) Get Emotional. You can easily connect with your prospective customer using emotional triggers (pain or pleasure).

So now that you understand that we need to stand out from the crowd using the 3 keys described above, let’s take action!

You’re going to do some competitive market research. I would first start out by browsing the current top headlines in Google when I search for my keyword. Chances are you will see a pattern in the ads that appear day after day for your keyword. Take note of those ads you see every day. They are the winners! You many notice the successful ads will have your exact keywords in their headlines.

Next, you’re going to start writing possible headlines. When you first start out with a new ad, I suggest you use the other ads as a starting point. This is a good start and you know you’re starting with something solid.

What headlines are your competitors using? Are they catchy? Do they ask a question? Do they grab YOUR attention? Use this information to craft a list of ten possible headlines for each ad group. Take this list to someone (preferably an “offline” family member or friend) and ask them to choose the 3 headlines that stand out to them. You may be surprised with the results!

Side note:  Perhaps you’re thinking that you should be incredibly creative with your headlines in order to “stand out”. I would strongly suggest that you don’t first try gimmicky headlines. I encourage you to first write solid headlines built from a foundation of sound advertising principles, then test these ads to further improve their CTR.

When you start with a solid foundation, and you test the results yourself, you can then start to branch out. You might hit a homerun with one of these “off the wall” PPC ads, however, but try them after you have already tried the basic ads.

For basic ad headlines, it’s important to follow these steps:

1. Research Successful Ads

2. Connect with Emotion

3. Use Keywords in the Headline

Have fun writing some killer PPC Ad Headlines! When I say “have fun”, I really mean it. It can be so fun testing out different headlines to see what actually gets people’s attention. Keep testing and trying till you find something that works for your market & product. Enjoy the process and be sure to ask questions along the way. I’m happy to help you.

Thanks for your support!

P.S. Have you contributed to the discussion yet? What are you waiting for? Come on, join in and share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Creating Relevant Ads That Get Clicks

If you missed it, you can read PPC Help – Ad Creation Tips Part One here.

When you first start creating ads, the most important thing that you need to remember is that they must be relevant with what your users are searching for. You need to “speak” directly to the person researching your topic. A lot of PPC training material glosses over this topic, and that is very unfortunate. It’s so important!

All of my experience has shown that specific ads that speak directly to an individual person have the best overall impact.

I know that this sounds fairly obvious, but it needs to be said.

How do we achieve this?

In order to help ensure the most relevancy possible in your ads, make sure you are using “tight” ad groups instead of large keyword list groups.

For example, if you are an affiliate who is promoting a Dog Training e-book, then instead of having just one ad group with all of your keywords lumped in together, I recommend you have at least four ad groups including ->

Dog Training

How To Train a Dog

Dog Obedience

Dog Lessons

Now, you can create at least four separate and specific ads, one for each ad group. Your ad for “Dog Training” is going to be specialized for training, while your ad for “Dog Lessons” will be geared towards lessons. The “Dog Training” ad will definitely have the word “training”, since my keywords under “dog training” have the word “training” in them as well.

I also recommend that your Landing Page be optimized for each adgroup as well. Sometimes this is not possible. If you are an affiliate and you’re direct linking to the offer, chances are you cannot send traffic to an optimized page. By the way, direct linking for affiliates is dying a very fast death (especially on Google AdWords). Affiliates must learn to adapt to this new market or perish. But that is another post for another day!

Why so many Ad Groups in my PPC Campaign?

1) You will earn a higher quality score.

Not only will Google give my ad a better quality score if I have “dog training” in my ad AND in the landing page, but it will also make the words BOLD in the ad copy! This will help direct browsing eyes to my ad. Creating smaller adgroups with targeted ads and landing pages also helps Google determine ad relevancy within the Content Network.

2) Your customers will relate to your ad.

Understanding your market will help you write an ad that speaks directly to your customer. It helps to ask yourself some questions about your potential customers:

Who are they?

What is their biggest problem (relating to this topic)?

Why is your product the best soultion for them?

What will they lose if they don’t buy your product today?

What are their other interests?

Are there competitors in your market?

Anything you can do to better understand your customer will help you create a specific, successful PPC ad.

3) Your conversion rate (sales or opt-in) will skyrocket.

When Google loves you (high quality score) and each customer relates to your adcopy (High CTR), they visit your landing page which is designed to show how your product is a tailor-made solution for them (They make a purchase or Opt-in) = Successful Campaign $$$.

Have you subscribed (over there on the right hand side) to receive all the updates in this series?? Go ahead… Ya got nothin to lose!

P.S. Hope you’re ready for tomorrow’s installment in the PPC Help Series:

PPC Help – Ad Creation Tips Part Three: Headlines that Rock!

One of the biggest PPC challenges for both new and experienced marketers relates to ad creation. We all struggle with this from time to time!

Welcome to Part One in this PPC Help Series designed to help you create killer PPC ads. You can apply these tips to all your PPC campaigns on Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN/Bing, as well as Facebook Advertising. I hope it helps you!

Once most people create their keyword lists for their PPC campaign, they think that they are done. There is a lot of focus on keyword research, isn’t there? It’s easy to see why Ad Creation often gets overlooked! Unfortunately Ad Creation is One of the areas that many PPC marketers only glance over! Creating Ads and continually testing them is just as important as selecting bid prices for your keywords.

Split testing Ads are the only way to know which Ads are the most profitable, and in this PPC Help Series, I am going to show you how to not only create, but to test successful ads in your PPC campaigns.

Why is the ad creation process is so important?

One of the main factors that Google uses to determine ad placement (rankings) is the click through rate (or CTR) of your ad. If you have a compelling ad that is related to a users search, they are more likely to click your ad, and that results in a higher CTR.  If you write better ads than your competitors, then you will have a higher CTR than your competitors.

Google uses CTR as a determining factor of how “relevant” your ad is. Its simple. Better ads that are more targeted to their users receive more clicks and therefore will have a higher CTR. Google rewards higher CTR ads with higher rankings and lower costs per click.

Let’s say you and a competitor have all things equal besides your ad text (bid price, landing page quality score, campaign history, etc being equal), then the ad with the higher CTR will be ranked higher. This means that with a good enough ad you can also have a higher rank than people who are willing to pay more than you are!

The benefits to spending time on your ads are clear…your clicks will cost less, your ad will be listed higher than your competition which will bring more traffic, which all adds up to higher profit margins!

Be sure to subscribe over there on the right hand side (look for big red arrows) to receive all the updates in this series!

P.S. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment:

PPC Help – Ad Creation Tips Part Two – Creating (Kick-Ass) Ads that Get Clicks!

Sure – no problem – easy peasy – just set up an ad in Google AdWords, and before you know it, you’ve got a ton of traffic to your website, money pouring into your bank account, and loads of eager buyers knocking at your door….

Um, it doesn’t quite work like that for everyone. But it can work like that for you if you learn the inside strategies of PPC.

Pay Per Click advertising is simple, effective, and it works very welll when you know what you’re doing. I follow a 7 Step Approach to PPC, and I’ve spent the last two hours explaining this approach in detail on this PPC Webinar with Paul Cooley. I’d love to share this with you too….

Here are my 7 Steps to PPC:

#1 – SELECT your keywords.

#2 – STRUCTURE your account.

#3 – SEIZE your prospects’ attention with your ads.

#4 – SEND your prospects to a compelling landing page.

#5 – SETUP your campaigns.

#6 – SELL more by testing and tracking.

#7 – SAVE time and money with my recommended (free) tools.

I have worked with Paul Cooley to create a comprehensive PPC Training Package which follows this step by step PPC approach that suits affiliate marketers and business owners alike. If you’ve ever wanted to start advertising with PPC, but you weren’t sure where to start, this affordable training package is for you.

I have created a comprehensive PPC Training Package based around the questions you have asked here on my blog, via email, and Twitter. I’ve taken a huge amount of information and condensed it down into bite sized chunks. I am sharing it here with you.

What is in PPCMom’s PPC Training Package?

• 2 hour in depth PPC Training Webinar – Brand New Information!
• 7 video tutorials covering each of the above steps in detail
• Detailed Facebook advertising case study phone call & video
• Detailed Landing Page optimization case study & video
• 30 Days access to The Founder’s Circle – Entrepreneurship Training Program with Paul Cooley

You get all of this for only $47 right now…. Learn More About My PPC Training Program By Clicking Here.

This information is exactly what I am doing myself every day. I’ve taken my exact steps and laid them all out in this package for you. The price is ridiculously low because this is my very first product and you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? LOL! So grab your copy, and let me know what you think. I’m confident you will agree it’s worth way more than $47.

Please be sure to ask questions or leave your comments below, via email or Twitter of course!

Thanks, as always, for your ongoing support, feedback, and ideas. I appreciate your time & trust in me!

Thank You!

PS – If you enjoyed our training, we invite you to join us and become an affiliate for this training package! Earn cash while learning PPC!

The first and most important thing is your budget. When starting a new campaign, you can spend a lot of money very quickly. I always suggest beginning with a cautious approach until you can see clear profits.

PPC Campaign Management Steps:

1. Start Low: Set an overall PPC campaign budget – in Google AdWords, Yahoo, Facebook, and Bing, you can set a campaign budget for each campaign. This is different from your overall account budget, and it is also different from the Pay Per Click bids (what you pay for each click on your ad). I usually set new campaigns to have a $30 per day budget limit, but you can start even lower if you prefer. $10 is fine too.
2. Delete Non-Performers: Once your campaign has been running, and you can see clear results, you may choose to pause non-performing keywords, ads, ad-groups. If you choose to create new ads and/or add new keywords, I suggest you stick to your low initial PPC campaign budget. Stick to the initial budget, and keep testing new ads, headlines, images, ad copy, etc. until your campaign is profitable.
3. Increase Your Budget to Test: Now that you have eliminated the non-performers, and conducted some initial testing, you can increase your budget a little and see how that goes. I suggest increasing the daily budget to $50 – or something you are comfortable with. If you have done your homework, chances are you will see an increase in profits with an increase in your spending. This doesn’t always work, however. So you are still in the testing phase. Remain conservative until you see consistent profit from your campaign.
4. Open The Floodgates: Once you see a consistent profit from this campaign, you can increase the budget even further to maximize your potential profits. I would increase my daily budget to $100 to start with. If that works, and you still see an appropriate increase in profit, you can raise your budget even further. Your campaign budget is directly linked to the number of impressions your ad will receive. If you have a low budget, your ad is not being shown very often at all. This is especially true when advertising on Facebook.

Here is more information related to PPC Campaign Management Tools to help your business.

I hope this helps you see why budgeting is such an important part of PPC campaign management. I’m sure this raises several questions in your mind too!

Please share your thoughts in the section below….

To learn more, listen to this 4min audio boo.

What do you think? Go ahead….be honest!
Leave your comments below & join in the discussion!

P.S. I agree entirely with John Jonas on this topic. To hear what he has to say, watch John Jonas’ video about Google Ad Words.

There is so much more information to share and we just cannot squeeze it all into a 45 minute call!

It’s time to get serious and start driving some traffic to your website! This in-depth training will provide you will the steps needed to start a successful PPC campaign for your website.

WHEN? December 29 – 6pm EST

JOIN US HERE : Surefire PPC Training Registration

We’d love to answer your specific PPC questions, so we need you to submit them here. Ask us your PPC questions either via the email link above and to the right, or in the comments section below.

Let’s work together to increase your website traffic!

Thanks!

P.S. If you’d like to earn cold hard cash by promoting this webinar, register here & we’ll show you how!  :)

Register Here for this FREE Training Call

with PPCMom & Paul Cooley of Surefire Business Strategies

Are you struggling with your online efforts? Have you considered using Pay Per Click advertising, but you’re not sure where to begin?

This exclusive PPC Strategy Call Will Cover the Basics of PPC Advertising.

Let’s face it, you can have the best product in the world or the coolest looking affiliate website on the internet, but it means nothing if you aren’t getting any Traffic!

Many Traffic tactics and methods on the net can be very time consuming and you have to wait to see results. But using tools like Google Adwords, you can get instant traffic to your site or sales page. This is a great way to test the effectiveness of your product, service, landing page, and ad copy.

I would like to invite you to a free call with Paul Cooley and myself, where we will be discussing Pay Per Click Advertising. During this Free Call you will discover what PPC is and how you can be bringing in Tons of Traffic to your site, but you will also have a chance to have your questions about PPC Strategies answered!

REGISTER FOR THIS FREE CALL BY CLICKING HERE

PS – If you can’t make the time of the call, the recording will be available for registered members only. It’s free, so join us!

See You There!