GMail Ads … Saving Grace or PPC Sink Hole?
OK, some of you that know me probably know that I’m a pretty big proponent of Adwords Alternatives when it comes to PPC advertising.
This pretty much comes from my own experience with attempting to champion quality scores and rising bid costs to appease the Google elves. Usually to no avail.
I still hold true to that principle, for now at least. To some extent I see the recent slaps as “house cleaning” in the house of G … and personally I’d rather not be the baby thrown out with the bath water whilst the shenanigans continue.
However …
Recently I’ve come across a little technique that we’ve playing with that may bring my Adwords account back to life (drum roll please) … GMail.
Yes … Gmail Ads.
Maybe this is old hat for some of you, but for those of you who just crinkled your nose, squinted your eyes and muttered a gentled “huh?” This is for you.
Next time you’re logged into Gmail, open one of your emails and pay attention to the left side of the screen. What do you see? Adwords ads. What do you notice about those ads? Do they seem to reflect the topical conversation within the email you’re reading? Kinda clever huh?
Wanna know how they do it?
Option 1 – Instant Gratification:
This is for the Jedi Master Marketer that’s kickin ass and takin’ names.
Watch the quick video that explains it all, buy the course and start CrushingIt Right Now!.
“Gmail Ads ~ the Ninja Strategies”
Option 2 – DIY:
First let me start with a quick video explanation from Austin Lau.
Austin is an Agency Media Planner at Google in San Francisco, California.
Click Here to Watch a Gmail Ads Overview by Austin Lau
Targeting Gmail in Adwords basically comes down to running a Targeted Placement campaign.
What’s that you might ask?
Here’s a quick word from Google on the privacy concerns of Ads in Gmail in case you’re wondering.
So let’s start by quickly looking at the Adwords program and what you can do with it.
Adwords has several campaign options …
Search, Content Network and Placement.
Most of you are probably familiar with Search; these are the ads you run which are shown to the left of search results on Google.
The Content Network is where your ads show on 3rd party websites, like blogs and shopping sites, where your ads are mixed into the content of a page on that site.
Placement ads are where you target specific sites that you want your ads to run.
So for instance, let’s say you have a nutrition product that you sell through your network marketing business. You could compile a list of blogs and other sites which have Adwords implemented in their content and that have a target audience that would be interested in learning about your product and setup a placement campaign to have your ads run on those sites.
The same can be done targeting GMail as your Placement preference.
Imagine this …
Josh writes an email to his friend Eric talking about he’s been looking for ways to make money online and wondering what Eric’s been doing to get by in this tough economy. He pushes send and voila! … Your ad shows up saying something like …
Make Money Online
Economy got you down? Learn to make some extra cash in your spare time.
or something like that.
The point is, as soon as Josh hits send you have a highly relevant, super targeted ad that shows up instantly, and appears to magically address the exact topic in his email.
Example
Here is a real example of an email sent. Lets look at what shows up in the Gmail Adword’s Ad.
For those, that can’t see the image below, the email says, “call a carpet cleaner before the holidays – thx!”
What if the ‘Funbox’ ad said this instead…?
Carpet Cleaners [your city] – CarpetCleaningXXX.com – 10% OFF if you mention “Gmail Ad”. Call Now 416 XXX XXX to save!
Are you starting to see how powerful this could be for your business?
Here’s some tips on how to put this together …
1. Make it a Separate Campaign.
An important thing to keep in mind is to not to mix this with the rest of your content ads and search campaigns. Run your Gmail campaign as a separate Adwords campaign to allow for proper tracking.
This is a unique strategy so you want to know precisely how effective it is as well as keeping your overall campaign CTR isolated for better performance in all your campaigns.
2. Know Your Target Market
Another important element here is mindset.
In order to leverage this you must have the right mind set.
Your prospects are in their email. What are they thinking about?
5 Quick Tips For Writing Better Performing Ads
1. Always include a strong keyword in the title
2. Make your title relevant and compelling
3. Use short words
4. Be relevant and specific
5. Be aware of the larger picture, and keep testing
Here are my Top 10 favorite keyword research tools:
1. Google keyword tool
2. Keyword Index
3. SEO Book Keyword Tool
4. Google Wonder Wheel
Do a search in Google. Click “Show options…” On the left of the page under Standard View choose “Wonder wheel”
5. KeywordPot
6. Quantcast.com
7. Amazon.com
8. Shopping.com
9. Magazines.com
10. Clickbank.com
You can also look into software such as Market Samurai to streamline your research and gather additional data.
For more detailed techniques and a step by step process for maximizing the Gmail Adwords process check this out …
Ryan Deiss discovered a HUGE backdoor into
Google advertising that cuts costs by up to 90%
and boosts conversions 10X.
There is one little downside…
He’ll explain it on this 13 minute video
How to Crush It With Gmail Ads
Live Long and Prosper.
~ Richard
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Image Credit:smallbusinessonlinecoach.com
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Hi Richard,
Thank you very much for this article—seems it is helpful to newbies (such as moi) or oldbies in I.M. I am following you closely—don’t be scared. You are my secret mentor. I am sure you know that your site is gorgeous but wanted to tell you anyway. Is this your only site? It is so clean compared to many of the others.
Thanks for being a contribution to my life & biz.
Dee
geeez! … you made me blush Dee!
Seriously though, thank you very much for the kind words.
This is more important than anything I do … knowing that I’m helping people.
Don’t worry …. I ain’t scared – lmao.
Cheers!
What’s Up Richard,
Great post! It looks like Gmail is the real deal. I recently purchased a tutorial from Ryan Deiss and it was very informative.
You are right to get gmail ads you must think outside the box.
You must not target traditional keywords like in adwords search. The key is to think like an email writer and target phrases they may put in their letter. This allows you to target phrases people actually write, which will help keep bid costs down.
Great example about the Carpet cleaning. I have a lot of local business clients and will be investigating ways to get local with gmail ads.
Keep up the great posts they are always informative and interesting!
Jeff
Jeff – what’s up man! Great to see you here. Thanks for reading and the comment.
Hope you’re having a great new year.
Cheers!
Great article Richard…Thank you very much for sharing
I searched for something completely different, but found your website! And have to say thanks. Nice read. I will come back.
G’day Richard
Nice post
I must admit I had never considered this before even though I always look at ads. I am always studying what peoples ads are and where they go to.
Funnily I came acros this article in Google (organic) searching stuff about TwitHawk, weird huh?
You must be magic mate !
Or maybe your a bloody genius !
Add me to the list of thank you’s Richard. Normally when I get done with one of these types of posts, I want to leave the author a comment like “thanks … for wasting 2.4mins of my life I’ll never get back.” … lol.
Pleasantly surprised for a change … You actually offered some added and useful info. Unlike many people who’ll blog on a subject and just flat out rehash something someone else already said 32mil times other places on the net.
You must be doing something right if you have a stalker named Dee Light.
Thanks the info … It’s good to find someone who actually offers well laid out and interesting material. With a personal twist that brings value to it. Instead of reading the same info rehashed 10 mil times over. Agree with Dee on the site too … easy to read. I’ll be sure to click around on your ads. Nice to see an actual writer blogging. Instead of just another flood the web with worthless nonsense blogger.