3 Tips to Jumpstart Your Google AdWords Campaign For Your Book
August 2nd, 2010
By Guest Blogger Frederick Vallaeys, Google’s AdWords Evangelist
www.google.com/adwords
If you are you an author looking for new fans, search marketing can help you connect with potential readers at the exact moment they are searching for information about your area of expertise. With Google AdWords, your ads can appear on the Google search results pages when a user types in one of the keywords you’ve selected. Because you only pay when someone clicks your ad, you control your budget, and since there is no minimum term, this is a low-risk method to give yourself and your books more exposure, hopefully leading to increased sales.
Here are a few tips to get your campaigns started off on the right foot:
1. Pick relevant keywords
When a user does a search, their query tells you exactly what they’re looking for and if you have a great solution or answer for them, it’s an opportunity to pitch your book. AdWords lets you choose which keywords should trigger your ads, but keep in mind that some keywords are better than others. Pick good keywords by putting yourself in the shoes of a user who might be looking for your type of book and imagine what they might search for. Those are the types of keywords you should select.
Don’t waste money on keywords that are too broad and could have multiple meanings because those are less likely to lead to sales. For example, the keyword “floral arrangements” could come from a user who wants to buy a floral arrangement whereas the keyword “floral arrangement ideas” is more likely to be from a user who wants to do it themselves and who might consider buying a book on the topic.
2. Write compelling ads that highlight the relevance of your keywords
When a user sees ads on Google, they make very quick decisions about which sites to visit. If it’s not immediately obvious why your ad could solve their problem or fulfill their need, it’s likely to be passed over. Make sure you use the keyword in your title and ad text so that the user knows immediately that you can help them.
A common pitfall is to use your name or the title of your book as the headline. But, unless you or your book are very famous, that’s unlikely to get the user’s attention. Instead, give the user a compelling reason to click your ad; for example, you could include a discount, a free shipping offer or recognition your book has received. Also take advantage of the fact that you can write multiple ads and let Google choose the one that gets the best response.
3. Measure results and bid sensibly
AdWords is a low-risk way to advertise because you only pay for clicks. Figuring out what a click is worth can be challenging though so you can start with the option to let Google figure out the best bids to drive the most clicks possible for your budget. After your ads have been running a few days, look at the detailed reports in AdWords to see which keywords are driving clicks to your site and at what cost. If you installed free conversion tracking from Google on your site, your reports will tell you how many conversions like sales and newsletter sign-ups you got from each keyword. With this data, you’ll be able to make smart decisions about how much each click is worth.
Stop by our help center for a more detailed AdWords Beginner’s Guide or check out the AdWords videos on YouTube.
Writing A Google Ad May Be Harder Than Writing Your Book – Advanced Tips & Strategies
August 2nd, 2010
By Guest Blogger Brad Geddes, Author of Advanced Google AdWords
www.bgTheory.com
One would think that writing a good ad would come naturally to writers. Rarely is it true. Most writers are too skilled at grammar and punctuation to write a good ad.
When you conduct a search on Google, you often see ads that line the right hand side of the page. These ads are a maximum of 140 characters. They are short and concise. Yet a good ad needs to perform these tasks to be successful:
- Call attention to itself
- Showcases a benefit
- Incorporate a call to action
Doing all of this in the space of an inch of text is possible, if you check your grammar and ego at the door.
Call Attention to Itself
Many search results contain up to twelve ads. When you combine that with ten natural results, and possibly other links from Google products, there can be more than thirty options on a search page. It is essential that ads stand out in this crowded page of links.
This is the first place where most writers get stuck. There is more to writing a catch headline than just choosing the correct words. Most writers naturally use sentence casing.
For many demographics, title casing is more effective than sentence casing. As a general rule, the younger the audience, the better title casing performs. The older the demographic, the better sentence casing performs.
Writers need to let go of their preference for proper casing to write a good headline when reaching younger demographics.
Showcases a Benefit
There are two items you need to know about when writing ads: features and benefits.
- A feature is a component of a product or service
- A benefit shows how that feature will improve your life
For instance, the statement “The Sony Z Vaio has a six hour battery” is a feature. It just tells a searcher that this laptop computer will last for six hours before the battery dies.
Features are easy to list, they are the bullet points you see listed on the side of a product’s packaging. They are simple to write, and outside of comparison shoppers, no one cares about the features.
Consumers spend money based upon how they perceive a product will improve their life. This is known as the benefit. A benefit shows someone how a feature will improve their life.
The statement, “The Sony Z Vaio has a six hour battery life so you can be productive on a cross country flight” is a benefit to business travelers.
Turning a feature into a benefit is simple. Take the benefit and finish the sentence.
Incorporating benefits into ad copy almost always increases its performance.
Incorporate a Call to Action
The best written Google AdWords ad is useless if it does not receive a click and send traffic to the advertiser’s website.
Many ads showcase benefits, but a benefit just highlights what a product will do for the searcher. A benefit is educational, not actionable.
Your ad should direct someone to take action. What would you like the searcher to do?
- Buy a new Plasma TV
- Subscribe to our newsletter
- Call us for a free consultation
These are calls to action.
However, they are boring calls to action that are taking up valuable ad copy space. You can combine benefits with a call to action.
- Bring the Cinema into your home by Buying a New Plasma TV.
- Signup for Powerful Marketing Tips
- Call us to Look Younger in just 10 Days
Did the capitalization of those ads annoy you?
Did you focus on the words: Buying New Plasma TV, Powerful Marketing, Look Younger?
By combining mixed casing, with benefits, with calls to action your ads can both stand out from the crowd and bring higher revenues to the advertiser.
You’re Never Always Right
A single sentence inside a 500 page book rarely matters if the words are not precise. As a writer, you are immersing the reader inside your world and have the other thousands of sentences to make up for one poorly written line.
When the ad only contains three lines, each line matters. The ad must move the searcher forward from glancing at the ad to clicking on the ad to visiting the website to performing the desired action (such as checkout, filling out a form, or calling a company).
However, there is no way to know what lines will resonate with the searchers if you only write a single ad.
In AdWords, it is simple to test different ads and messages. Instead of focusing on a single ad, you should write a few ads for each product. You do not have to know which is best, the searchers will tell you based upon what ads they are clicking that lead to sales.
This is where you can harvest the power of the internet and creative writing.
Creative writing gives you ideas.
The internet gives you statistics (such as sales, clicks, and revenue).
By combining these two together, you can be creative in your ad copy writing without having to worry about the end result. You have to give control to the searchers. Most writers hate this. When you write a book, you have control over the world. When writing ads, ‘best’ is generally based upon sales of the product, not how many people like the ad copy.
Just remember, no matter how good of a writer you are you will not always write ads that searchers like.
That is OK. If you can give up control, the statistics will tell you which is the best overall ad.
Writers can create excellent Google AdWords ads by following these simple guidelines.
The hardest part of writing AdWords ads for writers is giving up some creative control to statistics.
Brad Geddes is the author of Advanced Google AdWords, the founder of Certified Knowledge and bg Theory which are internet marketing training companies, and the only Advanced Google AdWords Seminar leader officially supported by Google.
New York Book Week and Book Expo America Hit The Big Apple
June 6th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
At the end of May, it’s time for every type of publishing professional to descend on New York City for Book Expo America (BEA), North America’s largest book industry event, which annually attracts approximately 1000 authors to its convention. New York Book Week (May 23 – 29, 2010) was a new concept debuted this year by BEA organizers to embrace all literary and book activity in New York City and which was designed to draw attention to authors, books and publishing.
Steve Rosato, Show Manager for BEA, said, “One of the things that we most wanted to do when we made the decision to keep BEA in New York City for the next few years was to work closely with the community. New York is the publishing capital of the world and there is already an enormous amount of literary activity taking place in the city. It seemed only natural that all of us should band together and call attention to our individual and collective efforts. That’s what New York Book Week is all about.”
The last week of May saw the Jacob Javits Center in New York City buzzing with authors of all kinds and books in all forms. There are now bestselling electronic reader authors and audio book authors who stand alongside the traditional paperback and hardcover book authors. For the first time, the Audio Publishers Association launched their own sound stage at the event so attendees could walk in and listen. Even the Guinness Book of World Records now has a digital strategy being introduced through their new application called “Guinness World Records: At Your Fingertips” which was developed for Apple’s iPad. The face of publishing is changing rapidly and there was much debate during the event.
A CEO panel presented the opening plenary discussion which was entitled the “Value of a Book”, and stemmed, in part, from an Op-Ed piece that appeared in The New York Times (January 2, 2010) by Jonathan Galassi, President of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, titled “There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen“. BEA and American Booksellers Association officials acknowledged that this is a watershed year for change in the industry, and it is critically important to get leaders and opinion makers with different interests and from different segments of the industry together in one room to discuss the many aspects of “value” in books. Panelists included senior executives from International Creative Management (ICM), Workman Publishing, Ingram, Penguin Group (USA), American Booksellers Association (ABA) and the Incoming President of the Authors’ Guild.
Even the event itself went digital and adjusted its structure to accommodate and acknowledge the changes happening in the industry. BEA developed its own official iPhone application by Sideways to support conference attendees during the event. The application was a free, all-in-one that provided an exhibitor directory including specific booth numbers and contact information as well as daily schedules of special events, conferences and autographing sessions. There was also an official BEA Twitter feed, YouTube video channel, blog and Facebook page.
Book Expo also introduced a new conference this year in association with the Gotham Writer’s Workshop and The Writer magazine for “Do It Yourself” authors who want to self-publish, with an entire day dedicated to resources, sessions and talks designed to inform, educate and empower the self-published to go forth and get published. In past years, BEA has integrated these publishing vendors into the main event; however, this year organizers acknowledged the need for a day to be set aside to serve these authors specifically.
The event provided great opportunities for attendees to mingle with celebrities and the better known authors including Barbara Streisand, the legendary actress, singer and director, who delivered the opening night keynote presentation about her upcoming book My Passion for Design to be published by Viking (November 16, 2010).
Musicians also turned out during BEA. Neil Sedaka, arguably the greatest songwriter of all time, signed an exclusive CD made just for BEA that includes two brand-new, original, never-before-heard songs written just for the giveaway and his new book entitled Waking Up Is Hard To Do published by Imagine Publishing, which comes from his bestselling children’s CD of the same name. Famed music legends Peter Yarrow and Paul Noel presented the new Peter, Paul and Mary children’s book, The Night Before Christmas, which is also the last performance ever from the trio.
Beloved comic strips such as Ziggy by Tom Wilson even have new books coming out and other books celebrated their longevity and popularity including HarperCollins’ celebration of the 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird.
From booksellers learning how to open their own bookstores to librarians, authors, literary agents, foreign rights agent, publishers, trade publications and press, Book Expo America and New York is still the place to be to get published, get noticed and get your book out further in the marketplace.
