Over 2.5 Billion?
Zap back to the mid-90's; two students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin are working on a new research project at Stanford University, California. Using the leading search engines of their day; Inktomi and AltaVista, they're entering the word 'Inktomi' into the Inktomi search engine and 'AltaVista' into the AltaVista search engine.
How many results do you think they got; a Thousand? A Million?Zero.
Larry and Sergey couldn't believe it. Because Inktomi and AltaVista search engines were the leaders, but couldn't even find their very own websites in an online search. This added to the boys' conviction. Now they were sure they'd soon be blasting the competition with their own new creation; Google.
Google didn't get to be king of search and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) by thinking like everyone else. They worked 'outside the box' to develop an alternate plan of attack. The results; obscene profits and domination of the search engine world.
In short, Google used imagination to get where they are today. To beat competitors in your business category you must use imagination too. Here are helpful techniques that'll boost your imagination. While your ad is climbing the Results ladder, you'll be getting far more attention from prospective customers.
Introducing these tips may take a little time and effort (perhaps that's why most advertisers aren't using them). But there are resources available to help you. What's more, these methods won't cost you a penny.
Ask yourself;• Why are people on a search engine looking for your product or service?
• Remember, you’re selling a solution to a problem
• What problems / issues are they trying to solve?
• Your prospect will be asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’ What can you tell them in your ad that will raise their curiosity?
Here are more tips;
• Make it sound easy
• Use surprise
• See what others are doing
• Use rhythm and rhyme in your ads (see Secret #23) to make it sound like a short poem. If your ad text has a good ring to it, it will likely attract more attention
• Use, ‘Edgy’ writing in your ads (if Google will allow the words you want to use). What is edgy writing? According to the book, ‘Spunk and Bite, a writer’s guide to punchier, by Arthur Plotnik, it’s a more engaging language and style;
1. Prose or poetry that features nervously stimulating action, content or style.2. Shake up sentence length and rhythm. Startle by what isn’t said. Keep trying – if writing ‘edgy’ came easily it would, well, lose its edge, wouldn’t it?
• Try using very mild swear words in your Web page text (damn, kick-ass, kickbutt, etc) - but not in your Google ads, as it likely won’t be allowed by the Google system!
• Can you use the words ‘How To’ in your ad?• Include the words ‘Here’, ‘Easy’, ‘Free’, ‘Now’ or ‘Instantly’
• Include a question mark (?) in your headline
• Don’t do / buy ______ before you do _________
• The secret to __________ is ____________
• Use the words ‘Free’ and ‘Tips’
It takes a lot of energy to write good copy. It’s exhausting. You’ve got to pour your heart and soul into it. The amount of energy it takes to write great copy is why most top writers can’t write more than 4-5 hours a day. Most beginning copywriters are never told this and burn themselves out.
Copywriting master Gene Schwartz only wrote for 33 minutes and 33 seconds (he actually used a timer) – then he took a good break.According to writer Arthur Plotnik it pays to use a good thesaurus (I recommend a paper one rather than online) to;
• Discover more fitting or forceful words
• Find those good words you can’t quite recall
• Avoid repetition of words
• Escape clichés and worn modifiers
• Help describe the so-called indescribable, and
• Refine your intended meanings (via related concepts)
While you need to be careful with these (you don’t want to lose your audience by being too, ‘sophisticated’) and some are more suited for web pages than Google ads, they can be helpful to give you some ideas;
www.wordspy.comexamples;
wikificatio n. The process of opening online content to allow for collaboration from users; to turn an online site into a wiki.
—wikify v.
www.vocabula.com
example; Weanling: a newly weaned child or animal.
Dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday
example; Wayworn: travel-weary.
http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd/
example; Muzzy: muddled, confused
Buy a small item from well-established marketers and have it delivered to your home. Here are a couple of experienced direct marketers;
www.bottomlinesecrets.com by Boardroom and www.rodalestore.com by Rodale, the publisher of Men’s Health and Women’s Health.
You can bet their material contains well-tested and winning headlines, sub-heads and bullet points. You can often translate these into winning PPC ads and web pages.
Also, look at the magazine rack in your local supermarket. Headline writers for Cosmopolitan magazine and the National Enquirer are some of the highest-paid in the business. Learn from them for free.
Sometimes, it pays to allow your subconscious to work on your writing challenges, rather than concentrating on them directly. For example, master copywriter Clayton Makepeace adds up a series of numbers on a piece of paper. This allows him to engage the conscious part of his brain with the task of adding the numbers, while his subconscious works on generating creative copy.
I do something similar, but I find it easier than Clayton’s solution. While sitting at my computer, I simply activate the hard-disk defragmentation (defrag) program. Then, I sit back and relax while I watch the defrag program graphic screen show bits of data being moved around, into a more efficient structure.
This helps me relax and allows my subconscious to generate copywriting ideas. I guess in a way, I’m ‘defragging’ my brain, while I watch the computer screen. Give it a try!
What You Need to UNDERSTAND: There are so many companies and individuals using Google PPC, you’ve got to think differently to stand out from the online crowd. Practice departure from everyday words and thought patterns. It’ll give
you an edge few others have. Plus, it’s one of the real advantages you can build for
yourself against the larger, more cumbersome companies in your market.
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