How You Can Break The Adwords Bank… Wait I Mean YOUR Bank.

The Landing Page

There are millionaires being made this very minute. They are using what is called PPC (pay per click) and if done right, it can make you a ton of money, but before you throw caution to the wind, remember this, it can also break your back (read bank account), quicker than you can write the next text ad.

One (not the only one) key to an effective PPC (adwords, yahoo, msn) ad campaign is to have an effective landing page.  Okay, now that begs the question, “What in the heck is a landing page and how to I make a good one”?  Don’t worry, that is the focus of this post and we’re going to do our best to steer you in the right direction.

First let’s deal with a simple definition.  A landing page is what a visitor comes to when they click on a link.  In the most basic sense the home page of your website is a landing page (we can also call it a destination page), but for this post we’ll be talking about designing a specific landing page for a specific product.

The landing page you create MUST be highly targeted and deliver to the visitor exactly what they are searching for.  What do I mean?  Simply this, if someone clicking on an ad about effective football betting, you better make certain your landing page deals specifically and in-depth concerning the subject.

I use a tool called Google Goggles to help determine if my page is up to par, and if you have a small amount of money to invest, it’s a handy tool.  Not mandatory, but handy.  In days past, to run an effective affiliate marketing campaign, you could link directly the product in question, Adwords (or the big wigs at Google) have effectively put a stop to this by implementing what is called the quality score.

Quality score and your landing page go hand in hand and is effectively the same thing.  Google will look at your landing page (and other data) and determine if your landing page is up to their standards.  If it passes their test, you can obtain your clicks for less money than someone who has a poorer landing page.  Adwords (assuming your pick the right product) is a proven business model and it does work, but just as there are tips and tricks of the trade in every business, so also is this true with adwords and one of the crucial points is the landing page.

Okay enough theory let me show you how to do it.  I’m going to stay with the ever popular “dog training” niche and show you how to craft a good quality landing page that will likely pass the Google Goggle test, a good quality score and low bid price.  It’s pretty simple really… STEAL!

Did I get your attention?  Hope so, cause being a blogger I am 100% against plagiarism. That said here’s how to legally steal some good quality information and get yourself a great landing page.

1. Visit the site of the of the product vendor first.  They may already have a suite of information, graphics and email templates that you can use.  I’m going to promote the “Sit Stay Fetch” which is an outstanding product.  Visiting their site I see they offer…
   1. Text and logo links (probably not much help)
   2. Banner ads and buttons (helpful for a landing page, but not mandatory).
   3. Product images (these we could certainly use on our landing pages).
   4. A list of keywords that work (now this is potentially valuable information).
   5. Articles (Okay, this is it, this is what we’re looking for and while we would most likely want to change (re-write) the article someone, they are in all likelihood quality information with most (not all) of the work done for you)
2. Ezinearticles (or any of the good article directories) simply do a search for “dog training” (or whatever niche you are promoting) and you’ll find hundreds of articles targeting your niche.  Now being a writer and keyword researcher, I have to remind you of their TOS which instructs you to leave the author information (including links) intact.  Does this mean you shouldn’t use the article, no it simply means to exercise some common sense and be certain you won’t lose your visitor to a competitor.

On the landing page you can then make a decision to several things.

1. Capture the visitor’s name and email so you can keep in touch with them in the future.
2. Simply link to the actual product page with your affiliate link embedded (more on this in a separate post).
3. Offer an incentive if the visitor buys through your link.

This is certainly not a definitive post on landing pages, but it should get you pointed in the right direction.  If you have other questions or comments, scroll down click comments and ask away. Tim