My wife keeps bees. She can sit in front of her hives for hours, just watching their dangerous little tushies waggling back and forth in front of the entrances. I sometimes sit next to her in the early evening and watch too – for as long as I can. To me, it’s all the same thing: The bees fly in. The bees fly out. A couple of bees are walking around in circles. Okay, I get it. Now can we throw a Frisbee?
For my wife, on the other hand, the bee display is far richer. She’s learning to read the language of bees, and so is eavesdropping on a conversation in bee-talk, a conversation so important that the very survival of her hives depends on it.
What appear to me as random movements are actually precise and complex ways to transmit information. The direction the bee points in, the figure she traces with her body (yes, all the worker bees are females), the duration of the dance – all these communicate the location of good nectar that can be brought back to the hive and turned into honey.
If you’re using Google AdWords, your market is waggling its butt in your face 24/7. It’s clearly telling you where the nectar isn’t, and, if you’re lucky, where it is:
- Some of your keywords are profitable; others are not.
- Some of the websites showing your Content Network ads are bringing you buyers; others are just sending you expensive tire kickers.
- Some of your bids are too high; others are too low.
- Some of your ads are not connecting with your prospects; others are driving them wild.
- Some of your landing pages are turning visitors off within seconds; others are getting prospects to do exactly what you want them to do.
WHICH ONES?
If you don’t discover the answers to this question on a regular basis (monthly, if not weekly), I guarantee you’re searching for nectar in the wrong meadows and gardens. Sure, you may be collecting enough to survive, but as Glenn Livingston notes, in AdWords, the good is often enemy of the great. If being great is simply a matter of learning how to set up and read reports, and then take drop-dead-obvious actions based on the data, why not go for it?
[Ed. Note: Chapter 14 of AdWords for Dummies shows you how to set up reports that run while you sleep and show up automatically in your inbox. You'll discover the most important numbers, and how to interpret and act on them. And since the book includes $24.95 in AdWords credits, you actually get paid about $8 when you buy it from Amazon. So get cracking on those reports, and may your honey be sweet and plentiful.
Now you have the chance to pick the brain of AdWords expert Howie Jacobson in person. He'll be speaking at ETR's 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp - sharing a method you can use to make an extra $100,000 in 2009. And he's not the only one... 11 other marketing and business-building experts have responded to our Internet Ultimatum. Learn how you can make $1.2 million or more next year, right here...
Get Howie's complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" at www.AskHowie.com]
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