Major Fun Times In Maui Hawaii

My beautiful wife and I just returned from our 8 day long vacation to Maui, Hawaii. We had an outstanding time, the perfect combination of exciting activities (such as zip-lining and body boarding) and relaxation (days at the Westin Maui pool and beach). Each year, we try to visit Hawaii as it’s one of our favorite places in the world. Just last year, I blogged about our Maui 2010 vacation. Today, I’m thrilled to share some pictures and experiences from our Maui 2011 vacation.

We Visited Maui Thanks To Online Marketing

Ian and Nicole at the Hard Rock Cafe Lahaina

Before doing so, however, I wanted to make sure to tie this post back to online marketing. It’s really because of online marketing (the corporate route and also my affiliate marketing activities) that make these types of vacations possible. If you’re a smart, hard working individual you can make it big in online marketing. Moreover, online marketing can be your road to a more mobile lifestyle which makes these types of vacations possible. While I didn’t do a ton of work from Maui, I was able to monitor my stats and also publish a blog post about PPC checks (all from my iPad). Now, without further ado, let’s get into the specifics of our vacation!

PPC Ian’s 2011 Maui Vacation Details

Ian, Nicole, and Maui Zipline Team

This year, we really had some major fun times! Following is a day-by-day outline of our trip.

Day 1: We arrive at our hotel, the Westin Maui on beautiful Kaanapali beach. We’re absolutely thrilled with the hotel, and especially our ocean front room. The reason we originally picked this hotel is its proximity to the ocean (the beach is literally steps from the hotel), the amenities (it’s quite the nice place), and also the proximity to shopping (the Westin Maui is right next to Whalers Village, some of the best shopping around). On our first day, we decide to take it easy and eat lunch at Westin poolside. We also enjoy the flamingos at the hotel, it’s really amazing that that they have a lagoon when you walk in filled with tropical birds such as flamingos.

Day 2: After we’re all caught up on sleep, we start day two with a workout at the Westin gym and then the amazing Westin Maui breakfast buffet. This buffet is no joke, we’re talking about waffles, grilled mahi mahi, pancakes, papaya, pineapple, and basically any kind of breakfast food you’d want to enjoy ocean side in Hawaii. In an effort to eat healthy, get up early, and enjoy the hotel, we actually had the breakfast buffet each day of our vacation. Later in the day, we hang out at the Westin pool, work on our tans, and enjoy the water slide at the hotel. For dinner, we head over to the town of Lahaina, enjoy some shopping, and eat dinner at the Lahaina Prime Rib and Fish Company.

Enjoying a Beautiful Maui Sunset

Day 3: After starting out the day with a nice run along the Kaanapali beach, we want to experience some sea life and do just that at the Maui Ocean Center. We really enjoy the fish, sea turtles, octopus, and sharks at this aquarium. Also, their gift shop is simply divine, voted the best in Maui. Later, we head over to Buzz’s Warf for lunch (highly recommended, great fish sandwiches), followed by some amazing shaved ice at a local place. After our big day at the aquarium, we go back to the hotel, enjoy the beach, and then head over to the Hula Grill for dinner.

Day 4: On our fourth day, we want to seek some adventure and did just that with Maui Zipline at the Maui Tropical Plantation. After ziplining, we head over to “Beach Bums” for lunch, a really great Hawaiian BBQ (but can’t find their website). Later, we hike at Iao Valley, go miniature golfing, and end the day with an Italian dinner at Pulehu. This was quite the busy day, but I was also amazed at how much energy Hawaii brought to us. For some reason, we had more energy than ever on this trip. I think it’s the relaxing environment, great weather, unparalleled food, and overall lifestyle. Definitely want to find ways to spend even more time in Hawaii over the coming years!

PPC Ian Body Boarding and Enjoying The Waves

Day 5: Continuing our adventure, we snorkel at black rock after breakfast. The waves at Kannapali start getting a little bigger so I also enjoy some body boarding. Day five ends with an amazing dinner at Sea House restaurant on Napili beach. This is our favorite restaurant in Hawaii, a restaurant we first discovered in our prior trip. The Fisherman’s Stew is incredible if you like seafood. Napili is very quiet and relaxing area, the perfect setting for a Hawaiian dinner.

Day 6: The diverse nature of Maui’s landscape is really evident when you start going to Maui’s upcountry. On Day six, we venture to Alii Kula Lavender Farm for a tour, then to Ulupalakulu Ranch for lunch (the elk burger was among the best I have had), and then onto Maui Winery at Tedeschi Vineyards for wine tasting. The Maui Splash wine was so good that we had some shipped home!

Lunch at Leilanis, Whalers Village

Day 7: We were ready for a bit of relaxation again on day seven so we start the day off with a gym workout, but then take it easy. We do some serious shopping at Whalers Village and purchase a variety of great souvenirs (my favorites being ceramic koi fish, Hawaiian angels, and of course clothes). Later in the day, the waves are picking up so I enjoy a bit more body boarding. We eat lunch at Leilanis, enjoy the Ulalena show in Lahaina, and have a wonderful dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Maui.

Day 8: Our final day is all about enjoying one last breakfast at the enjoyable Westin breakfast buffet, followed by a little relaxation, and then the plane flight back home. Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better vacation and have memories that will last a lifetime. Until next time, Hawaii. PPC Ian readers, remember online marketing is lucrative and enjoyable but it’s important to take a break. It’s all about the work hard, play hard way of life!

More Pictures From Our Maui Vacation

Westin Maui, A Great Place To Stay

We Had So Much Fun Ziplining At Maui Zipline

The Breakfast Buffett At The Westin Is Great

The Flamingos At The Westin Are Great

The Maui Lavender Farm, Spectacular Views

Octopus At The Maui Ocean Center

All images in this post © PPCIan.com

Six Essential PPC Campaign Checks

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 30 13

Pay per click is like Wall Street except the PPC exchanges (Google AdWords and Yahoo!/Microsoft adCenter) never sleep. There are certain campaign checks that I perform several times per day (almost excessively). These checks can truly make or break your PPC program. Today, I’m thrilled to highlight my top six checks. If you operate PPC campaigns, I highly recommend performing these checks around the clock.

My Favorite Pay Per Click Checks

Check one is easy: Just go to Google.com, type in your most important keyword, and then observe the results. Do you show up? Do you show up in the right position? You’d be surprised, this simple tip is quite effective at detecting problems. When your credit cards fail on Google (both primary and backup) this check is often the easiest way to understand a problem exists.

Check two: Perform check one again but this time on Yahoo! and Bing. Yahoo! and Bing are getting huge and it’s critical to ensure your ads are delivering correctly 24/7.

Check three: Perform check one again but leverage the ad preview tool on Google. Check your top keyword in a variety of different geos. Look for anything strange. This check is essential for the simple fact that you can observe geos different than your current location. Want to perform the same check on Yahoo? Here’s a cool hack: Go to Yahoo! weather and set your default location to the geo you’re interested in checking. Then, go and search for your test keyword.

Check four: Go to Yahoo.com and look at the “Trending Now” terms. Are any of them terms I’m buying? If so, I click the trending now term and observe the search results. It really depends on your vertical but if you rank well on a trending now term, you want to be ready for a lot of traffic (and a lot of spend). There are verticals where you will embrace the flood of traffic and others where it makes sense to pause your account until the term is no longer trending.

Check five: Search for your trademark terms on all major search engines and click your ads. Make sure your tracking URL looks correct and has the correct affiliate id. Since trademarks terms are end of funnel, they are ultra profitable and will often get abused by others (including your own affiliates). Sure, you’ll rack up some spend but it’s worth it if you drive a lot of conversions on your trademark terms.

Check six: Perform check one again but on Ask.com and AOL Search. These Google search syndication partners are huge and comprise a good amount of Google’s search volume.

So there you have it, my six favorite checks. I perform these consistently myself without automated tools. Since these can make or break an entire program, its essential to perform the checks yourself. I have caught hundreds of bugs over the years with these checks and sincerely hope they help you!

Two Awesome Sites PPC Ian Recommends Visiting

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 21 6

From time to time, I enjoy running contests on PPC Ian to reward you – my loyal readers! You may recall back in 2010, I ran a blog commenting contest. (Make sure to check out the top commentators.) Earlier this year, I ran a Keyword Winner 2.0 contest. (You’ll definitely want to check out PPC Ian readers who are now using Keyword Winner just like me.) Most recently, I purchased Zac Johnson’s Flip This Website eBook and couldn’t put it down. It’s one of the best eBooks of 2011, in my opinion. As such, I decided to run a little contest. Since I knew many fans of PPC Ian would be buying this eBook anyways, I decided to feature and review PPC Ian fans who purchased Zac’s eBook via my affiliate link (during the month of July). Today I’m thrilled to feature and review the two winners of my contest.

PPC Ian Reader #1: Nima.co

This first review is easy. As you may know, I’m a huge fan of domain names (I own hundreds of them) and dot co. Site number one is Nima.co. Nima.co is an amazing blog all about domain names. Nima Jacob Nojoumi, the author of the blog, is my personal friend and a leading authority within the domain name industry.

I recommend starting out by reading the about me page on Nima.co. You will quickly see that Nima Jacob Nojoumi is really legit. I’m most impressed by the fact that he was promoted six times at one of the leading Internet companies around and also that he owns his own business, Venture Media, LLC. Venture Media owns premium domain names and also physical real estate properties as well – sweet.

Nima.co is full of value. While the blog is focused on domain names, there’s also an excellent mix of general Internet marketing posts as well. Some of my favorite posts include: Google Algorithm Change, Overcoming Complacency, and Domain Appraisals. Domain names (especially developed ones that drive cash flow) are one of the best investments around, in my opinion. Check out Nima.co today to learn more!

PPC Ian Reader #2: GlobalOneTechnology.com

Site number two is Global One Technology. I am really impressed with Global One Technology. They are a leading seller of HP Server Parts, have been in business since 2003, and have over 12,000 customers. As you can see from their about us page, Global One does business in all 50 states, and over 70 countries on six continents – that’s quite the impressive operation.

In terms of specific products, Global One Technology offers HP Server Hard Drives, HP Server Memory, HP Server Processor Kits, and so much more. Literally Global One Technology Offers any HP Server part you could ever want. To make sure your order goes perfectly, Global Technology One offers live chat and also an impressive help center.

I’m a huge fan of social media so I was particularly excited to see Global One Technology on both LinkedIn and YouTube. Check out Global One’s LinkedIn and Global One’s YouTube today. If you’re ever in need of server parts for HP servers, you now know where to go!

So, there you have it. Two new awesome websites to check out. Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for future contests and promotions. I’m always looking for ways to reward loyal PPC Ian readers. Thanks for your support!

Images in this post © Nima.co and GlobalOneTechnology.com

SES San Francisco 2011 Conference Recap

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 16 5

I’ve been really fortunate to attend a multitude of amazing online marketing conferences over the last year. I’m talking about SMX West 2011, ad:tech San Francisco 2011, and SMX Advanced Seattle 2011. Today, I’m thrilled to write about SES San Francisco 2011 – I spent all day at this search marketing conference today and had a great time. Also, as always, I’m thrilled to share a bunch of cool pictures from the event!

It’s All About Networking at SES San Francisco

eZanga 2nd Tier Search Engine Rocks

As always, my favorite part of online marketing conferences is the amazing networking. It’s all about the networking. Today was an action-packed day of networking for sure. It all started off in the Expo Hall. I met up with my friends from eZanga (check out the picture to the right). For those that don’t know, eZanga is an awesome 2nd tier search engine. I have experienced considerable success on 2nd tiers and highly recommend them. After all, the 1st tiers get so competitive that it’s often easier to drive higher percentage margins on 2nd tier search engines such as eZanga. I was really impressed with eZanga’s jungle-themed booth.

Next, I met up with my friend Marc Poirier from Acquisio. I was thrilled to meet up with Marc because I learned earlier in the day that Acquisio Secured $12.1 Million In Series B Funding. How cool, I’m super impressed. I didn’t get a chance to get a photo with Marc and the Acquisio team because they were so busy. Honestly, I walked by their booth about 10 times and they were always completely busy (clearly shows that Acquisio has a lot of fans like me).

PPC Ian and The Amazing Kenshoo Team

Next, I continued to make my rounds and headed over to the Kenshoo and Marin Software booths. For those that don’t know, Kenshoo and Marin Software are two of the most amazing online marketing platforms around. (You may wish to check out my SEM Automation Whitepaper and post about PPC Automation.) Online marketing campaigns are more complex than ever. I’ve personally experienced outstanding results with platforms like Acquisio, Kenshoo, and Marin. I highly recommend checking them out – your results and productivity will skyrocket.

In addition to the Expo Hall, I attended a really exciting SEMPO Board of Directors Lunch. This invite only lunch gave SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) members the opportunity to network with SEMPO’s Board of Directors and leadership. I made some amazing connections and was truly impressed with the caliber of marketers at this lunch. If you’re not in SEMPO, I highly recommend signing up! Last, I met up with with some amazing old friends from Nextag and Stanford. It’s such a small world and always so much fun running into old friends.

My Favorite Parts of SES San Francisco

PPC Ian and The Amazing Marin Software Team

Aside from the amazing networking, what else did I enjoy about SES San Francisco? A whole lot! While the conference was less busy than SES San Francisco 2010, it was still an amazing time. First and foremost, I had an absolute blast in the social media sessions. Everyone’s always talking about social these days, but it’s for good reason. It’s limitless and there’s so much to learn. For those of you attending days 2 and 3 of SES, make sure to go to the social media sessions – they are among the best at the conference in my opinion.

Also, it was really great to see Google promoting their new doubleclick search version 3 platform. Not only did Google promote doubleclick search via their huge booth in the Expo Hall (picture below) but also they gave a live demo of the new platform. (It was great to hear my friend Kit speak, you can see a picture of PPC Ian and Kit in my post about Networking With Google.) As mentioned earlier, it’s all about SEM tools. Now, there’s one more amazing tool to improve your marketing operations and efficiency!

Last, I felt that the free goodies were great this time. Symantec is giving away really cool remote controlled H2 Hummers. I was particularly impressed to see Symantec integrating Verisign into the Yahoo! organic search results. If a site is Verisign certified, the Verisign logo shows up there right in the Yahoo! search results – pretty cool. I’m actually done with the conference for the rest of the week (my team is sharing the pass) but will be most likely attending some of the events at night over the next few days. Are you attending SES San Francisco this year?

More Pictures From SES San Francisco

Google Went Really Big At SES San Francisco 2011

I Definitely +1'd Google's Booth

doubleclick search Made a Huge Debut at SES San Francisco

All Images In This Post © PPCIan.com

AdWords Display URLs Are More Important Than Ever

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 14 13

Google is on a roll – 2011 is a year of change when it comes to AdWords. I’m talking about front end changes that directly impact user experience. Just a few recent examples: Six Sitelinks In Paid Search, Light Blue Google Search Results, and AdWords Megatitles. Today, I’m thrilled to blog about a few recent changes to Google AdWords display URLs and how you can benefit from these changes.

AdWords Display URL Changes and Tips

Check out the screenshot to the right. You can see that the display URLs are now right under the title, followed with description lines one and two. In the past, the title would always be directly followed by the description and then the display URL at the bottom.

Most users focus primarily on the title. Now that the display URL is so close to the title, it’s more important than ever. Users are going to focus on your display URL more than ever before. My recommendation: Consider modifying your display URL to include relevant keywords (either as a subdomain or as a folder after the root domain). In the screenshot to the right, I personally like the Allstate ad since “Auto-Insurance” really stands out as a folder after the root domain in the display URL.

Another recent change to display URLs on AdWords (a few months back): Display URLs are now in lower case. You can no longer have title casing in subdomains and also root domains of display URLs. However, there’s one exception: folders. Check out the esurance ad to the right, the folder “California” is in title case. Now, check out the ad for insure.com. The “autoinsurance” is in lower case. A while back, it was possible to leverage title case in subdomains and root domains, such as “AutoInsurance.Insure.com”. My tip: Make sure to test both subdomains and folders. As you test folders, make sure to test both lower case and title case. Personally, I have found great success with title case and feel it will be even more important now that display URLs are right below the title.

So there you have it. A few recent changes to display URLs and a few tips on how to optimize the CTR of your ads. Hope this helps. Any special display URL strategies that have worked well in your AdWords campaigns?

Check Out My Case Study On Yahoo! Advertising

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 6 12

I’m a huge fan of PR. From my experience, PR is an amazing way to get your name out there. It’s an amazing way to build lifelong connections. It’s an amazing way to help others. Also, PR Can Drive SEO Results. The more I grow as a marketer, the more I truly respect great PR.

Today I’m thrilled to announce, quite possibly, my biggest PR win ever. I’m featured right now on the Yahoo! Advertising Solutions portal in a Case Study About The Yahoo!/Microsoft Search Alliance. That’s right, I made it to the big leagues, we’re talking about Yahoo! here. For the last few months, I’ve been working very closely with Yahoo!’s PR team. They wanted to talk to me about one of my favorite topics, The Yahoo!/Microsoft Search Alliance. Of course, I couldn’t pass this opportunity by and the rest is history. You can read my case study here. If you’d like to download the PDF version (which I think is really sharp), you can find it here.

I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Yahoo! team. It’s a real honor to have this opportunity. More than anything, I have built lifelong friendships with my Yahoo! account management team and couldn’t be more thankful. The Yahoo!/Microsoft Search Alliance truly is pushing the search marketing industry forward. It’s making life a lot more fun for online marketers like me. Thanks Yahoo! for everything!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you. I’m talking about my team, my co-workers, past reports, past co-workers, readers, friends, and family. Your support means everything to me. Want to read more about PPC Ian in the press? I just updated my About Me page to highlight my press mentions at the top. Also, I encourage all of you to push your limits in PR. Have a great experience to share? Get out there and share it – I’d love to read about your online marketing experiences in the next big case study!

Want to learn more about the Yahoo!/Microsoft Search Alliance? Following are a few of my favorite posts here on PPC Ian about the Search Alliance:

Image in this post © Yahoo!

Google Now Displaying Six Sitelinks In Paid Search

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 5 5

Google AdWords is evolving! More front end, user facing enhancements have occurred in the last year than I can remember in my 7+ years of paid search. This is really fun for me because I’m obsessed with PPC and also because the front end is all about marketing at its best. The tools now available, via Google ad extensions, empower us more than ever to deliver amazing ad experiences to the end user.

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you probably know I’m a huge fan of sitelinks. Out of all the Google AdWords ad extensions, sitelinks are by far my favorite. Today, I’m excited to share a neat screenshot (below) that shows State Farm’s brand ad with six sitelinks! That’s right, if your CTR is high enough, Google now appears to be delivering six sitelinks. Also, I’m pleased to share some of my favorite sitelinks tips and strategies.

PPC Ian’s Top 4 Sitelinks Tips

Now, this is cool for State Farm, but you may be wondering what does this mean for you? Good question! First and foremost, make sure to make sure all your campaigns (especially the ones that house your brand name terms) have six sitelinks. If you don’t have six sitelinks, it’s impossible for six to show up. Side note: I noticed one advertiser recently who only had three sitelinks (two on the first line and one on the second). I think it’s because they only had three in their campaign, how embarrassing. I never advise having fewer than four sitelinks. If your worried about which ones Google will pick, don’t be. If you include six sitelinks, but only two or four show, Google will pick the ones that optimize your CTR (to the best of my knowledge).

Second, I highly recommend longer sitelinks. If you have longer sitelinks, they’re likely to occupy multiple lines like State Farm’s. However, let’s say you have shorter sitelinks. Then, they’re likely to display side-by-side and occupy fewer lines (less real estate).

Third, I recommend sending your sitelinks to different landing pages. The original intent of sitelinks is bringing your site’s navigation closer to the user. Now, you could send all of them to the same landing page, however this is not an ideal user experience and could lower your conversion rate.

Last, I recommend including calls to action in your sitelinks. State Farm does not do this, although I cannot fault them because they appear to be doing quite well. That said, there is always room for improvement when it comes to pay per click. If State Farm included words like “compare”, “find”, “get”, “apply”, etc. in their sitelinks, they are likely to improve CTR and conversion rate too (in my opinion).

How To Make Thousands Buying and Selling Websites

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 21 12

While I first started developing my own websites for profit in 2007, I got my first taste of buying existing websites in June of 2008. Back in those days, before Flippa existed, BuySellWebsite.com was the place to buy and sell established websites. In June of 2008, I ended up buying a nice little AdSense website for $2,500 (plus a $20 wire fee and a $81.25 Escrow.com fee) for a total of $2,601.25. Just a few years later, that website has yielded $3,825.40 in AdSense earnings alone (I also received extra earnings from direct advertisements). On AdSense alone, that’s a yield of 147%. Since then, I’ve made building websites and also buying established websites a huge part of my passive income plan. I’m here to say first hand that buying established websites is a great way to make money online! Of course, selling websites (for more than you paid) is also a great way to make money, but I’m more of a cash flow kind of guy so I’m holding my websites for the long haul.

Flippa Makes It Easy To Buy and Sell Websites

Thankfully, these days it’s a lot easier to buy and sell websites for profit. There’s a new marketplace called Flippa that makes the process far easier than when I started back in 2008. It’s my firm belief that anyone reading my blog can make thousands, like I have, buying and selling websites. That said, the marketplace is also more competitive now so you really need to know what you’re doing. Don’t worry! There’s a brand new 147 page eBook that guides you through the process step-by-step. I’m talking about Zac Johnson’s Flip This Website.

Zac Johnson Flippa Guide

I Bought Zac Johnson’s Guide and It Rocks

Have you heard of Zac Johnson? He’s a super affiliate and owns one of the top affiliate marketing blogs on the Internet. Over the years, Zac has literally earned a fortune with affiliate marketing. I regularly frequent his blog and have a ton of respect for Zac. It’s for this reason that I knew Zac’s eBook would totally rock. I personally purchased Zac’s eBook (screenshot at the end of this post showing my ClickBank receipt) and couldn’t be more pleased with my purchase. For only $33.49 (temporarily on sale from $67), I’m armed with 147 pages of amazing information, from the king of Flippa. Moreover, I’ve got 6 bonus videos at my fingertips too.

After reading Zac’s book, I’m now ready to buy more websites in 2011-2012 than ever before. Web development takes a ton of work, I’m ready to scale my SEO affiliate earnings quicker than ever before with my new Flippa tips and strategies.

Buy Zac’s Guide From PPC Ian and I’ll Reward You

If you’re serious about Internet marketing (whether you have a corporate job like me or are a full time affiliate marketer), Zac Johnson’s Flippa Guide is a true must have. At only $33.49, you are getting an invaluable education for next to nothing (I’m surprised it’s on sale for this price). Now, here’s where things get interesting! This just wouldn’t be PPC Ian if I didn’t reward you guys. Remember when I promoted Keyword Winner and ran a Keyword Winner Contest where I reviewed the blogs of PPC Ian readers who purchased via my link? (By the way, you can see here the Keyword Winner Contest Winners.) Well, I’m at it again!

Buy Flip This Web Site via my affiliate link and I will feature your website or blog right here on PPC Ian. I will write a few sentences about your blog or website and also provide a link to you as well. All you have to do is purchase Zac’s guide via my link before July 31st! I’ll be featuring the winners in early August. In my opinion, the $33.49 is worth it just to get featured here on PPC Ian, a leading online marketing blog that gets over 1,000 visitors/day. It’s just my way of rewarding PPC Ian readers (I truly can’t thank you all enough) while spreading the word about a product I truly believe in. After you purchase Zac’s eBook via my link, simply email me your ClickBank order number and website or blog you’d like reviewed (family friendly sites only).

Want to learn a bit more before buying? You can see the table of contents from Flip This Website below:

Introduction
My Story
Overview: The Three Business Models
Flippa: The eBay of Web Properties That You Can Trust
Chapter 1: What You Should Watch Out For When Buying Domains and Websites
Chapter 2: Introduction to Flippa
Chapter 3: Buying and Selling Web Sites with Flippa
Chapter 4: How to Build Your First Site to Eventually Sell on Flippa
Chapter 5: Promoting and Outsourcing Your Web Sites
Chapter 6: Next Steps – 3 Action Plans for Your Business Model
Blogging Tips: The Before, During & After Process of Buying a Web Site
Flippa Case Studies
Interview with Matt Mickiewicz
Your Gift: Free Flippa Credits to Get Started
20 Memorable Flippa Sales
Web Site Flipping Resources
A Final Word on Web Property Flipping
BONUS: The Mini Niche Web Site Guide

Flip This Web Site

Surpassing 3,000 Fans on Facebook Via Paid Traffic

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 3 10

Just a few weeks back, I wrote a post about how I Got 1,242 Facebook Fans for Only $347.70. The post became really popular, got some great comments (thank you to all who commented), and inspired me to push my campaign even further, much further!

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that I drove a total of 3,156 likes! (This is not the PPC Ian Facebook Fan Page, but is a Fan Page for another one of my authority sites.) Out of my 3,156 likes, 2,938 are from my paid campaign. Since I paid $965.42, but got a $50 coupon thanks to my wife, I ended paying $915.42 or $0.31 per paid like. Not bad, and very consistent with my results last time. Today, I wanted to close out my test by sharing a few thoughts (while hopefully inspiring you to run your own Facebook paid like campaign)!

75 Wall Posts or Comments Within 1 Week

Paid likes are some of the highest quality Facebook Fans around! Just check out the image above. Over the past week, there have been 75 wall posts or comments. The majority of these have been fans commenting on my wall posts, fans posting their own questions, or fans liking wall posts. For only $915.42, I created a vibrant community that is sharing my content and driving traffic to my site. Paid likes are of really high quality (just like paid search traffic from search engines).

Facebook Fan Page = PPC (Except You Pay 1st)

I’m viewing social media, especially Facebook, in a new light. I’m a paid search guy and am used to paying per click as I go. Facebook is the same thing, but you pay first! Think of it this way: You pay/invest a lot of money, drive paid likes, leverage those likes to drive interaction on your page, and then get visits from your fans over time.

It’s estimated that Each Facebook Fan Will Drive 20 Visits To Your Website. $0.31 (my price per fan) for 20 visits is really great, that’s only $0.016 per visit (certainly cheaper than AdWords or adCenter). Even better, this doesn’t even take into account the branding and SEO advantages of having a vibrant social media program. Looking at things in this light puts a whole new spin on Facebook and is a great way to pitch the idea of increased social media budget to your organization.

Watch Out For New Account Limits

When you open a new Facebook Ads account, Facebook will throttle you. In my last post, I mentioned how my impressions were throttled and then I got a surge of traffic all of the sudden at the end of the test. I originally thought this was due to Facebook fighting ad fatigue and evening the impressions over time. I was wrong. It’s because Facebook put a $50/day budget limit on my account but then lifted the limit to $200 once a number of successful credit card charges went through. Just something to be aware of when you open a new account.

My Self-Sustaining Community

If you drive enough likes, you can create a self-sustaining community on Facebook. My interaction with my Fan Page in this case study has not been very extensive at all. Fans have actually been asking other fans questions. The community is vibrant and self-sustaining to a degree which is super cool! I just need to keep an eye out for community members posting their own links. I’ve had to remove a few, but other than that the comments and interaction has been super genuine. Of course, I do expect this interaction to decline over time as the hype and freshness of my page wears off. It will be at that point that I jump in with some clever ideas and/or run another like campaign.

So there you have it! Now, my campaign is paused as I didn’t want to go over $1,000 total media spend for this initial test. What are your thoughts on paid Facebook like campaigns? At $0.31/fan, should I keep running this program until the price per fan starts going up? I’m certainly tempted!

Acquisio’s Amazing Remarketing eBook

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jun 26 11

Have you heard of remarketing? How about site retargeting? These are some seriously hot topics right now in the world of online marketing. Site retargeting, now available in all Google AdWords accounts, allows you to serve display (or text) ads to users who have visited your website. The applications are incredible. Just think: You can now deliver a special offer to someone who got all the way down your conversion funnel but stopped one step short. Or, you can target someone who visited your homepage but left to compare prices on other sites. It’s a truly amazing technology, but one that could also be confusing!

Today, I am thrilled to share with you the most comprehensive guide on site retargeting I have ever seen, the guide that will teach you everything you need to know! Our friends at Acquisio, the leading performance media platform for agencies, have done it again! Today, I’ll be reviewing Acquisio’s free 13 page remarketing eBook titled Using Remarketing To Drive Increased Display Ad Results.

What You’ll Learn About Site Retargeting

Acquisio has a long history of putting out amazing eBooks, whitepapers, and webinars. Some of my favorites include Acquisio’s Display Advertising eBook and Acquisio’s Facebook Webinar. Their brand new remarketing eBook, however, takes it all to the next level. Here are a few of my favorite highlights:

The eBook offers an amazing, comprehensive guide to setting up your first AdWords site retargeting campaign, with eight steps. Even better, each step includes a screenshot. This really is the best how-to documentation I have seen on site retargeting.
Acquisio offers clever ad copy and landing page ideas, catered to site retargeting campaigns. I especially enjoyed a neat SnapTotes case study.
I learned about advanced topics such as frequency capping and building interactive creatives.
The eBook closes out with really cool ideas that will get you thinking. Just one example: Site retarget visitors who converted one month later, in an attempt to get further sales.

So there you have it, one of my favorite eBooks of all time. I highly recommend downloading Acquisio’s Remarekting eBook. After entering some really quick info, you will get a link to the eBook in your email, just moments later. It’s super easy!