Thursday, October 6, 2011

PPC Ad Optimization: This Week, Don’t Diss the Tweak!

When it comes to PPC ad copy optimization, there are generally two schools with few practitioners working both approaches.
  1. Fresh Approachers: The school of wholesale rewrites and the testing of new approaches, alternate messaging, and creative ad copy.
  2. Tweakers: The school of one-variable-at-a-time, refining what’s already proven to work, and making small tweaks to language.
But the good news is that you don’t have to be an exclusive subscriber to either. Enough writing and testing will show you that optimal improvement requires both approaches, though I often find a fair amount of resistance to the worth of the tweak. It’s almost as if some clients feel that small changes can only produce small results, or that it isn’t worth paying for merely “tweaked” ad copy. (Stop nodding, your neck will hurt!)
So this week, I want you to look those tweak-haters in the eyes and say:
First, it’s psychological change in the prospect, not the physical change in the ad, that’s important to results.
The question in evaluating an ad tweak is not, “how many words or phrases has the writer changed?” but “how much does the new ad improve or alter that ad’s meaning and persuasive power within the mind of the searcher?”
For example, the difference between, say, “Put money in your pocket” and “Puts money in your pocket” in terms of a headline for a metal detector, isn’t the difference of one measly letter, but the difference between an invitation for an opportunity to do some work, and a gadget that’ll seemingly do the work for you (at least on a connotative level).
Physically it’s one letter; psychologically, it’s a much bigger difference than that!
Second, if you’re not testing both fresh approaches and tweaks, you’re probably testing great approaches with inferior wordsmithing.
In other words, what’s to keep from your testing a bad execution of an optimal approach, but passing it over for a better execution of an inferior approach? Nothing! Because you’re never tweaking the execution to find out.
So if you’re not testing tweaks, it’s very likely that you’re not getting the mileage you ought to be getting out of all those “fresh approaches” you’re testing.
Taking this into account, check out the tweaked PPC ad below:
new-old-champion-brain-function
Only two words distinguish the winning ad from the losing ad:
  1. “Enhance” vs. “Improve,”
  2. “Fun” vs. “Scientific”
What impact do you think these minor tweaks had on improving the ad’s CTR? Five percent? Ten percent?
No, the winning ad improved CTR by whopping 30 percent because the difference between “enhance” and “improve” isn’t just a slight tweak between synonyms. After all, advertisers sell male enhancement products, not male improvement products, right? “Enhance” doesn’t imply the need for improvement, but “Improve” does.
And when you’re looking to play Brain Training Games, “Fun” is more promising than “Scientific.” Yes, you want the games to be scientifically proven, but that’s not the same thing as “Scientific” is it?
So take a tip and this week, don’t diss the tweak! Always make sure you’re cycling in both fresh rewrites and tweaks for your PPC ads to make sure they reach their optimal performance
By: Noran El-Shinnawy

Our Top 10 Picks for WordPress Plugins

Wordpress is one of the most popular web publishing platforms due to its ease of setup, low cost and customization potential. Since its inception in 2003, it has been downloaded over 25 million times and because of its mass appeal, developers have created a whole host of plugins that add increased functionality and flexibility to the already robust platform.

As of the time of this article, over 16,500 plugins are available with over 222,386,280 downloads and counting. Which plugins are top rated? Which ones will help your website perform optimally?

Though your specific type of website will outline the various plugins you will need, there are some top picks we feel you should consider.

If you have a favorite plugin that isn’t mentioned, please let us know in the comments!

1. Wordpress SEO by Yoast


With over 540,000 downloads and a near perfect rating, Wordpress SEO by Yoast is one of our top picks for SEO plugins. Here are some of its features:

  • Post Titles & Meta Descriptions -You will also see snippet previews of what your description will look like in the search engines

  • Robots Meta Configuration – You can adjust nofollow options on a per post basis.

  • Breadcrumb menus

  • Robots.txt and .htaccess  - You can edit your .htaccess and robots.txt files using the built-in file editor.

  • 301 Redirects

  • RSS Feed Options

  • Many more features…

Here is a snapshot of one of the admin screens:


2. Jetpack


JetPack is a plugin bundle that includes visitor stats, social media sharing tools and short codes. More features are planned for the future as well. See the screenshot below of what it looks like after first installation:


3. Disqus


Disqus is a comment system which allows for a more interactive blog commenting experience. The system promotes online communities with ease of sharing and interaction.

Some of Disqus’ features:

  • Threaded comments and replies

  • Twitter mentions

  • Approval or rejection of comments via email

  • Aggregated comments

  • Subscribe and RSS options

  • SEO friendly comments

  • Increased exposure and readership

4. WPTouch


With the newest technologies taking the mobile world by storm, this plugin can't come at a better time. I have not downloaded this plugin personally but with over 2.5 million downloads and rave reviews, it is worth a mention.

WPTouch transforms your Wordpress site into a mobile-friendly version when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung Touch and Blackberry devices. You can customize your website's appearance and give your visitors the option to switch back and forth from WPTouch view and your regular theme.


5. WP Greet Box


This plugin promotes a more welcoming user experience for visitors by displaying messages for them when they land on your site. You have the ability to customize these messages based on the the website from which your visitors came. For example, if a user visits your site from Twitter, you can customize a message for them to tweet your post. You can also create default messages for new visitors who are not referred by another site.

Here are some of the default messages that come with the plugin. You can edit and customize as needed as well as remove the function from individual posts:




6. W3 Total Cache


Recommended by some of the top minds in the industry, this plugin improves the user experience of your site by enhancing your blog’s performance, reducing download times and protecting your blog from unexpected high traffic surges.

Some of the benefits as listed on the plugin page:

  • At least 10x improvement in overall site performance (Grade A in YSlow or significant Google Page Speed improvements) when fully configured

  • Improved conversion rates and "site performance" which affect your site's rank on Google.com

  • "Instant" subsequent page views: browser caching

  • Optimized progressive render: pages start rendering quickly

  • Reduced page load time: increased visitor time on site; visitors view more pages

  • Improved web server performance; sustain high traffic periods

  • Up to 80% bandwidth savings via minify and HTTP compression of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and feeds

7. Limit Login Attempts


If you are a current Wordpress user, you most likely have experienced at least one hacking attempt. To combat this heinous activity, this plugin limits login attempts once a specified number of times has been reached. You can customize the number of login attempts as seen in this screenshot of the admin panel.



Without this plugin, Wordpress allows unlimited login entries, which makes it easier for hackers to discover passwords.

8. Akismet


Akismet is the most popular plugin to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. You can review each comment and approve/disapprove them before they are published. The plugin comes default with every Wordpress download. You will simply need to activate it and follow the instructions to retrieve and save your API key.

9. Contact Form 7


This plugin is simple and effective and gives users the opportunity to display a contact page without messing with any code. The forms are customizable and support CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.

10. Sharebar


Sharebar adds a customizable share box to the left side of a blog post. I like this box because it moves with you when you scroll down the post and it is easily recognizable. You can also remove the sharebar from individual posts as well. When Auto mode is set to ON, the Sharebars are added automatically.


A Few More…


There are a few more plugins I must add to the mix. Every marketer needs to track visitors and stats to improve and grow. Here are my two top picks for analytics and visitor tracking:

Google Analytics for Wordpress
WP-Click-Tracker


By: Jenna Scaglione
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