Archive for March, 2009

The word “download” in ads triggers manual approval?

Monday, March 30th, 2009

I had noticed some weird “no impressions” effect a couple of weeks ago, but at the time I couldn’t pin it down to a specific word yet.

However, now I am pretty sure that using the word “download” in your Google ad can trigger their “manual approval” process. Here’s what happened:

This Saturday I added new ads to a series of ad groups, for testing new ad copy. When I checked the ads a couple of hours later, I noticed that some of the new ones hadn’t received any impressions yet (these are high volume ad groups, so that was weird).
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How to fight Software Piracy

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Common question, simple answer:

Just don’t.

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Posted in Shareware | 2 Comments »

Choosing the limitation of your trial edition

Friday, March 27th, 2009

One of the hardest things to decide on when releasing a trial edition of your software is the registration incentive, or in other words, the limitation of this trial edition.
But it is also a decision that may have a big impact on your downloads to sales conversion rate. So let’s look at it more closely.

First, here’s my thoughts of what a trial edition is and what it is for.
A trial edition is:

  • A marketing tool, designed to convert website visitors into customers.
  • An evaluation version, a way for prospects to try your software before they buy.
  • Not free software.

So, how does this impact the design of your trial edition?
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Posted in Shareware | 1 Comment »

Negative Keywords for software ads

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Are you using negative keywords in your Google ads? You probably are. But are you taking full advantage of this powerful way to cut costs and increase click through rates? I know I sure wasn’t. Of course I was using some obvious negative keywords like: free, freeware, crack and serial. But that was all.

Lately I have been investigating the use of negative keywords (again after listening to Perry’s interview with two dudes from Epiar.com). Currently, I have hundreds of negative keywords in each campaign. How I found them is another story, maybe I will write about that later.

Today I just want to give you a list of negative keywords specific to selling software. Simply add them to all your Adwords campaigns (and Yahoo Ads for that matter) and immediately save money and increase click through rates.
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Posted in Adwords | 2 Comments »

Still Struggling with the Content Network

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Let me tell you about my experience so far with Google’s Content Network.

Of course, when I started out with Adwords in 2002 I made the same mistake everyone makes: leaving the Content Network switched ON for all campaigns. Which got me lots of impressions of course, many clicks even, some (expensive) sales too.
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Posted in Adwords | 1 Comment »