Text Link Tweaks

"Creative tests on portals have shown that text-link copywriting tweaks you might consider inconsequential can have profound impact on clicks and click-value. The team has also learned to vary their copy every day on portal pages that get heavy repeat visitors. A line that works well one day may not catch attention when repeat visitors see it for the second day in a row."

The above quote is from a Marketing Sherpa report on Buycostumes.com. The article is titled: "How to Make Millions in Eretail Sales During a Short Window of Opportunity: 5 Tactics".

The above quote confirms the advice of several search engine marketing gurus. I have read similar things before. The experts agree that a tiny tweak can make a surprisingly large difference in the performance of a text ad.

This conclusion is based on testing. For you to be truly successful as an affiliate marketer you need to do your own testing. No matter what you write, from little Google Ads to text-link ads on your site, you should be testing.

Adwords will actually let you create multiple ads for the same group of search terms. Right next to your current ad there is a link that says, "Create new Text Ad". If you create a second ad, Google will split your impressions between the two and, I am fairly certain, start using the better one of the two all on its own.

You should also test on your own site. If you have a fairly steady flow of traffic it should be easy to test things. If they provide the links, choose two that you think will be successful. If you make your own links, make two. Use one for a week (or for a set number of impressions, like 500 or 1,000) and then switch. May the best link win. If you have a lot of traffic you could do like Buycostumes.com and switch ads every day. The ad with the highest click-through rate is probably the best.

Of course, the paragraph I quoted also brings up the fact that if you have a lot of repeat visitors (and frequently updated content sites most likely will), you should probably change up your ads from time to time. People may be interested in them on day 1, but after that they'll probably start ignoring them. You want your visitors to be saying, "Ooh, what's this new attraction?! I shall click it!"