This is part two of a four part series on using Google's AdWords to GOTV and
more. Read part
one here.
If
0.25% of Kos' 400,000 readers (1,000 people!) spend $20 we can get 400,000
clicks! if we focus that on one or two places then it could have a serious
effect! Right now I'm getting about 500 clicks per day on Florida early voting
ads in democratic areas.
So how? First celebrate the Sox win then read below da fold...
First, for those of you who hate to read manuals first and love to just press buttons, go ahead and skip this. Google's AdWords is as simple as can be. The power is in how cheap it is to remind people to vote. So get started already! For the rest of us who want a running start, read on...
So now that you've read part
one let's get to making the ads.. start by choosing the New Campaign
button in AdWords.
- The first thing you do is setup the geographic area for the ad. Google lets
you target by country, state and/or city. For a GOTV campaign choose the
democratic areas of the battleground states. Do some online research for the
area you are targetting or hit some democrat IRC channels for advice.
- Now you make the ad. The ad cannot be negative in any way or Google
will cancel it. Try to make the title short and sweet. Be clear and honest, not
clever. People only spend barely a second scanning the page so it must jump out.
If the keywork the person searches on is also found in your ad, that word
will be bolded in your ad thus increasing your click through. So use search
keywords in your ad.
After you write the text for the ad (Google shows you how the ad looks as
you enter the text), you must put the URL to link to. If you are linking to a
URL with a weird name like "www.fatcatsforbush.com" then consider linking it to
a page on your personal web site that forwards to the real site. (But it can't be
an automatic link or Google will cancel the ad.)
- After you have the ad, you'll set the keywords. Be creative here, use
obvious keywords first that are found in your ad. Then choose keywords that
target your demographic. For example: For my voter registration drive I used
"voter, registration, relocation, moving, boxes, uhaul, parking permits,
maps..." the idea was to nail people who have recently moved.
- Now you set the maximum click-through price. Google will recommend some insane
number. The minimum is 5 cents. I always choose 7 cents. When Google displays an
ad the ads with a higher price get better positions. So by choosing 7 cents you
get put above the majority of people who choose the 5 cent minimum.
Here is the nice part, Google sets price in an auction manner. You
will only pay more than 5 cents if there are lots of others who have bid higher.
This almost never happens! 99% of all my ads run at the 5 cent minimum!!
li>Next you set the max daily price. This is your choice. Again, campaigns with
a higher daily rate get preferential placement. So I always price mine at $X.05
so I'm higher than most people who like to use whole numbers. Ex: $10.05,
$20.05, $3.05. When your ad buy reaches this level Google will stop serving your
ads for the day. Google isn't exact but will usually ennd up within a dollar of
the target.
- Now your ad is running! Click on the "negative keyword" link to ad
keywords that will ban your ad from running. For example, for my voter
registration drive I'll add the negative keyword "statistics" because I don't
want my ad to be shown by those researching voter stats. For my Florida early
voting campaign I used the negative keywords based on Republican subburbs so
people who typed "(rich conservative area) early voting location" didn't get my ad.
This is purely optional, but if have the time do it!
Right now I'm running Florida early voting ads and getting 500 clicks per
day. The clicks link to local voting locations. Not bad! I'm also running
registration drives in Wisconsin and Iowa, both with good results.
The nice part of GOTV is that people don't need to click on the ad for it
to be a success. Just by seeing the ad it reminds people to do their duty.
So we can get 1000 clicks for $50 but have 100,000 impressions. That's 100,000
people who were reminded to vote.
My plan is to flood the democratic areas of the battleground states with
voter reminder ads. Some will be normal and efficient. Some will be funny and
some shocking. Google doesn't allow this, but in my next update I'll share a
loophole you can use in Google's policy to do just that. :)
So open your own Google account. It's only $5 with no commitment and takes a
few minutes. Take a look around the system. You don't have to start a campaign
yet. But at least take a look at the system.
Part III will cover what not to do, tricks of the trade and ways
around Google's rules. I'll also give stats on my current campaigns. Part IV will
cover non-Google ads.. then maybe we'll coordinate a joint campaign somewhere.