adwords ppc

[Sure]

Hi,
I am planning an adwords campaign, but the more I read about ppc the harder it seems to be to set up. I have a few questions that I hope somebody could help me with.

firstly, I’m in a service industry and I only want to advertise locally, so on adwords I select towns within my area, (Essex area) does this mean for definite that somebody in Cornwall won’t see my ad and therefore it won’t cost me for a wasted click through?

secondly, in trying to make the ad more relevant for the searcher and therefore get better conversions on ppc, am I trying to make my ads too specific, i.e.; "abc boiler repairs", "def boiler repairs" etc rather than just generic "boiler repairs", do other people have dozens of ads for variations of what they do?

thirdly, I understand some people seem to have hundreds of key words for one ad, is it not better to "group" these words into smaller more manageable amounts and change the relevance of the add.

finally, further to the above, some of my keywords are going to cost more than others, but I only seem to be able to set one price, for example "abc boiler repairs" is going to cost less than a catch all "boiler repairs", how can I set different rates for what I consider more relevant to the ad.

Hope this all makes some kind of sense.
Nick

[i3SearchWorx]

Let's answer these in order:

1) If you geo-target your ads to Essex, then yes, people only in the Essex area will see the results.

2) Trial and testing is key to finding the right balance of keywords. 'Boiler Repairs' although generic, would only be visible to people within the Essex area, so this would be pretty targeted and if you provide boiler repairs for someone in the Essex area it would make sense to have this keyword in an ad group. Variety is key, so cover all angles.

3) Yes, it is recommended you group the words to make the advertisements more targeted. The more targeted the ad, the better - they also don't BURN on the pocket.

Hope this helps a little.

[TOMShop]

Let's answer these in order:

1) If you geo-target your ads to Essex, then yes, people only in the Essex area will see the results.



Sorry to go slightly off topic, but how does the above work?

Does it rely on the searcher having their local area set in Google? Is it partly based on the IP address of the searcher?

Surely the advert will not just be shown to people in Essex...

Many thanks

[i3SearchWorx]

Hi Tom,

If you are geographically targeting users in Essex, then Google will use the IP address of the searcher to determine that geographical area to determine whether or not to show your ad. If your IP is outside that geo area, no results will be shown.

[TOMShop]

Hi Tom,

If you are geographically targeting users in Essex, then Google will use the IP address of the searcher to determine that geographical area to determine whether or not to show your ad. If your IP is outside that geo area, no results will be shown.

Many thanks Jamie.

So I assume that if someone has AOL broadband (which could be an American based IP address) but lives in Essex, they will not see the ad.

[directmarketingadvice]

secondly, in trying to make the ad more relevant for the searcher and therefore get better conversions on ppc, am I trying to make my ads too specific, i.e.; "abc boiler repairs", "def boiler repairs" etc rather than just generic "boiler repairs", do other people have dozens of ads for variations of what they do?

Normally, you'd have an ad saying "abc boiler repairs" for people searching for things relating to "abc boiler repairs", an ad saying "def boiler repairs" for people searching for "def boiler repairs" and an ad saying "boiler repairs" for more general boiler repair stuff.

(and those ads would have different ad groups)

finally, further to the above, some of my keywords are going to cost more than others, but I only seem to be able to set one price, for example "abc boiler repairs" is going to cost less than a catch all "boiler repairs", how can I set different rates for what I consider more relevant to the ad.

You're able to set bids for individual keywords within an ad group. So, if you had 10 keywords, the 10 keywords can have different maximum bids.

You can do this by choosing a keyword within an ad group and clicking on it's "max CPC" (which will probably be greyed out, but that doesn't matter) and typing in a different value.

Steve

[i3SearchWorx]

Many thanks Jamie.

So I assume that if someone has AOL broadband (which could be an American based IP address) but lives in Essex, they will not see the ad.


Unfortunately Tom, using IP's as you have well pointed out is flawed. If you would like to read further into it, there's a good site here: http://blog.strangecorp.com/2009/04/geo-targeting-google-adwords/

The ISP's themselves would need to get involved to find the EXACT physical location of a machine, but there are other semantics involved.

[Sure]

Thanks guys, that makes things clearer, i was using matchmaker but i reckon i can get better results for a lot less money.

[Ali-v-8]

Bid on terms with the town in the phrase.
That way you wont lose out on landlords searching for service providers.

If landlord lives in london and is looking for boiler repair in your town geo targeting makes him miss the advert.

Or have i got this wrong steve.