Google Adwords ... Honest Opinions ??

[Hedgehog Toys]

Having just registered for Google Adwords, could you tell me if it works for you or do you use a different ad campaign.

What conversion rates do you get from Adwords ?

[DuaneJackson]

We use it to promote KashFlow, the income from paid-signups to date has covered our adwords spend.

[DavidHorn]

I used to use it ... for web design services it's difficult to track the conversion rate, but I got a lot of inquiries from it, some of which turned into good customers. I stopped using it when I got busy enough to sustain without it.

I hear good things, though, about the Overture version - which does the same thing, but feeds ads to MSN search engines (and Yahoo!). Apparently - and I've never used it - it gives greater flexibility, and good returns also.

David

[mattk]

It's a compromise I guess. Far more people will click on the natural search engine results, but if you cannot get your site ranked highly then AdWords is reasonable happy-medium.

[UK2004]

From what I've seen from talking to people and using google myself I think mattk hit nail on head best thing is get ranked highly on google, can't beat it for online marketing.

[Pebble Communications]

It depends on your business type really. It does work well for a lot of companies.

It works very well for my packaged fixed price service, but less well for my overall company, so now I only have a very tightly targetted campaign for one specific service.

[Hedgehog Toys]

It Works :D :D :D :D

I am seeing results from the Google Adwords already, i didn't think i would get any clicks never mind 82 in 2 days!!!

[Coding Monkey]

But how many of them are sales?

[Pilfo]

Exactly!

We've had 110 click throughs in 2 months, but not one sale :cry:

Pilfo

[Hedgehog Toys]

So far i have converted 2 of them to sales, not large ones mind you but sales all :P the same.

[JustOneUK]

So far i have converted 2 of them to sales, not large ones mind you but sales all :P the same.

that's a good start... did you get a general rise in traffic? a lot of people don't click the ads..they just type in the url..it can be a win win situation if you are careful.
You would never get your adverts onto most sites without spending a fortune. Regardless whether they are clicked or not...people are seeing your URL.

James

[Rob Holmes]

So far i have converted 2 of them to sales, not large ones mind you but sales all :P the same.

Hedgehog - good for you!

One thing that is important to remember is the customers Life Time Value

Although they only made a small purchase - if you look after them, keep in touch etc etc they may well buy again and again. It's a good figure to know and keep in the back of your head when doing adwords.

Rob

[DarrenC]

I've tried Google Adwords, and was impressed, but what I found was that I was spending a large amount of money on PPC, but not receiving the "sales" in return.

I put most of my efforts in SEO and even more on other forms of marketing - I never trust search engines anymore, and like to keep my eggs in many baskets :)

[JustOneUK]

I was spending a large amount of money on PPC, but not receiving the "sales" in return.

I put most of my efforts in SEO and even more on other forms of marketing

getting the traffic is not a guarantee of sales, that's where you have to build a site/page that converts better. Overly seo'ed pages do not necessarily convert well, also pricing is a factor. No point to get traffic to a page that is over priced.

not converting well is a definate sign of a problem, let's face it...they were interested when they clicked :?

[Toon]

I use Adwords for some of my smaller sites but I'm lucky that my main site is listed quite highly on the SERPs anyway. It's not ideal but it does get a few extra sales in. I tried Overture and was not happy at all with the results.

[mr.steve]

Adwords work really well... if you know how to use 'em right.

If you do, you can get some pretty cheap highly-qualified traffic.

And as Matrixx pointed out, you're not only getting a sale, you're getting a new customer, who will buy again if treated properly. Look upon the clicks as a way to build your business.

But make sure you are running the Adwords campaign properly, or Google will eat your credit card for dinner... :twisted:

Steve 8)

[SillyJokes]

It does work but you really need to watch that conversion rate and make sure after a month that you are making money.

Another good low cost thing to do Hedgehog is go around all the shopping directories and get yourself listed. (Don't pay however - You'll never get value for money). It is a very lengthy and boring task but it will result in some good links.

[Mwebb]

I too am considering google adwords for the launch of my site. However i am concerned about the lack of return i have been reading about. I am beginning to believe it may be a better strategy to spend the google budget with a company to work on my google rankings and build up the free traffic from google.

There a hundreds of these companies out there...any on the forum, or any good ones you know about....

I am at present a very small company, and "subcontracting" as many things out at present is a priority.

I know of a very good shopping directory that is very up and coming..it also has 7 million worldwide affiliates promoting your products for you. The details are in my signature if anyone is interested.

Thanks

Michael

[Pilfo]

We've made it to No. 2 in the BLUE BAR, using bidet as the keyword!! :D

Pilfo