Adwords not converting.

[Dejay1788]

Hi all, hope things are going well.

We've dabbled with adwords in the past and didn't really get a ROI, but we've decided to give it another shot, however we're still not getting the results we would like.

We're getting about 40-50 clicks a day, on what we believe are good, targeted keywords, but we are seeing very few conversions from adwords.

I'm kind of stuck now between persevering with this, or just giving up with it. I don't want to waste £200+ a month on adwords but most of the guides I've read online seem to advise to stick with it for a few months.

I'm just looking for any suggestions really on how to get the most out of adwords, or whether to continue using it.

 

[fisicx]

If you are getting the clicks but not converting it suggests your landing page hasn't been optimised for the adwords visitor.

The ladning page needs to match the expectations promoted by the adverts: Buy Cheap Socks needs to land on page called Cheap socks for 99p. This landing page needs to list the salient points and finish with the converting actions. Remove all your distractions (including SM likes and offers to follow on twitter) and focus on the completing the sale.

It's no good just directing people to your normal pages - you need to create new pages built for adwords. Reember, these people already know what they want so you need to have a page that meets the specific needs of the adwords visitor.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I don't want to waste £200+ a month on adwords but most of the guides I've read online seem to advise to stick with it for a few months.

What % conversion rate do you need to achieve in order to break even?

How many clicks have you had? How many conversions?

Steve

 

[intelligentppc]

Have you downloaded my Adwords guide? It's free and it will probably help you out.

 

[Jason L]

most of the guides I've read online seem to advise to stick with it for a few months.

And when they say stick with it, you need to keep refining (both ads, keywords etc for click through - and landing page for conversion) until you find what works - and then maintain.

 

[leveldisc]

We're getting about 40-50 clicks a day, on what we believe are good, targeted keywords, but we are seeing very few conversions from adwords.

Have you checked the Search Terms reports under the Keywords tab ? This will tell you the searches are actually triggering your keywords. You may not be as targeted as you thought.

Are you targeting users at the right phase of the buying cycle ? Different landing pages for generic and product terms.

 

[Ad Republic]

Hi all, hope things are going well.

We've dabbled with adwords in the past and didn't really get a ROI, but we've decided to give it another shot, however we're still not getting the results we would like.

We're getting about 40-50 clicks a day, on what we believe are good, targeted keywords, but we are seeing very few conversions from adwords.

I'm kind of stuck now between persevering with this, or just giving up with it. I don't want to waste £200+ a month on adwords but most of the guides I've read online seem to advise to stick with it for a few months.

I'm just looking for any suggestions really on how to get the most out of adwords, or whether to continue using it.

What are you selling or what service/s do you provide?

 

[sherlock]

It's difficult to make any specific recommendations without seeing the account but given how competitive Adwords is, particularly around the products you sell, £200 per month is not a lot of money. Assuming your average basket value is pretty low (only a guess from looking at your site) you'll have to make a decent number of sales to make Adwords profitable.

Do you currently run an affiliate marketing campaign? If not, i would repurpose your current Adwords budget to start one. In my experience affiliate marketing is a far more cost-effective marketing channel for small ecommerce businesses than Adwords.

If you're determined to persevere with Adwords, try this:
Use modified broad match keywords for a month or so but be prepared not to make a profit in that first month.
After a month, run a detailed keyword report and identify the specific terms that have sent converting visitors to your site (assuming there will be some) and that have a low CPC.
Add the specific terms to your keyword lists in exact match and pause the modified broad match terms.

That should get you more clicks for your budget and the clicks should be more targeted and, therefore, more likely to convert.

 

[YouGavel]

I am also struggling with Adwords. I ve been reading so much trying to learn how to do this but still I find it extremely difficult to cope.

 

[Jason L]

I am also struggling with Adwords. I ve been reading so much trying to learn how to do this but still I find it extremely difficult to cope.

There are many variables with AdWords and things you can tweak. There are some useful points above. Plus consider:

1) AdWords is not right for every business. You need the margins to be able to get a return

2) I would not even consider doing AdWords until you have a good landing page – it’s easy to get clicks, it’s another thing to convert those clicks to sales

3) Consider negative keywords – look at your keyword report – are there keywords in there that you should not be bidding on. Make them negatives.

4) There are a number of AdWords strategies but if you are struggling, consider starting small i.e. run a limited number of ad groups, focus on relevancy (keywords, ad copy, landing page) and really drill into the results. Keep tweaking until you find what works (or at least satisfy yourself that AdWords is not right for your business)

5) Consider Bing Ads – clicks are normally cheaper although volume is considerably less - you'll probably have to go broader with your keywords to get any volume and for some products/services it may not be worth the time. Again, you have to experiment.

 

[leveldisc]

I am also struggling with Adwords. I ve been reading so much trying to learn how to do this but still I find it extremely difficult to cope.

Personally, I would always recommend a professional sets up an account and go through a couple of cycles of refinement to establish that an ROI on adwords spend is feasible. If you do this on a low budget to start with you can keep your ad costs down while the ROI is proved and then scale up.

 

[Karimbo]

even broad match keywords are suprisingly "on the mark", this is down to quality score and the fact that Adwords can work out which search terms are likely to get clicks from your broad match.

10 years ago, broad match keywords were ridiculously random, but these days around 60% of search terms from broad match keywords are pretty on point.

Conversion optimisation is crucial to running Adwords, Adwords clicks get more and more expensive each year so you really have to optimise your landing pages to capture those loads and promote your products effectively.

 

[Dejay1788]

What % conversion rate do you need to achieve in order to break even?

How many clicks have you had? How many conversions?

Steve

Hi Steve, we would need to make around 20 orders to break even, which would be about 5% conversion rate.

Have you downloaded my Adwords guide? It's free and it will probably help you out.

Yes, I've read quite a lot.

And when they say stick with it, you need to keep refining (both ads, keywords etc for click through - and landing page for conversion) until you find what works - and then maintain.

I have been, also adding to the negative keywords list.

Have you checked the Search Terms reports under the Keywords tab ? This will tell you the searches are actually triggering your keywords. You may not be as targeted as you thought.

Are you targeting users at the right phase of the buying cycle ? Different landing pages for generic and product terms.

No I will do this thank you.

What are you selling or what service/s do you provide?

Jewellery / Accessories.

It's difficult to make any specific recommendations without seeing the account but given how competitive Adwords is, particularly around the products you sell, £200 per month is not a lot of money. Assuming your average basket value is pretty low (only a guess from looking at your site) you'll have to make a decent number of sales to make Adwords profitable.

Do you currently run an affiliate marketing campaign? If not, i would repurpose your current Adwords budget to start one. In my experience affiliate marketing is a far more cost-effective marketing channel for small ecommerce businesses than Adwords.

If you're determined to persevere with Adwords, try this:
Use modified broad match keywords for a month or so but be prepared not to make a profit in that first month.
After a month, run a detailed keyword report and identify the specific terms that have sent converting visitors to your site (assuming there will be some) and that have a low CPC.
Add the specific terms to your keyword lists in exact match and pause the modified broad match terms.

That should get you more clicks for your budget and the clicks should be more targeted and, therefore, more likely to convert.

Thank you, I will look into affiliate marketing.

 

[Jason L]

we would need to make around 20 orders to break even, which would be about 5% conversion rate

How does this % compare to your other channels, e.g. conversion from organic traffic and referral traffic? 5% conversion is high for e-commerce unless you have a very unique/desirable product. Have you tried google shopping?

 

[fisicx]

5% conversion is high for e-commerce unless you have a very unique/desirable product.

Or if you have well optimised keywords > adwords > landing page chain.

Tests have shown that adwords can convert really well if the UX is good. Where most people fall down not is optimising the landing page. They have great keywords and adverts but hopeless product pages/checkout.

 

[Karimbo]

I disagree, for your typical online shopping stuff where there are an abundant of suppliers. It's tough going with the conversion rate. People are finicky and want to compare prices.

There lies the strength of sites like ebay & amazon, they can afford to pay for this traffic because they know even if they don't convert for that product, they have an entire universe of products they can cross sell. If you happen to already have an ebay & amazon account. Your past viewing history is cookied and they can sell you the stuff you were looking at before.

In short, amazon & ebay average customer value is far greater than a small indepdant retailer that specialises on one product.

I hated doing Adwords for ecommerce clients, the product margins were low, conversion low, bid prices high. For my last client I had to completely give up regular search ads and just do merchant center (google shopping ads) and just sniping on low bid keywords. I managed to get them OK sales after a serious amount of over optimisation.

Most google shopping entries are under optimised, appropriate keywords aren't used in product names. Negative keywords aren't utilised. People don't control their bids as much. I took a lot of time to craft all the product names and made sure I only listed products with good margins to get a good ROI

 

[Davek0974]

Have you downloaded my Adwords guide? It's free and it will probably help you out.

Where would this be found please?

 

[intelligentppc]

Where would this be found please?

Google 'intelligent ppc'

 

[miggygreene]

From time to time, you need to conduct split testing of your ads for you to find out if it is still converting, you also have to update your keywords by modifying their keyword match types, adding negative keywords or you can even have a keyword analysis. That way you would know, why your campaign/s are not converting.

 

[Davek0974]

Google 'intelligent ppc'

Done, thanks

 

[intelligentppc]

No problem, I hope you find it useful.

Mike

 

[Codefixer]

If your site is aged, then do you get conversions through the organic listings?
If you get relevant traffic through the organic listings yet these don't convert then it's not just a PPC issue, and you'll need to consider your site and products.