Google Adwords

[limessl]

Has anyone got any good experiences of using it? The costs frighten me half to death, lots of people clicking for the hell of it cos they don't care someone's paying for it!

Some of the CPC charges I am being faced with would be enough to wipe out any profit on a fair percentage of my sales!

I feel that it's probably a good solution for impulse purchase items, but where someone might go to your site, then to a competitor, then back to check your pricing again, then somewhere else, etc etc - you might pay for 5 clicks and then the person just goes to somewhere else because they're 10p cheaper!

 

[MASSEY]

That rarely happens but you do get a lot of random clicks its hard to gather why.

You need to get yourself google adwords for dummies that will help you

 

[Piqueperfumes]

Its the uncontrolled nature if the cost that frightens us. Our margins are so tight I just can't see it being a realistic proposition at least not if we want to sleep at night.

 

[genuinegraphics]

I've always used coupon codes for mine I used it once and then they kept sending me some. I hardly use it now (even though I need it) but that's because once it went over the limit and I got a huge bill on my bank account so I don't wana take the risk again.

But it did help a little though not much because most of them was random clicks. But if you are interested in spending a little money on advertising then let me know and I can mention you to one of my friends who has a onine directory.

I won't post up details on here but if you are interested then just PM me and i'll send you the details

Good Luck though.

 

[igorprotsenko]

I actually have the same experience, when people click in, go to competitor and buy the stuff that is 10p cheaper. That's why I started conversation "How do I track competitors" (topic id = 159701).

It might be better to check, who is 10p cheaper and play with your own price. Then AdWords money are not wasted, as people actually buy from you - you are now 10p cheaper.

The problem is to find a tool that will do all the work on monitoring competitor prices, and give you a buzz on 10p cheaper guys, so that you adjust your price.

 

[AndyP]

Posters....the one big message that is coming through here is a complete lack of understanding of how adwords works, how to set budgets, how to target niche keywords etc, all of which makes the huge difference between successful CPC campaigns and possible bankruptcy!

Take a huge step back, either read all you can or attend one of the many on and offline courses that are available, or pay an expert to do it for you if you have budget, and then approach it again with small targeted steps.

You will be surprised how successful targeting can be when compared to the fairly obvious splatter attack that I am pretty sure that you are all using (or not, because you ran out of budget very quickly indeed!).

 

[kayakcrazy]

Hi Ive used it for the last 6 months although im not a ecommerce seller im in a very competitive industry Logistics rough spend with Google 400- 500 per month the the good thing about this is that you can stop spend at any time but you have to be very careful need to watch it every couple days they are terrible our price per click started off cheap now it has gone through the roof.
Optimisation is the key, buzz words for your own product is essential you have to get the right words to draw the punters in think like a customer and you cant go wrong . There are other options out there but as of yet havnt tried any

Verdict Good initially then gets very expensive

Advice Look at all Avenues available

 

[igorprotsenko]

Well, I am actually using AdWords for a while, and not saying that it doesn't bring anything. But there is definitely more than just having good campaign... Even a good campaign will not help, if your product offer is expensive compared to competition.

 

[AndyP]

Well, I am actually using AdWords for a while, and not saying that it doesn't bring anything. But there is definitely more than just having good campaign... Even a good campaign will not help, if your product offer is expensive compared to competition.

Ummmm....well, yes, obviously. I am of course assuming that the product range is actually competitive. This is simply another example of what I said previously.

That said, you are completely wrong if you think that being the cheapest is the be all and end all. Yes, of course there will be buyers who simply look for the cheapest but equally there are as many buyers who are looking for good value, which emcompasses more than just the price. Consider customer service, return policies, good standing, and trust, trust, trust. You are asking people to part with money and, in their eyes, give you their personal and financial details. Trust is key.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Even a good campaign will not help, if your product offer is expensive compared to competition.

I worked with a guy on this forum who sells a product that's also sold by Amazon.

I just checked his main keyword. Amazon have the top ad, he has the 2nd.

Amazon sell for a few quid (approx 20%) cheaper than he does and have the credibility of being Amazon.

But he's doing fine with Adwords.

Care to explain that one?

Steve

 

[Jeff FV]

I must preface this post by stating that I am no expert, I have only dabbled in adwords, and do not use it because for our product/market the numbers don't (yet) stack up.

But isn't the whole beauty of adwords that it is perhaps the most measurable form of advertising?

On a simple level,

1. you take your conversion rate from your landing page from your ppc campaign. For sake of this example, lets say its 5%.
2. You work out the average spend of these 'converters' (e.g £100) and then calculate how much of this is profit to you (in this case we'll say £50)
3. Find out your cost per click (we'll say £1 for this example, to keep the numbers simple)

You now have enough data to do a quick analysis:

100 visitors to your site costs you £100 in clicks.

5% - or 5 - of those visitors convert & buy, spending £100 each, totalling £500, making you £250 profit (£50 on each £100)

So, you have spent £100 to make £250, so in this case the adwords campaign is working (you will still want to monitor & refine it).

However, if your conversion rate was only 1% in this example, your campaign would be losing you money.

Compare that £100 spend to an add in a magazine - how do you know how much business that ad has made you? Therein lies the beauty & power of adwords!

Jeff

 

[ukbf0001]

I used a Google Adwords consultanmt - they give you 30days free advice for the 30days from the day of your first PPC click.

Well I got traffic and was on page1, I spent £200 - and DID NOT get a single conversion. That is with having everything triple checked by a Google Adwords consultant, re niche markets, correct keywords etc. So whilst there maybe some kudos in getting an artificial No1 spot - take it from me - it does not guarantee you anything - other than to empty your account.

 

[AndyP]

I used a Google Adwords consultanmt - they give you 30days free advice for the 30days from the day of your first PPC click.

Well I got traffic and was on page1, I spent £200 - and DID NOT get a single conversion. That is with having everything triple checked by a Google Adwords consultant, re niche markets, correct keywords etc. So whilst there maybe some kudos in getting an artificial No1 spot - take it from me - it does not guarantee you anything - other than to empty your account.

Did you track this? If you had clicks then you had visitors. You don't, however, want visitors, you want buyers. Was the call to action a buying call or a browsing call? Is/Was your site tip top? Something was creating that barrier so you need to look at what that barrier was (or is) and address that issue. The campaign in itself works as you had the clicks, the issue is what stopped people buying from you. Address that first and foremost.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Jeff's post (#11 - top of this page) is 100% correct.

You're buying visitors and what you can afford to pay is based on how much £ you get back per visitor.

If you have a site that makes less per visitor than the other advertisers, you're going to be up against it.

Now some people walk away from PPC because of this. That's not the solution to the problem, that's avoiding the problem.

If you have a site that's making 50p per visitor and your competitors are making £1.50, then you're losing £1 per visitor... no matter where that visitor is coming from.

So, even if you use SEO - and you get 100 visitors a day - all you're doing is taking £150 of traffic and turning it into £50.

Not a good thing to be doing.

Steve

 

[limessl]

Some interesting viewpoints, and given I am in a marketplace where the product is completely generic I will leave adwords to one side until I have the tim to implement the "extras" that can differentiate the site from others who sell exactly the same thing.