Google Adwords

[tony84]

I have just been given a £50 voucher thing, so i thought i would give it a go as ive been thinking about it for a couple of weeks.

So, i have set it up - about 15 terms in total, some were out of my budget as theyre taken by the likes of go compare, money supermarket etc.

However when playing around with it i could say put a bid ot £2 and i would be in the right hand side about 4th place, if i hit refresh i would drop to 5th. So i thought maybe we both have £2 in so i increased it £2.20 (just to test my theory) i was still in 4th or 5th position. I then increased it to £6 and then £10 (again just to mess about) and i was still in 4th or 5th place.

This happened across pretty much all of the terms i entered. I couldnt get to 1st, 2nd or 3rd as i only set a £10 budget a day so the most i could enter as an amount was £10 - which is fine, if i have to spend more to get top spot then im happy to leave it for now until i get more used to it.

But im just curious as to how if i enter £2-10 i still end up in the same position and how even that isnt set in stone at 4th OR 5th as i doubt very much they were increasing it like i was doing.

Sorry for babbling on, i could probably have asked that question in 1 or 2 sentences.

 

[Esk247]

As with anything Google it doesn't just matter how 'much' you pay per click but also the quality of the click to the end user.

Have you checked the quality score of the relevant advert? you need to be aiming 4/5 upwards (very small margins)

Also, how are you checking your position? hopefully within adwords itself using the preview tool?

 

[tony84]

I noticed the score quality after i posted this thread.

They vary between 3 and 4, it looks like i might need to create different ads for mortgages and insurance then...thats me trying to be lazy

I checked it by going to google and putting in the search terms...is that not the best way to do it?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

don't search for your own terms it will not help you at all, in fact it could do the opposite.

Click through rate (CTR) is crucial. e.g

you bid £1 per click
I bid 51p per click

you get a CTR of 1:100
I get a CTR of 2:100

My add appears above yours as it is more relevant and google make more money on it as they make £1.02 per 100 impressions on my ad as opposed to £1 per 100 on yours.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Like everything with google you won't be told all the ins and outs.

I have found out that time might be a factor. For example your ads may not show well for a few days but they might slowly move up the rotation (if the is one) and even the cheapest can be severed at a decent rate. In Dec I'm averaging 100 clicks for less then a £5.00, sure some are waste but google refund for most those.

 

[tony84]

Every day is a school day

Cheers for that. That makes sense.

So what i need to do is take my ads off and then hit refresh... (Im only joking, you dont need to answer that really )

 

[Deleted member 66528]

Also bare in mind that if you are ranking on page one organically Adwords may be a very low percentage of your visits. We have very low traffic on our website compared with many other businesses but we do get a small amount of business from it with us being in a very specific market place.

A simple example from our visits this month with an Adwords campaign:-

Out of 879 unique visits in the past 30 days only 11 have been from Adwords.

Still worth it in my book as out £50 has lasted me nearly three months now and 11 extra visits per month is still extra visits (although not sure if we would still have got these 11 even if we had not had a sponsored link???)

 

[tony84]

Im on page 2 organically for one of the terms.

Well, yesterday i spent £11, had 4 hits and no leads . I had a clickthrough rate between 0% and 2.41% but it averaged out at 1.25%

I have no idea if this is good or not.

But if nothing else it has made me realise how important SEO is. The term im on page 2 for organically had 89 impressions yesterday (between 9am-7pm).

 

[Business News]

Im on page 2 organically for one of the terms.

Well, yesterday i spent £11, had 4 hits and no leads . I had a clickthrough rate between 0% and 2.41% but it averaged out at 1.25%

I have no idea if this is good or not.

But if nothing else it has made me realise how important SEO is. The term im on page 2 for organically had 89 impressions yesterday (between 9am-7pm).

It really does depend what you are offering or selling as to whether google adwords will give you a good or particularly bad return. If you have an ad that is very specific in what is on offer and in geography then you will find that you get a good return from clicks as you are exactly what people are looking for. Otherwise you'll burn through that £50 in no time with no result.

I have tried three websites on google ads:

One is for my business which has a tight geographical area for the range and costs me about £10/month and represents great value. I get lots more leads now then I ever did from a £2k YP ad and £1K of rag ads spend a year in the dark expensive past. My advertising spend is down by over 95% with great results. Thank you google.

One site I have is for my own B&B accomodation that I only run in season. Because this runs on a nationwide setting there are loads of hits and I'll easily spend £100/month. The booking rate from clicks is very low (2 - 3%) so this only just covers the cost but as the B&B is the wifes hobby I happily carry the advertising costs.

My third venture is web retailing of a commodity material. I ran a google ad for only 10 days last year (pulled it becuase it was too popular) and spent over £100 with not one buyer. So this shows you can get a mad rush to your site but if the product/pricing isn't in must have or in bargain territory you'll be taken to the cleaners in a short space of time with no bookings or orders to show for it.

 

[tony84]

Well, ive got this £50 to have a go at. I spent £11-12 yesterday.

Today i have reduced the prices down so hopefully ill get the same number of hits but spend less. Just 1 sale is cost effective and atleast i can say i gave it a try

 

[Deleted member 66528]

Don't get bogged down with impressions & hits to your website, the only statistic you want to take any notice of is unique visitors. Once you have enough unique visitors lookIng at your site the ONLY statistic you need is conversion rate

 

[accounting-help]

Don't get bogged down with impressions & hits to your website, the only statistic you want to take any notice of is unique visitors. Once you have enough unique visitors lookIng at your site the ONLY statistic you need is conversion rate

Good point. Do you need to had £10 credited to your Adwords accountant before being able to use a Adwords voucher?

 

[tony84]

no, i just put the code in i was given and i have £50 credit on there. Ive not paid anything out yet.

 

[sirethegreat]

Hi

It is important to take a look at the score that is given, just because you pay much for a "click" it dosent mean that the quality of the "click" sums up to what you have paid for it.