Little returns on my google Adwords clicks

[Swisaw]

On January 2k12 my google Adwords got over 200 clicks, which is an increase of over 70% over previous months. But I got only 4 bookings online from new customers. I think one or two of them said they found me on google search. This is a decrease of some thing around 30%. Before I was getting something around 15-20 bookings a month from new customers online.

 

[Preemo]

A lot of people I've spoken to don't rate Google AdWords highly. I worked for a local computer company on a 2 week work experience, he topped his AdWords up, had a really good website, got a lot of clicks but no unique customers - he has spent money advertising elsewhere.

No disrespect to your current website, as like you said you were getting bookings etc anyway, but have you considered a makeover of some sort?

Best of luck

 

[catsandcanines]

I stopped using adwords in January 2012. I was getting clicks and orders before, but during January it wasn't worth using adwords, as I was getting orders from other traffic.

I'm not in the same industry as you but it is fairly quiet out there at the moment.

I agree that a makeover of your site would be a good idea. You can get free websites. Try www.moonfruit.com or www.gbbo.co.uk

 

[GBoffices]

I have to agree with the others. Forget Adwords for now and somehow get yourself a web site where you can communicate your message(s) better. Please try to visualise as much as possible as people tend to speed read on the web otherwise you're just spending money on people who leave straight away.
There are plenty of young designers out there just starting out who need to build a portfolio. Pay them if you can, but adding some simple, but good design to your offering with do more for you at this stage. Best of luck

 

[Working First Aid]

Pre-bookings for your cross country super glider thingy? :|

 

[RoseRover]

I can't comment on Adwords in January this year but having looked at your site, I do think it needs a complete update if you want to convert any visitors into customers.

Also, for Adwords, you need to be very careful with what terms you advertise on - use specific terms and include negative terms. You can spend a fortune on clicks that will never buy.

Are you using Google places for a free local ad for your area?

Rose

 

[Moneyman]

That website is a total turn off. No wonder you cant convert clicks to sales.

dont waste money on google until you have spent a few quid setting up a decent one. If you need cheap you can do it for less than £50

 

[FirstAidTraining]

I have to agree with the others. Forget Adwords for now and somehow get yourself a web site where you can communicate your message(s) better. Please try to visualise as much as possible as people tend to speed read on the web otherwise you're just spending money on people who leave straight away.

I have to agree. On your website, there is an advert placed there by google for another removal company

 

[Preemo]

I could definitely give a website a go if you were interested, obviously it'd be much better for you to get it done professionally, but I think it could be interesting for me to give it a shot. I haven't got a portfolio or anything, but I'm good with HTML and CSS and could put a fairly decent one together - not trying to advertise my services, just offering some help!

Let me know if you're interested, best of luck

 

[Alfa Amore]

Very sorry and dont take it personally but your website is terrible - look at this way if you passed a shop window that looked like your site would you go in - probably not. your website is your shop window, spen a few pounds getting it right and if you are getting traffic to it then people will want to look inside. Sorry if this sounds harsh but you asked for advice and you must do something about it, yours is a business which suites internet, flyers and yellow pages advertising but if it looks like that you cannot expect business

 

[liongroup]

I have to agree with the others. Forget Adwords for now and somehow get yourself a web site where you can communicate your message(s) better.

Yes and no. I'd focus on communicating your message first i.e your website development. However, SEO and programs like Adwords will convert browsers into customers if targeted correctly. I guess Adwords is an entire topic in itself but learn more about it and you should see results.

 

[arcon5]

Try MS Adcenter, i've always had a reasonable conversation rate there. Never rated Adwords.

 

[Swisaw]

I don't think this has anything to do with my website. Those customers, looking for man and van, are only interested in one thing, which is a good competitive rate, nothing else. I also advertise in local papers, yellow pages and many other media. They all generated similar decreased response during Jan 2012. The 200 + clicks couldn't have been from real customers. Otherwise I should have at least increased telephone enquiry.
I have been advertising with google adwords for years. I always used to get similar number of bookings to the number of clicks until I also advertised on Facebook adwords like. The advert on the facebook supposed to be charged per click. But one week after I put the advert with facebook, I got a reminder that facebook would charge my credit card full daily budget x 7 days. I wrote to them reminding them that I advertised with them on the basis of charge per click. They didn’t respond. After one week more I got another reminder that I would be charged again full days budget x 7 day. Afte that I cancelled the advert. If I am not mistaken I think I couldn’t cancell it on the facebook, but I had to get a new credit card with a different number to stop them charging me any more.

What is interesting is that after my experience with facebook, I noticed number of clicks on my google adwords increased by two to three times but bookings and tellephone calls didn’t change. I was able to bear the cost as I was getting a fair numbe of bookings. But this January of 2k12, things went out of order. I got over 200 clicks. I have no doubt at least 150 of the clicks were illigitimate and fraud when I compare it with number of phone calls I got.

so who are responsible for these illigitimate clicks? I can put my finger on three suspects: 1- google competitors wanting to harm google image, 2- My competitors wanting to force me out of google, 3- Revenge of phone callers asking to sell advertising services that I refuse.



So what is the solution? It is easy. Legally google and others like google should be forced not to charge extra clicks after the first click from the same site for a period of one week. On the second week if the same site tried to click google should investigate the site as why it wants to click the same site again. This should eradicate this large scale fraud.

 

[Preemo]

I'm not denying the fact that when people want a man with a van, they're just interested in the service and price, however I feel if everything was set out more appropriately, if your prices were clear, and you had an attractive website, then more business could swing your way!

All the best

 

[Websitehandyman]

No denying Google Adwords can work out very expensive for some people.

Expensive because they don't understand it and so waste their money.

Expensive because it doesn't do what they think it does or would.

I think the are only really two types that win on Google Adwords (apart from Google themselves).

1. Impulse
2. Niche markets where the are little competition for you keywords

Mixed in their getting a sniff are people who really understand both their market and how to work Adwords but I would say that may only be 10% of the users.

Most people want to increase traffic and sell more and see Adwords as an easy solution. Well if you don't fit the bill it's not. The best way to to stretch out you budget over a long period using cheaper options and getting your brand in front of your profiles.

 

[SimplyWebsites]

I don't think this has anything to do with my website. Those customers, looking for man and van, are only interested in one thing, which is a good competitive rate, nothing else. I also advertise in local papers, yellow pages and many other media. They all generated similar decreased response during Jan 2012. The 200 + clicks couldn't have been from real customers. Otherwise I should have at least increased telephone enquiry.
I have been advertising with google adwords for years. I always used to get similar number of bookings to the number of clicks until I also advertised on Facebook adwords like. The advert on the facebook supposed to be charged per click. But one week after I put the advert with facebook, I got a reminder that facebook would charge my credit card full daily budget x 7 days. I wrote to them reminding them that I advertised with them on the basis of charge per click. They didn't respond. After one week more I got another reminder that I would be charged again full days budget x 7 day. Afte that I cancelled the advert. If I am not mistaken I think I couldn't cancell it on the facebook, but I had to get a new credit card with a different number to stop them charging me any more.

What is interesting is that after my experience with facebook, I noticed number of clicks on my google adwords increased by two to three times but bookings and tellephone calls didn't change. I was able to bear the cost as I was getting a fair numbe of bookings. But this January of 2k12, things went out of order. I got over 200 clicks. I have no doubt at least 150 of the clicks were illigitimate and fraud when I compare it with number of phone calls I got.

so who are responsible for these illigitimate clicks? I can put my finger on three suspects: 1- google competitors wanting to harm google image, 2- My competitors wanting to force me out of google, 3- Revenge of phone callers asking to sell advertising services that I refuse.



So what is the solution? It is easy. Legally google and others like google should be forced not to charge extra clicks after the first click from the same site for a period of one week. On the second week if the same site tried to click google should investigate the site as why it wants to click the same site again. This should eradicate this large scale fraud.

I strongly disagree with what you are saying about how it is nothing to do with your website.

These days the way your website looks can portray a lot about your business. People don't spend time on a website reading every word before they make a decision, often they will just take a glance and just by the way it looks will instantly make their decision whether to stay and read or simply bounce back.

Its not just about the design of the website, it also the way the content is presented for example you just have lines of keywords and personally I don't know where to start reading.

Your website and all of the others linked on your website just seem to be part of an SEO network full of tonnes of keywords and links to other sites. If you are a serious business why have so many links to other websites, especially competitors.

If you are serious about increasing your conversion rate then I think you should seriously consider having your website redesigned, it would be a great investment.

--

Also the regarding to the rest of what you said, getting a personal reply from Facebook is not very likely, and I don't beleive that there would be anything wrong with there advertising systems.

Also as far as I am aware Google do prevent people just clicking on ads multiple times, I'm not too sure about what they do on the Adwords side of things but I know they are very strict on it in terms of Paying Adsense Users.

 

[TommyGG]

It took me a while and a few hundred £ of experimenting to understand Adwords to a level where we can actually benefit from it. It's easy to dismiss it, and I did at first, but it's a potentially very valuable tool that you should spend some time learning how to use properly.

 

[FirstAidTraining]

I don't think this has anything to do with my website. Those customers, looking for man and van, are only interested in one thing, which is a good competitive rate, nothing else.

I disagree. People also get an 'impression' from the website, of who the operator is, and can they trust them with their items for removal or transport. Some of these items could be very expensive.
Your website is all over the place.
Ads for removal companies in California, some stock exchange tracking thing, a down loadable £10 document that apparently tells you how to stop your car if the brakes fail, a dedication to your wife, a translation service and the removals business.
To be honest, it gives the impression of a chancer - someone trying their hand at anything to make a few quid rather than a trustworthy reliable removals man.

What is worse I think, is the article on brake failure you are selling for £10, you state this has happened to you twice, in the very same van you want a customer to book you using, to transport their valuable possessions
Your translation service, when you consider the standard of english on the website, which is just terrible, is seriously misplaced.
I'm sorry but all this does not paint a very good impression of the service you are offering, which I'm sure is excellent value for money and a quality service.

My advice would be to do this:

Stop spending on ad words and use the money to:

* Update your website, making it clear clean and easy to follow. Even a static page with a query form and some decent seo would be better than what you have now.

* Spend some money on a copywriter - you will find some good ones on here.

* Tidy up the graphics on your van. I passed you a few days ago on Hermon Hill, and to be honest, it looks rough.

 

[Swisaw]

I have to admit that I need to improve my website. But still the extra fraud clicks have nothing to do with my website. I think most probably my case is similar to the case of a driver, who found dirt thrown onto his car. After a few minutes a group of teenagers with buckets of water came to him offering to clean his car. He knew they thrown the dirt on his car. He took buckets of water from them and poured them over their head.
Some one said google is very strict to prevent multiple clicks, which is not true. Today I clicked an Adwords of a London Removal company three times and I could have done it as many times as their daily budget allowed it. I will write to the company to refund the cost of the 3 clicks. If google is in control, let them to find out which was the Adwords and ask me why I clicked it more than once. This is a large scale fraud. Authorities like Office of Fair Trading should act to force google and others like google to prevent this large scale fraud.

 

[Morraine]

I have to admit that I need to improve my website. But still the extra fraud clicks have nothing to do with my website. I think most probably my case is similar to the case of a driver, who found dirt thrown onto his car. After a few minutes a group of teenagers with buckets of water came to him offering to clean his car. He knew they thrown the dirt on his car. He took buckets of water from them and poured them over their head.
Some one said google is very strict to prevent multiple clicks, which is not true. Today I clicked an Adwords of a London Removal company three times and I could have done it as many times as their daily budget allowed it. I will write to the company to refund the cost of the 3 clicks. If google is in control, let them to find out which was the Adwords and ask me why I clicked it more than once. This is a large scale fraud. Authorities like Office of Fair Trading should act to force google and others like google to prevent this large scale fraud.

Google will only count the first click trough per user in one session as a click. do you have access to their adwords account to see if your multiple clicks were actually registering as extra clicks????????
And to be honest im surprised you get any business at all with your website. Just spending a minimum of £100 would improve your chances by leaps and bounds.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Adwords can get people to your website, but it's your website that turns (or doesn't turn) those visitors into buyers/enquiries.

When I saw your website, I thought "WTF?".

You could set up a wordpress site with a free theme, write a simple sales message and do so much better.

Steve

 

[Swisaw]

Adwords can get people to your website, but it's your website that turns (or doesn't turn) those visitors into buyers/enquiries.

When I saw your website, I thought "WTF?".

You could set up a wordpress site with a free theme, write a simple sales message and do so much better.

Steve

I agree my website is not good enough. But the fact remains that I got clicks from people not looking to use my service but to increase my AdWords costs wilfully. Before I used to get around 20 clicks/month with around 50% returns, some times over 100%. But 200, clicks which is an crease of 1000%, on the quietest month, January, with only 2% returns can not be because of my website.

Out of these 200+, at least 150 of them were fraud. What do you say about that?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Out of these 200+, at least 150 of them were fraud. What do you say about that?

I think I'd say, how do you know they're fraud? Have you checked the IP addresses?

You said you got 4 bookings. Having seen the site, I'm far more inclined to believe 4 bookings from 200 legit clicks (2%), than 4 from 50 (8%).

Steve

 

[darren atkinson]

I agree my website is not good enough. But the fact remains that I got clicks from people not looking to use my service but to increase my AdWords costs wilfully. Before I used to get around 20 clicks/month with around 50% returns, some times over 100%. But 200, clicks which is an crease of 1000%, on the quietest month, January, with only 2% returns can not be because of my website.

Out of these 200+, at least 150 of them were fraud. What do you say about that?

You may be right but you may also be wrong.

Why don't you check your google analytics stats for Jan and look at the AdWords visitors, what is the new visit %? If it is low then yes, you probably have had a lot of fraudulent clicks however if it is high and at a similar level to previous months then you can rule out fraudulent clicks.

Also, I'd just add that Google AdWords is very sector dependent, for some areas it is better than others.

I run an account for a major online business that spends upwards of £10k per month and January is always the busiest month by far so it's not true that AdWords never performs in Jan, it all depends on your area.

 

[Swisaw]

You may be right but you may also be wrong.

Why don't you check your google analytics stats for Jan and look at the AdWords visitors, what is the new visit %? If it is low then yes, you probably have had a lot of fraudulent clicks however if it is high and at a similar level to previous months then you can rule out fraudulent clicks.

Also, I'd just add that Google AdWords is very sector dependent, for some areas it is better than others.

I run an account for a major online business that spends upwards of £10k per month and January is always the busiest month by far so it's not true that AdWords never performs in Jan, it all depends on your area.

Each click means a visit to the site. The 200+ click on my adwords for last month means 200+ visits to my site even if the visitors doesn't look at my site or closes his eyes and clicks.

I have been doing man and van for over 20 years. Every year at the end of September to the end of Jan business goes down and Jan is the quietest. This January was the worst although I was advertising in yell.com for the first time.

I am not new in Adwords. I have been advertising with Adwords for years. once I had three accounts. The 200+ clicks on last Jan came on two accounts.

 

[arcon5]

Each click means a visit to the site. The 200+ click on my adwords for last month means 200+ visits to my site even if the visitors doesn't look at my site or closes his eyes and clicks.

I have been doing man and van for over 20 years. Every year at the end of September to the end of Jan business goes down and Jan is the quietest. This January was the worst although I was advertising in yell.com for the first time.

I am not new in Adwords. I have been advertising with Adwords for years. once I had three accounts. The 200+ clicks on last Jan came on two accounts.

In my experience (and from what I read other other peoples experiences) yell won't help much. Expect a swanky and promising sales pitch then receive next to no customers or hits. I've read of people suckered into packages costing £000s to get nothing back

 

[Thinehost]

It just took a few minutes and I've put together a quick website using weebly.com - http://removallondon.weebly.com/ - it has just used your basic information (ok, probably much less) but it has a contact form for customers to get quotations, it has your phone numbers on the bottom of each page and it has a dummy testimonial from a fairly anonymous couple who might have used your service.

Think about your page and think about the potential of this one. Which service would you use to book a removal company??

Don't click on other folks adwords - you could end up getting your own account banned and quite rightly. This is fraudulent behaviour on your part. If your business depends on advertising on google for leads, you need to keep this account in good standing because google will ban you for life. Depend on it.

I amn't going to leave that demo site up for long - there are people here who make a living out of designing professional web sites and I don't want to tread on their toes. I just wanted you to see what could be accomplished and which would give your company a much better appearance to the general public.

M

 

[darren atkinson]

Each click means a visit to the site. The 200+ click on my adwords for last month means 200+ visits to my site even if the visitors doesn't look at my site or closes his eyes and clicks.

Yes it does mean you had 200 clicks, however you have been claiming that the clicks are fraudulent, if you checked Analytics for your AdWords visitors and it had a new visit % of say 85% then it would mean that 85% of the clicks (170) of them were generated from different people therefore very unlikely to be fraudulent.

If the new visit % was low then this would indicate that the same person (or few people) had been repeatedly clicking on your ad as you claim.

You should compare the metric to your historical performance from AdWords to get an accurate picture of activity, you generally find the new visit % goes down naturally with higher visitor numbers and bid prices but not too much.

It would only take a minute to check this stat and then you would pretty much know for sure without having to simply guess at the reasons for your poor month.

 

[FirstAidTraining]

It just took a few minutes and I've put together a quick website using weebly.com - http://removallondon.weebly.com/ - it has just used your basic information (ok, probably much less) but it has a contact form for customers to get quotations, it has your phone numbers on the bottom of each page and it has a dummy testimonial from a fairly anonymous couple who might have used your service.

It shows just how quick and easy it is to create a clean, crisp, clutter-free site, and I think he would be much better off with something like that, than what he already has.
With a couple of nice pictures and a bit more information, I would be far more inclined to send the query form from the site you've created above, than from the original.

 

[Websitehandyman]

What you also need to consider is the way you use advertising. Yes adwords will generate visits to your site (at a cost). But if your only aiming at those that click your ad then your missing at trick. Many many more people see and even read your add then ever click it. So you also need to provide something that sticks in their mind so some of those people trickle into your site when they next think of the service you supply.

For example "I need a van, now what was that site I saw ?" will they remember the name of your site or a phase in your add ?

Was the name also in the Ad text as well as the link ?

Does the text relate well to the domain name - for example "For vans in Luton" wouldn't relate to a site called A2ZvansDotco.uk but "A2Z Luton For Vans" would.

 

[Swisaw]

Yes it does mean you had 200 clicks, however you have been claiming that the clicks are fraudulent, if you checked Analytics for your AdWords visitors and it had a new visit % of say 85% then it would mean that 85% of the clicks (170) of them were generated from different people therefore very unlikely to be fraudulent.

If the new visit % was low then this would indicate that the same person (or few people) had been repeatedly clicking on your ad as you claim.

You should compare the metric to your historical performance from AdWords to get an accurate picture of activity, you generally find the new visit % goes down naturally with higher visitor numbers and bid prices but not too much.

It would only take a minute to check this stat and then you would pretty much know for sure without having to simply guess at the reasons for your poor month.

Many thanks. This was a great help. I didn't know the real job of analytics. I will check it for sure soon.

Many thanks again

 

[Swisaw]

It just took a few minutes and I've put together a quick website using weebly.com - http://removallondon.weebly.com/ - it has just used your basic information (ok, probably much less) but it has a contact form for customers to get quotations, it has your phone numbers on the bottom of each page and it has a dummy testimonial from a fairly anonymous couple who might have used your service.

Think about your page and think about the potential of this one. Which service would you use to book a removal company??

Don't click on other folks adwords - you could end up getting your own account banned and quite rightly. This is fraudulent behaviour on your part. If your business depends on advertising on google for leads, you need to keep this account in good standing because google will ban you for life. Depend on it.

I amn't going to leave that demo site up for long - there are people here who make a living out of designing professional web sites and I don't want to tread on their toes. I just wanted you to see what could be accomplished and which would give your company a much better appearance to the general public.

M

Many thanks for your design. I have saved them. I may contact you in future.

 

[Videoguy]

AdWords seems to be really going off the boil IMHO. You might get better results from advertising on Facebook. It's priced similarly, and you can really drill down to a narrow target audience so your clicks are less likely to be wasted.

 

[mobyme]

Yipes! I am amazed that you got a single booking ever from that site. Take up Preemo on his offer or give me proof of a decent donation to a Cancer charity and I'll fix you up.

 

[Ladybbird]

On January 2k12 my google Adwords got over 200 clicks, which is an increase of over 70% over previous months. But I got only 4 bookings online from new customers. I think one or two of them said they found me on google search. This is a decrease of some thing around 30%. Before I was getting something around 15-20 bookings a month from new customers online.

Sorry Swisaw but I agree with the others, your website needs a complete revamp and especially get rid of those annoying ads, which takes up more space than the service and explanation of what you are offering, the one showing ethnic photos will also deter some new clients.

Keep it informative and professional, with photos of a nice looking moving van and smiling staff with something humourous and a nice banner at the top with some "clicky" announcement, like "You Stress, We Take Action", or similar.

You cannot start advertising your service until you get your website right. Remember the first point of contact in any business can make or break it, and right now yours will falter. Sorry to be blunt, but thats the truth and Im only trying to help.

Good Luck.

 

[Ladybbird]

Thanks also to the other members for their advice on Google in here, I was thinking about whether to advertise with them or not, now you have just deterred me from doing so

Thanks again!

 

[Swisaw]

Yipes! I am amazed that you got a single booking ever from that site. Take up Preemo on his offer or give me proof of a decent donation to a Cancer charity and I'll fix you up.

I admit it is not a properly designed site. But whenever I advertise with a few paid London online advertising media, a reasonable number of people phone or fill my quotation form. If I compete the same way my competitors do I will convert each enquiry to a purchase. But I am not starving. My competitors go for as low as £10/h. I wouldn't go for less than £50/2hrs minimum charge for a driven van or £95/2hrs minimum charge for me, my van and a helper. My competitors with similar van and two helpers charge £80/2hrs.