Question
Should have done this a long time ago but didn't....boohoo for me.
I now have my first adwords campaign running and have gone back and adjusted and added to my keywords. I have also upped my max bid from 25 to 35 cents. What stats are good when you start comparing impressions with click through rates? click through rates to conversions (orders)? I realize there are an ocean of answers here but I'd like to get some vague idea of what others experience to what I am seeing.
Thanks in advance for the conversation and any tips!
Happy Holidays to you all!
Dee
Answer
I'll give you my thoughts as soon as I catch up and catch my breath.
Mike
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Thanks Mike:
I have gotten about 8K impressions in a week don't know if that is good or bad and then there is the issue of CTR which is about .5%. I believe after this short time I have seen one conversion.
I need to set up the conversion tracking on Adwords -- just realized that it exists....darn those sneeky tabs anyway.
Dee
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OK here's a few thoughts. My CTR on 5 websites is 4-5%. As for conversion it's 2.1% for this month so far. I have had 7,600 impressions and 313 clicks. Your CTR figures need improving. I will give you some examples of good and bad. I sell cobalt glassware. I do not use "cobalt" in adwords. The closest I come to that is "cobalt glassware". Mostly I use very specific words such as "cobalt plates", "cobalt goblets" ect ect. Now one thing to consider is misspellings. For example I use "cobolt" as one of mine and these are usually very cheap. Another example is "jewelry" which is misspelled many different ways.
The idea with Adwords is to get quality clicks. With the number of impressions you are getting I would guess your keywords are too general, you need to use more specific keywords. Another thing is look at your wording in your ad. Try different wording.
I have used the banner ads (content network) but have kept them turned off because I get a ton of impressions and a lot of clicks too but very few conversions.
One thing I did for about a year was to track my keywords very closely in the organic search results. If I got on page one in the organic results I would not use them in my Adwords campaign. I only use Adwords now for my weaker keywords.
Have you looked at Adsense to off-set some of your Adwords expense? My Adsense more than covers my Adwords.
Good Luck
Mike
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Thanks Mike. Last things first, yes, in fact it was when I added Adsense to one of my websites that promotes a monthly event and does not sell anything that made me sign up for Adwords. Once I started seeing some income with Adsense I figured why not.
I've found that a lot of my click throughs are coming from keywords that are close competitors store names. I added them a couple of days ago and think that is where my one sale came from.
I'm not sure if I've given this enough time but I am seeing the trend.
How much is it worth to just get the name out there.
I've had 9000+ impressions so far with a decent position ranking.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Dee
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Mike this is my seventh day. I mostly used phases not just single words. Here is a look at the stats. Sorry I did miss quote on the 9K.
Keyword Status [?] Current Bid
Max CPC Clicks Impr. CTR Avg. CPC Cost Avg. Pos
Search Total Enabled Default $0.35 [edit] 32 3,327 0.9% $0.18 $5.62 3.3
Content Total [?] Enabled 15 4,503 0.3% $0.11 $1.54 2.4
Right now it appears won't cover a month; however, I need to up the content and that is easy to do. The site simply was not designed as an advertising tool for anything other than keeping folks up-to-date on a recurring event.
Content is on and has more impressions but half the click through rate.
Yes, I agree my ad wording needs work. I used the entire third line to say 'Purchase Now for Christmas Delivery' and that is probably a bad choice but I remembered something about always having a call to action in your ads.
Thanks much.
Dee
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Yes call "to action" is good. It looks like your CTR is improving (.9). I tweaked on my Adwords for months till I was satisfied. It requires almost daily thought for a while then it sorta settles out to the point you are happy with what you are getting. All my sites are retail goods. I have in the past "paused" my campaigns on the weekends. My impressions and sales dropped on the weekends. My thought on this was a lot of kids were out of school and using their parents computers so at times I just "pause" the ones that kids like to click on.
Answer
Well that is an interesting thought regarding pausing during the weekend for the kid factor. Never once thought of that.
What I did do was go in and tweak the ad not the keywords as they were pretty good phases to begin with -- or so I think today. I had left the ad text more open -- your looking for X, we have it, and we have yzq too.
Now the add is very specific. You are looking for X and we have X1, X2, - X99. Here is what happened to the rates for yesterday -- made the change in the PM:
Campaign #1 Active $1.65 / day 9 799 1.1% $0.22 $1.95
and today:
Campaign #1 Active $1.65 / day 4 190 2.1% $0.27 $1.06
I didn't get signed on to analytics before they shut it down. Had to fill out a "we'll notify you form" but can't wait to get to start looking at that data.
Thanks for your help. Your a wizard.
Dee
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Be real careful tweaking your ads because Google is real picky about the ads. They have "paused" several of mine. Not a big deal just go in and fix them and they will resume.
I see your CTR is improving nicely. When I started Adwords I spent a lot of time tweaking and looking at my competitors ads. It's a ongoing thing for a while. I monitored my budget a lot also but once my Adsense started paying nicely I don't worry about the budget.
Mike
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Mike I have a question for you. I have a low limit on my account -- how much I will spend each day. Invariably I reach my budget cap by late afternoon each day.
That means my ads stop displaying for the day doesn't it?
So to cover the evening which is most likely where I'd get more views and more sales I need to double the amount I spend on a daily basis? Is that correct?
I already have two sales directly attributed to this ad which were worth about $224 and have spent about $16 on ads. Much better ratio than ebay.
Oh, since I changed the text of the add here are my new stats. They seem to be much better.
Ad Group Name Status Default Bid
Max CPC Clicks Impr. CTR Avg. CPC Cost Avg. Pos
Ad Group Active $0.35 9 274 3.2% $0.22 $1.97 3.2