CPC rate of return

[nealrm]

I started a CPC ad campagn, and I'm not really happy with the return. It's only bring in about 90 visitors a week. Is this normal for Google CPC advertising?

[vangogh]

Depends on the details. You have to be bidding on keywords and phrases that people actually use when searching. You have to bid high enough to have your ad show. You need a good quality score. You might need to alter some settings in your campaign.

In the end it's not really about how many visitors you get, but the ROI of the campaign. If those 90 visitors cost you $100 a week and results in profit on sales of $200 a week then your campaign is running well and you'd want to increase it. If your return is only $50 a week then it's not a good campaign and you either need to improve it or drop it.

[huggytree]

Ive done Google adwords campaigns 3 different times in 2 years....probably over $1,000 spent on clicks....1 customer for $150 was all i got...and that $150 wasnt profit..it was the whole job...ive given up completely on getting business through the web..i get 2 or 3 website jobs a year w/o Adwords...you need a website for people who know about you to find you....i think Adwords is a complete waste.

i find it worthless for my business..you will be paying for your competition to check you out.

i probably had 1,000+ clicks for that one customer....

[vangogh]

huggy it's possible you didn't set up your AdWord campaign well. There's more to it than just bidding on different words and phrases. I'm not suggesting you'd have to spend money on it again, but I do know it can work if done write. And it can work for most any business.

Some see the goal of AdWords as driving as much traffic to their site as possible. The goal is really to send targeted traffic. Sometimes that means writing ads in a way to weed out the people who aren't interested. Sometimes it means bidding less so you aren't the top ad.

[huggytree]

in the end i narrowed my ad down to just 'Plumber Milwaukee'....i hardly got any clicks

i was using words like 'water heater milwaukee'

i made sure the ad. that went with that keyword explained that i was a plumber and not a supplier....i did alot of different things....all failed...

that $1k was 2 mini winter vacations for the family wasted....how could anyone spend $1k and not see something better than what i did?...im not that bad....Adwords is.

[vangogh]

I certainly can't tell you didn't set it up well since I have no idea how the campaign was set up. Do you know if you set things to be broad match, phrase match, or exact match? The broad match will get the most clicks, but it's also the least targeted.

I do know AdWords works. If Dan finds his way into this thread he'll tell you how it's his biggest source of traffic and revenue. There are some simple things you can do to optimize your campaign so it costs less, gets more clicks, and sends better traffic. It could also be that the site isn't converting the incoming traffic as well as it could.

I won't tell you you have to jump back into AdWords. You seem to be doing pretty well without it. Just don't want you to get down on the web in general. I think online can work better for you than it has up till now.

[huggytree]

exact match.

id get 3-20 a day. .50 to $1 per click....this went on for almost a year in total ...like i said i tried it 3 different times...at one point i had over 50 keywords & phrases. ive tried this idea to death....im sure it works for some people...i dont think it works for the construction trades...People dont search for a electrician or plumber on the internet.... most people use word of mouth and price shoppers use the phone book.

[vangogh]

I disagree that it can't work. I found my electrician online. I agree though that more people will still find a plumber through word of mouth and the phone book.

The phone book part is changing though. More and more people are going online to search even for local info. Granted I'm a web person so I'm probably not the right sample, but I haven't opened a phone book in years.

Do you have a listing in Google Maps by the way. It's the Local Business Center (https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com% 2Flocal%2Fadd%2FbusinessCenter%3Fgl%3Dus%26hl%3Den-US&service=lbc&hl=en-US&gl=US). More and more for local search Google will bring up results from Business listed there. Your customers can then review you.

A couple months ago I needed an electrician. I searched on Google for my area and checked the site of one guy who was listed both in the Local Maps links as well as in the general results below. I had a few questions about hiring and his site answered all of them. I then checked the reviews he had with his Maps listing and previous customers answered even more questions. It all helped establish trust. I gave him a call, he did a great job, and now I have an electrician.

All the search engines have similar listings. Google lets you offer coupons if you want and create some free ads within the listing. Other site like Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/) can also give you some local online presence.

That might be where your business can better profit online. People are using local search and sites more. Maybe not quite to the level of the phone book, but you can probably pick up more business.

One more thing I forgot. With the AdWords did you use geotargeting so your ad would only show within a set miles from where you are or were the ads displaying in any location? Maybe if the ads were going everywhere that could have been bringing in untargeted traffic.

[Remipub]

I have to say (and I think I'm part of the growing population that does this), I almost exclusively use the internet to find services - regardless of what they are. The exceptions are: 1. I've already established a relationship with a provider and I'm happy with them, 2. I follow someone's recommendation, or 3. I happen to see an ad or get a mailer about a service right when I happen to need it.

If I was seeking a Realtor or a plumber, I can say with some certainty that the internet would be the first place I'd look (unless #3 from above occurs, in which case I'd still probably check the internet to compare). A good example - I got a mailer from Comcast promoting their business class internet service (I'm on Verizon DSL now), it looked interesting to me so I looked up Comcast online to learn all the details of their service. I haven't switched yet, but in all probability I will soon.

The internet can be a great tool, but I caution people not to rely solely on it - or any other single medium. Napolean won wars using a three pronged attack. The most effective way to earn new business is similar, using a multi pronged attack. It's all about synergy - all of the mediums working together out perform any of them individually in most cases.

[huggytree]

i didnt know about the geo targeting thing...i always put a city behind the keyword...so you got me on one thing!

i am on google maps

[vangogh]

Remi I'm like you. I head straight to the internet to find any information. Later I may seek out other sources, but a general search is almost always where it starts.

huggy if you put the city after the keyword that should have helped narrow the clickers down, but it's still possible you were getting lots of visits from people outside your service area. That could explain why not many people were contacting you.

You can pick your city (or maybe it would be a larger city near you) and specify that your ad should only show to people within 15 or 25 miles of that city. That still won't be perfect, but it will certainly keep your ads from showing to people in Los Angeles or Miami.

Do you ask people to review your services on Google Maps? Anytime you leave a customer happy you should probably ask them to leave a review. Maybe an email follow up with a link to where they can leave the review. Customer reviews can definitely increase the chances the next person will call.

[Dan Furman]

it can work if done write.


why do I find this funny? :)

[vangogh]

Me and my typos and unintentional puns. My brain thinks one word and my fingers type another. It fits though, doesn't it?

[Dan Furman]

in the end i narrowed my ad down to just 'Plumber Milwaukee'....i hardly got any clicks

i was using words like 'water heater milwaukee'

i made sure the ad. that went with that keyword explained that i was a plumber and not a supplier....i did alot of different things....all failed...

that $1k was 2 mini winter vacations for the family wasted....how could anyone spend $1k and not see something better than what i did?...im not that bad....Adwords is.

No, adwords is not bad. You didn't do it right. Sorry Huggy, but you didn't.

If you spent a grand on local clicks (I have such a hard time understanding how you spent a grand for the area you cover), and got nothing, well, it could be one of two reasons:

1) Your keywords / negative keywords / cost per click / area you serve / something else was set up wrong. Again - I find it next to impossible that you spent a grand in PPC's for your local area. Something was wrong for you to spend that much, even over a year's time. I almost guarantee you were advertising (and getting clicked on) by people who had no intention of hiring you (and forget the competition clicking you thing - it's so miniscule that it's not even worth discussing.)

2) Your site can't convert. I haven't seen your site in awhile, but if you got $1,000 worth of clicks and no business, I'd be concerned about that (unless, of course, the reason was #1 and the traffic wasn't qualified traffic).

Right now, there are ten ads when I type in "milwaukee plumber". TEN. My goodness, that's nothing.

[nealrm]

Huggy: Post a link to your site, we can take a look and see if somethere was preventing conversions.

Now back to the orginal question. How many vistors should I get per dollar. (FYI: Conversitions is not a good measurement for my site, vistors or pages viewed per visit works better.)

[vangogh]

Neal I think we'd need more info to know how many visitors is a good amount per dollar. Depends on the popularity of the keywords and the competition for those keywords. I think you do have to put some kind of metric on this beyond the visit. You should have some idea what a single visitor is worth to your business. How much does one visitor ultimately bring to your business in dollars and cents.

You also have to consider how valuable a particular keyword is. I guarantee I can deliver you a lot of traffic per dollar through AdWords, but that traffic might be entirely useless to your business. I'll keep bidding a nickel on obscure phrases. You'll get 20 visits per dollar. It might take years to get those 20 visits and none will lead to anything useful, but I can get you a good visitor/dollar rate. In fact I can get you most any rate you want. Divide 100 by what you bid and there's your rate of visitors/dollar.