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Patrysha
09-08-2010, 03:10 PM
I've got a credit that will expire soon for $100. Is that even enough to do anything with? I do have a publicity digital info product that I'm putting together and I think it would be good to use on that...

Any suggestions?

Good resources to learn how to use this well?

billbenson
09-08-2010, 03:52 PM
I assume you mean adwords. New Adwords campaigns take some time to build up. Kind of like natural SERPS for a new site. You frequently rank well for a short period of time and then get sandboxed to a degree. Money can put you on top though.

If you only have $100 to experiment with, you could use it to pay yourself to the top for a few clicks, use it for inexpensive key phrases that you may build into a long term campaign, test some terms.

To give you an idea, I am paying 25 cents a click on average for a very niche product. My ad campaign has been running for years though. I have never really tried to figure out $$/click. I just know that I get orders that easily cover the cost of the campaign. Actually dwarf the cost of the campaign.

Do you have any experience with AdWords?

Patrysha
09-08-2010, 04:06 PM
Nope, read about it, but never really played with it or delved very deeply into it...so all I've got is a general idea.

Harold Mansfield
09-08-2010, 07:11 PM
I'd do what Bill said...create an ad for a specific, competitive keyword that you want and run it at peak time and see if you can get at least 1 or 2 phone calls or contacts from it.
$100 is not a lot for Adwords (the bastards) and it's really not enough to "learn" anything with because you will just spread it thin and probably not see any results at all because you will be testing so many different avenues.
So basically, I'm suggesting (since it's free and expiring soon) to blow your wad on the best ad placement, for the best keyword, top placement, at peak traffic time (maybe spread it over 2 or 3 days at peak hours) and just blow it out..all or nothing...even at $2-$3 a click, I'd take a chance that I'd get at least one contact.

If you use it merely to distribute promotional products, that could turn into money later, or you could go straight for the money now and target new clients that need service right now.

If this were actual money out of your pocket, I'd make a whole different suggestion.

billbenson
09-08-2010, 09:31 PM
Then my next question would be is this something you want to just try quickly because you have the $100, or is it something you want to spend some time at if it appears it may be successful? Its a lot of work and very similar to strategies for natural SERPS, but you can see results much faster.

I really haven't worked on my campaign in a long time so things could have changed a bit. For each ad you have keywords, the ad and the landing page. They all have to be related. You want about 20 to 30 keywords per ad, a ton of ads with different keywords, and a landing page that targets your keywords and ad as well. If you know how to do redirects in htaccess have a landing page of domain/keyword.

I start out with a ton of keywords for the ad and pretty quickly whittle them down to ideally 20. You may want to play around with the maximum cpc on keywords that you think are good and google doesn't seem to like. If google doesn't like your keywords but you think they are good, delete them and write a different ad using them or use a different landing page or both.

There is another way you can use this than getting orders, contacts etc. Lets say you have a page that isn't performing well but you think it should. Write one or more ads pointing at that page and a bunch of keywords. Use a bunch of keywords independent of whether you really like them or not. It can tell you which keywords Google likes for that page. You can be surprised. You think you optimized a page for one keyphrase and Google likes it for something completely different.

Patrysha
09-09-2010, 12:43 AM
I was going to just try it quick for now. I don't have the time to learn something new at the moment and I don't quite have the cash to hire someone to do it for me...so limbo land for that particular avenue...for the moment at least. But I did figure that if I had it I might as well use it...

billbenson
09-09-2010, 01:06 AM
How much time do you have for the hundred bucks?

Patrysha
09-09-2010, 09:10 AM
Like an hour or two...

billbenson
09-09-2010, 01:47 PM
No, I mean until the opportunity to use it expires?

Harold Mansfield
09-09-2010, 02:25 PM
How much time do you have for the hundred bucks?


Like an hour or two...


No, I mean until the opportunity to use it expires?

THAT was funny! Borderline slapstick at it's best. Reminded me of Laurel and Hardy.

Patrysha
09-09-2010, 08:25 PM
oh...duh! It expires at the end of September...

billbenson
09-09-2010, 09:01 PM
Then I'd treat it as a complete learning experiment. Use it to drive traffic to a page that you want more traffic for. Write one ad as I described above with 50 keywords or so to both drive some targeted traffic and to give you a better idea of what G likes about that page. I'd say no more that a dollar a click depending on how much competition you have for the page. Start low and mess with it a bit when time permits until the $100 goes away. Ideally you walk away with more knowledge, more info, and some leads. PM me if you want some help writing an ad.

Patrysha
09-09-2010, 09:40 PM
How many synonyms can there be for Publicity? I'll be in touch...probably not until next week though. This trying to keep up with client work while working part time and trying to find time for fun stuff with the kids is exhausting!

Harold Mansfield
09-11-2010, 12:30 PM
How many synonyms can there be for Publicity? I'll be in touch...probably not until next week though. This trying to keep up with client work while working part time and trying to find time for fun stuff with the kids is exhausting!

Use the Google Keyword tool to get some idea:
https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none

Local Trifecta
09-22-2010, 06:51 PM
Just as a thought here ... I manage almost $250,000/90 days in PPC campaigns. The only reason I mention that is because most businesses under value how much PPC really has to offer. $100 in PPC is an absolutely gold mine ... it may not be enough if all you want to do is drive a massive amount of traffic in a short period of time. BUT ... if you want to verify/solidify your SEO strategy (using phrase match/exact match) or even find out the best keywords to optimize a site for PPC is incredible.

On top of that if you incorporate analytics and conversion tracking to your PPC that $100 will not only show you what phrases your customers respond to but even more importantly what phrases actually result in conversions.

To be dead honest user eborg9 couldnt be more wrong ... you can LEARN more than you will know what to do with for $100 simply based on impressions counts.

vangogh
09-22-2010, 07:55 PM
Great points. I think most people do undervalue what PPC can do and I often think it's because they only see they'd be spending $100 without a 100 percent guarantee they'd get that $100 back. People are too focused on the cost without anything thought to the return. Taking your example you could spend $100 to test different phrases. We'll be pessimistic and say only one phrase resulted in a conversion and you made $10 on what was a $1 bid on that phrase. The next month you can spend $100 on that phrase. You probably won't get a 10:1 return, but let's say you get a 2:1 and your $100 investment leads to $200 in profit.

At the same time you were spending $100 on the one phrase you spend another $100 to test a variety of other phrases and again find one or two that have great return so you bid on them more then next month and keep iterating over the same process.

Maybe in the first few months you don't even do as well as the above. Let's say the first 6 months you're losing close to all the $100 each month, but along the way you've gained a ton of valuable information so the next 6 months you make $100 instead of losing. At some point you cross the break even point and if you keep at it and keep learning from your data and adjusting your campaign you should continue to make more and more.

Harold Mansfield
09-22-2010, 09:54 PM
Just as a thought here ... I manage almost $250,000/90 days in PPC campaigns. The only reason I mention that is because most businesses under value how much PPC really has to offer. $100 in PPC is an absolutely gold mine ... it may not be enough if all you want to do is drive a massive amount of traffic in a short period of time. BUT ... if you want to verify/solidify your SEO strategy (using phrase match/exact match) or even find out the best keywords to optimize a site for PPC is incredible.

On top of that if you incorporate analytics and conversion tracking to your PPC that $100 will not only show you what phrases your customers respond to but even more importantly what phrases actually result in conversions.

To be dead honest user eborg9 couldnt be more wrong ... you can LEARN more than you will know what to do with for $100 simply based on impressions counts.

That makes sense for an experienced user, but I highly doubt that a first timer or novice will know how to gain that knowledge the first time out, nor will they even know how to set it up to learn it.

I can sit here and say that you can get a Wordpress site up and installed with all the most important plug ins, custom logo, syndicate your feed, Social Networking integration, start mailing list, and bookmark your first post in 40 minutes. It's true and it's possible. For me. Not for a new user.

I am sure that eventually an experienced Adwords user can do just that with $100, but I highly doubt that a noob learns all of the things that you just said, with their first and only $100 investment the very first time out.
And since this expires in a few days, what ever she does with it will need to be decided on and executed with a quickness.

Local Trifecta
09-22-2010, 10:49 PM
A good point eborg9 it does take a bit of know how to understand what to do, how to do it, and how to finally analyze the results. Most companies or newbies would/could spend $1,000's before realizing what went wrong.

I just wanted to ensure we weren't underestimating the value of PPC for analytics and conversion as opposed to strictly a traffic generator ... which it still does fairly well.

I suppose if anyone has questions on what to do I would be more than happy to help.

billbenson
09-23-2010, 12:05 AM
I'd love to pick your brain a bit if you are willing to do so. It would probably need to go at least in part to PM or email. I have a successful adwords campaign, but I haven't worked much on it in several years so my strategies may be outdated.

Canonical
10-09-2010, 07:22 PM
I've got a credit that will expire soon for $100. Is that even enough to do anything with? I do have a publicity digital info product that I'm putting together and I think it would be good to use on that...

Any suggestions?

Good resources to learn how to use this well?

If you have no experience w/ AdWords, I'd suggest you learn about it first... It's not simple to setup and optimize properly. Most who try AdWords without experience just blow through a bunch of money and end up with nothing to show for it.

Another thing... you need to be aware that when the $100 coupon is used up, Google will not automatically turn off your ads. So you'll start accumulating expenses which YOU are responsible for. I'd suggest that if you do use the $100 coupon, that you monitor clicks VERY closely. And once you start approaching $100 that you disable your ad campaign.

If you want to learn about AdWords, you can refer to their study guide for Google's AdWord certification program (https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs). Also Perry Marshall has written some great books about using "AdWords like Utlimate Guide to Google Adwords".