Hi,

I've been using AdWords for about 2 months with my new site: Beanbagzilla.com. Since this is a new site/domain and I'm not ranking for any of my keywords yet, I don't really have a choice and must use PPC for almost all of my traffic.

My question is, should I just focus on one or two of the most popular keyword terms for my AdWord dollars, or should I try to cover as many search terms as possible? Let me give an example. My site is dedicated to selling a variety of bean bag chairs. The most popular keywords for this are: bean bags and bean bag chair. Should I just try to rank highest for those two keyword searches, or also have things like: cool furniture and dorm furniture? I do currently get clicks from the latter, but I'm worried that it's wasting money on people who are just curious and want pop in for a quick look.

On a side note, I just got my Analytics account setup and have been playing around with it, but I'm still having trouble figuring out where all of my buyers are coming from. However I do suspect they are from the more popular searches.

Any advise would be appreciated,
Sean
Beanbagzilla.com

I think when you go for PPC you have to focus only on the keywords which are as much specific to what you selling as possible.

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I would use a keyword lookup tool to find out which related keywords have the highest search count per day and per month. This way you can tailor your site to the keywords with the highest impact. Though, with this you risk taking longer to get search results because there is more competition.

The other option is to tailor your results to more keywords that get less results on an individual basis, but could provide you more traffic as a whole. This way you can work your way up to the major keywords.

The keyword lookup tool that I use is at iwebtool.com

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Sean,

its all about return on your advertising spend. You need to find the keywords that create the traffic with the highest propensity to spend.

To work that out make sure your have some tracking code on your ppc ads. Secondly, install some analytics code on your site.

After that, make sure you chop away at wasteful keyword searches using negative keywords. What your Google/Yahoo reports say they deliver and the actual keyword searches that turn up on the site are two different things. You can only spot this through an on site analytics programme.

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I would concentrate your budget on your main keywords under one campaign and set aside a small amount of your budget for a second campaign that you can prospect with. I have found some great keywords for my site this way with out wasting a lot of money in the progress. Not all of them have lots of clicks but the ROI on them makes them worth while. After I find a good one I move the keyword over to my main campaign and replace it with another prospect keyword and keep looking.

Good Luck!

With adwords you can bid as low as 5 cents on a keyword sometimes lower and see results. Check out the products the top spots are selling. If you sell the same ones then you have to compete not only at the top but with price. If yours are different and more popular you might be able to pay less in PPC and still get sales. The whole thing comes down to profit. Being at the top PPC'c can range 10-15% of sales, credit card processing, site hosting etc can cost as much as 7-10%. If you are doubling this leaves you 25-30% before taxes, payroll etc. Know your profit margines to determine what you want to pay. Most people try to get to the top by paying high PPC Yes you catch most of the sales in the top spots but having other keywords out there at lower PPC still creates links. Linking is part or your sites rating.

On my sites I try to be in the 4th position at the top of the side column for main keywords and pay 5 cents each for the others. You will see traffic from the 5 cent clicks and you will have more links out there. Good Luck.


www.davidmg.com

store.theweathervaneshop.com

store.whitehallgardens.com

store.fireplacedistributor.com

Does this approach apply for sites that have highly competitive keywords?

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Always test your PPC try to lower it. At 5 cent per PPC many times you will end up on page 2. Page 1 is ususally filled up with all the spam adsense pages or shopping malls anyways. You do get hits for extended or altered keywords. Try paying 6-7-8-9 or 10 cents PPC you will get hits and maintain higher profits. With 4 websites I can put the same product on each site with different titles and descriptions. I also have other sites like www.patiohomeandhearth.com
That I don't sell from I only use to refer to the other sites. I have one keyword that I have 17 natural of the top 25 all for the same product on different sites. Multiple links to your site helps. Smaller PPCs still create links. Mcdonalds is on every street in every city. You need nore sites with more links to make you more visible. Try it with the PPC's first, more keywords give you more links more links give you more hits. Lower PPC gives you more profit.

I'd certainly agree with what's been written so far and would stress that you're going to find it tough to get a decent ROI bidding on such general terms as 'cool furniture'. The only thing I might experiment with for a trial period would be to use exact or phrase matches on terms such as 'buy cool furniture online' and then ensure your ad contains 'bean bags' and possibly even a price range, e.g. "quality beans bags from $x.xx to $y.yy" to try and put off the curious but attract potential buyers.

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Adrian
Impact Media

I have campaigns where there are hundreds of keywords.

More often than not the most "obvious" are the worst way to spend your money.

Research and track, research and track, repeat.

PPC is not a "set it and forget it" thing.

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Thanks to all for the great advice.

Sounds like I need to get my Analytics goals setup so that I can see exactly which keywords are paying off. Until then, I may try the 5 cent trick for a few of the more vague search terms because I honestly think they are a waste of money at this point - at least for the amount I'm paying now.

Thanks again,
Sean

I absolutely agree with vision.
You maybe want to take a look at this tool and videos:
http://www.e409.com/recommends/keywordcompanion

I would agree that it's generally best to concentrate on a few keywords. But in order to find which keywords to concentrate on you may need to bid on a large selection so that you can pick out the high performing keywords to optimise.

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In my opinion, you need to choose a few high traffic keywords and test them for conversions. The most important metric is cost per conversion. The second in navigation analysis once the visitor hits your landing page.

The first metric tells you if you are making a profit.

The second metric tells you if the keyword is attracting the right type of people. Further it tells you if your site is compatible with the visitor profile.

Regards
David Tislini

Yeah tracking and measuring are your best methods for finding the right words to invest in... but when the smoke clears it will be the main words that best describe your product that will close the most for you... obviously as that is what the searcher is looking for....

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You Hit the Nail square on the Head suesheboy.
As more and more people bid on the same 1 and 2 word 'keywords/phrases' - the (decent ranking) cost per click goes up.

My suggestion: Try to think what your prospective customer would type in to google to find what they are after (I.E your product or service), but use at least 3/4/5 word phrases (costs less + more targeted buyers).

EXAMPLE: If I were looking for an ebook on google,
I wouldn't just type in 'ebook' (I know, I'd get millions of results - 84,400,000 to be exact).
Now, if i type in 'ebook about fly fishing'
(693,000 results), or what about 'ebook about fly fishing in france'(244,000 results).

Now if you were selling an ebook about fly fishing in france, which phrase would cost less per click and bring you a more targeted buyer ??

Well hopefully you can see what I'm getting at.