AdWords-My Nightmarish Week

[mikeh]

I decided to try adwords to promote my site this past week. Two things have already happened to me so far. One, I went below the CTR (Click Through Rate) after I thought I had solid keywords which turned out not to be true. Since then I corrected this problem and my CTR is in a comfort zone. Finally, today I got a message saying my url is bad which I thought was interesting because my hosting site has never been down according to the monitoring reports I receive. Therefore, I a made a slight adjustment and will see what transpires in the next couple of days. I'm beginning to wonder if my online business is worth saving trying to get everything where it needs to be.

[kplatt]

mikeh:
I feel your pain. I went through the same thing a few weeks ago. I decided to try Adwords since we got a promotional offer for $55. First we went below the CTR, I corrected the problem and deleted the ads that were pulling the percentage down. Then we were temporarily pulled due to multiple use of words etc. After about 2 weeks of playing with everything, I think that we're back on track. However, I think that the CTR is still being calculated using the ads that we deleted. I have found this to be frustrating since part of our solution was to delete those that weren't performing but their extremely low CTR are still being used to calculate the overall campaign CTR. At least I think so. I don't have any words of wisdom but I wanted you to know that you're definitely not alone in your frustration. Best of Luck.

[terrecom]

I found Google Adwords program very difficult-for all the reasons mentioned by other participants here. My company, Terrecom, a B2B marketplace, has used Overture's pay-per-click program with about 80 keywords for about two years. We are getting good traffic-60 to 80 clickthroughs a day and are spending about $300 per month-averaging about $.16 per click. The backend is very easy to work with compared to Google. End result is that we no longer use Google and are devoting all our $ to using Overture. Perhaps I will do some more research on the use of Google and try it again sometime--but Overture seems to work much better in promoting our marketplace.

[kjohnson5576]

$0.16 per Click?? That's great. Obviously not a very competitive field? When I did Overture, which I plan to do again after the holidays, I was burning through $200+ a day and I wasn't even top ranked in most of my keywords. Most of the top ranked sites were paying close to $1.00 per click. I was satisfied with a 6 or 7 ranking for the mid $0.60's. For the remainder of the holiday season, I switched totally to AdWords so I could figure a set budget ($180 a day). I have to say, both paid off in sales and profitability, but at the rate I was chewing through cash at Overture without a daily cap, I just got real nervous. Their reminders to "you need to place at least 3 days worth of estimated ad cost" was just frightening and their recommendation of placing at least One Months worth of Advertising in your account would have destroyed my cash flow.

Anyway, Overture works, but it's like being tied to the end of the bungee cord as you jump off a bridge, frightening, but it can save your life (business).

[WebMetro]

Google and Overture are two different beasts and it takes time to tame them both.

AdWords takes a little more patience because each campaign I run for my clients acts a little differently. With Overture you can just add hundreds of keywords and tweak it everyone and awhile. But with Google you need to make individual banners for each keyword and not clump everything together under one banner.

Make multiple banners for each keyword and see which ones get the best click-thru rate and lowest CPC.

Most importantly, set up backend tracking. I don't hear anyone talking about backend conversions. Just because your Google traffic costs more, and seems to go through money quicker, that doesn't mean it doesn't yield a better ROI than Overture.

I once read that only 15% of people who buy PPC search engine ads, actually track all the way to sales.

And once more, which words convert better, which search engines? Which words sell the highest margin products, which words convert better at 10PM compared to 10AM? Which words should be in position #1, #2, and #3, and what time of day should I be in those positions?????
If you don't know the answers to these questions, then you need a better tracking solution and you are just wasting money in Google and Overture.

[AussieWebmaster]

There is a definite need to track your keywords. There are numerous programs out there to use. I like KeywordMax but there are plenty of others.
It helps you to know which words are working for you.
Sometimes you are surprised by what is working and which do not.

[krishmandal]

My site, Fine Art Photo Gifts, (www.fineartphotogifts.com), was designed from the beginning to be search engine friendly (perhaps it's less so now with the javascripts in the homepage).

Just started with Adwords. I put in a whole bunch of keywords, and right from the beginning had to delete a bunch of them because they were "at risk" immediately. Then I deleted some more. Then today, I'm being told that "Fine Arts" is at risk, so I deleted it.

How is it that "Fine Arts" is at risk when it appears in my title, in my description, and all throughout the homepage in measured quantities? Simply because people aren't clicking on the ad? That hardly makes any sense if you're a new site.

How are people going to click on you if you never get the exposure on the page when Google just decides, to hell with you, you're not paying enough.

I'm beginning to get a taste of hate for Google.

[TheOne]

I agree with WebMetro, backend tracking is important. I do it because I don't trust what Google and Overture tell me and because I happen to a software engineer.

It is not easy and very time consuming, but I have discovered that Google converts to sales 3 times more than Overture. So I know, for me, money spent with Google is better spent than in Overture.

Of course this may all change after Yahoo switches from Google to Overture? ... I'll keep watching.

[LYP]

I tried to use Google AdWords several times with the same result for my website. I have an affiliate program on my site and use it to track all purchases made from all advertising I do. Each time I set up all of my ads with AdWords, and put in all of the keywords for each, they deactivated all of them because they could see it was an affiliate account (Called "Adwords") and they said I wasn't stating I was an affiliate of the site. The account was under the name of my site, the credit card was under the name of my site, and the affiliate link was under their name. After trying to reach them for weeks without anything other than an automated email telling me to look at their help section I gave up completely.

Google has an ego the will hopefully put them where they belong and their adsense targeting is utterly useless. The fact they thing you should pay the same as a search inclusion for their "NONsense" targeted adsense results should be enough to tell everyone to stay away from that type of greed. I've actually been having tremendous luck with the old ppc banner advertising compared to google. FindWhat is also another good avenue for any marketer looking at their ROI.

Good luck

[awesomebuys]

Obviously I got in on this discussion a little late. I have tried both Adwords and Overture and have not been pleased with either one. I realize now that part of it could be my fault because I did not tract which words converted better, what time or what position. Since I did not generate any legimate sales from either company I don't guess it matters. I did however, receive $12,000+ in sales from fraudulent credit cards. The bad part is that I thought I was making legimate sales so I kept adding money every 3 days to Overture when they asked me to.
Could some one please explain how the conversion works? I see it listed on Google and Overture but does that just mean someone logged into my site or did they make a purchase?
Thank for the information.
Sherry
www.awesomebuys.com

[kjohnson5576]

Sherry, in order to track conversions, you have to place a bit of code on the page that your customers land on after completing a sale. Set up a Thank You Page on your site and direct traffic to it after they purchased. With the code both Google and Overture supply, you should be able to see conversion rates.

[thomask]

Here are some helpful tutorials and resources to get started and beter understand AdWords http://www.adwordstips.com/archives/cat_just_starting.html
I found this Google guide very helpful
http://www.adwordstips.com/archives/000055.html

[awesomebuys]

Here are some helpful tutorials and resources to get started and beter understand AdWords http://www.adwordstips.com/archives/cat_just_starting.html
I found this Google guide very helpful
http://www.adwordstips.com/archives/000055.html

Thank you for your help. I appreciate the link and advise.
Sherry
awesomebuys.com

[krishmandal]

Just thought I'd add another 2 cents.

I am definitely hating Google now. I can't see how anyone is making money with it. See my post about "Don't understand Google at all" in this same forum.

[galkin]

Although you can find lots of free resources and tutorials on how Google adWords works, I highly recommend Cris Carpenter's Google Cash System (http://shmyl.com/fyv
), he teaches step by step with examples from his campaings.

[galkin]

It will be better if I post the right URL, sorry!
UGoogle Cash System (http://hop.clickbank.net/?galkin2004/googlecash)
Galkin