How much do you have to spend?

[isharli]

I have a small budget and am trying to generate some traffic to my site.

When I do not use Adwords, I get very little traffic. When I do post my adds, I get decent traffic, but little conversion. I also end up seeing a big bump in traffic coming from non Google sources.

Is there a connection?

How much do I need to spend to see some serious activity on my site - which is in a very competitive field?

thanks in advance for your comments

[dburdon]

Isharli,

you are probably getting ppc traffic from the Google search and content networks as well as directly from Google. You have to uncheck the tick boxes within the Adwords campaign system if you just want Google traffic.

Print cartridges is a pretty competitive category. Make an estimate of what your competitors are spending. If you don't know how to do this take a look at Overture. The planning system it employs should give you a keyword by keyword estimate.

[isharli]

Thank you for your response. I did not understand this nuance and have probably wasted thousands of dollars. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment.

thanks

[dburdon]

Isharli,

I've developed a rule of thumb for managing Adwords campaigns.

Best quality traffic comes from Google only searches. Then from other search engines within their network. Then from the content network.

With regard to click fraud I also believe that the most comes from the content network and least from Google's own search engine.

1. Good quality and low fraud exposure = Google only
2. Average quality traffic and medium fraud exposure = Google search network
3. Poor quality traffic and high click fraud exposure = Content network

Now, you're operating on a limited budget, which approach would you choose?

[isharli]

Agreed ...I have switched.

Also, I have found that the default for keywords is "Advanced" - where Google generates matches for you that are not exact. Seems that I should first focus on exact matches, as I think I have been paying for extraneous keywords...what has your experience been.

thanks
Laura

[dburdon]

Isharli,

using the "advanced" function is ok as long as you incorporate negative keywords.

[hostlander]

You may also try "site targeted ads" instead of search ads.