Since doing the PPC experiments I have had a lot of people asking me for help with there campaigns. Just sticking with the ringtone theme I see the same mistake time and time again.
1) People are using International targeting and not limiting to country specific – Hello?!? This seems so obvious but so overlooked.
2) People choose eye catching keywords like mp3, sex, hot chicks, myspace. While these will generate clicks they generally do not convert at all.
3) Adwords – Googles adwords network (ask.com and other spam search results) generally convert horribly. Just stick to Google Search on adwords and venture out from there.
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Shoe,
Have you used 7search? Their interface is kinda lacking, but I’ve got a decent conversion ratio. It converts about 3% less than AdWords, but the clicks are less than half price.
I agree I use Miva and I tend to get terrible results. They take broad match to an extreme by including you in any search remotely related to your keywords and they don’t allow you to discriminate against the content networks either.
YO Shoe, I asked you some stuff. The blog post is a no brainer.
Anyway, I’m up to about 200% ROI now from Google alone. Overture doesn’t convert at all. However, it does do a little in terms of Adsense arbitrage, but that’s my little secret.
Only problem is, in Google, I spend like $5 a day, and make like $10-$20 a day, depending on the day. I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
I dont think you will take over the world because that is exactly what i was about to do. and im no dummie, im German Oo
Well, shoe…I have to say that you gave me some good impressions and i had an really really good idea ;o) and this idea works (converts) really, really WELL. so i have to say THX man
“2) People choose eye catching keywords like mp3, sex, hot chicks, myspace. While these will generate clicks they generally do not convert at all.”
Duh. Why don’t people realize that web surfers looking for “sex”, “hot chicks”, “myspace”, “free” etc, arn’t going to covert!!?? Ah well, I guess dummies make it easier for me to take over the world….;)
Content Bids are generally crap for anything product/eCommerce related but can outperform search in many membership/subscription/community based sites. Generally I’d say stay away from content, but don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.
Hey shoe, do you use content bids in adwords at al or are they crap?
The long tail is the way to go but it also takes time to refine and know what works. General tips won’t help unless you actually know your demographics. I manage a multi-million spend in insurance/financial industry and each engine requires different strategies.
We have tried Kanoodle and some others but generally find them to be junky. SOME parts of their network are ok (like MSNBC, etc), but the problem is so much other junk is mixed in that you end up having a far higher cost per acquisition and also the insecurity of not knowing whether you are going to be screwed one day or the next.
Also, different engines require different bidding strategies. Google rewards you for bidding higher and staying there in the beginning with a targeted ad for high clickthrough rate and the end result is your price will go down over time. If you start too low you get into the “spiral of death” and never are able to place high enough at a decent price to see any results.
Currently Yahoo/Overture works on a pure bidding system where you can find good deals and lower cost inventory. They don’t have as much traffic and you need to be a bit more careful of fraud on expensive/high volume terms, but you can find good converting traffic and slightly different demographics.
Just testing MSN. Not as much traffic but likely good deals to be had.
AS Shoe says, general words don’t convert as well as focused. The same goes for your landing pages and creatives. If someone types in a very specific keyword, sees a very specific ad, and then sees a very specific appeal to them in the landing page, you are far more likely to grab their attention and pull them all the way through to the result you are looking for then if you had generic descriptions and landing pages.
Michael @ SEOG
Yes there are many alternate PPC networks out there but they are EXTREMELY high risk. Unless you are an expert AND have money to burn, stick with the big three. Findwhat, kanoodle, looksmart, 7search, quepasa, momma, and dozens of others mostly share the same networks. These networks are mostly made up of publishers who have been booted from GOOG, YHOO etc. Otherwise they would still be there earning 10x the EPC.
Yes! There is some good traffic in there but you can burn through a lot of cash to find it. They will all give you a song and dance about how great their network is, how they have really ‘cleaned it up’ lately, how cheap the clicks are, blah blah blah. But at the end of the day the best thing they can do for you is increase your alexa ranking and lighten your wallet…
Shoe is the man, but is new to PPC and I am sure will get burned by more than a few of these networks. But hey, he has the bank roll and smarts to find the good in there. So unless you have a brain as big as Shoe and the bank roll to back it up, stick with MSN, YHOO and GOOG until you are really ready.
Nah SM that’s ok i’ll understand that fully. My missing part was just your conversion rate so i can do some research how to do it the best and have a number to calculate how to setup a campaign exactly! =)
I have never had luck on ADWORDS — Can’t even get traffic and I pay usually around $2.50 per click. I get like 6 clicks a day and lose money. I wish I could get some traffic….my keyword list is big and I set my budget big. I just don’t get many impressions or clickthroughs…..
From my experience….any other PPC engine besides the top 3 are money pits. Fraud runs wild..up to 85% ..
on AdWords with just search I have seen up to 30% but its not common…
I would say across the board I am about 8-9% for the last 3 months average.
I can’t give away to much =P then it would not be fair for the contestants of our upcoming SEM contest =)
Ken,
Don’t forget about 7search.com as well.
C’mon dude ! Don’t wan’t you to tell me exactly how to do it =) Just want some numbers! Is a 2% conversion rate ok, good, bad ?
And what is your rate approx. ?
Can somone answer this for me. Is it possible for someone to start in the PPC world and make $100 profit per week? $200 week?
I’ve read that it takes a longtime to get profitable if you’re small and not spending much per day.
I’m thinking ahead now to Christmas and maybe ppc will help me pay for presents this year rather than work 80 hour weeks all december to pay for it. Thx for any help.
hrrm,
and how is your conversion rate so far? I’m just roughly 2%. Getting about 200 clicks a day and earning about 30-50% of the outcome.
Hey Shoe,
You should really do an article about masking affiliate links. I’ve encountered link hijacking in the past and it would help a lot of your readers.
Google, Yahoo, MSN. Who else is there?
How big is your keyword list? Depending on how many keywords you are targeting, 10-20 clicks per keyword would amount to alot of clicks per day. Same goes with ad groups.
Peter-
I use 8 different ppc engines. Don’t restrict yourself to just Google.
com’mon dude! reveal your secrets. we all wan’t to see you naked
Ok,
these are good tips, but how do you archieve enough clicks to sell about 600 ringtones a day like you said?
Do you write 3000 ads on google with about 3000 campaigns or what?
If i write specific ads and let’s say i’ll pay $0.35 max per click, then i have about 10-20 clicks per campaign a day over google with all the restrictions metioned above. So how you get enough clicks to convert 600 ringtones a day man ? Oo