AdWord Advice

thebassman · 03-17-2004, 07:27 PM

I'm going to be starting a Google AdWord PPC campaign here soon, and am just looking for some tips and advice when putting my ads together. Things to make sure I do versus things I should avoid doing?

I looked for a similar thread, and couldn't find one, so sorry if this is a repeat thread...

compar · 03-17-2004, 07:34 PM

Get a site first. You are really putting the cart in front of the horse.

Do some keyword research. Get a site designed and built. Get some good quality backlinks.

The when you actually have a presence on the net you can consider AdWords and other advanced marketing items.

RonHollingsworth · 03-17-2004, 08:06 PM

I somewhat disagree there compar. When I launch my e-commerce site I started off with adwords AND overture and saw an immediate impact. Had sales right from the get go.

compar · 03-17-2004, 08:34 PM

Yes, but you had a site. He doesn't even have a site yet. There would be nothing for the AdWord users to click through to.

What I said was get a site first. I agree with you there is nothing wrong with using AdWord as soon as a site is finished. It is a good way to get traffic until the site is picked up and indexed favorably. And if the conversion rate is good you/he may want to continue for ever using AdWords.

But he doesn't have a site yet. So what good are AdWord ads to him?

compar · 03-17-2004, 08:35 PM

BTW Ron, you can call me Bob.

thebassman · 03-17-2004, 08:49 PM

I wasn't planning on starting the AdWord campaign until after the site was up... just preparing for it's launch...

kkibak · 03-17-2004, 08:53 PM

To answer your question:

The most important thing I noticed is be specific.

For example, I don't want to target the word "knives"--especially when I'm paying for each and every click.

Think of how many things someone who searches for "knives" could be looking for. But when your keyword is throwing knives sale you know that someone is not only looking for throwing knives, but they are looking for a sale. Same goes for keywords like "Buy throwing knives" "buy maglites" "buy zippo lighter" etc

Even those, however, are broad compared to what I actually use (and have found to be successful).

Basically to some up my advice:

Since you are PAYING for each click, you have to be pretty sure the searcher WANTS to find your site when they enter your target keyword. No point in tricking them when your paying for their visit.

thebassman · 03-17-2004, 08:55 PM

Right, makes sense. So the more unique the keyphrases are, the better (so not to waste money vs. getting lots of click-throughs)... Does it matter if the description is filled with keywords, or just a general description of the site?

kkibak · 03-17-2004, 09:24 PM

Specific descriptions is best too IMO.

For example, my current stuff on overture is like this:

If I'm trying to sell Throwing Knives

Throwing Knives Sale = keyword

Title: Throwing Knives on Sale 30-40% off

YBD outdoors is having a special sale on throwing knives. All knives are 30-40% off of retail.

Don't say that if it's not true, otherwise you'll get clicks from people who are looking for stuff that REALLY is 30-40% off

compar · 03-17-2004, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebassman

Right, makes sense. So the more unique the keyphrases are, the better (so not to waste money vs. getting lots of click-throughs)... Does it matter if the description is filled with keywords, or just a general description of the site?

What description? Have you looked at an AdWord ad. They are very small. You only have room for a very limited number of words. What you do is you write half a dozen slight variations and then find our which ones work best.

cray · 03-18-2004, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kkibak

Specific descriptions is best too IMO.

For example, my current stuff on overture is like this:

If I'm trying to sell Throwing Knives

Throwing Knives Sale = keyword

Title: Throwing Knives on Sale 30-40% off

YBD outdoors is having a special sale on throwing knives. All knives are 30-40% off of retail.

Don't say that if it's not true, otherwise you'll get clicks from people who are looking for stuff that REALLY is 30-40% off

Don't think your allowed to repeat keywords you use in the title in the ad description....

cray · 03-18-2004, 01:35 AM

If you starting up an Adwords campaign it is worth paying attention to those keywords which nobody else is bidding on that will get you decent traffic for minimum cost per click. Have a good look around first and use the "" and [] to define exact phrase matches which you may find are still 0.05 per click as your competition is not targeting that word specifically.

Also pay attention to common misspellings of search phrases, you can pickup some great 0.05 clicks from misspellings as many of your competitors may fail to bid on these words giving you a free run to clean up.

kkibak · 03-19-2004, 04:56 PM

Yes you are cray, or atleast you used to be able to (when I was setting my stuff up)

UKZJ007 · 03-19-2004, 05:07 PM

How much would you spend on an average adwords campaign for a month lets say (this isnt against TOS to say is it?!)

BTW .. I have to agree with bob ... thebassman is rushing things too quickly.

thebassman · 03-20-2004, 08:06 PM

Well, my site's almost done, and regardless if I'm rushing things by trying to set up my AdWords so they're ready to go when my site is, I've been taking a look at how I'm going to go about doing it. I'm not going to start with a huge budget... I'm not in a really competitive market, so my keyphrases are not really all that saturated (yet). A lot of them I can get @ $.08/click.

Is it better to target more keyphrases with lower rankings, or to target a couple keyphrases with a higher per click cost?

Also, some of my keywords so a forcast ranking of 0. Why is this? I mean, the phrase's are not frequently searched phrases obviously... could that be the only reason? Take a look at the first word in the picture... it shows a ranking of 0.0... does that maybe mean my bid is so damn low that I will not get an adword for the keyphrase or something?
Thanks in advance for your help.