HRoth - 10:11 pm on Jun 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

I had a problem like this with AdWords, because the prices on the phrases I thought were pertinent to my biz were too high on account of the competition. So I tried something different--a really, really tight focus in my ads.

I chose some products that I did not list well with in the results but where I knew darn well I had a superior widget. In terms of some of these widgets, there was a known issue, for instance, an ongoing discussion about their ingredients. So I tried to refer to these issues in the ad itself in order to demonstrate my familiarity with the widget's background. That showed customers that I was somewhat of an expert compared to the other merchants. Expertise makes a person seem more trustworthy also, I think.

Anyway, it is working. My clickthrough rate has gone up a LOT and the clickthroughs are producing sales--not huge, because these items appeal to a small group of folks, but sales nevertheless. I wish I had done this a long time ago, but I kept thinking that I should care about the same keywords that my competitors cared about, because weren't they the important ones? Right.

The other issue was the price competition thing. Most of my prices were like yours, in the middle. I was askeered to raise them higher. Then one day I was packing widgets and sighing with boredom and realized that I could make the same money from selling 15 fancypants widgets @$20/ea as from 150 just plain widgets @$2.00/ea. I might have fewer sales with the fancypants widgets, but the costs would be less not only overall but proportionally (fewer per/sale fees because of fewer sales). So I am moving in that direction, and it has been a good decision so far. Scary, but good. It is hard to have faith in yourself and to know that there are customers out there for your fancypants widgets. It feels like jumping off the edge of the world, and in a way, I guess it is.