Adwords cost & profit margins

[stef25]

I've struck a deal with a graphic designer who designs and makes his own t-shirts. The designs are really unique and would appeal to a lot of people. (I realize the market is huge and very competitive).

Each shirt will sell for 12EUR online on which we make 8EUR profit. I'm pessimistically guessing at a conversion rate of 1%, so one sale for every 100 hits.

Therefore I assume that it makes sense to spend up to 7EUR for a 100 clicks on Adwords. Is this a correct assumption?

Perhaps I'm using the wrong keywords in the Adwords traffic estimates tool, but it seems completely impossible to achieve 100 clicks for 7EUR / day. Keywords I'm using are all kinds of variations on "t-shirt" and competitor's names (threadless etc).

Are my figures / profit margings / adwords skills way off, am I looking at things the wrong way or is Adwords just not made for this kind business and these kind of numbers ?

EDIT: Sorry this should probably have been posted in Adwords. Mods, please move if you can.

[dpd1]

It probably works here too...

I think it depends a lot on the subject matter of the shirts. Are there designs that would appeal to a certain group or something... Or are they just generic... These are the things that determine what you should do. If there's subject matter that appeals to a certain group, you might not do well with AdWords at all. You might be better off promoting it in more direct ways to get the word out. In fact, I'm always for that no matter what, because I think, really... the only way blanket advertising works lots of times, is if people already know what they want. Then it's just a matter of searching for it. But if they don't know to search, they're never going to find you, no matter how much money you throw at it. And I would have to think that just putting out generic ads is going to be pretty bleak, because you're competing with huge companies that can out bid you easily. So maybe trying to find some more unique methods of promoting, would be your best bet... Something that gets the look of the merchandise out there.

[jecasc]

Problem is, that t-shirts are a very competetive market. Perhaps you should try to sell more than one t-shirt per conversion. Give a discount if someone buys 3.

Or better try to create a brand with you t-shirts. Get them in very good quality, see that the printing is high quality and then try to sell for $30 or $40 each. Not sell just some t-shirts with a unique design, but create a brand instead if the designs are very good and unique. Perhaps you can put something like a recurrent theme into the designs, so that you do not just have dozens of t-shirts with random designs but a recognizable brand. Select a nice brand name - perhaps something italian - italian is always good with clothes. Call them Giovanna Tuscani or whatever name you can find that sounds good and expensive and is not in use yet. Find a name that fits the designs.