Why are adwords so expensive

[baron13]

Hello,
I'm new to adwords and I entered some niche keywords from my business. But google will charge up to $10 for 1 click and the will only send 15 clicks average!
Is this normal? I would never pay $150 to receive only 15 visitors/day!

How can I get cheap clicks and more visitors with adwords?

Thanks in advance for help!

[Robino]

Are you referring to the Adwords' estimates for traffic and max CPC?

Those etimates are nonsense! You should enter a max CPC that you're comfortable paying and then see how many clicks you get.

Also, spend some time to learn the different matching options Adwords has (Especially negative matching).

[2oddSox]

Hi Baron13,

If you're new to AdWords, this thread [webmasterworld.com] might help. Biggles made a good find not so long back as you'll see in the thread.

2odd...

[baron13]

Thanks for the replies and the nice pdf file! :)
Would that mean that I can enter a maximum cpc (for example $0.40) and it doesn't matter that google shows only 1.5 clicks/day? Will I get more clicks although google shows only 1.5 clicks/day?

[Robino]

Yes, don't pay attention to their estimates at all. There have been times where I've lowered my max CPC and they estimated two times the amount of clicks.

[eWhisper]

Figure out the ROI you want, how much that will cost per bid, and then start with that figure as all your bids until you get the hang of the AdWords system.

If you can sit in the last position for $0.05/click and only get 100 clicks a day, you've only spent $5, compared to paying $10 for 1 click and your budget being done for the day.

In some arenas, people can afford to pay $10/click due to the ROI they are receiving, in others, its much lower - find what your company can afford and then optimize your info, don't worry about what your competition is doing - just be aware of it.

[Sowe]

Yes, the estimation tool doesn't work at all. I've had campaigns where the tool estimated 12 clicks per day while in fact I got more than 130. And this will work in the other direction as well ;-)

[contrast compare]

Adwords is really cheap. Go look up how much it costs to do a full page ad in a small circulation magazine, and then tell me if $10 is a lot for a potential customer that is _already_ looking for what you are selling.

We are in the golden age of internet marketing, as soon as the big boys move in, they will drive the prices up on clicks so high it will cost the same as traditional marketing (radio, tv, print, etc.) Enjoy the next 12-18 months.

[edited by: skibum at 4:34 am (utc) on Jan. 16, 2004]

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Yes, the estimation tool doesn't work at all. I've had campaigns where the tool estimated 12 clicks per day while in fact I got more than 130. And this will work in the other direction as well ;-)

I'd like to ad a quick $0.02 worth on the above subject, if I may.

IMO, the estimate of the number of clicks that you will receive from the Traffic Estimator will not be particularly accurate.

The reason for this is that the number of clicks that you get is almost entirely dependent on factors that our database can never know. These factors are:

* How well written is your ad?
* How well targeted is your ad to the keyword?

Here's an example. I've just gone to Google and created and ad targeted to all languages and all countries. (No kidding, I really did.) I inserted the keyword 'cat food' into the system and got an estimate of 80 clicks per day. Realistic? Accurate?

Well that depends. Let's say I write the following ad for the keyword 'cat food'. 80 clicks? NO WAY!

Really Great Dog Food
Natural and organic dog
treats for all breeds. Cheap!
www.dogfooddeals.com

How about maybe 2 clicks from people wondering how I could be so foolish, who just want to see my site for the heck of it. Perhaps they want to see if the site is as bad as the ad.

See what I mean?

If you show an unrelated ad, you won't get many clicks.

If you show a highly related and well written ad, then, well, different story.

(BTW, don't look for the ad above on Google. I paused it!)

:)

AWA

[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 1:50 am (utc) on Jan. 16, 2004]

[eWhisper]

$10 for a customer is very expensive if you only make $1 on the sale.

In many areas, the 'big boys', have already moved in - and good sites can compete with them.

[Sowe]

Written by AWA:
See what I mean?

No, I'm sorry, I don't see it.
Well, if an advertiser BUYS the keyword "cat food" I assume he/she knows that he/she should try to sell "cat food" via this keyword, and not "dog food"! This is the basic understanding of running every campaign, it makes no difference whether this will be online or offline. If one company makes a tv spot and shows sweet cats eating delicious "cat food" and the commercial tries to sell "dog food" its pretty obvious that this advertising will fail. Targeting your audience is a pretty basic and every tutorial of adwords, overture, or bought ones like googleadwords or Perry Marshalls tutorials have this in their basics.
I can only speak for my own, I'm targeting my ads as much as I can to the keywords, or vice versa ;-). I basically assume most advertisers will do this, cause adwords is really expensive comapared to other methods of traffic generating like free listings or cloaking or something.
In my beginning I took a deep look into the estimation tool and raised my bid to get a good amount of clicks, but the tool fails every single time! Whats frustating even more is that it mostly don't come even close to the real numbers I got.
In most cases I achived a lot more than the estimated amount (btw, I have an average CTR of only 2-3%). And that's just what I wanna tell. If you're new to adwords don't raise the max bid due to the estimation tool to achive more clicks, the tool dont give an amount you can count on. I don't even look at this tool anymore, it makes no sense.

[ThatAdamGuy]

From AWA:
(BTW, don't look for the [pet food] ad above on Google. I paused it!)

Don't you mean you PAWS'd it? :D
And I guess it really is a cat eat dog (food) world after all!

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

[Sowe]

Does my last post sound a little bit harsh? I don't know, it's hard to think at the moment. Well if so I'm pretty sorry, that wasn't my intention. I was very tired last nite and I have the flu, so I'm not in a good mood. My appologize.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Don't you mean you PAWS'd it? :D
And I guess it really is a cat eat dog (food) world after all!

You are too funny, ThatAdamGuy. Glad you didn't resist. ;)

Does my last post sound a little bit harsh?

Not to me, Sowe. No worries, believe me.

I may sometimes get carried away with my examples, thinking "Oh, boy! Another chance to be clever". This may have been one of those.

It was intentionally 'over the top' in order to make the point that Targeting Matters. (And the related point that the Traffic Estimator can't evaluate your targeting when it arrives at an estimate.)

I will say, though, that in the past year and a half with Ad Words, I have seen literally thousands of advertisers who did not understand the concept of targeting keywords to ads - at least early on. And it is such a key concept that I tend to evangelize it a bit. (I actually have a real passion for helping advertisers succeed. It is such a kick to see it happen.)

Anyway, thanks. ;)

AWA

[SlyOldDog]

Targeting your audience is a pretty basic and every tutorial of adwords

Here is a better example. We made an ad up for Offshore Company Formation and we were bidding on the word Offshore and getting awful results.

One day we got an email from an irate fishing company asking why we were bidding rediculous amounts of money to appear for Offshore Fishing! We were pricing him out of the market.

Needless to say, the -ve keyword was added promptly :)

AWA - you can site my example any time so long as you link to my site from the Google home page. Deal :)?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

AWA - you can site my example any time so long as you link to my site from the Google home page. Deal :)?

Sure, no problem with that, SlyOldDog! Just send along the URL.

Hey wait, why is that huge burly person approaching my cube looking really upset? Hey! Give me back my badge...

AWA

[loke]

Actually, you could have gotten a lot of clicks on the cat food campaign. Many elderly people buy cheap eat cat food in order to save a buck or two. They might just as well order dog food. Good thing you paused the ad.

[anallawalla]

I think this AWA is an imposter from the opposition. He had me rushing to Adwords to see how I can pause a creative. Just I was about to suspend his creative for being misleading...

As for the OP, you will find after a while that your niche might have some dirt cheap keywords that your competition has not yet found. And you will see some of your cheap terms suddenly getting edged out by high bids either from newbies or from non-competitors who share your terms.

Slyolddog, I too was looking at "offshore companies" for a past SEO client (not for PPC) so I smiled at your example as it's a perfect example of being crowded out by a non-competitor.

Ash

[cline]

baron13, you may have noticed that it takes some expertise to get good at setting up Adwords accounts that work profitably. Frankly, the easiest answer to your question is to hire one of the many professionals who hang out here.