Is it just me or do you see an increasing inaccuracy in the daily budget calculation (or do our ads have just increasingly better CTR's :))
Is it just me or do you see an increasing inaccuracy in the daily budget calculation...
Robsp, I had a few general comments on this subject - although it sounds as if you're already aware of the affect of high CTR keywords on the 'recommended budget'.
The recommended budget that appears in the 'Edit Campaign Settings' page is a value that constantly shifts relative to what both you and your competitors are doing, moment to moment. So, this is a tool that is doing a really complex job, in that all the factors it considers are in constant flux - and not just in your account either.
Then, as I think you know, it calculates based on an 'average CTR' of around 2%. So, if lots of your keywords have substantially higher CTRS, then the recommended budget calculation can be thrown off.
Unreliable daily budget estimates
Seem much more frequent lately
(or do our ads have just increasingly better CTR's :))
So, yes, it could actually be that it is happening more often as your CTR improves.
I really advise using this tool as a starting point, and then adjusting from there. It is not intended to provide information which is cast in stone, because none of the information it works with is 'fixed'.
With that said, though, I'd never advise that an advertiser set a daily budget higher than they're truly comfortable paying in a day, in an effort to get ones ads to show more often.
Here are a few tips to get ads to show more often for a given budget:
* Trim your keyword list, so that it includes only your most important/successful keywords - as defined by you. The principle at work here is that the fewer keywords you have, the fewer keywords your budget has to support. So, with fewer keywords, your budget will go farther in terms of showing your ads more often.
* Lower the Max CPC for your less important keywords. If there are keywords that you just can't bear to part with, but they are less valuable to you, then give them individual Max CPCs that reflect that value.
One other thought regarding budget: It is key to track ones ROI as effectively as possible, because this will tell you how to handle your budget. To oversimplify, if you're making $2.00 for every $1.00 you spend, then there is probably no reason to not increase your budget - as more traffic will likely bring you more profit. And if you're making the same as you spend, or less, well, then it's time to step back and make some changes.
AWA
<edit> fixed quotes </edit>
[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 8:54 pm (utc) on Mar. 21, 2005]
Thanx for your lenghty post. Since i've been around on the forum and manage over 100 campaigns this is not new to me :)
What I'm suggesting is that the tool starts working with the average campaign CTR rather than the 2% average. This helps both Google with additional revenue as well as advertizers with better CTR's as they set can their budgets at the right level.
I understand that this is a complex matter but have seen enormous differences in what the traffic estimator "expects" and what the actual spend on a day is.
I had a campaign last week which was on 20$ per day and the traffic estimator said it was OK. Then I increased the budget (as we did not have full delivery) first to 50$, then to 100$ and now to 200$. The traffic went up to 50$ per day (only after the last increase). These kind of differences are hard to explain to our customers and they get nervous at these levels, yet we need them to get full delivery.
The bottom line is that the current system costs a lot of management time and hence money. We need better estimation that we can rely on.
Can you put this in your weekly report? I'm sure upper management does not like the idea that your algorithm cost us a lot of time and leaves money on the table for Google :)
...Since i've been around on the forum and manage over 100 campaigns this is not new to me :)
Well understood, Robsp. I was sort of writing for the newer advertisers who might also be reading the thread. ;)
(I really subscribe to the notion that if one person in a large group asks a guestion, there are probably a dozen more who have the same question, who haven't asked - and who may not be as sophisticated as the person who did the asking.)
What I'm suggesting is that the tool starts working with the average campaign CTR rather than the 2% average. This helps both Google with additional revenue as well as advertizers with better CTR's as they set can their budgets at the right level.
Can you put this in your weekly report? I'm sure upper management does not like the idea that your algorithm cost us a lot of time and leaves money on the table for Google :)
That's an interesting idea, Robsp, which I'll certainly pass on to the right folks. Pasting into the report now. ;)
AWA
Unfortunately, the only important conclusion is that Daily Budget Estimator is totally unreliable (in 99% of campaigns).
To ensure full delivery, you should set daily budget very high (and probably spend five times less), or, as AWA recommends, set it to what's comfortable for you to spend, but be aware that your ads might not be served all the time.
Even this estimator obeys Murphy's law: "What begun bad will go on even worse"
