I have a sperate post about using adwords to drive traffic to an informational site. Since I had a small store accosiated with that site- and I had an adwords account- I thought I would do a one-month test specifically targetinbg the products in my store, and links directly to that store.
I picked very specific adwords, and used a few different creatives. Most did well- my LOWEST on a creative is Clickthrough Rate: 4.4%... with the month's CTR being 5 for all ad words. The landing page is pretty broad, with links into more specific areas of the store...
So here is my problem. My affiliate sales have not budged. In fact, after 4 months of steady increase, they have gone down a bit (20%!).
I do not blame Adwords for the decline (that is absurd!), but it sure does not look like I can say adwords seems to be helping...
Should I cancel the campaign? My ctr's are good, so I am not sure if I need to design a new campaign... Maybe other people saw a decline this last month...
Your input is appreciated!
dave
If you're keeping the people refered to your site (i.e. if they're returning after clicking through), then you may want to shut down AdWords for a while.
I think that the decline is a result of the poor economy and not necesarily a result of the AdWords. A tighter economy means less spendable cash for people, which means less money in referals.
I'd also try to design your site to intentionally prepare customers to buy. Things like buyers guides can help with this, and reviews of products can also. Creating an environment conducive to selling will likely help your affiliate numbers a great deal.
But as to a concrete recommendation whether or not to cancel - I don't know enough about your site to make a solid recommendation either way. Hopefully I've given you something to think about, though. :)
BriGuy has a point. It could be that your site isn't designed to convert, but then again, it could be that your items just don't do well through adwords. It does happen. :)
I would say that you should pause your campaigns and then look at your sales after a few weeks. Did they drop even more dramatically? Then perhaps adwords was propping up a faltering sales month and you should turn it back on. If there is no significant change, then you should consider a landing page tweak or just decide that the people looking for your items are just not ready for finding them through adwords.
I appreciate it!
dave
I tend to agree with the other repondents. One month is plenty of time to check out the response from Adwords - for most keywords anyway.
100 clickthroughs is often enough for me to judge the value of an advert.
If your ads are written to attract vistors looking for information then you may get a very poor purchase rate. Writing ads to attract buyers is far more successful if you are selling something.
Also, try different landing pages for different ads. Make sure the landing page contains the exact information the visitors are expecting.
I experienced a serious decline in sales at the beginning of the month but sales are now back to normal.
