Google Adwords Rules of Thumb

[sem_scotty]

i'm putting together a doc for rules of thumb (or general guidelines) for adwords PPC based on my experiences, and i'm also interested in others' input.

things such as ad copy, bidding, etc.

i'm not looking for guidelines from google - more like rules of thumb from SEMs.

i've had trouble locating something along these lines on WW - anybody have a resource they can point me towards, either on WW or otherwise?

thanks!

[forzatio]

I would like to add:

1. If the surfer knows your site already:

Put a "to do" action in the firstline, and on the second line you should say what the surfer gets when he does that action.

2. If the surfer doesn't know your site yet:

On the firstline you should put some words that actually express whats so special about your product/service.

Then on the secondline I should put a to do action, but not on the firstline when they don't know your site.

[silverbytes]

First of all I didn't enjoy a post so much like this one long time ago! Great thread.

My 2 cents:

1) Put FREE in negative words if you are trying to sell something as the very first step (and I guess 99,99% of advertisers do)

2) Is there a lot of other negative words you may pay attention to in order to prereserve your funds, specially if you don't use [this kind of phrases]

3) Delete those ads in your group with noticeable lower CTR (why invest a high percentage on impressions on ads that people don't click?)

4) Try to isolate -to put them later in specific campaigns targeting just that site or a few ones that work- those sites in site targeted campaigns that work for you instead of mixing them in a whole bunch of sites (some awfull others good). It's a lot of work, I know but, with some patience you may have cheap quality clicks for long.

[Richard Overvold]

unfortunately, for many of us, paying $.05 per click is not even an option.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this. I have one of my programs running $0.10 per click (avg $0.07) and it consistantly makes me $500 a day. This is not such a great accomplishment to some, but this is from an industry that NEEDS (by some of your standards) at least $2.00 to $3.00 per click just to get clicks. I could spend more and make a bit more, but I'd rather keep my ROI around the 300-400% mark.

It's about ad copy, and keyword list, site design.

[poster_boy]

I have one of my programs running $0.10 per click (avg $0.07) and it consistantly makes me $500 a day.

Capping yourself at a certain price is not a strategy. It's about ad copy, and keyword list, site design AND using price to your advantage.

In a thread about Google Rules of Thumb, I'd have issue with anyone suggesting specific CPCs when they don't know anybody else's industry.

[stevenhold]

I disagree with the $0.05 max bid opinion. I've had several keywords where I had to bid $0.10-$0.20 for them to become activated, yet due to their current Quality Score my average CPC is between $0.03-$0.08. This is also true for many other keywords where the advertiser may need to bid high in the beginning, but because of their quality scores they end up paying way less than their max CPC.

Anyway I would say that advertisers should take full advantage of all the free advertising tools adwords offers. These tools have saved me uncountable hours of work.

[ChrisXenon]

How EXACTLY do you work on these low-bid ads to make them work? You wite an ad, and set the bid price to 5c. It lists down at position 500, and gets no clicks. So now what?

[Richard Overvold]

How many keywords do you have? I have roughly 66,000 keywords for this one industry. The site is so simple that my merchant offered help to improve my site design. I declined and boasted that I don't fix things that aren't broken. Although, it probably wouldn't hurt to improve the design. Regardless, if I can make really good money in my industry, then ANYONE in ANY industry can make good money with lowball bids. I did my homework.

[poster_boy]

if I can make really good money in my industry, then ANYONE in ANY industry can make good money

That's a laughably false hypothesis.

[Richard Overvold]

Say what you want, but it's the truth. And with the addition of Google's penny bids, it's that much easier.

It's funny, this is a help forum, yet everyone seems a bit pessimistic when it comes to letting people know it's possible to do things, even if it's something tough.

I was told it was impossible to sell diet pills using PPC. Well guess what? I'm making plenty of cash doing that. I have to say, it's pretty easy to make money, if you work at it. Maybe more people on the forum would be posting things like, "I achieved my short term goal" instead of "I didn't achieve my short term goal because someone told me it wasn't possible".

[jrap]

For those doing affiliate arbitrage, make sure you visit the order form and make sure the countries you are targetting in your adwords campaign are also accepted in the form.

I've been lazy before and did not check, and it cost me money.

[tortuga]

This is a great thread. I have one question that puzzles me though, which was just posed by ChrisXenon above...

How EXACTLY do you work on these low-bid ads to make them work? You wite an ad, and set the bid price to 5c. It lists down at position 500, and gets no clicks. So now what?

I'm all for experimenting with ad copy, title, etc to achieve the lowest bid. But, how do you even start when an affordable bid puts you back on page ten and hence no clicks? Is it all about finding obscure keywords in the industry? Or, do you start with higher bid and then reduce it with good CTR?

[Richard Overvold]

Is it all about finding obscure keywords in the industry?

I have several thousand kw's that never get an impression. They don't hurt my account, but if someone does decide to deep search, I could get a conversion from it. But, overall it's about finding those obscure keywords. :)

And you'd be very surprised how many there actually are.

[sem_scotty]

re: starting your bids at $.05 or $.10, are none of you familiar with the importance of history? if the bulk of your keywords hardly get any clicks from the get go, your account will be affected negatively in the short and long term (based on my experiences, anyway).

**********************

[ChrisXenon]

Still no useful reply to this fundamental question:

How EXACTLY do you work on these low-bid ads to make them work? You wite an ad, and set the bid price to 5c. It lists down at position 500, and gets no clicks. So now what?

[sem_scotty]

i'm assuming they're talking about keywords for which there is no competition, so the ads do actually show and get clicks.

...but i haven't seen a timeworthy keyword for less than $.50 since 2002.

*************************

[rkhare]

[quote] ALWAYS include a call to action. Just what do you want the viewer to do?

Buy. Compare. Join. Read. Find Out. Solve. Learn. Meet. Sell. [/quote/

MFA webmasters would include "Click on lots of relevant Ads by Google"

lol

just kidding, a nice value added thread in long time