Adword ads decreasing?

Is adword competition thinning?

[mansterfred]

I have noticed in almost all my adword keyword categories that the competition has thinned. In a number of the categories I am the only one left. The ROI is ok as these are fairly cheap keywords/phrases .05-.25 cents.

What might be happening?

Is this normal for this time of year?

Is the economy having an effect?

Are people tired of paying the inflated base amount on google?

[vibgyor79]

I am busy fighting pitched battles against the competitors in my categories. eBay has jumped into the fray too! Competition is now quite intense in my categories.

Maybe your competitors are regrouping for the next battle! ;)

[webdiversity]

eBay are never a serious competitor. They have a budget to blow you out the water. Ignore what they do, never try to beat them on price, but you can have fun with them, although Overture is always better to have fun with when it comes to eBay.

vibgyor79 I think the reason for this extra activity is that it's a new year, new enthusiasm, new marketing budgets, new sales targets.

Someone once asked me what I saw the secret to success in PPC. If you've heard of pareto's law of 80/20 then I'd say that this is a good way of describing PPC. 80% of your listings there should be fewer than 4 companies bidding. 80% of your traffic will come from 20% of your keywords, 80% of your keywords should be minimum price (or as close to). 80% of your competitors will go after 20% of the inventory available (good).

There's a bunch more stuff that the 80/20 could apply to but I'd be giving away secrets.

[Mike_Mackin]

webdiversity has it nailed......

Could even be 90/10 in some cases ;)

[vibgyor79]

Beating eBay may not be good for your pockets, but it surely is good for your ego! :)

Frankly, I don't think eBay puts too much work into their ad copies. And I bet their CTR will not be more than the minimum required.

A few months back, eBay was taking up Premium Sponsorship for some of my keywords. Now that they have demoted themselves to AdWords, its somewhat a level playing field.

I wonder if they know what ROI is...

[hannamyluv]

eBay's copy is bad, unless it is written by an affiliate. The thing about eBay is that it is a mindset, not a regular store. While there are lots and lots on the web who will buy from an unknown store, there are many more who wouldn't touch eBay with a 10 foot pole. (Granted that number is shinking, but comparible to how many are on the web...)

I would be willing to guess that the only people who would click on an eBay ad are those who are desperate (nothing else listed) or those who already shop there.

[mansterfred]

Ebay does not bid in our keywords. All small type biz except a few major national sporting goods chains.

Can anyone in Small biz answer my original post?

[hurlimann]

We get amazon and kelkoo instead of ebay for PS and 5 other big chains in Adwords. NONE supply our services.

As to the original question we find it goes up and down. ( The same applies to other PPC services.).

[instand1]

Can anyone in Small biz answer my original post?

Yes, small biz, Europe:
small, specialized travel-agent: same competition, but since 2nd of January many more impressions and clicks, CTR same. Last 2 weeks of December thexy had less than before.

Most other trades spent more on AdWords during December, now its back to normal.

[Mikkel Svendsen]

We've generally seen a huge increase in the use of Adwords in Europe - and especially the small countries are picking up. 6 month ago you could hardly find any Adowrd ads for Danish keywords (except for mine <g>) - now there are several ads on most words and minimums are going up! To me it looks like Adowrds have been on a 50% per month increase here for the past 6 month - or something close to that.

[mansterfred]

Since my first post, I have continued to see the decrease in the competitions ads. I am now alone in my main keyword phrase, which had other adwords until yesterday. I am in the US market only. Something is strange in the land of Google.

Also, I have noticed some change in overture as well, but not as drastic.

[rcaretti]

I've also noted this on several of my campaigns as well. I chaulked it up to post holiday advertising decreases - but don't really know why...

[webdiversity]

Reminds me of the epic speech given by Russell Crowe in Gladiator....

"if you find yourself in a green field with the sun on your back, fear not, you will not be troubled, for you are in Elysium...... and you are already dead"

Are you getting all of the traffic you were getting mansterfred? If so, then here's my advice...... shhhhhh

[Brett_Tabke]

mansterfred, I've noticed some categories thinning and others gaining. Seems like it comes and goes in waves. I have to agree though, that people are tight with their budgets this time of year. It's just week 3 of 52.

[vibgyor79]

mansterfred: What kind of increase are your seeing in your CTR and conversion rate because of disappearance of competitors?

[mansterfred]

>> What kind of increase are your seeing in your CTR and conversion rate because of disappearance of competitors?

CTR - I have seen an increase.

Conversion Rate - has decreased.

I decided to “Pause” my adword campaigns in all but 1 keyword. I have noticed that if I keep my page views to sessions above 2:1 I do ok. The ratio had slipped to 1.7:1. Currently I am running 3:1 with adwords paused, also I reduced my position in most OV categories.