Google AdWords really worth it?

[Bubzeebub]

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the Google AdWords for positioning of sites listed on the right side of Google searches? To be honest, I don't know if most people use those first. I've asked a few people and they say they check out the sites that come up higher on the actual search results rather than the sponsored results. If that be the case, what's the big fuss about AdWords and more importantly....are they really worth it?

[RedWolf]

About a quarter of my sales come from Adwords. During the holiday season, it accounted for over a third and approaching half off all new customer sales. I am also postioned well on many of the organic results, but still get clicks for ads placed on those terms. I think it is a confidence builder for the customer to see you in both places. I do play on the low end of the adwords universe. Mostly 8 to 15 cent clicks and a monthly spend of $300 to $400 which is about all my niche market has in searches without going broader than I care to.

[skibum]

Definitely agree with having listings in paid an unpaid results. As far as surveys and asking people what they click on, there may be some merit to that but the real measure is what they actually do when they search and the only real way to guage that is by looking at campaign data.

If people don't click on AdWords the advertiser doesn't lose anything except a little (or sometimes a lot) of time required to setup the campaign.

[cline]

I have a client whose business is 100% PPC driven.

They're hiring, due to business growth. ;)

[eyeinthesky]

Simple logic tells you it works. Where's Google's profit from? Mostly Adwords - correct me if I'm wrong.

If Adwords give Google the most profit (in the 100s of $million per year), then obviously people are clicking on the ads on the right hand side :)

Whether people are buying or not, that's another question. If people aren't buying, advertisers will quit, so Google loses...

So I guess your real question is : are Adwords conversions worth it? Or is it better to wait for organic searches to appear (may take forever to reach the top 10 or 20)?

[digitalv]

I'm in the top 3 (usually the top two) natural results for all of the keywords I want to target, and I still spend $10,000 - $12,000 a month on AdWords. I get a lot more business from the natural results, but AdWords is still definitely worth it.

You may wonder (as I have) why I'm getting any AdWords clicks when the same keyword ends up in one of the top positions. I hate to say it, but it's almost like I'm starting to see a "don't click the first result" trend. I've often found myself skipping over the first two or 3 results when I'm searching for keywords that I know to be "spammy" - its a good bet the top results only made it there by good SEO, not by how relevence.

Just a thought though. It's also possible that the natural results will direct a user to a specific product in the cart, since all of my products are indexed, and AdWords puts the user on the home page. Who knows. Anyway to answer your question, AdWords has definitely been worth it for me.

[eyeinthesky]

I hate to say it, but it's almost like I'm starting to see a "don't click the first result" trend. I've often found myself skipping over the first two or 3 results when I'm searching for keywords that I know to be "spammy" - its a good bet the top results only made it there by good SEO, not by how relevence.

Don't know how true this is considering that Joe surfer is very different from you and I.

Anyway, glad to hear that you're doing well with Adwords. I haven't got much success with Adwords yet. Think I need a lot more fine tuning of keywords etc

[trillianjedi]

I have a client whose business is 100% PPC driven.

The best business model there is, if you can make it work.

TJ

[wheel]

I think the OP is correct, most people don't use the adwords ads. But....once someone catches on to it I believe they are much more likely to use adwords ads instead of the natural listings (I'm guilty of this now, I use ads to find stuff rather than the natural listings).

That's because if you're searching to actually buy something, you're going to find it quicker if you use the ads. Type in something like 'rackmount server britian' and it's hard to say what you'll get in the natural listings. But you'll find the ads are chock full of companies selling rackmount servers in britian. Once you figure that out it's hard to go back to using the natural listings when you're shopping.

Of course most people don't use the ads. But a small percentage X a very large number of searches means you can get some pretty good traffic.

Plus, if done correctly PPC is far less expensive and more targetted than traditional advertising. I've spent $1000's on direct mail and print advertising for unknown (and generally poor) results. Saying 'adwords' means never having to pay for advertising that doesn't work. You only pay if they're interested in your product - how good is that?

And the short answer is yes, both my customers and I make money on this. In an industry where they might pay $30 for a lead, adwords can deliver the same or better for $6-$10 a lead including my fees.

[nyet]

our business is 100% PPC driven. We have shifted (slowly) ALL our advertising to PPC as it has the best ROI and Volume.

This fact also keeps me up at night!

It is also important to consider PPC in terms of your target Demographic. OUr service has a web component. When we did magazine ads we would get clients which were fairly non-computer-saavy. Which increased our 'cost' per client because we had to spend time 'training' them in basic computer skills.

With PPC advertising we by DEFAULT get clients with adequate computer skills. Lower cost per client = higher profit!

THAT benefit won't show up anywhere in G's conversion tracking!