Need Help with CTR

CTR not picking up

[Junior Jacki]

Hi All,

This is my first post......
I need help with the adwords......i have set up an campaign, with 12 different ad groups and keywords......
my major issue is that the CTR is not picking up atall (about 0.13 or 0.50%)....

i want to know that how many keywords do u suggest i shud have for each adgroup?
how many ads should ideally i design for each topic.

many thanks and i look forward to your support.

regards
Jacki

[fordo23]

Hi Junior_Jacki,

There are couple of points for consideration with your question.
1)Geo targeting: are your products & services limited to certain countries or regions? Check at the campaign level in Google what this is set to and make sure it’s applicable for your business & keywords.
2)Where are your ads showing? This is also at the Campaign level, are you set to “Google Search only” & “Google & search network” “Google search & content network”? You may want to give some consideration to turning off the content network and/or “Google & search network” (the ‘search network is really Google partners) and just roll with the “Search only” whilst you’re learning the ropes.
3)The CTR could be a result of your ads not being highly targeted enough for your keyword, or because of your position. So check out what your average position is, you may need to increase your max cpc to lift position to give your ad a chance a building some decent CTR. Of course, you’ll need to consider how competitive your industry is and your cpc will naturally increase as a result of this. If you do have a good position (in my word that’s 3 or above) then I’d say it’s your ad copy relative to your keywords.
4)Ads, my Google rep recommends no more than 3 ads in one adgroup.

Hope this helps. Happy to give more advice if you come back with some more detail.

[fordo23]

Sorry, 2 more points/question.
What status are your keywords set to, exact, phrase or broad?
And how long has the campaign been running?

[Junior Jacki]

Thanks Fordo23,

Give me a day or two and i will get back to with all the info. Seems like the search idead is far better then content network idea (for ads).
Also the campaign is new and i have around 9 ads/adgroup (average), will def. cut them down.
Keywords are broad category.
Region targeted are US and Canada....and i cant change it now. Can I?

will give u rest details in a day or two.

Regards
Jacki

[mike_ppc]

If you have content activated, than this is the answer for sure.

[Junior Jacki]

thanks Mike,

will turn that off now.......also tell me ifi can change the target region now?

I had paused the campaign but im turning it on now.....with a daily budget of $100. Is it gud or i need to increase it.

regards
jacki

[Junior Jacki]

I am looking at other options for PPC apart from adwords.
YSM(yahoo search marketing) and Business.com

Havnt had a gud feedback bout msn search.

Opinions and suggestions are most welcome.

regards
Jacki

[fordo23]

Hi Junior_Jacki, you can change the geo-targeting for your Campaigns at anytime. In the live interface click on your campaign, that will take you to the campaign summary screen. Click "edit campaign settings", on the bottom right hand side you will see "locations". This is your geo-targeting settings. It will either say "all countries & territories" which means this is the globe, or your specific countries.

Another idea is you can even 'duplicate' your campaigns and set them on per country basis. This is good for wanting to use different creative for Candian customers vs American customers, you can also do it if you want to split/control your budget. ie. if you convert Candian customers better you may want to make sure your investing for more exposure to that audience. (I'm a very bottom line focused search marketer so that's often dominates my thinking & strategies with my SEM accounts, hence I move my budgets focusing on best ROI).

And definitely turn off that content network, or at minimum create a seperate campaign to your search one -much easier to control and manage.

[Junior Jacki]

thanks fordo23 and thanks mike,

necessary changes have been made as you both suggested.
i am now looking to see the results.

in two days i have seen that the conversion rate and converstion is pretty high as regards to clicks. but ctr is still not picking up. now its 0.04%

i am currently running 11 ad groups with 8-9 no. of average ads in all.

keywords are approx. 100 for each. can this be effecting the campaign.

also few of my ad groups are getting larger exposure as compared to others. may be its too early to comment. im only in my 4th days running after initial 1 week run.

i want to focus on quality conversions on less cpc and cpc(cost per conversion). how can i do that?

regards
pranjal

[Junior Jacki]

another problem......

im not able to track my conversions.......google adwords says 18 conversion, my data base shows none.
i have conv. trackers on the landing pages and they are working fine, then how can i track these 18 conversions? can i see them on adwords?

[fordo23]

in two days i have seen that the conversion rate and conversion is pretty high as regards to clicks. but ctr is still not picking up. now its 0.04%

What is the average position of the individual adgroup? Position will affect CTR as will your creative in the ad. And are your terms set to Broad, Phrase or Exact match?

keywords are approx. 100 for each. can this be effecting the campaign

There have been other threads in here on adgroup 'sweet spots' for keywords (conduct a search for it). Some say 25, I'm not sure there is a definite policy from Google on it. I usually work on the 50 terms rule (following discussions with my Google Maximiser), but if all my terms are tightly themed and using exact match then i do go over. I only look at breaking them out further if I have CPC or position issue.

In regards to Google Analytics and tracking conversions I'm unable to help you, we use Omniture. Perhaps trying contact some form of Google Support?

[AdWords Player]

Few Tips:

1) Include Your Keyword in exact order in your headline, and one more time in your ad. This phrase will be bolded when search users see your ad.

Ex:

KeyWord (New Truck Parts)

Find New Truck Parts
Find New Truck Parts For
All Makes of Trucks.
TruckParts.com

2) Insure you are breaking down your AdGroups. Create a separate AdGroup for each group of KeyWords or Topics.

Ex:

Main Keyword (Truck Parts)

Breakdown to.....

AdGroup: Used Truck Parts
AdGroup: New Truck Parts
AdGroup: Chrome Truck Parts
AdGroup: Custom Truck Parts

Then you would use a unique list of KeyWords for each indiviadual AdGroup that you have broken down. Create separate Creatives for each AdGroup using the strategy as mentioned in #1

3) TEST ADS LIKE CRAZY - I will not be satisfied with an ad until I have tried out about 20 different variations of Text Ads. Keep tweaking ads BUT only make one change in each variation of the ads. If you just write a load of ads, you will never know why an ad did better than another ad. It could be as specific as Capitilizing one word in your ad. I have seen ads get a higher CTR just by ending the ad with a period (.) No Joke.

EX:

New Truck Parts
Find New Truck Parts
Online. Fast & Easy
TruckParts.com

VS.

New Truck Parts
Find New Truck Parts
Online. Fast & Easy(.) <<<<<

If you want, send me some examples of your ads with the CTR's I would love to send you some suggestions. Do not let my being a new member to this forum scare you. I handle a million dollar plus campaign per month

These are some basic techniques. I am not sure if you are aleady using them. Also know that depending on what you are advertising, and the industry you are in can add to the low CTR. Some topics generally have lower CTR's than others. In your case a %0.50 CTR might be good, even though it looks so terrible. Also remeber that a small increase in CTR is an awesome thing. It takes time to find the perfect ad, perfect keyword list. Keep plugging away at your ads, split test like crazy

When split testing your ads ensure the following:

1) Try to make sure the ads have been evenly served

2) Try to ensure you ads each have at least 50 clicks (depends on traffic though)

3) Look at your ads over a period of time. Do not split test your ads based off one day. Take a look based off "last 7 days" or at least a few days back. Just because an ad did great one day, does not mean it is the bes ad over all. (patience required, lol)

3) When writing a new ad, only change one thing (variable) in the ad to ensure a proper split test. If You change 2 or three things in the ad, how will you know what of those 2-3 things made the ad better or worse (important)

4) Be patient, testing takes time. I will write 20 ads sometimes before I am satisfied with a great creative.

Have fun!

[Junior Jacki]

Hey Fordo23 and AdWord Advisor

I have conversion tracker on my landing pages......but its only showing the click landing conversion. I want to put a signup landing conversion.....how can i do that.

right now if i have 10 clicks i have 10 conversions.....this is not what i want.

i probably have click as conversion code on my landing pages......can i get sing up as conversion code. If i can, then where should i look in google adwords for that.

regards
pranjal

[PPC_Player]

Hey There,

(This is Formally Adwords_Player)

The Code you might be looking for is the "Puchase/Sale" Code. This code ould be placed on a page after the user has paid for a product or purchased something on your site (in most cases)

Purchase/Sale
Helps online commerce sites track purchases and sales to determine return on investment (ROI).

Try testing out the conversion tracking for that one.

If you are simply offering your users a sign up for something, you would want to install the "Signup" conversion tracking code.

[edited by: PPC_Player at 5:15 pm (utc) on Nov. 23, 2007]

[Junior Jacki]

Hey Adword_Player,

thanks for droping ur views.......i think i have the right code....i only need signups .... and i do have signup code....but still its bit confusing......im thinking of placing it on the thank you mssg page instead of actual landing page.....

cause right now when someone clicks on my adword it also shows as conversion.....

wud that help?

regards
pranjal

[Junior Jacki]

Hi All,

is thr a way i can fetch the adword conversion report to see from where people are coming from and what they are doing on the landing pages......cause as by the conversation you can see that my conversion tracker is bit messed up.

can anyone tell me how can i do it?

regards to all.

[BradleyT]

You want to set your goal page as your thank you page (in most cases).

Make sure your thank you page only gets shown when a SUCCESSFUL event occurs. Through testing I found out that the company we hired to program our site used the thank you page to also display form errors....I just started working here last month and they've been tracking goals on that page for about 6 months so all of that data is pretty much useless.

[Junior Jacki]

Hi All,

let me start by thanking all for your valuable advice......
the campaign is on in full flow now and i am keeping an clos eye on it......

as AdwordAdvisor siad that it needs to monitored for atleast a week or more to say anything....i just wanted to share some facts with you all.

impr:140,761, clicks:78, (wont talk about conversions as the code was on wrong page), CTR:0.05% (:() , daily budget: $110 (atleast for nov.)

what do u guys reccon?

if u need more info. let me know.

Regards All

[Junior Jacki]

hello everyone,

i have streamlined the campaign according to the landing pages and quality scores.....more targeted and tightly focused keywords......i am sticking with fordo23's rule of 50 keywords per adgroup and 3-4 ads per ad group.

:) hope it works out!

i wanted to ask u all another thing.
i am advertising with google, YSM and business.com, should i target msn as well or will these three be enough?

regards
jacki

[mike_ppc]

You can add MSN, it won't bring you so much, but it's worth a try.

[Junior Jacki]

hello mike,

thanks for the reply,

tell me one thing......does the campaign takes time.....what i mean is that i have streamlined the campaign......my no. of clicks have gone down cause im using exact match and narrow match.....but the ctc is higher that befor....(earlier--0.06% now 0.52%, in 6 days)

is thr anything to be worried about....will the campaign pick up with time.....or should i include broad search keywords to enhance the clicks?

regards
jacki

[Junior Jacki]

any suggestions on how i can get started with affiliate marketing for our site.......networks or shud i just approach merchants? we are into call center monitoring business.

regards
jacki

[MadeWillis]

Some advertisers are very successful with MSN, other not so much. LEARN the interface and set a low budget at first to get an idea of the traffic you'll be getting if your worried about over spending. Many times it depends on your niche.

How are your conversions on business.com? I've been advertising there for some time and show a low return.

[MadeWillis]

" any suggestions on how i can get started with affiliate marketing for our site"

LinkShare has tons of publishers, but can be a bit expensive. Share A Sale less expensive and still a pretty large selection of publishers. There are quite a few networks to choose from and many publishers use multiple networks. Bottom line, creating an in-house affiliate program will require a lot more work especially if your a smaller company because you'll have to go out and find affiliates yourself. If you join a network many will come to you. Managing a successful affiliate program is a job in its own.

[Junior Jacki]

thanks madewillis

great suggestions......i have doen affiliate marketing before but that was finding merchants and affilaites......was with a network.

nyways, now we'll be merchant so was just wondering.
but thats for mentioning linkshare.com and shareasale.com

about business.com results......well i have recently started advertising with them.......but can let u know in a week or two ......dont really know how well they'll do, but when we used to wrk with the agency we never got great results from business.com

will keep u posetd.

regards
jacki

[Junior Jacki]

Hello everyone,

can anyone please advice me how to track vistors/clicks and conversion for yahoo search marketing and Business.com

i have google code on my landing pages and they all are now working fine......do i need to put yahoo and business.com codes as well.

and if that's so, then where can i get these code.

These may sound silly questions but not for me....cause im a starter. :)

thanks all
jacki

[Junior Jacki]

also for adwords my impressions and clicks are not picking up.....
i have changed the ads and keywords .....more relating to industry and landing pages.....ads are accordingly now......keywords are exact match and phrase match.......

in last three days its only 6 clicks and 1145 impressions......figures are not moving up at all

oh! also contentads are off......its only search ads.

any explaination?

regards
jacki

[Junior Jacki]

YSM is giving good results....good clicks and conversions on search network.....content network is off....and i am happy with it......but google is not giving results at all.....on google content network is off....campaign is about an month old.....on google i have 3 conversions all on content network......search network is not performing on google at all.

but on content network the imp. goes in millions where as on search they remain around 5thousand in two weeks.

what do u suggest, shud i let YSM on search and change google to content? what about the quality of leads.....are they good from content network as compared to search?

regards
all

[King_Fisher]

J-J, I have been reading your thread and am completely exhausted! :o)

Keep up your quest but have patience, your questions will all be answered in your
results!...KF