Good Campaign But Poor Results - So I Thought!

Good adwords campaign but poor results

[itsdanielmcmillan]

I have a campaign that runs on $10 a day budget which receives all traffic possible as its a very niche product.

the campaign runs around 6-15% CTR because all keywords are very descriptive of each product they offer.

I have eCommerce tracking in Google analytics setup and it shows the adwords campaign generating a few sales here and there but so slow its not funny.

the website seems to be generating sales from the organic listings and other forms of advertising but adwords seems to be struggling.

the client requested that we stop the campaign for now as its not working but has since called back (3 weeks later) wanting to know why her sales have dropped dramatically since stopping the adwords? we ran the campaign again for 5 days and all sales picked up again but then slowed again when stopped.

whys is this happening? I guess it shows that adwords is having an effect but why isnt it showing in analytics?

[buckworks]

If you're using Google Analytics it doesn't do a good job of tracking the original click source if the person buys on a later visit rather than the first time they click.

So if a person clicked your ad, and didn't buy right away but came back later, GA would credit that as a sale to a direct visitor rather than crediting it to the AdWords ad which was actually responsible for introducing that visitor to the site.

Check how many sales are to repeat visitors versus first-time visitors, that might be a clue.

Something else that might be part of the mix is that if people in the niche are seeing your ads, they might be finding the site via search rather than clicking the ad.

That isn't something I could prove cause / effect for, but in more than one campaign I manage there's a noticeable increase in organic searches for the company name when we bid more aggressively in AdWords.

There is value in getting the company name out there even if only 6% - 15% actually click.

[briggidere]

Hi mate, welcome to the forums,

It looks like there may be an issue somewhere with the set up of the ecommerce tracking. Are you using the AdWords conversion tracking as well so you know the number of sales (not the value) coming in from the campaign?
Are all the ecommerce variables set up correctly?
Maybe run a few test sales yourself. Click on the ad and follow the sales process and see if it is tracking properly. It'll only cost a few $$, but it'll be well worth it in the end.

[itsdanielmcmillan]

thanks for the reply guys...

it seems that the sales show up when we do a test sale so all that seems to be working

im just trying to understand the thought process behind it as I haven't come across this before.

[eWhisper]

This is a reason to use both AdWords conversion tracking and analytics.

AdWords conversion tracking attributes the sale to the last time someone clicked on your ad. Its a 30 day cookie, so sales that take place 31+ days after the click aren't counted.

Google Analytics counts the conversion as last entrance to website.

So, if someone clicks on your AdWords ad looks around your site, and comes back later to buy, each of the systems attributes the conversion to a different source.

Another think to look at is if your visitors come to your during work hours buy buy in the evening. It's not uncommon to see people shop while at work; but not actually pull out a credit card in the middle of an office, so they go home and buy the product.

[RhinoFish]

to "see" past the last-in shortcomings...

dig into your search funnels.

[adwords.google.com...]