Before some Google purist wrongfully insults you for not having a webpage (which is no sin), let me mention that position #1 is not always the best place to be. Many people want to check out a few sources before they buy. If you're marketing something that is the same as the other AdWords ads on the page and you don't have a clearly better deal than the others, you may want to settle for a lower position (4 or so).
I often intentionally avoid the top position since I find that I convert better when a bit lower down. Few buy from the first ad they click. It's cheaper for you also :)
With limited information, it's hard to say exactly what's going wrong for you, but it could very well be your ad copy is ho-hum. Keep in mind that you can insert a second or third ad in your ad group and Google will rotate them giving priority to the one(s) with the higher CTRs.
It would be even better if you were capable of following which ad provided sales to you which may be possible depending on the type of tracking you can implement (I'm assuming you're an affiliate).
Should you have a web page? Try it both ways.
If you still have no luck, try to market something else. Don't give up too soon, I blew through a couple of hundred dollars as a newbie before things began to "click". Now I give things a week, if they don't sell, they're gone.
Just remember, #1 may sound like it's going to make you king, but that is rarely so. Again, this is all dependent on the nature of your offer.
Good Luck!
patient2all
I wouldn't say hold off on the website. It's always good to have a full bag of tricks at your disposal.
The website would have to be "pre-sell attractive" to make an impression equal to what the merchant's page has to offer. You can argue the website issue both ways. If you have a website, you give them an extra opportunity to quit on you. On the other hand, you may be able to make some good points about the product you're sending them to if you put your mind to it. You could also add a second or third related product/merchant to a site and increase the possibility of some type of sale happening.
One more thing to consider: does the merchant's page have a phone # to order from on it? That could cost you some sales from people who don't want to give their credit card over the internet. Merchants who have affiliates and put phone #'s to order from on the page are playing both sides. Not cool, in my opinion. I belong to one great program which insists that phone orderers read them the affiliate id, which is prominently displayed on the page so we get our credit. Not all merchants do that however....
Also..... There's this rumor going around that at some point Google may limit ads that go directly to merchant's site, so I wouldn't want to be too far behind if that should happen. In other words, I would start working on a site in the meantime.
There's no one approach, you need a whole arsenal. However, historically I've found first place a bad place to sit. I lower my bid just to get off #1. In fact, by AdWord rules, you can survive with a lower CTR if you are in a lower position.
patient2all
patient2all
