When CPC is too high

AdWords strategies to achieve positive ROI

[marek]

Hi All,

Costs per click are sometimes too high to get both reasonable position
and positive ROI. Here is my list of strategies for such a situations.
Please add your own, if they are missing in my list.

• Create more specific ad groups and ads to increase CTR. Higher CTR
  will improve your position for the same money or lower costs for the
  same position.
  
• Ad negative keywords your competitors did not discover to increase
  CTR. Especially watch high-volume irrelevant queries that used to be
  temporarily triggered by TV contests etc.
  
• Use exact phrases with corresponding ad copies to increase CTR.
  
• Try to find cheap phrases your competitors did not discover.
  Misspellings are usually fine for that.
  
• Use language or geo targeting to target narrower market. Some
  countries or languages may be more relevant (with higher CTR and
  conversion rate) or cheaper.
  
• Increase conversion rate by writing more precise ad copies. The
  drawback is that CTR will go down and CPC up, so be careful.
  
• Increase conversion rate by tweaking your landing pages. Use split
  testing of landing pages.
  

More ideas?

[eWhisper]

Nice post, Marek.

Use language or geo targeting to target narrower market. Some
countries or languages may be more relevant (with higher CTR and
conversion rate) or cheaper.

Increase conversion rate by writing more precise ad copies. The
drawback is that CTR will go down and CPC up, so be careful.

When using the geo targeting features, speak to the audience you're targeting. An ad that does well in one state or country won't necessarily do well for the exact same keyword in another state/country.

If your campaigns are set up to target very specific areas, day parting can be a useful tool.

If you've taken the time to have your site translated into multiple languages, take the time to have the ads translated as well.

(Not a recomendations as much as a personal preference to handle this situation) If you're stuck as the last ad on page 1, and can't afford to raise the CPC to be shown in the middle of the page, then drop your CPC so you are the top ad on page 2. If your CTR goes up, keep dropping your price to stay in this position until you get a healthy CTR, then boost your CPC back to where it was. With a good CTR behind you and a sudden CPC increase, sometimes you can break the price barrier and jump up into the middle of page 1.

[MovingOnUp]

Excellent advice from both Marek and eWhisper! This is one of the best posts I've seen in a while.