Another Adwords user throwing money away

[dickbaker]

I didn't want to interfere with another Adwords thread where the OP was asking questions.

I've been running Adwords for seven years with less than stellar results. Looking back over the entire period, my cost per conversion has been $154. The items I've been advertising don't usually make that much in profit, so Adwords has been a net loser.

I have some of the best prices for products I advertise. I put the prices in the ads. I use model-specific keywords so I only get the people who know what they're looking to buy. For example, I have XY7GS Widget as one of the keywords, so I only get people who are looking to buy the XY7GS model. I don't want tire kickers. They were driving my Adword costs through the roof.

I have a very well-designed, well-functioning, easy to understand site.

I've talked to people at Google, but all they want to do is tell me how to get more clicks. I know how to get more clicks. I want more conversions.

Google Shopping was doing fairly well for me. It was doing better when it was free, as my products showed up all the time. Now, though, my products fall into one of the "prohibited items" categories, and I can't list there.

I don't know that there's a solution to my problem, but I thought I'd just rant and see if anyone had any advice. ;)

[ChrisWilson]

What do your quality scores look like? Also, you may want to shift your focus from tinkering with AdWords for a little while and move the focus towards converting at a better rate for those clicks you do get.

Conversion optimization from my experience goes hand in hand with Adwords, I spend way more time working on conversion optimization then I do in AdWords.

I don't know though, just a thought.

[dickbaker]

ChrisWilson, in a few words, what's involved in your conversion optimization? I'm always making descriptions sexier or adding better photos, not to mention figuring out the best price. Beyond that, what more can be done to optimize conversions?

[Essex_boy]

Maybe a shorter checkout process ?

[Chrispcritters]

Just because you are using a model number in the keyword does not mean that you are targeting buyers. I often visit a number of sites to do research on a product by searching for the part number.

Some minor tweaks of the ad may increase conversions when including purchasing phrasing "buy" etc. Key thing is to find out WHY the clickers are not buying. You could consider an exit pop survey.

Are you sending conversion information back to Google? Small code on your "thank you" page that indicates that a sale happened. This way you can switch your adwords campaigns to target those conversions rather than clicks.

[dickbaker]

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't much matter now, as Google has decided to disable my site. They say that it violates the Dangerous Products and Services policy. Funny how it wasn't doing that last month or in the prior seven years.

I love Google.

[PCInk]

AdWords has become a waste of money and not nice to deal with.

Have you tried Bing adverts instead?

[dickbaker]

I tried Bing, but didn't have much success. That was a few years ago. I think I'll give them a try now. Maybe they won't consider my site as a threat to world peace.

[dickbaker]

I got an email from Adwords support today. They suggested I keep the ~150 products that don't violate their Dangerous Weapons policy, and get rid of the other ~5650.

Are these people on drugs?