$100/click is not enough

for winning the affiliate policy game?

[emoshe]

Hi All,

I have that product that I was bidding for on Adwords, with a direct link to Amazon.com (as an affiliate). Since the new affiliate policy, the ad of another Amazon affiliate is showed.

Now, I've decided to try my luck and bid against that affiliate. So I've started to raise my bid, and no mattar what I did that affiliate's ad showed. Today, I entered a bid of $100, and still, that ad shows (not mine).

Please note that my ad is new, with no history. Do I have a chance to win that game? How can my ad have a decent CTR if it doesn't show up at all?

Would love to hear what do you think about it.

Thanks,
Eyal

[onlineleben]

Check this forum for anything about landing pages.
In short. put a landing page for your ad on your own domain, put that domain name in the ad instead of amazon and you should get the click for much less than $100.
I tried that and have very good results for 5 cents per click.

[emoshe]

Thank you onlineleben, I've tried it also with not-so-good results, but I guess that's a question of what type of product it is and how good is my landing page.

However, my original question is still important for me, because it seems like one advertiser can 'block' another one and it seems unfair to me. I'd expect to give new advertisers some opportunity to show the quality of the ad, especially when willing to pay $100/click.

Eyal

[wrgvt]

If the ad position is roughly bid price times CTR and your CTR is 0, then I guess you'll lose. So if the original ad runs 100% of the day, then you'll never break through. Maybe when they change their ad, you might have a chance, but I wouldn't count on it.

[trafficabsolute]

Eyal I think you can win the game but you have to change your approach.

Google Adwords works different than most other PPC engines such as Overture and FindWhat. The position of the ad do not only depends on the amount of you are willing to spend on each click, it also depends on maximum cost-per-click and your ad's actual click through rate.

So, starting a war with other advertisers will not help you at all and you may be just wasting money.

Assuming that you know the basics of setting up your Adwords campaign and you have multiple ad groups for the same keywords.

The first thing you have to do is enhancing your CTR which can be done by writing a good ad contents and titles. Pay attention to the TITLE, write good titles that’s attracts the attention of google searchers and don’t forget to use keywords in your title as well.

When writing the copy, try to emphasize everything that may set you apart from your competitors or may catch the eye of the reader. For example if you are promoting hotel reservation and have no reservation costs, mentioning that in the copy can lead into more clicks.

Also using exact match and search network can increase your CTR.

Run your campaign for a while then eliminate the ad copies with low CTR and leave the copies with high CTR. Then analyze everything again and optimize your campaigns for better performance.

[kooky]

There's got to be something more here, because I had following happen to me:

I was affiliate top spot with the highest max bid amount possible (Google wouldn't let me set any higher). I had a huge CTR, e.g. 40%, and was on top for months.

I did not change a single thing and all of a sudden someone has swiped my spot, replacing me.

How could it happen?

Try as I might I can't get it back, since my CPC is already maxed!

NB: We were both using same affiliate domain etc.

[patient2all]

Lots of good advice here so far.

For Eyal, can't imagine what Amazon has that costs thousands and people will click the first ad they find to buy it.

A well done landing page with some value added content and you may be paying $5.00 or less a click. Remember, AdWords is not Ebay. Your CTR * Max PPC will always determine position (we trust). The #1 spot may be occupied by someone paying $1.50. In AdWords, words often talk louder than money.

With a landing page your ad will actually show all the time and can include some features the Amazon page lacks. You'll get many more visitors, making the chance of a sale that much more likely. IMHO, being #1 is not all it's cracked up to be. #1 gets tire kickers first who may decide 3-4 ads down that it is time to buy assuming that they ultimately buy through an AdWord advertiser at all.

patient2all

[werty]

If you are bidding on the term amazon, I would not worry too much about this, as they will send you an email threatening to toss you out of their aff program if you do not stop buying that term.

[emoshe]

trafficabsolute, how can I increase my CTR if my ad isn't showed at all? (0 impressions)

by the way, something I don't understand, the history of the CTR is associated with my ad or with my keywords? In other words, if I advertise my ad with some other keywords and gain some CTR history, and then delete those keywords and add the original, will it help?

patient2all, when I said I set my max CPC to $100, I didn't mean I'm paying $100. I pay much less, in some cases even a little bit more than $0.05. I agree with you that being always #1 without considering any other factors is not smart, however, I would really like to know how can one compete with an ad that has a good history, fighting for the same display URL.

Thank you all,
Eyal

[trafficabsolute]

How can I increase my CTR if my ad isn't showed at all?

Check your keywords list, maybe there is no one searching for those keywords/phrases.
Increase your daily budget.
Read the info here adwords.google.com/select/tips.html

[emoshe]

Sure, this keyword is searched a lot, however, I get 0 impressions because my ad isn't showed (Another ad with the same display url is showing).

[kooky]

How much does the Daily Budget for a Campaign influence the end result when you are competing with another affiliate and both have the maxed CPC etc.

Does the person with the highest Daily Budget win?

That could be scary!

[trafficabsolute]

“This keyword is searched a lot”
You are talking about one keyword?

You know that you can’t see impressions report for the last 3 hours right?
Read everything in Adwords help center, then check your setting and you will find the answer to your question.

Kooky, many factors play rules in displaying your ad, and CPC is just one of them.
Focus your efforts in converting your visitors to customers and you would be a winner.

[Michelle_P]

I am experiencing similar affiliate issues -- just on the other side. According to Google, similar domains used by the branded site and affiliate sites can bump one or the other's ad from being served. Google will only display one ad per URL.

If you are an affiliate and bidding $100, I would recommend double-checking your affiliate agreement as you may be in violation.

[emoshe]

Well, It's a war between two affiliates, not an affiliate and a merchant. As long as the merchant doesn't want to bid on that keyword, I don't see a problem.

[awmg]

I am waiting for someone to answer Eyal's question. It seems that a lot of people are giving advice but not answering the real question. I experience similar issues with a couple keywords.

Let me try....

* I want to appear when someone searches for a particular keyword.
* I have no history for this keyword.
* I have a well written ad using this keyword in the title (my opinion).
* I have a very high bid on this keyword.
* I have tried both using my own URL as well as the affiliates.

... My ad just does not appear. How can I build history / CTR if my ad will never appear?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[andye]

My ad just does not appear

Doesn't appear anywhere at all? Like, not even a few pages in to the results?

Or "doesn't appear on the first SERP?"

best, a.

[awmg]

The ad does not appear at all for this keyword on any page. ZERO impressions.

Thanks!

[onlineleben]

Why not check if you get impressions when setting the keyword to phrase match (that is "keyword").
I discovered that one of my keywords most often was used in context and not as a standalone searchword.

I also want to emphasize again to use your own domain and a landing page in adwords. There are a few advantages that I would like to list here:

aa) Your ad gets always shown because you don't get into the one domain per search trap.
bb) You build a history foryour ad.
cc) You can see how much search trafic there really is for your keyphrases at the google sites compared to what your keyword analyzer or the overture suggestion tool reveal.
dd) You can bid much cheaper for your keywords/phrases than you do now.
ee) You don't have to use brute force in bidding but can make intelligent decisions in determining your max. bid.
ff) On your landing page, you can do with your pospect whatever you want.
gg) Based on ff), you could ask the visitor for the email address, give him a free report about the benefits of the product, enroll him in an e-course etc.
hh) You don't have to worry too much about what your competitor is bidding and concentrate on your next project.

I had similar troubles like you, emoshe, when google changed its display policy for affiliates, but I took that as a challenge and now I do better than before.
For one specific campaign I get a 2:1 ROI and I am very happy with that.
Hope these explanations help you in getting your project on track.
Good luck.

[Frequent]

emoshe-

Any chance your ad or this keyword is on hold for review?

Any change this keyword combo contains a trademark term that the other affiliate may have secured special permission to bid upon?

Just a couple of thoughts that I didn't see mentioned in a quick scan of the thread. (I hope I didn't miss something.)

Freq---

[andye]

The ad does not appear at all for this keyword on any page. ZERO impressions.

I guess you've already checked this, but it couldn't be budget problems, could it?

Geo-targeting problems?

Ads not approved?

What do AW support say?

best, a.

[kooky]

I think you're missing the point, the question relates to someone who has already claimed the affiliate spot, if they are maxing their bid, if they have all the click-thru, how is anyone new supposed to get their ad in on the same domain?

[emoshe]

Exactly kooky, this was my original question and I still don't understand if it's possible and how one can do it.

[awmg]

andye thanks for the reply but its not budeting / geo-targeting or approval issues

- it seems to be exactly whay kooky just wrote (msg#22).