Is Google right for me?

Looking for a PPC solution, not happy with Google Adwords

[dustin999]

I currently have a budget of around $2000/month for advertising. I've been using Google Adwords, and I'm not real happy with my results thus far. It seems I'm consistently paying at least 25c/click if not more for most keywords. I've also done some site-specific keywords, but I've found myself getting screwed a lot of times.

One option I've been using with some success is stumbleupon. I like it because of the flat rate (5c). But I'm forced to choose very specific categories which only generate about 50 hits a day, not hardly enough to satisfy my budget.

Since my site is actually pretty general, I'd like a PPC solution that allows more of a general target and low PPC. If I could find something like stumbleupon that generates more traffic for me, that would be perfect.

Like I said, my site is pretty general. It's essentially a shopping site featuring tech products, apparel, home/garden, pretty much as vast a range of products as amazon. So narrowing it down to these very specific categories doesn't seem to be a good match for me.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent PPC advertising avenue, or even some other kind of creative option I should maybe consider?

Thanks,
Dustin

[justdave]

Since your site is general, as you say, I would guess you'll need to avoid niche ppc engines. If you want low cost/click with high traffic, you'll have to dig.

To me, Google will be your best option. a combo of Yahoo/MSN may be a good alternative. I don't know how detail-oriented you are with your campaign on Google, but I assume you are at least tracking conversions. If your conversion/conversion rate/cost per conversion are too high, have you performed any strategic optimization?

I don't want to presume too much on your campaign, so I will just leave it at this. In my opinion, many PPC campaigns "fail" in the eye of the advertiser because they are not systematically and continually optimizing their campaigns.

[Marketing is life]

Well this is the first time I am going to advertise through Google , so before that I would like to ask whether I am on the right choice.
My site is a simple one where I market Herbal & Natural supplements, my product range quite ok about 35-45 products so at the beginning I thought of starting for about 100$ with some main key words. So do you think, for a site like mine what I want to do is ok or are there any alternative.

[seth_wilde]

Google, Yahoo, and MSN definitely have the highest conversion rates and ROI for most verticals.. If your having trouble becoming profitable with them you may need read up on some of finer points of ppc management.