Well here's the lastest, things are still moving up, but adwords really pissed me off so I shut it down completely while I redo the campaign there. Adwords is the hardest one to get going. Especially with something like this that is closely related to consolidation loans. Adwords wants big bucks for keywords because they know loans programs pay big bucks for leads. Unfortunately, this debt management program has 3 different payout levels and when I'm chasing the largest payout, smaller payout leads come in. That's the one thing I really don't like about this program. It limits my maximum bid severely and makes me unable to bid on terms I know would work, (because I may get a lead that doesn't meet the high payout criteria). So I've got to be very creative.
One other thing, what converts in overture and msn does not necessarily convert in adwords. I've never understood this, but that's the way it goes. I am not sure I'll hit my goal in the 30 days I set out, but I will hit my ROI goal, so all is good. I find when setting goals, if you make it too easy, it's not a challenge, so why bother? So I try to set it high and make my timeline shorter to make me work a bit harder to hit it. I'm sure one of these days I'll hit every goal within the designated timeline, but for now, I'll be happy almost doubling my money for now and for sure doubling it and more in the future. I will definitely continue tweaking this campaign. Once I get adwords cracked for this, the volume of leads should really jump. But I guess the main lesson is if adwords is fucking you around, piss on them. You can still make money with overture and msn. I haven't even touched any of the other engines because I have heard nothing but bad things about them, (except for arbitrage sites).
Here's the numbers: