I Got Weak PPC Game

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greenvy

greenvy

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Sep 29, 2006
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I've been doing mostly SEO stuff until this pass week and decided to enter the PPC game...

Read around a bit and only way to actually figure shit out was to go "all-out" head first.

So I picked a niche and research on keywords to run with my campaign. I went with board keywords relating to my offer. Some keyword were 1 word other were just 2 worded keywords (total of 45 broad keywords). I direct linked to the offer...having an adcopy stating what they will find on the merchant page (free trial offer)

*Reason for going broad was to see what keyword got clicks and converted...once I figured out which keyword convert by (DL) I would then go deep on those keyword only with an LP optimized around the keyword (hence making it profitable on a known keyword that converted...well that's was my plan)

So after dumping $500, I got around 250 clicks...only one conversion ($30) and a shit load of data....

I got that one keyword that converted and went deep with it, finding all possible keyword from it...wasted another $100 with no conversion.

Now I'm clueless on what to do next...you guys got any suggestion?
 


Honestly there are so many dynamics that it's hard to tell where you went wrong. You may have selected the wrong keywords, your ad copy may have sucked, the offer you used may have sucked, etc. Also, bidding on very broad keywords and sending people to the merchants page seems like a disaster to me.

More like broad keywords > presell landing page > offer. And even that won't guarantee success. You need to dig for more specific keywords. You need to try keywords that may not seem obvious. Keep testing ...
 
Change the offer.

The best way for the first timer to enter PPC is the get the idea of what's already out there(i didn't say outing LP, did i?). And that's included:

-Search terms they're bidding on, you'll have to do it by hands
-Offers on their LPs, what networks it's from.
-Their average positions. Just to get the idea if they're just in banking or testing mode.

Tips: Try to write seperate ads for each adgroups. Improving ads relevancy makes CPC cheaper.

Are you running on Adwords? Go with YSM first, IMO.
 
I'm in a similar boat... the problem with me is that I don't have the $500 to test it.

Just keep trying I guess, and try different offers (in the same niche if you want to keep your keywords), and try Yahoo and MSN.
 
@stussy - Yeah, it's true going broad was pretty crazy...but the idea was if I went broad and with my tracking in place I knew exactly what long tail of the broad keyword converted...all my keywords were related to the offer in some form. My adcopy stated exactly what they'll be brought to (which was the merchant page)

ex:
Wine That You'll Never Forget
Taste The Freshness of Cali Finest Wine
Get a Free Sample Today!
www.CaliWines.com
*no it did not promote wine

The offer itself might have sucked...I believe it was new and my AM didn't have a % of conversion on the offer since it was fairly new, i guess.

Other than that...I have a few keyword that I know (after the amount I spent) would be killed because they never converted after $60.

If anything, this offer might be a dud...what do you guys think?
 
@unarmed

45 keywords (broad)
1 adgroup (2 ads)
250 clicks

Is it really not enough data? (just askin' since I have no clue)

I'm gonna run another test...with the keywords with the most clicks but was still under my keyword budget limit ($60 - 2x payout)

-Each keyword is gonna have its own adgroup with 2 adcopy (with keywords to be more relevant)
-Still gonna DL to merchant offer page

Testing this out with max $100 (budget is getting low)

I'll report back...in a few hrs or so
 
Do the exact opposite of what you did.

I'm assuming you used Goog

start with exact match phrases, probably 3-4 words, buying phrases not looking/searching phrases.

turn off content network (if you haven't already), run the campaign on one or the other. They aren't the same, you need a different strategy for the content network.

adgroups should have groups of very closely related phrases

keywords should be in the ad and on the landing page. Cloak all links from the LP to the offer and block the cloaked links using robots.txt

you won't get the impressions/clicks that you will with broad but you'll get a better CTR which will help later with a lower CPC

After you get some CTR history, move to phrase match and keep an eye on the searches that are triggering your ads, start adding negative keywords to keep your ads from showing on searches that aren't relevant.

I know all of the "super affiliates" direct link, but if you don't want to spend 10k a day to gross 10.5k, put up a small site (a wp blog will do), and use your own landing pages to get the best quality score you can get. The offer LP will only get a decent quality score for a few (if any) keywords.

stay away from broad match unless you're an expert and have a great negative keyword list, or you just want to blow some money to get some data.

PPC ain't rocket science, if you're any good at SEO, you'll get it.

Depending on what you're pushing, you may want to check out MSN, facebook, myspace, other media buys or even site targeting with adwords. Google search isn't always the best place make money.
 
greenvy said:
@unarmed

45 keywords (broad)
1 adgroup (2 ads)
250 clicks

Is it really not enough data? (just askin' since I have no clue)
Click to expand...

It's not enough data and there are other variables that can drastically affect conversions such as your competition, time of day the ads run, the source of your traffic, etc.
 
I haven't done a search campaign in a while, but when I used to I would get at least 25-30 (I know a lot of guys say to come up with 45-50) adgroups with about 5-10 closely related kw's. Then I would have 2-4 ads in each adgroup, trying to insert the kw somewhere in the headline if possible. Let that run for a day unless you don't get enough data out of a day. Then wack the kw's that suck, kill the ads with bad ctr, just slice it down to the winners, rinse and repeat.

You gotta let it run for a full day though, like pocket said, time of day can be a huge variable.
 
$500 isn't enough spend with a free trial offer. Also 1 conversion isn't enough data for you to know for sure that keyword will keep performing, or if others were not going to perform.

In short, you need more data. More ad spend
 
try a zip or email submit before you go bankrupt dude...

ohh and welcome to the club (guys blowing through money hoping they make some it back)
 
All i have to say is test ur campaign put up 2 ads and test them to asee which work the best and delete the other and put another one and test test test..
 
Going deep based on a keyword based on one conversion does not seem logical. Need more data to play with.

Keep testing different offers. Everything on your end could be great but a wack offer will bury it all.

good luck bro
 
In addition to what has been said already;

- For a free trial / $30-ish type offer, I assume it's the kind where the user pays a small fee of like $1-$3 for a "shipping and handling". 9 out of 10 times, you will do way better with a landing page to presell those types of offers.
Sure, the offer may be "free" and have you thinking "how can people not wanna sign up for a free trial?" But as soon as people have to get out their credit cards - even if it's for a very small amount, they get hesitant.

That's where a preselling landing page comes in to take away any skepticism the user may encounter when he/she gets to the merchant page. Show them that this offer is good and can be trusted. Even be upfront about the s&h fee they will have to pay - but describe why it will be very worth it, etc.

A LP with dynamically inserted keywords will also give you a better QS (and lower cpc costs), and conversions, than direct linking to the merchant page will.

- Secondly, split Test everything from the start. This way, you get much more data out of your invested cpc spend. Split test at least 4 very different ads in each adgroups from the beginning. Over time you will see which kind worked better. Then split test the winners again against new ones with smaller variations of it each time.

Landing pages. Ideally, 2-3 pages to test. Start out with 3 different approaches: For example; a review lander vs. a blog lander vs. a salesy lander. Which one did your users seem to be more into? The review one? Great! Now you know what seems to work - then split test 3 variations of review landers.

If you're not already using T202, I recommend you do so. It also makes it easy to split-test your landing pages:
How To Split-Test Landing Pages with Tracking202 : PROFITAPOLIS

Unsure how to make a LP? Hire someone in the Buy&Sell section to put together one for you.

- Lastly, split-test offers. This is also done easy with Tracking202. Only split-testing will reveal if the same offer is being shaved or scrubbed on the back end.
 
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Damn good info guys. This is WF at its best.*

*Nah...Skittles is WF at its best. But this is damn good too.
 
Holy shit!

thanks for all the info...

*I didn't follow thru with my last post...had to take the rest of the night off to really think on what I'm screwing up on.

@gumby - I'll give what you recommend a shot...can't hurt to try different methods

@jpet10 - I actually ran the campaign for 2 full days before pulling it & i used T202 to track so i know that time of day does effect my conversion (but I only got 1 so that didn't help...lol)

@images - badass explanation about the importance of a presell page even for a "free trial" offer and about testing LP

anyways...time to DO WORK!
 
Ok great advice on here but from my experience with CPA offers which are free trial, you can easily convert them around 4-8%. Keywords are important, make sure use buying keywords and the ad hint about the shipping cost or else you will get a lot of clicks from free loaders. Also check the Lp of the advertiser and make sure it also professional if direct linking and exit pops work well always most of the time as it increases my conversions when it is on advertisers page.

Need more advice etc, PM
 
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