Performance report of PPC campaigns and some questions

[ubaidabcd]

I want to stop the ones that aren't performing as well (traffic wise), haven't got any sales. I don't have landing pages, so there's nothing to tweak there. Is there anything else I can do to test traffic? What do I need to look for when I see my traffic reports? How do I know when to stop running a campaign? and even if a campaign is receiving traffic, when do I know when to stop the campaign? Is there a certain amount of clicks, if I don't get any conversions after 1000 clicks stop the campaign or try to market it differently?

Here's my current report for May (the top campaign was started yesterday - 5/18):


Impressions CTR Clicks CPC Cost

3,068 1.4% 35 $0.13 $4.66
1,993 1.1% 22 $0.14 $3.12
7,506 .41% 31 $0.24 $7.34
7,679 .18% 14 $0.16 $2.26

I had started with about 6 campaigns and now I'm down to these 4. The 2nd one on the list just picked up 2 days ago, after I uploaded more keywords. Should I stop all these campaigns and just run the top campaign? My budget was $5 a day and I just raised it to $7 yesterday.

I have problems with stopping campaigns, since I keep thinking, "What if I get a sale?". All of those markets are high competition markets except for the top one. Another reason I'm not sure if I should stop the other campaigns is that the payouts are much higher. The last one on there, I just updated the keyword list, I'll see how it does today if not, I'll stop that campaign as well. It seems obvious that I should stop all the other campaigns, but it's the payout that making me want to keep them. I still have 2-3 other campaigns I want to test out as well.

 

[springer]

You don't mention your conversion rate. Are you making any sales or earning any money from people clicking through your offers?

BTW, your percentages are off. Respectively, they are:

1.14%
1.1%
0.4%
0.18%

You mentioned this is a competetive market. Those CTRs are way low, unless you're getting conversions. Your spends are reasonable if they're converting but I assume their not or you wouldn't be here asking for advice. You're getting shit for clicks unless people are taking your offer or clicking adsense ads that pay you more than you're spending.

If you're not getting more coming in than you have going out, stop the bleeding NOW.

Why'd you pick a really competetive market for one of your first forays? That's what makes people think this doesn't work and they quit. Pick a less saturated market where you might get fewer impressions but a higher CTR and better conversions.

I have problems with stopping campaigns, since I keep thinking, "What if I get a sale?".

Get over that problem right now! You're thinking wrong here. Don't think "what IF I get a sale" think "I'm not getting ANY sales, it's time to move on." Unless of course you like bleeding money. If that's the case, PM me all your credit card numbers, please.

 

[ubaidabcd]

You don't mention your conversion rate. Are you making any sales or earning any money from people clicking through your offers?

BTW, your percentages are off. Respectively, they are:

1.14%
1.1%
0.4%
0.18%

You mentioned this is a competetive market. Those CTRs are way low, unless you're getting conversions. Your spends are reasonable if they're converting but I assume their not or you wouldn't be here asking for advice. You're getting shit for clicks unless people are taking your offer or clicking adsense ads that pay you more than you're spending.

If you're not getting more coming in than you have going out, stop the bleeding NOW.

Why'd you pick a really competetive market for one of your first forays? That's what makes people think this doesn't work and they quit. Pick a less saturated market where you might get fewer impressions but a higher CTR and better conversions.



Get over that problem right now! You're thinking wrong here. Don't think "what IF I get a sale" think "I'm not getting ANY sales, it's time to move on." Unless of course you like bleeding money. If that's the case, PM me all your credit card numbers, please.

I'm not getting any sales, but I just started early this month and my budget is at $5.00 a day, so I figured I should give it some time. Should I not do that? If I'm not getting sales right away according to traffic I should stop?

How do you know when to stop a campaign or let it go to see how it will do? Is it based on a percentage? If after 100 clicks if I don't see any conversions based on a 1% conversion rate I should stop immediately?

When I said above that I've been trying to give them a chance. Is the wrong way to think? I've started looking for low competitive markets, I just went with what I was suggested. Everybody else is saying they're making money from these programs, but I must be doing something wrong.

 

[springer]

Well, there're just so many variables. I don't know your market, what your ads look like, what the competitions ads and landing pages look like, etc. I don't really want to know the details either, I'm just saying there's a whole lot more to it.

Personally, if it were me and I was spending money and not getting anything for it, I wouldn't let it run very long at all. The first analogy that comes to mind is how long do you need to hold your hand in a fire to decide it's hot? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, just making a point.

It may very well be a good performing market so maybe you need to take a look at your site. A few people are clicking your ads but they're not taking your desired actions on your site. Do the ads make them expect something that isn't there?

Do you have content on the site? If so, and they're not hitting your ads or aff. offers, maybe the content is too good. Do the ads and offers on the site match the content? Does the content compel them to act on your offers? Are your ads or offers buried or otherwise hard to notice?

This is really just the tip of the ice burg. I think, if I'm guessing correctly, you need to take a look at some of the competitors in your market and see what you can figure out about the ones who are succeeding then try to do the same things.

Make note of who in the same market consistently runs the same ads at the top of the page in that market. They're the ones making a profit so they're the ones to study.

Mimick but don't out and out copy their ad style, their site design, their offers, etc. Perhaps that'll show you a little progress, eh?

I'm not advocating you quit, just test and adjust until you get the results you want. That testing and adjusting shouldn't take a long time or cost a lot of money.

If it works out you can't get the conversions up then yes, stop the campaign and move to another market. Don't just keep throwing more money at it hoping it'll change.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[ubaidabcd]

Thanks for the reply, there's important information in your reply that I'm going to look into. I'm really not throwing that much money into the campaign. I've probably spent about $40 this month so far. I'm watching my budget just for this reason, and made this post before I spend too much.

Trying to find a low competition niche that will bring traffic and conversions is really hard, so I'm trying to think as much as possible I've been spending 12 hrs., a day, going nowhere, but not quitting. Hopefully I'll find a token somewhere inbetween this search.

I don't have my own websites, I'm not good at creating websites or graphics, so I'm using feeder sites created by the merchant or mostly sending them directly to the offer. I know the sources to get professional landing pages or websites created, but I don't know if they're going to convert or not, or if the market is over-saturated. So, I'll end up wasting money purchasing the site, webspace, domain, PPC campaign just to find out it doesn't succeed.

A merchant offered me to sign up as an affiliate for their company and said they're going to help me out with keyword lists, and they'll check out my landing page as well. Hopefully this will work out, I'm going to spend the money to get a professional landing page created.

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it, not many people reply to my posts due to my ignorance; Thank you and have a nice evening.

Well, there're just so many variables. I don't know your market, what your ads look like, what the competitions ads and landing pages look like, etc. I don't really want to know the details either, I'm just saying there's a whole lot more to it.

Personally, if it were me and I was spending money and not getting anything for it, I wouldn't let it run very long at all. The first analogy that comes to mind is how long do you need to hold your hand in a fire to decide it's hot? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, just making a point.

It may very well be a good performing market so maybe you need to take a look at your site. A few people are clicking your ads but they're not taking your desired actions on your site. Do the ads make them expect something that isn't there?

Do you have content on the site? If so, and they're not hitting your ads or aff. offers, maybe the content is too good. Do the ads and offers on the site match the content? Does the content compel them to act on your offers? Are your ads or offers buried or otherwise hard to notice?

This is really just the tip of the ice burg. I think, if I'm guessing correctly, you need to take a look at some of the competitors in your market and see what you can figure out about the ones who are succeeding then try to do the same things.

Make note of who in the same market consistently runs the same ads at the top of the page in that market. They're the ones making a profit so they're the ones to study.

Mimick but don't out and out copy their ad style, their site design, their offers, etc. Perhaps that'll show you a little progress, eh?

I'm not advocating you quit, just test and adjust until you get the results you want. That testing and adjusting shouldn't take a long time or cost a lot of money.

If it works out you can't get the conversions up then yes, stop the campaign and move to another market. Don't just keep throwing more money at it hoping it'll change.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[springer]

You're welcome. I won't go off on anyone who asks a valid question. Jerks, assholes and idiots are a different story.

Trying to find a low competition niche that will bring traffic and conversions is really hard, so I'm trying to think as much as possible

Ummm, maybe not as hard as you think. I won't use that worn out "think outside the box" cliche' but pay attention to what's going on around you and use your imagination. Some days it seems like there is a new, developing, hot market created every minute. All you have to do is learn to spot them.

I don't have my own websites, I'm not good at creating websites or graphics

It's pretty easy to learn basic HTML. Get a book or surf the web for info. If you can't afford to buy a book, get a library card. Whatever it takes to start learning what you need to know.

If you want this to work you're going to have to get control of where your clicks go and what they see. Right now, if all you're doing is sending traffic to a merchants site and not getting conversions, they must have a crappy site. If it's a program you think you can make work, you need to be able to put out one hell of a convincing pre-sell. You can't do that without your own landing page or site, can you?

So far, that $40 bucks you've flushed would have bought you a book on HTML, a domain name and a couple months of hosting with change for a burger and a beer.

Don't look at it as a total loss, though. It was your first test. Learn from it and consider the money well spent and move to the next level.

A merchant offered me to sign up as an affiliate for their company and said they're going to help me out with keyword lists

That's all well and good but don't rely completely on someone else to do the work for you. The KW list they'll give you will likely be pretty generic. Learn to generate your own KWs, as well.

I'm going to spend the money to get a professional landing page created.

Scroll back up and reread what I said about learning to do it yourself, first. You can do the shiny, glitzy stuff once you figure out some of the basics.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

The tools don't make the craftsman. A good carpenter can build a house with a hammer and saw from the dime store. Get the skills first, then invest in expensive tools and gadgets.

 

[ChrisS]

Good shit springer. +rep

 

[springer]

Thank you Chris, I appreciate it.