AdWords Assistance

[AussieWebmaster]

Anyone have a question about AdWords? Let's get a FAQ going here. We can qualify the answers and when appropriate decide on a combined and distinct answer where possible.
Any Questions?

[Jeff Martin]

When trying to estimate PPC out-of-pocket costs for the top three syndicated spots, for either yourself or a client, how do each of you gauge top level CPC prices for Adwords? While Overture provides all the max bids, Google makes you work for it.

What I have done in the past is insert my list of keywords into a group and start off with a low price. I incrementaly increase the max CPC until I get the top three levels and insert that into my spreadsheet. So I start out with .10 cent max CPC, Adwords estimates (granted Google's estimates are shaky) the position for that CPC to be a 4.9 average. I then increase the CPC to .15 cents which yields an estimate of 3.2. I would write .15 cents as my 3rd position CPC rate and keep increasing till I found the 2nd and 1st position.

[seobook]

off the start while setting up your account place $50 at your bid price.

the returned result for estimated cost per click will be what it costs to rank @ #1

you then can lower your bid price until it gets to 2.0 and record that price. that is what #2 will be priced at. you can do that down the line to figure out estimates for bid price by position.

if you have an exceptionally high or low click through rate it can also have a major effect on your actual click prices.

[AussieWebmaster]

off the start while setting up your account place $50 at your bid price.

the returned result for estimated cost per click will be what it costs to rank @ #1

you then can lower your bid price until it gets to 2.0 and record that price. that is what #2 will be priced at. you can do that down the line to figure out estimates for bid price by position.

if you have an exceptionally high or low click through rate it can also have a major effect on your actual click prices.

While that gives you a solid rough gauge it is not totally accurate as the CTR and position changes are not factored in... if you are looking where to max the CPC to hold in a lower position you do work from that... but new bidders etc can shift the thing at any time, the success of others who quickly meet their spend...

[cyrus]

My keywords are not meeting the minimum required clickthrough rate (CTR), and as such, an ad campaign of mine is being slowed down by the system.

I have restored the service after I feel That I could not have done any more with regard to optimizing keywords for relevance as per the guidelines by Google in this regard, as well as using their keyword suggestion tool.

However, it has been slowed down again, so obviously I am not meeting the criteria, or am doing something drastically wrong....and don't want to start the system again without knowing exactly where I stand, as I have reached the stage of being charged five bucks each time I restart.

Would appreciate assistance to get on the right track

[Jeff Martin]

Im going to start with the basics:

Are you positive that the purchased keywords are relevant to your service/product?

Are your ads written to emphasize they keyword(s) that it represents?

Do the ads have a call to action?

Are you tracking conversion? Is the rate low/none?

Are your ads appearing in the first SERP? Studies show that ads on the second page are at an extreme disadcantage (especially when users could favor natutal listings by over 70% for Google). You may be getting impressions but too few clicks and thats what could be killing that part of your campaign.

[AussieWebmaster]

Actually as far as being disabled it is purely based on comparative CTR....

So the questions are:
1. Are your ads that much different from the others on the page?

2. Do you include the keyword in the title?

3. Are you going head-to-head with major branded advertisers?

4. How often have you tweaked you creative?

Okay now apart from that, if you are being pulled down you should try using phrase and then exact match... by putting the " " around a term you create a new keyword to Google and the count starts again....

But more importantly you have to look at your terms as Jeff outlines... look at the other advertisers and see what they are doing... and work the creative text to improve the CTR... after they get to the site it is a whole other game, but not one that Google measures (unless you use the free tracking codes).

[cyrus]

Thanks a lot for the response, and I will go back step by step and analyze each point that the both of you have made, and see where I have gone wrong.

As you know, each account is reviewed after a 1000 impressions of a campaign, and that's where my words are being slowed as my keywords are underperforming.

As per their guidelines at The AdWords Minimum CTR and Performance Monitor (https://adwords.google.com/select/performance.html) and as far as the keywords being specific to the site's product or service, I can't see where I have gone wrong as the service is web hosting, and the target ad as well as keywords all incorporate the variations around that specific keyword pertaining to the service offered.

So I will have to work hard to overcome the following :

1) Keywords are slowed if they have fewer than 1,000 impressions and less than the minimum required CTR.

2) Keywords with less than the minimum required CTR and more than 1,000 impressions are disabled.

and follow up on your points.

Thanks.

[AussieWebmaster]

You are working in a very tough area for PPC. Obviously your competition is far more savy than other areas.
Have you tried using the Google keyword insertion? By having the code the keyword is automatically inserted into each creative... could be a help if you are not using it.

[cyrus]

Yes...initially went with their keyword insertion, where appropriate in relation to my campaign.

I then applied all sorts of variations once that was slowed, but am having no success so far.

Thanks....will keep plodding on !

[cline]

Try changing your targeting to [exact match]

[cuzco]

Another factor which can effect the number of impressions is a low daily budget.

Tip:
If using “content network” create a separate campaign just for this – so now you have two separate campaigns, 1 campaign for the “content network” and another for “search network”

Now you can use less relevant terms and bid much less for the “content network” without it effecting the performance of your other campaign.

This works well for us, we use very descriptive ads which counter the slightly less relevant terms used on the “content network”. Yesterday we had 41,000 impressions on the content network and 56 clicks which cost half of what it cost to get 17 clicks from 756 impressions on the “search network”. The CTR of the “content network” is awful but the low CTR doesn’t stop the ad from showing and it doesn’t effect the other campaign. Guess this will work for some and not others, try it!

[AussieWebmaster]

Another factor which can effect the number of impressions is a low daily budget.

Tip:
If using “content network” create a separate campaign just for this – so now you have two separate campaigns, 1 campaign for the “content network” and another for “search network”

Now you can use less relevant terms and bid much less for the “content network” without it effecting the performance of your other campaign.

This works well for us, we use very descriptive ads which counter the slightly less relevant terms used on the “content network”. Yesterday we had 41,000 impressions on the content network and 56 clicks which cost half of what it cost to get 17 clicks from 756 impressions on the “search network”. The CTR of the “content network” is awful but the low CTR doesn’t stop the ad from showing and it doesn’t effect the other campaign. Guess this will work for some and not others, try it!
That is a great tip... I use the two separately as well...

[pbsadword]

Does anybody know how the content network works?

I was getting lots of impresions and clicks via the content network but now no such luck I don't even have a content network stat colomn.

Can any one please help me get back on the content network?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
PBS Team.

[Jeff Martin]

To run your campaign on the content network in Adwords:

Log in
Click on the campaign you want to change
Click "Edit Campaign Settings"
Select "Content Network" check box under #5.
Click "Save All Changes"

Hope that helps.

[AussieWebmaster]

Does anybody know how the content network works?

I was getting lots of impresions and clicks via the content network but now no such luck I don't even have a content network stat colomn.

Can any one please help me get back on the content network?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
PBS Team.
You have to have content turned on... it is on the right isde inside of the campaign settings

[AussieWebmaster]

Seems we were answering thew question at the same time!

[pbsadword]

Guy's I do have the content network turned on as said i was getting clicks and impresions but then it just stopped and the content network result colomn disapperad.

Please help!

Manythanks
PBS Team

[AussieWebmaster]

I would be interested in seeing this... cam you do a screen capture and send it to me or post it somewhere and link it here so others can see it also.

[AdWordsRep]

One quick note:

You'll only see stats for the content network at the Ad Group level - and not in the Campaign Summary page or the pages for individual campaigns.

Hope that'll help!

:) AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

I guess that was the answer he needed.