Adwords is kicking my ass

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johnmatrix

johnmatrix

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Jan 4, 2008
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I've have had some decent success with affiliate marketing by using other forums of advertising like facebook, yahoo, adbrite etc.. but have NEVER had any success with adwords.

I got a great tip from my affiliate manager for a campaign to try.. Luckily I have a website that i started around 2006 that is highly relevent to the offer, it is organically ranked for the keywords i planned to target.. so i made a landing page for the offer, put it on my site.. so the landing page is a part of my site now. The site has thousands of pages of unique content directly related to the keywords and a long history. These keywords receive a shit-ton of traffic and have no advertisers at all.

Campaign starts off well, got a number of clicks.. at 6c, quality score was GREAT. check back an hour later quality score has changed to POOR. In a fit of rage i opened up a chat with an 'adwords specialist'. I ask why my highly relevent campaign wants me to pay $13 a click, I am told it will be investigated.. 10 mins later he comes back and admits my site and keywords
are highly relevent to the offer i am promoting. He suggests trying to optimise ad text by creating new ads. It seems CTR is the problem? which was quite low.. 0.35%

HOW THE FUCK CAN I TEST DIFFERENT ADS IF IT WANTS ME TO PAY $13 A CLICK TO GET THEM ACTIVE!

I said that in a nicer tone, obviously.. and he says he will email me within 48 hours with some customised optimisation tips. What should i expect in this email?

Im fucking fed up with adwords, every single campaign I have tried (around 20) has been fucked over with quality score pretty much ending any attempts at improvement...

At least im still making a living without adwords. Gonna fire this up in yahoo, fuck em'
 


Yep, I am prepared for this situation as well. Try deleting your campaign and start it over, only, like the rep said, you need to:
1) Have highly targeted keywords in each group of keywords.
2) Mention those keywords in your ad copy
3) Have 6 or so versions of each ad copy per group

If your CTR is shit, your ad goes to shit. 0.35% CTR? Yep, say hello to $5 clicks.

Read some of these guys blogs on WF, trust me, it will open your eyes. These are just the basics. I've been researching for three weeks and I feel like I am just getting started on the total learning process.

Once you get this shit down, it will positively effect your other PPC campaigns everywhere else.
 
Thanks Scott.. problem is im using only about 4 very high volume keywords, each of which i have entire sections devoted to on my site.. each with hundreds of pages. So relevency isn't the issue and the adwords rep agreed. It seems its the CTR, but even so.. theres ZERO advertisers for these keywords.. whats the point of killing my ad?
 
I never mentioned relevancy regarding your landing page your sending traffic to. This is a CTR related issue here.

Your ad isn't catching the eye of your target. You need to test multiple ad copy and figure out what they want to click. Be funny, original, creative. Testing is key.

Why kill the ad? You need to test. So you can start over at normal PPC bidding levels and remove the POOR QS.

BTW, targeting only high volume 1-2 word keywords could be your downfall depending on the niche. It might be better for you to test 20 keyword groups based on and around the high volume kws to see if that would help. Afterall, your goal here is a higher CTR for lower bids....

Edit: You mentioned other advertisers... That also isn't the issue. It doesn't matter if it had 100s of fucking advertisers on the kw, end result, poor CTR = poor performance (in adwords eyes) = high bids.

Test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test

/Try testing.
 
Alright, I will delete the campaign and start with a new one using your advice.. ill post results.
 
Started a new campaign.. and made about 10 different ads, made a longer list of keywords. havn't even finished creating the campaign and the 'traffic estimator' is saying none of my keywords will be active for search. Lowest one is 50c minimum, the MOST relevent keyword to the site\offer\ads wants $6.50. Where do I go from here? the ads havn't even run yet so I can only assume the CTR isn't a problem *yet*. How am i supposed to test? do i have to use a different domain or something? bloody ridiculous.
 
Hey johnmatrix;
Normally the best way to avoid shit like this is to create a new campaign on a different domain name. Obviously, this isn't gonna help in your case but I thought I would make you aware of it. Now, I would try to create a good amount of different ad copy to test with. Test with varying degree of "sensational" writing styles just to give CTR a boost.

You could always run some tests with these ads on the Content network only to see how that would turn out first.

And lastly; if your Google rep won't give you the answers, end the chat and open up a new one to talk to somenone else. ;)
 
Thanks ImagesAndWords, I wrote 10 new ads for the new campaign.. and obviously cant test them without bidding a fortune, so im kinda stuck right now. content network is worth a shot I suppose, might enable it. Maybe they want me to buy a new domain and cloak\keyword stuff it with hidden div's instead of using a legitimate trusted site that has ranked high for the same keywords im bidding on for over 2 years earning like 30g's on adsense. fuckers.

deep down, i hope google dies, they have too much power. yahoo seems so friendly and welcoming now.
 
Isn't it true you need to establish a bit of reputation with your adwords account? Just wondering. If his account is unused or new, that might be an issue as well...
 
You gotta understand man... Google sees the gap. The gap is the dollar amount that advertisers can afford to pay you for a lead. It's the gap between the advertiser's acceptable cost per lead and what AdWords is charging the advertiser to generate one lead. The more Google is able to close that gap, the more Google makes. You are what is standing in the way of them closing that gap.
 
johnmatrix said:
Thanks ImagesAndWords, I wrote 10 new ads for the new campaign.. and obviously cant test them without bidding a fortune, so im kinda stuck right now. content network is worth a shot I suppose, might enable it.
Click to expand...

Just one more thing; Run content-only as a separate campaign and not together with search on the same one.

To test;
1) Get a cheap throwaway domain like .info for like $0.88
2) Set up a copy of your site on the domain
3) Create a new campaign in the content network with your 10 new ads
4) CTR may or may not be lower than if you ran the same ads in search - that depends on the niche usually. But at least you should now get a better picture of what Google thinks is wrong with that first campaign.

:)
 
adding more keywords might not have helped.

and 10 ads per adgroup is a little excessive imo. 3 should be plenty to start. Make all 3 very different. After you've gotten like 50-100 or so clicks per ad your ctr data should start to be somewhat relevant.

Pause the lower ctr ads as soon as you think the CTR % is a valid sample and begin testing variations of your highest CTR ad.

What I would do is after finding your initial high CTR ad is create 2 other variations of this add, one with a different call to action in your ad text or a slightly different link text, then I would try another ad with some slight variation in display URL, and finally I would try a 4th brand new add, but watch it closely and shut it down as soon as its had a large enough sample and hasn't proven to be better or equal to your initial ad.

I didnt feel like revising that after I wrote it, bu thats pretty much my technique.
 
Your website isn't the problem as mentioned its the CTR any ad at .35% is going to have a really poor Quality Score. If the competition is as light as you say no reason you should be getting less then 1-4% in position 1 no matter the keyword just about.

I might be in the minority, but in the end Google being so hard on your ads right off the bat will only help. When you finally get that ad running good it'll be getting about 10x the CTR.

As mentioned there are a few techniques to getting that bid to drop down ASAP whether targetting another domain or just biting the bullet.
 
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