PPC Arbitrage - Only Getting $0.10 Clicks

[Entrep]

Hi All

I found a niche with a tonne of different keyword bids at around $5-$7, so I targetted this keywords in my H1, title, and article texts.

Problem is, most of my clicks are only netting me $0.10 each!

I am driving traffic from 7search and searchfeed. Could it be something to do with smart pricing? I dont know wtf is going on TBH.

Thank you!

 

[DruSam]

If you used the adwords:keyword tool then the bid prices can be misleading if you put in a high Max CPC value. I bet if you put in $0.10 for the max cpc then you would notice that the ad positions are still in the 1-3 spots.

You could have been smartpriced if you were getting higher payout clicks before.

 

[alrightpeter]

Yea DruSam is right the AdWords tool can be way off. Plus, on a lot of those high paying keywords advertisers pay much less on the content network.

 

[dxearner]

Alrightpeter is correct. With the high paying terms: credit cards, loans, etc the payout (on the content network) from maxbid is significantly lessen.

Also one thing to look at and this is my personal opinion. Searchfeed sends the most horrific traffic I have ever seen. There traffic doesn't click on anything. Yea they have the volume but what is that if there traffic doesnt convert. In fact not only does traffic like that not convert but it just ends up costing you. In my experence searchfeed traffic has low CTR. That is also another thing to consider.

 

[Karnul]

I've been using adwords to drive traffic to my retail site for over a year now. In that time I have consistently seen the quality of content site traffic go down.

I used to be happy to pay the same on content and search... but now I am paying 4X more on search and I get higher rankings on content.

PPC arbitrage is driving down the value of content traffic.

BTW, where do these 2nd tier search engines get THEIR traffic??

 

[rembrandt]

A tool like the Adwords keytool is most likely set to price your clicks at a generic CTR of around 1% at a guess. If you lower the Max CPC price you'll notice you can still get the same position for lower CPC. When you start your campaign however you should still be able to further reduce your CPC by building up a good CTR. Higher CTR means lower CPC even if your bid is $1 you can still end up paying less that 5 cents if your keyword and ads is targeted and your getting a high CTR. Plus when starting an Adwords campaign you'll be competing against other ads that already have a good quality score so you'll most likely be losing for the first couple of weeks.

All this only relates to Adwords as I haven't done any other PPC except for a bit of YSM.

 

[sknydave]

I've been using adwords to drive traffic to my retail site for over a year now. In that time I have consistently seen the quality of content site traffic go down.

I used to be happy to pay the same on content and search... but now I am paying 4X more on search and I get higher rankings on content.

PPC arbitrage is driving down the value of content traffic.

BTW, where do these 2nd tier search engines get THEIR traffic??

I don't see how PPC arbitrage is driving down the value of content traffic? If someone had to click to visit an arbitrage page then click again on your ad displayed on the arbitrage page chances are they are pretty interested in your products?

 

[Karnul]

#1 reason why PPC arbitrage drives down the value of traffic is that some of the traffic is not U.S. based. As a USA retail web site, overseas traffic is nearly worthless to me. I buy ads on google in the US only... but PPC sites get traffic from elsewhere.

#2 I suspect the traffic skews younger. I need people with $ to visit my site...not a lot of money, but people that don't balk at a $50 item.

#3 this one is a guess: people get click/exit happy -- they've seen so much crap, they don't give you much of a chance.

No doubt about though... 1 year ago, content traffic was worth $1.60 a click to me. Now it's worth 34 cents. I get 3X as much traffic, so it almost works out.

I don't see how PPC arbitrage is driving down the value of content traffic? If someone had to click to visit an arbitrage page then click again on your ad displayed on the arbitrage page chances are they are pretty interested in your products?