So, after spending way too long reading WF and blogs and such, I decided to take the most common advice I've seen ("Stop reading blogs and do it! Test, test, test!") and try jumping into PPC.
A bit of background on me: I've been a professional developer for a major software company, so I have plenty of technical experience. I made $40k last year off what was basically black-hat SEO that got really lucky, but I have never touched PPC until this month. I am a poor salesman, and am far too risk-averse (I'm not willing to spend much on a losing campaign), but have enough money in the bank to spend a whole lot on a profitable campaign.
This isn't really a solicitation for advice (though I'd welcome it!) so much as something I thought might be interesting for the other people sitting on the sidelines wondering if they should get started. At least, I'd have liked to have read some experiences like this before I got started.
So, right after the swine flu story broke, I decided that I'd try putting together an information site & promote lead-generation offers (email/zip submits) on it. I did so, and since the story was just starting, I got 0.05-0.10 CPC from Google and MSN. The campaign didn't make a profit -- I could get tons of impressions, and plenty of people on my site, but nobody to click on the offers. So I replaced the offers with a poll on swine flu (actually a few polls) that, when submitted, redirected to an email submit. I got almost no emails submitted -- I think one problem was that at the time, none of the swine flu related zip/email submits were available, so these were totally unrelated crap targeted at the general public. Given the returns I was getting (i.e. returns of 10% of my spend), I decided to move on to something else. I spent less than $100 on the site's campaigns, which in the world of PPC I realize is basically nothing.
Which brings me to this week. I decided to dive into PPC a bit further, and chose offers that, in retrospect, might have been jumping into the deep end -- resveratrol. I grabbed 3 resveratrol offers with CPAs of $33-$40, and a related skin cream offer at $33. I did some keyword research, using Google's keyword tool and MSN AdCenter's Excel add-in (which is quite nice actually.) I came up with a list of 500 keywords, and put them into Google, MSN, and Yahoo, all three being search only (no content network), exact and phrase match only (no broad match), and with a max CPC of $1.
As for what the ads went to, I sent them to three things:
1.) Direct linking to the offer page of one of the resv offers
2.) A review-style lander that was on a site filled with resveratrol information. This was a real site, over 30 pages, a dozen unique content articles, terms of use, contact page, privacy policy, etc.
3.) A testimonial/flog lander on the same site as #2 that had one of the resveratrol offers and the associated skin cream offer.
I put in separate ad groups going to all three targets. I set a max budget of $75/day on each of Google, MSN, and Yahoo, and let it go.
It's been four days, and so far, to my pleasant surprise I have broken even -- I've brought in pretty much the same amount as I've spent, very slightly less (I've lost $20 in 4 days of $75/day on 3 networks.)
So, things I learned from this:
1.) Don't advertise "pharmaceutical keywords." Anything with pill, medicine, drug, etc. -- they think you're selling illegal viagra or Mexican steroids or something, even though all I was promoting was perfectly legal dietary supplements. And in Yahoo's case, a couple of these keywords killed the entire ad (i.e. every keyword was rejected for ads that had one "pharamaceutical" keyword) and they still haven't activated 2/3 of my ads four days later ("editorial pending"), even though I deleted all the suspect keywords.
2.) God, Yahoo's tools suck. They only work in Internet Explorer, have no features, and don't allow imports from MSN/Google/other apps. I hear that they allow imports when you spend more money with them, but creating my campaigns on Yahoo's site blows.
3.) Google is a lot harder than MSN/Yahoo. Half my spend has been with Google, and 0 of my sales were from Google -- every sale was an MSN or Yahoo click. My quality scores range from 1-7 depending on keyword, with most in the 3-6 range. By comparison, on Yahoo and MSN my direct links get 3 of 5 and my landers get 4-5/5. Also, while my whole keyword list got clicks at $1 CPC on MSN and Yahoo, I was priced out of the market for several dozen keywords on Google. (Broad match on "resveratrol" -- which I didn't bid on -- is over $7!) I think in truth I have 0 sales from Google because my $1 CPC is not enough to compete on there -- I'm off on page 2 -- whereas on MSN and Yahoo it usually gets me top-3 placement.
4.) Tracking is good. I have a Prosper202 install that everything -- both landers & direct linking -- go through. However, it's become clear to me that my spend ($75/day * 3 networks) is so low that it will take basically eternity to know if most of my keywords are profitable, and I don't have enough clicks to even know what ads are best. If I were promoting a $2-3 CPA lead offer, instead of a $35 CPA sale offer, I'd learn what works and what doesn't a hell of a lot faster. On the other hand, if this campaign keeps breaking even a few more days, I may just dump more money into it and get data -- it's not costing me anything, really, and whether I spend $500 and get $500, or spend $10k and get $10k, breaking even is breaking even. I'd ramp up slowly of course -- what works at 200 clicks might be very different at 10,000 clicks.
5.) Apparently my landing-page-fu is not strong. My landing pages actually seem to lower sales -- I've made more from direct linking. I don't think that's how this is supposed to work.
This is kind of a problem I expected -- my technical ability is great, and I can automate everything, but graphic design and making appealing sales sites is not a skill I presently have. That'll take practice.
6.) I think maybe my primary offer sucks. When I do get people to their offer page -- whether direct or via my lander -- the conversion rate is 0.50%. From what I hear, this is wretched for a resveratrol offer. Last night I switched to a different offer, and it's converting at 2% so far. (But once again, I don't have enough data for statistical significance yet.)
Overall, though, I'm glad I dove in. I'm risk-averse enough that it was a leap to start spending $200/day with the fear I'd get 0 sales -- the fact that it broke even on the first day makes me much more convinced that making money with PPC is possible.
So, where do I go from here? (I'd take suggestions to heart.) My current plans are:
1.) For now, I shut off Google -- I'm going to focus on being profitable on MSN/Yahoo first, and Google's been all spend, no returns so far. (Actually, cutting off Google may make me profitable right there, if it means I drop half my spend but none of my sales.)
2.) Try out bidding on the content networks, but at a lower CPC.
3.) Ramp up daily budgets, maybe ramp up CPC a bit, too. My goal is to get data faster while still at least breaking even.
4.) Pick some cheaper lead-generation offers (stuff paying <$3) and start over with those. I think reseveratrol may be a little out of my league right now, and I need to learn more from cheaper offers (where I can start dropping keywords if I spend $5 with no sales, instead of having to spend $80 to know I can drop a keyword) before I have the confidence to really score with a sale-generation offer like resveratrol.
A bit of background on me: I've been a professional developer for a major software company, so I have plenty of technical experience. I made $40k last year off what was basically black-hat SEO that got really lucky, but I have never touched PPC until this month. I am a poor salesman, and am far too risk-averse (I'm not willing to spend much on a losing campaign), but have enough money in the bank to spend a whole lot on a profitable campaign.
This isn't really a solicitation for advice (though I'd welcome it!) so much as something I thought might be interesting for the other people sitting on the sidelines wondering if they should get started. At least, I'd have liked to have read some experiences like this before I got started.
So, right after the swine flu story broke, I decided that I'd try putting together an information site & promote lead-generation offers (email/zip submits) on it. I did so, and since the story was just starting, I got 0.05-0.10 CPC from Google and MSN. The campaign didn't make a profit -- I could get tons of impressions, and plenty of people on my site, but nobody to click on the offers. So I replaced the offers with a poll on swine flu (actually a few polls) that, when submitted, redirected to an email submit. I got almost no emails submitted -- I think one problem was that at the time, none of the swine flu related zip/email submits were available, so these were totally unrelated crap targeted at the general public. Given the returns I was getting (i.e. returns of 10% of my spend), I decided to move on to something else. I spent less than $100 on the site's campaigns, which in the world of PPC I realize is basically nothing.
Which brings me to this week. I decided to dive into PPC a bit further, and chose offers that, in retrospect, might have been jumping into the deep end -- resveratrol. I grabbed 3 resveratrol offers with CPAs of $33-$40, and a related skin cream offer at $33. I did some keyword research, using Google's keyword tool and MSN AdCenter's Excel add-in (which is quite nice actually.) I came up with a list of 500 keywords, and put them into Google, MSN, and Yahoo, all three being search only (no content network), exact and phrase match only (no broad match), and with a max CPC of $1.
As for what the ads went to, I sent them to three things:
1.) Direct linking to the offer page of one of the resv offers
2.) A review-style lander that was on a site filled with resveratrol information. This was a real site, over 30 pages, a dozen unique content articles, terms of use, contact page, privacy policy, etc.
3.) A testimonial/flog lander on the same site as #2 that had one of the resveratrol offers and the associated skin cream offer.
I put in separate ad groups going to all three targets. I set a max budget of $75/day on each of Google, MSN, and Yahoo, and let it go.
It's been four days, and so far, to my pleasant surprise I have broken even -- I've brought in pretty much the same amount as I've spent, very slightly less (I've lost $20 in 4 days of $75/day on 3 networks.)
So, things I learned from this:
1.) Don't advertise "pharmaceutical keywords." Anything with pill, medicine, drug, etc. -- they think you're selling illegal viagra or Mexican steroids or something, even though all I was promoting was perfectly legal dietary supplements. And in Yahoo's case, a couple of these keywords killed the entire ad (i.e. every keyword was rejected for ads that had one "pharamaceutical" keyword) and they still haven't activated 2/3 of my ads four days later ("editorial pending"), even though I deleted all the suspect keywords.
2.) God, Yahoo's tools suck. They only work in Internet Explorer, have no features, and don't allow imports from MSN/Google/other apps. I hear that they allow imports when you spend more money with them, but creating my campaigns on Yahoo's site blows.
3.) Google is a lot harder than MSN/Yahoo. Half my spend has been with Google, and 0 of my sales were from Google -- every sale was an MSN or Yahoo click. My quality scores range from 1-7 depending on keyword, with most in the 3-6 range. By comparison, on Yahoo and MSN my direct links get 3 of 5 and my landers get 4-5/5. Also, while my whole keyword list got clicks at $1 CPC on MSN and Yahoo, I was priced out of the market for several dozen keywords on Google. (Broad match on "resveratrol" -- which I didn't bid on -- is over $7!) I think in truth I have 0 sales from Google because my $1 CPC is not enough to compete on there -- I'm off on page 2 -- whereas on MSN and Yahoo it usually gets me top-3 placement.
4.) Tracking is good. I have a Prosper202 install that everything -- both landers & direct linking -- go through. However, it's become clear to me that my spend ($75/day * 3 networks) is so low that it will take basically eternity to know if most of my keywords are profitable, and I don't have enough clicks to even know what ads are best. If I were promoting a $2-3 CPA lead offer, instead of a $35 CPA sale offer, I'd learn what works and what doesn't a hell of a lot faster. On the other hand, if this campaign keeps breaking even a few more days, I may just dump more money into it and get data -- it's not costing me anything, really, and whether I spend $500 and get $500, or spend $10k and get $10k, breaking even is breaking even. I'd ramp up slowly of course -- what works at 200 clicks might be very different at 10,000 clicks.
5.) Apparently my landing-page-fu is not strong. My landing pages actually seem to lower sales -- I've made more from direct linking. I don't think that's how this is supposed to work.
This is kind of a problem I expected -- my technical ability is great, and I can automate everything, but graphic design and making appealing sales sites is not a skill I presently have. That'll take practice.6.) I think maybe my primary offer sucks. When I do get people to their offer page -- whether direct or via my lander -- the conversion rate is 0.50%. From what I hear, this is wretched for a resveratrol offer. Last night I switched to a different offer, and it's converting at 2% so far. (But once again, I don't have enough data for statistical significance yet.)
Overall, though, I'm glad I dove in. I'm risk-averse enough that it was a leap to start spending $200/day with the fear I'd get 0 sales -- the fact that it broke even on the first day makes me much more convinced that making money with PPC is possible.
So, where do I go from here? (I'd take suggestions to heart.) My current plans are:
1.) For now, I shut off Google -- I'm going to focus on being profitable on MSN/Yahoo first, and Google's been all spend, no returns so far. (Actually, cutting off Google may make me profitable right there, if it means I drop half my spend but none of my sales.)
2.) Try out bidding on the content networks, but at a lower CPC.
3.) Ramp up daily budgets, maybe ramp up CPC a bit, too. My goal is to get data faster while still at least breaking even.
4.) Pick some cheaper lead-generation offers (stuff paying <$3) and start over with those. I think reseveratrol may be a little out of my league right now, and I need to learn more from cheaper offers (where I can start dropping keywords if I spend $5 with no sales, instead of having to spend $80 to know I can drop a keyword) before I have the confidence to really score with a sale-generation offer like resveratrol.
