Forum, I am new, but have been reading a lot. Following what Terry said in another thread "is always about relevancy with google ... the more relevant the better you will fair ... the whole thing has to follow though - from highly targeted small no. of kws adgroup, use the kws in the ad, get a good ctr, relevant landing page to the search term (kws) ... if you go with that model your QS will be good and relatively it will cost you less to maintain good pos. which in turn improve you ctr ..." So, I am thinking from what I have read, I want lots of keywords, but in separate adgroups with 10-15 variations of keyword theme in each group(example below) : shoes red shoes basketball shoes high top shoes Or should these be split up also? I have gotten my keywords to 0.10-0.30 OK's and $1 POOR's. Now I have to increase my bid to get the advert shown, and work on getting text that is compelling enough to generate high CTR. Once High CTR rate is achieved, I can then start to lower my CPC and let the CTR carry the keyword more than the higher bid? Am I thinking correctly? Does the $1 POOR rating still reflect that Google does not like the landing page? Again, I have lots of OK keywords, none GREAT yet so $1 and $5 POOR and less than 5 are $10 min, but if I am in a super competitive market, I will need to increase my bids well above the minimum to be shown and then as CTR grows, lower it back. Is there a place to see what price will be required to get on the first page or will I have to just increase it until I see it on the first page? Does the magnifying glass update the increases you make to CPC immediately or does it take some time for google to update? Thanks Russell
For a newbie, you're off to an amazing start, Russell. About your "Inactive for search" problems... I'd ignore it for now. I wouldn't let it get you down. Instead, find slightly different alternatives that you can get for less than 30 cents a click. I just answered a similar question here: http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stump-Markus-PPC-advertising-costs.php
Markus, Is there a way to tell what it will cost to bid to land on the first page? I understand those who are on the first page will have a higher CTR, since mine is 0 now, therefore I will have to pay more at first. I would like to find out what to spend in order to land on the first page. My understanding so far is the quality score is how revalent google thinks your landing pages are. As far as getting on the first page is a combo of quality score and max bid. Thanks Russell
Generally bidding for position 1-8 will get you on the first page. Here's how to estimate the bid amount based on your campaign: Go into your adwords campaign then follow these screens. Hope that helps.