Hi, I have an Adwords Campaign running on a new website that I recently purchased the Domain name for. Not sure if you are allowed to put links in here but for the best explanation I need to, if your are not allowed sorry. My domain is www.onlinecompetitions.com, as the name suggests I focus on Online Comeptitions (Sweepstakes). I have keywords like "Online Competitions" "Online Competition" "Internet Competition" "Free Competition" "25 words or less" etc. Which I believe are relevant to the site. Now my minimum bid is $1 due to poor landing page. I have performed basic SEO (The site uses Joomla) on the home page and the two landing pages, with no change to QS. I have a privacy policy, a contact us, and a unsubscribe button. The average pages looked at by each user is around 4. My ads are honest using the keywords and stating that they are links. I can currently use the phrase "online competitions" but not "online competition". The "25 words or less is inactive as well but the landing page is the 25 words or less page, and it includes 25 words or less in the URL. I have been searching the forums for a couple of weeks looking for some answers but now cannot see what else I can do but provide irrelevant content that the user would not be that interested in. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks
Major issue number 1 you have a banner on the landing page. You cannot do that Second, you need to make a dedicated landing page... Google does not like home pages as landing pages... unless that home page is dedicated to just that offer.
I hope you didn't pay much for that domain because it looks like they slapped it in the past. They don't really like what you're promoting. Ask the previous owner what his or her bids were like.
I don't know for sure, just going by the fact that he bought it and the bids are high from the get go. There is no way to know for sure until you run a campaign for it. BUT this may be the reason the site was for sale in the first place.
Thanks I have three landing pages, one is the home page, one is the first page of the Online Competitions, and the other is the first page of the 25 words or less. Will change the landing pages all to the Home page and remove the Banner. The PPC was low when I first started it, but has increased due to lack of relevance, but not sure how it could be more relevant for what I advertise. ie Links to Online Competitions. I thought Adwords was ok to affiliate matketing as long as it was clear that it was a sponsor?
Just looked at a competitors landing page and they have Banners so I don't think that is it. Also forgot to add that while I cannot get "Online Competition" I can get "Competition"
I think the next step for you would be to start building incoming links to your site focusing on the terms you wish to advertise in Google. PPC is now closely coupled with SEO and a good SEO implementation should lower your min CPC. Another question, are you managing the campaign in an existing account or a new one? If you do it in an old account, how are other campaigns working there?
Its an old account but this is currently the only Campaign running. Thanks for the tip trying to build incoming links now.
No probs. You might have a poor account quality score and that could be whats killing your campaign. If it doesnt improve soon, you should consider opening a new account
Removing the banner on the Homepage and using the Home Page for the Landing Page didn't work, those keywords have actually become inactive. Have undone those changes in the hope that they re activate. A new account doesn't work either they are automatically inactive.
When you tried a new account were you using a new domain? Your account history will be clean on a new account but I doubt your domain history will be erased or reset. If the domain you were using was penalized in your first account it will be penalized in every account you create.
Same domain but then I paid for the domain based on the relevance. Stupid thing is some of my competitiors are only affiliate marketers and have no where near the relevance I have in landing page. Still trying to research the problem but based on the page source from the landing page of mine and other sites they are very similar. Does Bounce rate come into this?
It's frustrating but you have to accept that what google sees as relevant is more important than what anyone else thinks. Googles priorities are CTR and relevance. Try to simplify your campaign. Start with one keyword in an adgroup and create two ads just for that keyword. Put the keyword in the title of the ad. The landing page should also have that keyword in the title. Keep changing and adjusting the ad until your CPC is more acceptable. Even the smallest changes, one word even, can drop your CPC .10-.20 on a $1 min bid. The best way to improve your quality score is with CTR, but because of the poor rating you may need to overpay at the beginning just to get an ad shown. Aim for the 4-6 position, you don't have to bid to the #1 position. If your CTR is good enough you'll be rewarded with lower min bids. robertpriolo was telling you not to use your home page as the landing page, advice I would definitely take.
the problem is the minimum bid is $5 for most keywords. CTR is around 8%. $1 CPC takes me to about Position 3. Will try the the single keyword per ad group. Could it be bounce rate, I seem to have an average of 35% Bounce Rate? Also if I put no follow on the page that users click on to go to the Online Competition Link, would that help?
Ok, just found something that may be causing a problem. This domain is an addon domain and both the primary and this one point to the same IP address. The Primary has been up for a few years, and adsense on the site lists ads releveant to the keywords on the addon. would this be causing problems with QS?