Cost of testing adwords

Discussion in 'Google AdWords' started by rbf738, Feb 17, 2008.

  1. #1
    Is it possible to test a campaign on a small budget, like 10 dollars a day? Anybody have any advice on testing, such as where to start like editing the site before editing the ads themselves? I'm not super clear on all this.
     
    rbf738, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  2. BluePenguin15

    BluePenguin15 Peon

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    #2
    Yes, its possible to test a campaign at $10/day. But why not test it at $50/day and get your results faster? thats what I do, then after I know for sure its converting raise my max daily to $100k or something like that. If you set your daily max too low it will start slowing down your ads once you reach about 80% of that max bid for the day, meaning less sales on a converting campaign

    Always split test your ads. I split test two ads at a time, never more. If you split test 10 ads at a time and 8 of them have really low CTR then your keywords will get disabled, as opposed to testing two ads at a time and one ad has low CTR, most likely your keywords will continue to show.

    And you should split test your landing page.

    let me know if you have more specific questions
     
    BluePenguin15, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  3. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #3
    if you can only afford testing at $10 a day, your probably not a good candidate for adwords. So many restrictions and variables come in with such a low budget that can effect the successfulness of that campaign.
     
    robertpriolo, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  4. sultanofseo

    sultanofseo Notable Member

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    #4
    that really depends. testing is more successful and faster if you have natural flow of traffic. if your keyword requires your to spend $50 or $100 a day, then spending only $10 will not really give you natural flow of traffic through out the day. depending on niche, visitor buying pattern is different at different time - say day, evening, or night. so you want to run your ad for the entire 24 hours at least to test. but if you have some low cost keyword that cost you 5-10 cents a click, then you can get 100 - 200 clicks that might tell you something
     
    sultanofseo, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  5. vstar

    vstar Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I refuse to spend any amount of time creating a Landingpage/minisite until I am absolutely sure that the traffic will be there for my targeted keywords

    What I do is... I search my most popular keyword in google and then look at the natural results on the first page, then pick a website that IS NOT advertising on adwords.

    Next, I set up an adwords campaign and point it to that website, which will usually results in a GREAT quality score with a low CPC of 0.05 or less

    Then I sit back and let it run for a few day while I monitor the impressions and click-throughs, If I like what I see then I go ahead and make a LandingPage/minisite

    It's a great way of testing the market for a very low cost, Shit, I could accumulate 100 clicks and it would only cost me
    5 bucks... when you consider that "time is money"... It doesn't get cheaper than that
     
    vstar, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  6. bl4ckmaN^

    bl4ckmaN^ Well-Known Member

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    #6
    $10 a day is ok. Don't spend more than you can. Putting your budget higher doesn't increase the conversion rate.
     
    bl4ckmaN^, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  7. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #7
    it wont increase conversion rate, but it will limit the hours and times of day his ad will be displayed. With a budget like $10 he is most likely to be shown off hours, which could cause an unsuccessful campaign and day parting to prime time will still not show his ad since $10 could be wasted in minutes.
     
    robertpriolo, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  8. CustardMite

    CustardMite Peon

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    #8
    We've managed successful campaigns that had a budget around that. Really, it depends on the keywords that you're going to be bidding on. If they cost $10 per click, then it'll take forever to optimise. If you can get relevant traffic for $0.20, you'll get 50 clicks per day. So you'll be able to adjust bids, your keyword list and adverts relatively frequently, and find out if it's a cost-effective advertising medium for you.
     
    CustardMite, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  9. jwmeyert7

    jwmeyert7 Peon

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    #9
    yeah this all boils down to just one thing: return on investment
     
    jwmeyert7, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  10. digi1

    digi1 Peon

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    #10

    Damned, that's a BRILLIANT strategy !! (you are smarter than you look :0)

    How do you know that the website is not advertising on adwords ?
     
    digi1, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  11. digi1

    digi1 Peon

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    #11
    You need around 30 (the magic number in statistics) clicks, samples to have any reliable test
     
    digi1, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  12. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #12
    i don't think 30 is enough to determine anything... i have many clients whos conversion is less than 0.5% but highly profiytable
     
    robertpriolo, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  13. digi1

    digi1 Peon

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    #13

    What has the figure 30 to do with making money with .5 % conversion rate ?!
     
    digi1, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  14. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #14
    0.5% of 30 doesn't equal a sale or conversion, it will take 200 clicks before you will see any results, if you gave up after 30 clicks, you might have given up before a campaign had the chance to be profitable.
     
    robertpriolo, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  15. BrianJump

    BrianJump Active Member

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    #15
    VSTAR WROTE : "
    Next, I set up an adwords campaign and point it to that website, which will usually results in a GREAT quality score with a low CPC of 0.05 or less"

    ==============
    You mean you are pointing your campaign at another site, not your own?? or you just point at one of YOUR sites and create a simple subdomain...?

    Confused- Didnt understand why you would test drive traffic to another persons site..unless you are strictly using it for a good QS and stats...to test the kw...
     
    BrianJump, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  16. PPC-Coach

    PPC-Coach Active Member

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    #16
    I think he's using the piggyback technique. But I don't think he's using the full technique unless he's leaving out the last part...

    :)
     
    PPC-Coach, Feb 18, 2008 IP
  17. sultanofseo

    sultanofseo Notable Member

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    #17
    in other words, you are testing the QS and CTR by setting up an ad campaign and sending traffic to someone else's site. that might give you a good QS and tell you about your CTR, but how would you measure the ROI then which is the most vital part of the equation? you might have great QS and killer CTR, but without a proper landing page that is designed to convert, there is no way to tell the capmaign is successfull or not.


     
    sultanofseo, Feb 19, 2008 IP
  18. CustardMite

    CustardMite Peon

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    #18
    You're thinking about testing two alternatives (landing pages, adverts etc) to see which is better. In terms of working out what your conversion rate is, you'll need more than 30 clicks - as RobertPriolo says, it's not uncommon to have a conversion rate of less than 1%, and still have a successful PPC campaign. In this case, it would take many hundreds of clicks before you could accurately assess the conversion rate (and hence the cost per conversion, and hence the profit) from your campaign.

    And then, when you've made adjustments to the bids and adverts, it would take longer to assess the results.

    None of which is really all that relevant - regardless of your budget, you'll get 30 clicks (assuming people click on your advert!), it just takes longer if you can only afford a few clicks per day.
     
    CustardMite, Feb 19, 2008 IP
  19. vstar

    vstar Well-Known Member

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    #19

    It seems that there is a litle bit of confusion with my post...

    The sole reason for doing this is to guage wheather or not there is enough traffic for my keywords to warrant me building a minisite

    I choose a website that ranks well in the natural serps for my keywords because I know that when I set up a mock campaign, the quality score will likely be great and therefore the CPC will be cheap

    I want a cheapest CPC I can get because I will be sending traffic to someone else as a test market

    Sure, I will be sending traffic to someone else's website for a few days, So what!... it will only cost me a few bucks to test the market

    Then if I see that there is enough traffic to warrant building a minisite, I will build a Kick Ass one and start pointing my ad towards it

    It's really a very cost effective way of test marketing
     
    vstar, Feb 19, 2008 IP
  20. vstar

    vstar Well-Known Member

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    #20

    Just look at the display ULs in the sposored ads.

    If you inadvertantly use a website that is already advertising on adwords, Goggle will let you know, in that case you just choose another website
     
    vstar, Feb 19, 2008 IP