Do I need a web site for better CTR? I was doing affiliate marketing, trying to generate a small income so I would be able to invest in expanding my efforts. Currently my links are directly to the affiliate web site. My results are frustrating, to say the least. Would I get better results with my own URL showing up in the ad? I'm determined to make this work, but the last two weeks have been very disheartenting.
Your own landing page would not increase the CTR or the conversion rate: Would not increase the CTR% due your own landing page would not have the same good name as the affiliate has in the display URL. Also Would not increase the conversion as a lot of users that traffic would be lost on your page: they would click on the ad but would not click on the affiliate link - or do you think that 100% of the clicks would follow the affiliate link? So my conclusion is that a intermediate page would no help in CTR% and would not help in conversion rate. To improve the CTR% do better ads and use dynamic ads - use the {Keyword:xxx} variable on your ads. your own landing page would have other advantages like you could spread several similar affiliates like create a site of the top 10 affiliates or you could improve the conversion tracking as with your own page you can post the conversion code there.
You do not need your own website to increase but it help along in ROI. It is perfectly ok to send the traffic directly to your vendor page. But then you loose all the control of making any intimate relation with your own audience. You can collect their emails and there any other opinion on some topic and use that info in future for more ROI. It does not affect your own CTR because visitors can not see what the URL in the ads before clicking on the ads. to increse the CTR there is one very common method is to use all three search type. Thats means for a keyword like Loan use ak three search type 1. loan 2. [loan] 3. "loan" Secnd method is to use Keyword Phrase in the Headline. Google Darken these words and so make it more visible to the searchers. You may use "Dynamic Healine". Arvind Kumar
Micromag, do you mean that it is better to do Adwords with merchant's site and your affiliate ID only?
Using negative keywords (the ones not related to your product) in your adgroups will also help you to increase your keyword CTRs.
The only way to know for sure is to test it. I will say the diaply url can have a huge impact on the overall CTR of an ad. I've tested it extensively over the years and I'm sure others have as well.
Yes NEgative Keywords are Best way to Control your ads shown. But Please do not use this to increase the CTR. What the Hell. Everyone is Obsessed with CTR. Why tell me. We are not Adv. Agency guys. We are businessman and what we need is ROI. Not CTR. Let me ask a simple question. "If a Ad group is performing very bad in term of CTR. But the Keywords in it is bringing Good sale. Would you delete that Ad group because it is a drag on the whole campaign." I will never. I will delete the Best CTR ad group and Build my further campaign based on these low CTR Ad group's Keywords. Because Logic tells me like that. It is Apple it is Apple. I can not see apple and call it orange even Google Love Orange. Arvind Kumar
High CTR = High Quality Score High Quality Score = High Traffic High Traffic = Low Bids Low Bids = High ROI
I'd say the best way to control what words your ads are being shown for is to use exact matching, not negative matching. Negative matching has it's place but I find exact matching to be far more effective.