I tested adwords for my web design company and the PPC rate is crazy. Some keywords run me $5-$6 per click. Im using pretty basic keyword phrases such as "cincinnati web design" and "cincinnati web hosting" but off the little budget I used nothing converted into sales. Is there a trick that im missing? Im certainly no adwords pro so any pointers would really help out. Also, is anyone currently promoting their design company through adwords? Whats your advice?
there are a few ways to go to precision target your most valuable traffic..you can put some geo-targeting parameters on your campaign(for examples-you can limit your reach to a 3 hour drive market around cincinatti), or you can bid on longer-tail terms(ex: 'cincinatti professional web design firm', etc..) in an effort to decrease your cpc and lower your cpa. It takes time and lots of data to optimize these campaigns. You need to look at the entire click stream from when they click on your ad to when they buy something from your cart, and figure out where visitors are abandoning, what content their looking at, etc..based on that, you can tighten up your landing pages, discover how people are finding your site organically, and apply that to your ppc campaign.
The web hosting niche has fierce competition. That's why CPCs are high. I helped a client over a year ago with his campaign. I have some data from that campaign but it is very limited as he did not run it long enough. I can tell you unless you are in the top two or three positions, your ads won't get clicked on. Most ads on the right side seem to be ignored for the most part. This means bidding high and actual CPCs were around $2-3.50 but CTRs were not that great, even in the top positions.
yeah that is what i am afraid of. I have heard a great landing page actually lowers your CPC. Ill have to try and get one made.
yes, good ctr + relevancy + landing page=quality score, which effects your position(along with what your cpc is)..for higher positions, the better your qs, the less your going to have to pay for it.