..when I do a search on the keywords I put in (I set up over a 100) ...my ad doesn't appear in the positioning I expected. :-/ Any ideas? JF
where your ad appears is a function of 2 factors 1) How much you bid 2) your CTR (click through rate) 1 is self explanatory, in general the more you bid the higher up you appear. However your CTR in the long term is more important. Once you've been running your campaign for a little while you will be able to see your CTR. The magic secret (ok not that much of a secret) is that google assigns your advert a quality score based on your CTR. This can mean that if you have a higher CTR than a competitor but they are paying more per click you can actually have your ad placed higher. So initially just concern yourself with your CTR. A few ways to improve you CTR that I have found are: 1) Create specific ads - i.e. if you are selling lamps and lampshades it makes sense to have an advert for you lamps and a seperate one for your lampshades. If you are running a 100 word campaign you will probably want to split it into mulitple adgroups. 2) Split testing -- google allows you to run more than 1 advert per group so run 2 ads and see which has a better CTR 3) Use the keyword text in the title -- the searched for keyword text appears in bold so if you do a search for 'lamp shades' and your headline is 'lamp shades for less' the words 'lamp shades' in your headline will be in bold this helps CTR Don't obsess about your position -- just build your campaign correctly if the public like your ads they will click, if they click you get a higher quality score and if that is the case you will organically move up the listings. Obviously you can just bid a lot more for your keywords to get to the top -- but improving CTR is a more sustainable, albeit longer term way of acheiving success with adwords. Good luck
Hi guys - thanks for responding - Okay, first, B.A.T, All the great info on CTR I'll have to save for later - cuz' so far it's showing ZERO impressions... and to answer probably what you're next question would be - yup, I bid my upper most default at $2.25 (some of the ads were at about $2.30 and such ...and I heard that you should try for position #2 or 3 or 4 as opposed to position # 1 ..for some reason the CTR is better - again, so they say). So why no impressions guys? Any clues?
BAT - yup - it's definitely active. I just checked again now and used the Diagnostic Tool - and here's what it said "Ad not shown | Reason: Although your ad is showing, its rank is not high enough to place it on the first page of search results. " How can the rank not be high enough when my cpc is near the top of what the highest person paying is paying?
okay guys - it's showing - but it's on the 3rd page ...lemmie ask you - I topped out my CPC - literally higher than eveyrone else - ...shouldn't I be on page ONE then?? What am I doing wrong?
Are you bidding on very popular keywords? I wouldn't worry where you ad is being served at the moment, obviously if there are multiple pages of adwords adverts then google will serve them up in a different order. Remember google is in the business of maximising their own revenue - so initially they will obviously serve ads that have a history of being clicked. Be patient (I mean at least 24 hours) == and stop typing in your keywords, that only increases the impressions and lowers your potential CTR. Be comfortable in the knowledge that your ads are running. Review the situation in 24 hours. Dan
I would not recommend doing this (topping on your CPC) until you have actually seen that some of these keywords convert well. Else you might drain your budget on keywords that do not convert.
Yeah - but Ablaye - how can you tell if you're keywords will convert well if they are on page 4 or 5? I mean - you won't know, will you? Btw, thanks everyone ...seems like it's working okay ...but hard to know what's happening... I'm getting used to it though... JF
Do not pay for the first places. It doesn't worth it! not by long long shot..... Try paying for really specific keyowrds and even if it's specific don't be in thee first spot. it's much better to pay lower an dby the quality of Your ad achieve higher places and such for the same low price great number in QUALITY click through
Exactly - do not go for #1 for a keyword phrase that's going to cost you that much when you are testing a new market/landing page. Walk away from your PC, brainstorm for other, more creative keywords. What recent trends are there in your industry? Anything somewhat related that's in the news lately? By being more creative than your competitors, you will be able to get higher rankings since they have not thought to bid on that keyword phrase. Do this starting out so you can get some volume to test with without draining your budget. One other thing - the relevance of your landing page to the keyword phrase WILL effect your CPC. I experienced that today.