I am launching a new membership web site and our strategy for the first few months (while we are working on SEO stuff) is to use google ads to drive some traffic and hopefully make some sales. I had the opportunity to briefly talk with an SEO professional yesterday and told him that we are planning on spending about 20-30 dollars a day for the first few months. That's roughly $750 a month. The professional thought that this budget is too low to even test the waters. He explained that you need to have a big budget in order for google ads to work. Personally I thought that the budget doesnt matter that much. Can you not expect the same conversion rate etc even if you only use 750 a month to get roughly 7500 people to your website as compared to having a big budget? (my keywords are about .10 cents, its not very competitive of a industry, kinda nichey) I estimate a conservative 0.5% conversion rate from my targeted visitors. Would it be not correct to assume if I get 7500 people to my site that 38 will sign up? This is the way that I looked at my strategy and how I constructed my module but after my talk with the professional, I am not sure if this is a good module or If I am being naive or something. Professional told me about one retail site that he runs and the monthly ad budget is 40 to 50 thousand. So maybe he just cant get his head around small numbers like 20 a day I just thought that the numbers are scalable and that the smaller test would or could also apply to a bigger budget and vice versa. Does anybody have any comments about this? It sure would help me out. Even though 750 dollars a month may not seem much to some people, I sure dont want to spend that if it means my 0.5% will not be reached or can not be reached because the numbers are too small. I need to sell 15 memberships to break even with my ad budget So that would be a conversion rate of 0.25% ..
Hi, welcome to the forums. Well, I wouldn't listen too much to what the pro said. You sound like you have your head screwed on, so sensible low-level testing can be helpful. Make sure conversion testing is on, spread the ads evenly throughout the day, and you'll start generating results. The one thing to be wary of is that it will be a small sample, so there will be large variance in outcomes. Just bear it in mind.
I wouldn't jump right into adwords if you are inexperienced. You will end up losing money *in most cases*. You can test the waters with 50 dollars, so don't listen to him. If a advertisement is going to work it is going to work right out of the gate, but nonetheless I wish you the best.
I totally agree. But spending a little bit isn't going to hurt you, and this will definitely give you a better idea.
Is there a formula for what is consider a "small sample" ? At what point is the sample not small anymore? Thats exactly what I am afraid of, losing money because not knowing or not having the experience. Making the wrong moves could result in just dumping money into adwords without seeing results. Mostly though I wanted to figure out if the sample size will be an issue. I think that I have an ok handle on running the ads etc. thanks for all the advice. This is very helpful!
There is nothing wrong with a small budget. Of course, the traffic you get depends on how many people search on your terms, how many click, and how much the clicks cost. If your budget is enough to cover all of that, you will maximize your exposure. PPC is generally very scalable. So if you make money with a small budget but you are reaching only a small percentage of searchers, increasing the budget should see a similar percentage increase in traffic and sales. Alex mentions to be wary of small samplings. I agree. I also think you are setting the bar very low at 0.5% conversion rate. Work on increasing that. If that's what you expect, a hundreds clicks is not going to be a large enough sampling. That's for each ad as well as for each version of your page. You need at least 25 clicks for each ad before you can be confident that it's the better performer and 25 conversions for each page you test to be confident that one is better than another.
I am hoping for a 1% to 2% rate but I am estimating a very low 0.5%. I rather shoot for a low estimate, just to be on the safe site. the #25 for ad performance is a nice benchmark. thanks for that information. I am very excited to get this started as well as nervous a little
mmmm, obviously some use of the word Pro I haven't come across. While adwords can gobble up budget if you use it randomly, by good niche research and marketing you can get great traffic for your budget. However, good seo and great content is critical to the long-term success of what you want to do - a top 10 page rang for your keywords will bring more traffic than a paid ad.
thanks for your comment Peter. Our main goal is SEO, good content, blog, etc for its long term benefits. However, we would like to get some traffic going and of course try to get some of hour start up cost back. would it be better to bid on many long tail keywords for cheaper as opposed to a few short ones that are more competitive? or do both? I would consider this a niche market. Our main keyterms have about 3 - 5 google ads. Main terms are around .10 to .20 cents. Would long tail ones be even cheaper? Are long tail ones cheaper even though they may contain the top keywords?