OK, I put out my first Adwords ad last night. It appears to be a fairly competative area. When I look at the diagnostics google says my ad is running but does not rate high enough to show in the first page of search results. Frankly, I've searched google a number of times with my keywords and have never actually seen my ad on any page. I bumped my bid a few times but did not help. Any optimzation tricks someone could share? Also, since this is affiliate marketing where you only get a small commission for sales, is there a formula that tells me that I'll probably lose money if my bid goes above a certain threshold? Thx, Mike
Depends on what you're selling, but maybe 100 clicks before you get 1 that pays off. 1:100 is not all that strange. You may be targeting a keyword that's too generic. Continually upping your bid will just kill you. Ask yourself how can this generic keyword be segmented? If it's "cell phone plans," you splinter it into "cingular cell phone plans," "t-mobile cell phone plans," and so on. My examples are still very broad, but you get the picture.
I suggest you improve quality score. Bear in mind there are different types of quality score. Also, look at what your competition are using as their creatives. Test out what works best to get a higher CTR.
Yeah, what these guys are saying here is right... It is always going to depend on your keyword... (however in the future competitiveness is going to skyrocket) You can always try improving your quality score and of course split test your ad copy... That can drive down prices... Josiah