What is a recommended starting budget for a new small site that I want to get noticed by search engines and potential customers? If I don't see results quickly should I increase my budget, give up or let it ride? Thanks, Chris
Simple, check your CPM for all your programs, or sales. Set adwords to buy traffic at the cost where your cutoff is (or lower). Regard adwords as a way to build reoccuring traffic, not a way to gain instant money. It's a investment as any advertising.
Gimmie a few details and I'll give you a starting point. Web url so I can check out your site. This will tell me if you are selling replenishable goods and enable me to scope out your site and checkout process. Avg order value. If no order history, then estimate what your average order value will be. I suggest being conservative. Conversion rate. how many people who show up on your web page actually buy something? Average ecommerce conversion rate usually runs between 1 - 4%, but that's a wider gap than it looks Do you have a remarketing plan? When someone buys from you, what's your plan to remarket to them later to get them to buy something else? In other words, how do you plan to convert first time buyers into repeat buyers? Do they get on an email list? Are you going to send them a catalog? Or no remarketing plan at all? Answer these and I can give you a good ballpark of where to start at as far as a cost per click.
Get as free voucher from google, and start bidding with keywords worth 0.04. Once you have got the grip on it, you can step on the next stage.
iShopHQ - the site in question is: www.oldvillagelollies.com its a new site and needs more traffic...in the opening 3 months the average order value is approx. $50. So far the conversion rate appears to be about 3%, based on a quick look at the stats. No remarketing plan yet, but once the customer base grows, we have plans to start up an email newsletter. Thanks!
Let's go with point of sale profit. Average order value $50 You didn't mention what your margin is, so I'll assume it's 50%. That means you need a conversion cost less than $25 to make a profit. 3% conversion rate Most likely, sales from PPC efforts will be higher, since you're doing direct response targeted advertising, but I always believe in being conservative, so we'll stick with 3% and say 1 sale for every 33 visitors. 25/33 = .76, so your MAX cpc to break even at a 3% conversion rate is 75 cents per click. Sticking with a 50% margin, to make a 30% gross profit ($7.50 per sale) at point of sale, you need to acheive a $17.50 cost per conversion. 17.5-/33 = .53, so MAX cpc here is 53 cents. Either scenario gives you plenty of room, as I expect you to be able to drive good traffic at an average 35 cents per click (or less in Australian market). 76 cents gives you room to be more aggressive on volume drivers that might not convert as well, but tend to be stem searches that lead to the 2 - 3 word search phrases that drive most conversions. This approach might be the one to take if you are in the growth phase an want to aggressively drive traffic without losing money. Your Site I HIGHLY recommend you get product images in there. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when trying to get someone to buy something. Put a 50x50 thumbnail in a left hand column alongside you current listings. Make is (and the product name) a link; when someone clicks it take them to a product detail page with a 150x150 or larger image and a brief description. Getting images and product pages will: 1. Increase your conversions by 1-2% 2. Give you the granular level you need to drive PPC traffic right to the item the person search for. Example: I just searched for 'macaroon bar' Right now, the only place you can drop me is on the list of Scottish products where macaroon bars is the third item down. Once you deliver the person there, you are relying them to locate the item and then buy it without seeing an image ort reading anything about it. Much better to drive them to a specific product page or to a search results page the shows ONLY macaroon bars. I tried your search, and it gives good results, but it is slow and still no images. Where yo drive your search traffic to makes a big difference in how well it converts. I don't think requiring a person to sign up for an account first is a good idea. I just arrived after looking for macaroon bars, you have it, I want it, I click add to cart and I'm presented with a screen that asks me to log in. Not good. This is pulling them out of the buying process. Do this: make account creation a by product of entering the order. I add macaroon bar to my cart, next step shows me my cart with your typical continue shopping or checkout buttons, I select check out, you ask if I'm a return user and if so step me through check out getting all pertinent info, and last step is Place Order. Under the Place Order button, you have a little text that reads 'Selecting place order will create an Old Village Lolly Shop customer account and process your order'. They click, you create their account and process their order all at once without every divorcing them from the purchase process. If you decide you want to do PPC, I can help with keyword development, copy, tracking and even bid management if you want. PM if you're interested.
Dang iShop, thanks for your input and recommendations. When I did the site I did recommend thumbnail images, but to start with they aren't interested. I might sugest it to them again. I really like the idea of a specific page for each product as well...that would definitly help search engine ranking. I'll have a look all your suggestions and may PM you if I need any help. The biggest problem with these guys is that they have a very limited budget at the moment. Thanks again