so i was reading "beating adwords" which is actually a good book. In there they say and recommend "to set the daily budget to 5 - 10 x what you're actually willing to spend". And making it sound that a budget that high will never be reached anyway. They recommend doing this to asure to get most possible traffic. Say, as an example my budget is $10/day (as example) and i would "just" set this to $100 PER DAY...how on earth can they give such an advice? I set my budget to $10 because i am "willing to spend" $10 a day on this or that campaign....but $100/day as that book says? G.
All I'll say is if you set your budget higher than you're willing to actually spend prepare to be disappointed - i.e., over spend.
Hey George, Although I LOVE being a Wealthy Affiliate member, I did not really like this book as much as I initially thought. I still wonder if that part of the book is a misprint/typo or what... I definitely wouldn't set it that high. They might have missed something that would have explained that part a little better? Not sure. I'm wondering if they are referring to Long Tail Keywords that would actually get less traffic... this MIGHT be what it was referring to. As for Adwords books -- I think Howie Jacobson's "Adwords For Dummies" is, by far, the best AdWords book on the market. Easily. While Kyle and Carson created a great product with Wealthy Affiliate - I wasn't all that thrilled with Beating AdWords.
clenard, it was "good" in the sense that it actually helps a newbie or intermediate and it covers awords pretty well..although i myself knew 99,99% what is in the book. They left out advanced stuff..and actually i could write a book covering this myself if i were not busy with other projects......keyword: "placement targeting and CPC" which is HIGHLY, HIGHLY underestimated and doesnt even have mentioning in the book. I might check out the book you mention..just out of curiosity....
They're right, but they should have put it in context. On little campaigns, (like your example of $10 and setting it at $100), you will probably end up spending $100. However on large campaigns, with large payouts and high bids, ($4 to $9 per click, they do exist), this may apply because the bids are so high that you have to have your budget set beyond what you're actually going to spend just to cover the possibility of your impressions becoming clicks. That said, this "rule" does not apply to 90% of ppc marketers...
Say you set $10/day as your normal limit. While you are away from your PC, Oprah hypes a product you have on a landing page and searches go through the roof. Your ad stops showing and all that traffic goes elsewhere. Lost opportunity. If your ad is profitable. give yourself some head room. That's what the books means, IMHO.
I disagree with most of what has been said here. If your budget is $5 a day and the keywords you are bidding on coupled with your ad position would yield you clicks that cost in excess of $5 then Google will pause your ads. Then we get posts like "No impressions" or "ads not showing" and the like. When you raise your budget, you are making sure your ads run 100% of the time on the search network. If you are really worried about overspending then the best bet is to monitor it closely for the first week or so and if are going to overspend pause your campaign for each day. If you don't overspend then leave it be and be confident that your ads are showing 100% of the time and you wont be overspending your desired budget. An even better technique here is to actually go deeper and figure out when you are getting most clicks and sales for a campaign in terms of TIME OF DAY. Once you know this, you can set up AD SCHEDULING and set it for the times you are converting highest... use up all your actual budget during those times and maximise your revenue! Simple Cheers Stewart
I always set a daily budget which is much higher than what I am willing to spend. This ensures that I get the most amount of traffic and that my ads' impressions are not spaced out throughout the day. I even accelerate the display of my ads. To make sure that I don't overspend, I just simply keep a close eye on my account. Doing what I do ensures quick results, be they good or bad.
That's ok but does leave folks open to significant over spends. If you're in high volume space you can rack up hundreds/thousands of dollars in charges before you know it - there's an "up to 3 hour delay" with AdWords reporting. Also if you're promoting something that's seasonal or could get significant bumps due to news & or world events that's something to consider. Just something for folks to keep in mind if their campaigns meet the above criteria. If you're on a tight budget and want to do everything possible to avoid over spends I would stick with a budget I was comfortable with and use the impression share report to see what opportunities you might be missing out on and then adjust accordingly. IMO it's a little safer than just cranking up the budget.
Obviously common sense comes into it. If you are in a market where there are thousands of daily searches and you have researched the estimated number of clicks your ad will receive then the tactic would be very risky. And you obviously wouldn't set your budget to "$Hundereds of Thousands" for the day either. Cranking up the budget and monitoring is a great strategy when applied with common sense... and unless your niche is seasonal and will attract a higher number of clicks at certain dates then it's pretty safe. There is a risk involved but if common sense and research is applied it's a very small one indeed. Cheers Stewart