Starting a campaign and getting £5 min bids

Discussion in 'Google AdWords' started by phreak79, Jul 24, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi all,

    I've recently started an Adwords campaign for a new website and seemingly regardless of what I do I'm being asked to pay £5 per click to activate the keyword.

    I'm not really sure what to do. The campaign is new so they can't be using any past history against me. I'm using the keyword tool to determine what Google things the landing page is about, and then using those keywords in the ad, so I would have thought the keywords are relevant to the landing page. The page also loads in a reasonable time.

    Yet still I get whacked with the hefty price. I'm at a loss as to what I can do. Any ideas? :confused:
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  2. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #2
    PS, for what it's worth the visits I am getting are converting really well (around £3 per visit at the moment), so it would seem that visitors like the landing pages, but when I'm paying £5 each visitor I'm still losing money :)
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  3. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #3
    Profit of $6/click is very nice, good job with your landing page. Easiest way for us to help is posting your AD on here, so we can tell you where the problem may be. Also, what is CTR?
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  4. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #4
    To be fair the CTR isn't great, with an average of just under 1%, but we were being asked to pay £5 per click before the ads even went live so I wouldn't think the CTR has caused it.

    Anyway, one of the ads is:

    Which then goes through to freequotes.co.uk/compare-loans.asp
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  5. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #5
    Alright, then the only reason they would ask you to pay $10 right away even without a history is most likely due to the relevance of your landing page. I couldn't see the URL you just provided. Also, it seems your in the loans niche; and well that is one of the most competitive niches, usually people on the front page are paying quite a few dollars per click.
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  6. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #6
    I thought about the landing page but whatever I tried didn't seem to make any difference. For instance I put the page url into the keyword suggestion tool to see what Google thought the page was about, then used purely those keywords - nada, still £5 a click.

    Then I tried doing one keyword per adgroup, with the top keyword from the above tool used - still £5. I appreciate that the financial space will be quite expensive I just don't get what I'm doing wrong that's causing Google to penalise the ads.
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  7. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #7
    Thanks for your help by the way, much appreciated :)
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  8. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #8
    Did you use this exact site url on another adword account?
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  9. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #9
    Nope. It's on the standard company account. Could the account be penalised or something?
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  10. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #10
    No, but it really makes no sense why they are automatically punishing you. Your quality score is "poor", right? Try to set up that same exact landing page on another URL.
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  11. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #11
    Tested to see if page rank was the problem by using the homepage (pr3) and that was hit too.
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  12. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #12
    Pagerank is never a problem. Can you re-paste your landing page, since the other links didn't work.
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  13. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #13
    I can't post links and sigs, I don't know if you can see this: freequotes.co.uk/compare-loans.asp
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  14. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #14
    I keep getting an error page.
     
    RichUser, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  15. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #15
    An update, I've tried setting up an ad in another Adwords account and the same thing happens. Does kinda suggest the problem is with the landing page.
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  16. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #16
    Seems it's the landing page. I've entered in an ad for a popular finance website here in Britain and got the usual £0.10 min bid.
     
    phreak79, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  17. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #17
    $5 and $10 min bids are landing page errors... Not relevance problems

    Your probably missing something like a contact us or privacy policy.

    Also ensure that layout and color scheme remain the same across firefox and IE browsers

    If all those issue are fine then you may be in a market they do not approve of, or your running adsense or other arbitrage looking landing page.

    If you want me to look at your LP please PM me
     
    robertpriolo, Jul 24, 2008 IP
  18. phreak79

    phreak79 Peon

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    #18
    I don't have a contact page or privacy policy at the moment so will add one of those this morning and see how it goes. Thanks.
     
    phreak79, Jul 25, 2008 IP
  19. robertpriolo

    robertpriolo Peon

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    #19
    Thanks for PMing me and validating my evaluation that the problem was lack of privacy and contact us.

    Also after looking at your LP, which is nicely laid out, good color scheme and atc... you do need to add the privacy policy and remove the adsense
     
    robertpriolo, Jul 25, 2008 IP
  20. RichUser

    RichUser Banned

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    #20
    Yes phreak79, as robertpriolo stated. You have to remove the adsense since it will decrease your conversion rate. Why would you want to direct potential customers away from your page, you should be doing the best to keep them on your page.
     
    RichUser, Jul 25, 2008 IP