25 replies to this topic

[b_fish]

I ran some AdWords ads that were in the 20 to 30 cent range and, although they produced an average 1.5% CTR we had no sales before the person paying the bills gave up. It bears mentioning that I was only givin a meager $100 to play with and therefore I cannot judge my little campaign as success or failure. I tried to suggest more but my client just wanted to test the waters.

The next time I run a campaign I would like to suggest a budget of more than $100 . I was thinking of $800 or $1000 per month with a dedication to the campaign of 2-3 months...if not more.

Providing that the ads and the site are both top-notch is $3000 to 4000 over few months realistic?


Thanks in advance!

[GuyFromChicago]

I've found Adwords to be a lot like traditional direct mail marketing. If it’s not working, throwing more money at it won’t make it work.

I would suggest continuing to test with a small amount of money. When you find something that works, increasing the ad budget should drive sale up proportionality.

Try using different ads or more focused/different combinations of key words.

[Haystack]

I don't know if you can gain much from this nugget of trivia, but at last count, I think the average Overture advertiser was spending around $1000/month.

If things aren't converting at all, there could be some issues with the campaign setup (keywords, matching, landing pages, ad copy, etc.), so you might benefit from an audit by someone experienced at setting up Adwords campaigns.

As an experiment, try exact matching your terms and set them to local targeting. If they STILL won't convert, I'd review the terms you've chosen and take a good look at whether your site is designed to create conversions.

[eomedia]

In my opinion it really depends, I have two different sites that I am currently running PPC campagins on.

Campaign 1
$90/month
Worldwide (english language only)

Campaign 2
$400/month
US Only (english language only)

The first campaign is in a market that I pay a maximum of $0.05 per click and I get a full 60 clicks a day on average at 2-3% CTR. This converts to 3-4% conversion rate at about $1.42 per acquisition.

Campaign two is much more competive and our max is $.50 per click and we're lucky to see 0.3% CTR and in the first full month of usage we saw one (1) conversion which was rather less than the other campaign.

I honestly don't believe the amount of the budget is really the issue you should concern yourself with, rather, the market you're in. If the clicks are cheap then you should be able to draw the visitors on specific targeted ads and take them directly to the product they're interest in, which should hopefully convert. If it's an expensive market then you can either compete on the big words (okay, more budget is needed here) or you can try to find words on the fringe that don't attrack as many visitors but are cheaper. If you can't convert the fewer visitors on the cheaper words then spending more money probably won't help.

If you do convert on fewer visitors then a bigger budget is definitely worth the investment.

[AussieWebmaster]

You guys got that covered fairly quickly. Adwords when they work are a zero sum game... you just need to do your homework and stay in front of the curve... you work to maximize the profits... sometimes that means not being number one for a term because too many window shoppers click thru... it takes time and committment to making the best of it... once it works at Google you then move to Overture and the other engines.
If you are selling a product then even the shopping engines should be looked at... if it is a service then a niched engine may be available too.

[b_fish]

Wow! Thanks all for your comments..they are all very helpfull. I'd been searching for that kind of info for a while now.

At the moment I am working hard on creating better content that I can targer my AdWords to...and ditching PayPal--to unreliable for my taste (but thats another topic).

[Ideas]

My two cents.

Take adwords campaign as a serious element of your client's marketing mix - devote time and effort in refining the keyword texts - be patient - review and update continuously - the returns can be phenomenal.

Its very easy to get into "predicting the right campaign amount mode" very easily without sufficient background work.

Do industry analysis, check out competition, define your client's business objectives and deliverables from the campaign, work on generating the right spread of keywords that give you optimum mileage, write relevant and impactful text, review the campaign constantly,measure performance and refine.

THERE IS NO RIGHT BUDGET FOR A CAMPAIGN. It all depends on what you are looking for and the above parameters(the list is not comprehensive).

Adwords would work if you make them work.

[suthra]

Adwords are to be chosen properly. For example, In google , My maximum budget was 1 dollar per day and i earned 10 dollar perday.
I was doing this for a dating affiliate program.
It depends on the country you are targeting., like,
This dating site gave free signups and 1 dollar per free signup, so i targeted in india and asian countries.

[lizzielu]

Hi,

I once read a figure on a well known SEM Firm's Web site that they recommend starting with a $1,500 6-month campaign. This is what I suggest to all my clients. 6 months gives it a fair shot after testing a lot of different factors - copy, landing pages, calls to action, special promotions, etc...and, $1,500 is a number that most companies (big and small) can handle.

Also take into consideration whether your client is B to B or B to C. I have found B to B ads a lot easier to convert than B to C.

Good luck,

Liz

[cline]

There is a right budget, but it depends on your situation. In fact, with effort I could probably turn the whole thing into an equation. I used to have such an equation when I was responsible for calculating sample sizes for direct mail and telemarkting market testing. The problem with the equations is that they are awfully complicated for people who don't readily take to statistical and financial analysis, and most people can't supply decent estimates of the required paramaters.

What you need to know is your marketing allowable. Your marketing allowable is the amount you can afford to spend on advertising and marketing activities per sale and still make enough profit for you to be satisfied.

At the most granular level of your market test (e.g., a particular ad, to a particular phrase), 7 * marketing allowable is the optimal testing budget, with a stop-loss kicking in at (sales + 3) * marketing allowable if there have been no sales.

Depending on how much you want to test, build up from there. I would recommend a diverse selection of obvious and not-so obvious target terms, using a variety of different creatives. This is a judgment call regarding how many hypotheses you'd like to test, but as a rule of thumb I'd like to see around a dozen or more to get a good feel. So, that's a minimum budget of 12 * 7 * marketing allowable.

[discountdomains]

Hi,

I found that I get better results by selecting less obvious phrases but getting the top placements for them. That way I get a better ROI.

Clare

[raymondberthier]

Also take into consideration whether your client is B to B or B to C. I have found B to B ads a lot easier to convert than B to C.

Hi Liz, you're completely right, to implement a campaign ppc for B to B is a lot more rewarding, and a lot less demanding and risky
That is, for the time being..

[Coconubuck]

Great info here. Does adwords work better for more specific sites or does it work better if you have a more generalized site /keywords and are have a lot more money to spend? ......or does it totally depend on other things I am not thinking about?

[Coconubuck]

Also, do you think that adwords is the place to start? I mean, once you have an idea of what you are doing there, would you then recommend going to overture or elsewhere? I'm new and want to start this out the right way. Thanks for your help!

[cline]

It totally depends on things you're not thinking about.

Adwords and Overture use surprisingly different systems for delivering pretty much the same end product. In general, Overture is easier for newbies to use and Adwords is easier for professionals to use. Overture is more obvious, straightforward, and explicit. Adwords is more intuitive and conceptual.