adwords

[newstart]

Being a newby, I am trying to learn all I can about which marketing strategies will be useful for my business. Can anyone give me a brief pros and cons list about using adwords-type marketing?
Thanks

[csanne]

There is an audio of an interview with Adwords specialist Arran Robertson done by Donna-Marie Coggins of Jacarandah Business Support Services. It is free if you want to listen. I have just downloaded it.

I hope this helps you.

http://www.newbiesguidetoanonlinebus...m/Adwords.html

[Jexley]

If I had to put it short and sweet, I'd say find out as much as you can before setting up an account and blowing your budget in about 5 seconds.

Keyword Research, Bid Research and vigilance like nobody's business. You should be alright. Good luck.

[Dave Bockett]

I'm also pretty new to this as well but I would say how sucessful you might be with it would be heavily based on the type of business you have and the sorts of keywords you are targeting. If you have for example an online store you might find it pretty hard to compete on popular keywords that the big players would have cornered.

One of the business I am involved with is a DIY Pizza Oven kits company and we are the local agents in Canberra. As we have a small niche and very little competition on the keywords "pizza ovens" etc I have a very targeted campaign and it only appears for people in the ACT as this is our target market. Just so you can get an idea we have a limit of $100 per month which easily gets us to the top of the sponsored links section and we are currently getting around 12% click-thru rate which I think is pretty good. Even if people don't follow the link they will hopefully see the company name and remember it next time they see us throught any other advertising we do.

Hope this helps!
Dave.

[Jexley]

Dave, that is fantastic advice. Nobody says it better than a small business owner that's doing it for themselves. I'm like a Pro AdWords Ninjapimp or something, and I forget how to explain it properly, you've said it extremely well.

Start here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Picture that someone's typed some of these in - what are they after? Does your site have it? Kind of, sort of? For now, stick with "yes"es and start with about 25.

Then, go here: https://adwords.google.com/select/Tr...timatorSandbox
And see about how much the Googs reckons they'll bring in traffic vs. how much they cost.

Then, get your $30 together and give 'er a twirl, pay close attention for a week or so, and you'll figure out the rest!

Good luck.

[FinanceMan]

I have spent a bit of time using adwords, but have found it more effective to concentrate on SEO. If you do use adwords experiment a lot to see which keywords and ad copy bring the most views and the highest click through rates, its actually quite an interesting process. Good luck.

[Punctuate]

Hi newstart,

I experimented with Adwords last year, and found it quite good. The advice below is great - just give it a go and keep an eye on your responses.

A downside I experienced, though, was that I was paying for people who clicked on my ad to ask me for a job. Hey, it would have been fantastic if I was looking for someone to help me with editing or proofreading, but instead I was paying precious clicks to offer advice on getting into the industry.

On the upside, I got a great job editing a memoir. It was a fantastic book, paid very well, and has opened the door to work with the publisher, who was very happy with my service, on further titles.

Get clicking! It should work well if you choose your keywords and location carefully!

Amanda

[newstart]

Thankyou to you all for your advice. Will do my homework before jumping in..

[Adam Randall]

Originally Posted by newstart

Thankyou to you all for your advice. Will do my homework before jumping in..

Just set yourself a maximum budget per day that you are willing to work with so you do not get burnt.

Also remember its not bidding in the true sense of the word. Google will still place an advert higher up even if its paying less if it feels that it is more relevant.

The other thing to remember is you are only paying 1c (I think) over the highest bidder behind you.

That means if you have three people

1 bidding 50c
2 bidding 90c
3 bidding $4

1 will pay 50c
2 will pay 51c
3 will pay 91c

You can get into trouble if you are bidding $4 and paying only 91c if 2 comes in and bids $3.99 which means you will pay $3.99 per click while he pays 51c.

Some do that to get rid of the competition.

Number one spot is not always the best, between 3 and 5 is nice.

Just remember, set a limit and it wont be painful.

[TizzBizz]

Originally Posted by Jexley

Dave, that is fantastic advice. Nobody says it better than a small business owner that's doing it for themselves. I'm like a Pro AdWords Ninjapimp or something, and I forget how to explain it properly, you've said it extremely well.

<snip>

Good luck.

Love the "Adwords Ninjapimp" Jexley, nice work

Having been a bit of a 'set and forget' user of AdWords I think the advice above is really spot on, especially the 'stay vigilant', 'set a budget' and 'test different copy and keywords' bits! If you follow these things you should do well and not get burnt like many out there.