Question:
anyone got experience of paying to be a sponsored/paid link in google? what is cost? has it reaped its rewards. any tips?
thanks in advance
Answers:
If you mean 'Adwords' - the links on the right hand side of search results, I think it really depends what your product/service is as to whether it's worthwhile.
I've used it a few times for different sites, some worked well, some cost a fortune and generated very little business.
Answers:
search. if it is not revealing too much for you which ones worked and which did not. thanks in advance for any help.
If you mean 'Adwords' - the links on the right hand side of search results, I think it really depends what your product/service is as to whether it's worthwhile.
I've used it a few times for different sites, some worked well, some cost a fortune and generated very little business.
Answers:
I think you need to have a very significant budget to get directly under the search bar - I don't recall seeing the option for that under the Adwords control panel anyway, so I assume it to be different.
My experience was that if you're selling a physical product, the returns were pretty good - around 6/7% conversion rate. Selling services was pretty bad, from memory just under 0.5% conversion rate.
Answers:
Unlike most Pay per click (e.g. Overture, Mirago, Espotting) where positioning is based purely on the amount bid, the positioning with Adwords is determined as follows:
Ranking = Cost per Click (CPC) x Click through rate (CTR).
The key to having a successful Google Adword Campaign is to have a high click through rate. Initially a campaign has a nominal click through rate based on your other Adword campaigns and historical data for the keyword/phrase. Your actual click through rate is believed to come into affect after about 1000 impressions. Google requires you to maintain at least a 0.5% CTR average after this initial period. Click through rates of 2-3% are generally the norm for good ads but I've had campaigns running at 10% consitently.
Click throughs cost from 4p per click on Google but Google run a smart pricing system where the click charges are often reduced for ads delivered by Adsense. The most common way to pay for adwords in the UK is by debit / credit card. Normally your account will be debited 1 month after creating the account and monthly from then on. However, charging is also triggered when your account balance reaches £500.
You can set a daily budget per Adgroup. At the beginning of every 24 hours Google's computers work out how often to show your ads based on your current click through rate so your ads appear. Every hour it re-assesses how many clicks versus impressions you have recieved and adjusts the rate of ad impressions accordingly. You can also turn off your ads at any point.
Normally a new adgroup / campaign appears within 15-20 minutes of being set up but normally the campaign will disappear for a variable length of time within the first week while it is undergoing editorial review.
As for getting in the top two positions directly below the search bar, these are manually selected by Google and you need to have a high clickthrough rates and particularly relevant ads.
One key point for adwords is to remember the importance of negative keywords.
If you pm me I can pass you on the details of somebody who manages accounts.
Answers:
thanks in advance
Unlike most Pay per click (e.g. Overture, Mirago, Espotting) where positioning is based purely on the amount bid, the positioning with Adwords is determined as follows:
Ranking = Cost per Click (CPC) x Click through rate (CTR).
The key to having a successful Google Adword Campaign is to have a high click through rate. Initially a campaign has a nominal click through rate based on your other Adword campaigns and historical data for the keyword/phrase. Your actual click through rate is believed to come into affect after about 1000 impressions. Google requires you to maintain at least a 0.5% CTR average after this initial period. Click through rates of 2-3% are generally the norm for good ads but I've had campaigns running at 10% consitently.
Click throughs cost from 4p per click on Google but Google run a smart pricing system where the click charges are often reduced for ads delivered by Adsense. The most common way to pay for adwords in the UK is by debit / credit card. Normally your account will be debited 1 month after creating the account and monthly from then on. However, charging is also triggered when your account balance reaches £500.
You can set a daily budget per Adgroup. At the beginning of every 24 hours Google's computers work out how often to show your ads based on your current click through rate so your ads appear. Every hour it re-assesses how many clicks versus impressions you have recieved and adjusts the rate of ad impressions accordingly. You can also turn off your ads at any point.
Normally a new adgroup / campaign appears within 15-20 minutes of being set up but normally the campaign will disappear for a variable length of time within the first week while it is undergoing editorial review.
As for getting in the top two positions directly below the search bar, these are manually selected by Google and you need to have a high clickthrough rates and particularly relevant ads.
One key point for adwords is to remember the importance of negative keywords.
If you pm me I can pass you on the details of somebody who manages accounts.
Answers:
I'd also like to say thanks to Blinky for that - some interesting stuff there that I wasn't aware of myself!
Answers:
is good for getting a grounding in Adwords. It is about 140 pages long but it does repeat itself quite alot to force home the fundamentals. I know the author runs an email discussion group but be prepared to receive many emails per day.
Incidentally, I was at some seminars by Google Adwords last November. They said not to think about positions but concentrate on getting a good click through and conversion rate. However, it's difficult tp get these without decent positions.
You might also want to consider using for pay per click as well. I believe MSN (UK) is still using Overture as well all the Yahoo based engines (Yahoo own Overture). As I eluded to earlier ranking is simply done on bid levels so for certain words it can be very expensive. Their keyword tool is quite good, although the figures are a bit inflated (too long to go into now) but it can get around the U.S. bias that Wordtracker and related services.
PPC (Pay per click) campaigns are good for rapid traffic but for longer term SEO (search engine optimisation) to get better placement in the organic search (main listings) is more cost effective (but more head banging). Ideally you should be looking to use a combination of the two.
PS. If anyone approaches you saying they can guarantee you a top (10) listing in the main results for Google, they are lying, it's simply not possible.
Answers:
Some useful info there blinky. Ta.
I'm in the middle of trying to sort an overture account out at the moment.
Do you know if there are any geographic settings in overture, as I can't see any.
Google adwords allows me to just target the UK.
Mark
Answers:
Overture UK is separate from Overture US. I assume it is also separate from the other countries in listed in the drop down list on the Overture site.
Overture is straight-forward pay for position. If two sites have bid the same amount then the one which bid that amount first appears higher. It used to be that ideally you wanted to be in the top 3 or 4 positions but this may have changed (it depends on the position and number of results shown from Overture in the search engine results).
Overture's figures from the keyword tool are overestimates which can be as much as 6-11x but the trend they depict is correct. Ideally you want phrases which people are searching for, which are relevant to your site and are relatively cheap.
The last time I used Overture there were problems with the figures it reported in the Account management part. This may have been fixed.
Don't forget to put the conversion measuring tools into your website.
Answers:
Hhhhm, Didn't know that ! Ta.
I may have set it up under US then, I've just emailed them to find out.
I just clicked a link on Yahooo which was offering a free 50 quid credit.
Given that the credit was in Pounds Sterling, I naturally assumed it was for UK targetted ads.
Sorry to keep firing questions at you, but d'ya know if there is any 'negative keyword' setup like googles?
The phrases we need are quite common, so I've got lots of negative keywords set up on our google account, to help target the right kind of traffic.
Answers:
I think you can include negative keywords, but I don't think we ever used them as we tended to bid on phrases.
Answers:
thanks for all the useful info on this thread:
a few of quick questions:
1) I've heard of "Click Fraud" what is it exactky and how do you overcome it?
2) Sorry, didn't quite understand the concept of Negative Keywords
3) Are there any free tools/software to help you refine/tweek a campaign? (easy to use for the non techie if possible )
4) How would someone go about improving their site's organic listing? I know it's a complex and ever changing world but any pointers/guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance again
Answers:
thanks for all the useful info on this thread:
a few of quick questions:
1) I've heard of "Click Fraud" what is it exactky and how do you overcome it?
I've never observed it myself. Click fraud is when a competitor or somebody acting on their behalf clicks on your adverts. A bad attempt at fraud can be easily spotted by a jump in costs without an increase in conversions. Overture and Google both state they have methods in place to counteract fraud. More of a problem in the US than the UK.
2) Sorry, didn't quite understand the concept of Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are used to tighten up the focus of a campaign. More important for Goole Adwords as the click through rates partly determine position but they can be used to reduce the costs in any campaigns.
For example: Say you have a site which sells blue and green widgets but not black ones.
You decide to bid on: blue widgets, green widgets and widgets
Ideally you don't want your widgets advert appearing when somebody searches for "black widgets". Adding the negative keyword "-black" would stop you advert appearing on a "black widgets" search.
Another example in the same scenario would be if you know there is a Widgets restaurant in Newcastle. Adding -restaurant would be definitely worthwhile and possibly -Newcastle to tighten the focus on your advertising.
[quote]
3) Are there any free tools/software to help you refine/tweek a campaign? (easy to use for the non techie if possible )
Overture UK's Keyword tool (give figures which aren't correct but the trends are right)
Google's Keyword tool is useful to a lesser extent as it doesn't include any figures.
I will try and find some relevant sites when I have some time.
Having a good stats package on your site is important (Webalizer is not enough).
4) How would someone go about improving their site's organic listing? I know it's a complex and ever changing world but any pointers/guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance again
You right it is and I'm too out of touch on the organic side. I will try and find some useful links when I have some time.
I can pass details on of a professional SEO service if you PM me.