Marketing and Testing? Bad CTR and Bounce rate

[Gunn]

Hello all, I am a new poster on this board, but have lurked for a little while.

Recently, I made an attempt at a test with adwords and failed miserably, CTR was dismal at maybe .8% (with content off). And from the ones that did actually click on my site I had about an 80% bounce rate (from analytics). This was from about 150 clicks that cost me $75.

I have been trying to research why, but I am finding basic generalizations and no real help in improving landing pages and improving CTR.

My question for anyone who might know is: Are there any good books, or information on how to make a successful landing page, and/or increasing CTR?

I have followed the intructions as best as I can from the 4HWW. The website that Tim refers to from the extras section of the site marketingexperiments.com seems to be geared for larger sites or sites with existing traffic (and money).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Sven]

ctr seems very low compared to the .50 per click.

Are the keywords ok? Have you tested several adds for the same keywords?

But it could be there is just a lot of competition around those keywords and maybe you should find other ways?

[Gunn]

CTR is definitely low, I am currently researching ways to increase it, I have found a few free resources that provide some basic information on adwords, but I still have a lot of work to do to correct this problem.

I think my biggest mistake was overestimating my ability to set up a good adwords campaign. Everyone makes it sound like its easy, but the more I research it, the more complex it seems to become. Even the 4HWW made it seem like it would take minutes, but I now realize that the only successful campaigns are from people who know how the system works.

Well, there is always the possibility that my products aren't marketable...

If anyone has any resources (free) or a good book that will have information on how to increase CTR or how to make landing pages that will lower bounce rates, it would be much appreciated.

Anyone outsource this stuff and was successful?

[MarkGustav]

If anyone has any resources (free) or a good book that will have information on how to increase CTR or how to make landing pages that will lower bounce rates, it would be much appreciated.

Hey Gunn,
I'm a online marketing specialist with successful campaigns and PPC experience under my belt. I learned 90% of what I know from following Jeremy Palmer of QuitYourDayJob.com. I HIGHLY recommend that you do his free Black Ink Project course. I have paid over $600 to be a part of training some time ago that was half as good as his free course. All the lessons are archived and downloadable.

You'll learn:
- How to research a niche
- How to evaluate the PPC space for your niche
- How to create landing pages that convert
- How to test your campaigns for max profitability
- More stuff along that vein

The business of creating traffic to your offer(s) (I like to call it moving eyeballs) and developing the skills and knowledge to do it is a very good discipline.

There are a lot of "gurus" out there happy to sell you their sensationalist "internet marketing" course or product. Jeremy Palmer takes a very realistic and step-by-step approach to the process. I've chatted with him numerous times and I'd definitely start with him. He's a good guy.

BTW: I'm not associated with him in any way nor receive any renumeration for recommending him. Just a great resource.

The Black Ink Project (http://theblackinkproject.com)

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Lead Equity (http://www.leadequity.com) | Vacant Desk (http://www.vacantdesk.com)