Adwords... No Clicks / No Impressions Ever?

[weinerschizel]

I'm struggling to get adwords working. I've picked it up a handful of times and said the H E double hockey stick to it.

I never get any clicks or impressions. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm simply trying to drive targeted traffic back to my website. My credit card is input correctly and it says the campaign is running.

I'm currently posting an ad for an article I wrote on energy drinks. I'm split testing my email opt in and trying to at least get a few energy drink sales in the process. My daily budget is $10 and my max PPC bid is $0.15 for the content network only.

I've tried all sorts of max bids all the way up and beyond a dollar a click. Tried to vary my daily budget as well. Never any luck. I've tried the search network as well. Again never any luck. I've driven maybe two clicks through about a dozen adword campaigns. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I've got facebook and stumbleupon PPC to work but I don't feel the traffic is targeted as well. I'd love to use google but it never works for me. I'm about to give up and try MSN and Yahoo. But it's a PITA to setup Adwords, I don't want to have to learn another system lol

Any suggestions? Here's the current landing page for my current PPC work, http://www.fitlish.com/effects-of-energy-drinks

[Musetester]

Your site will prove a strong lead generator but not so much on sales.

Think about who you should be targeting: males 18-32. There's a TON you can do in the realm of email marketing (this niche is full of buyers and there's a wide market of viable products to promote) and selling leads/solo ads.

In terms of PPC, you'll find Facebook the most targeted traffic but this traffic is generally not "in a buying mood". They are in information gathering and socializing mode. So I recommend optimizing your site for generating opt ins into your mailing list.

As far as clicks from Google PPC--your bids aren't high enough, or you don't have enough keyword generated search traffic to pull from.

That or your ads aren't strong and no one is noticing them.

Just start tweaking one variable at a time. You'll get it right.

Lane

[weinerschizel]

Hi Lane,

Thanks so much for the feedback. I've facebook and stumble upon to work quiet well before...

I've never had luck with google PPC. It's not even displaying my ads right now. I have no idea what's a reasonable bid for a keyword.

I'm of the same feeling as you though. I don't believe the product will sell well from this article. However, I felt it was better than just testing the email list / newsletter. Hopefully with some luck I'll make a sale and score some money to offset my click dollars.

My site is generating just short of 2000 views a month on it's own though. Silly me, I'm just starting the newsletter now though. I need to split test more things though and get them running better.

I primed my news letter by writing personal emails and have about 20 people on it so far...

Anyways, thanks so much for the help!!!

Your site will prove a strong lead generator but not so much on sales.

Think about who you should be targeting: males 18-32. There's a TON you can do in the realm of email marketing (this niche is full of buyers and there's a wide market of viable products to promote) and selling leads/solo ads.

In terms of PPC, you'll find Facebook the most targeted traffic but this traffic is generally not "in a buying mood". They are in information gathering and socializing mode. So I recommend optimizing your site for generating opt ins into your mailing list.

As far as clicks from Google PPC--your bids aren't high enough, or you don't have enough keyword generated search traffic to pull from.

That or your ads aren't strong and no one is noticing them.

Just start tweaking one variable at a time. You'll get it right.

Lane

[Musetester]

How goes your adjustment and monetizing that list?

[weinerschizel]

How goes your adjustment and monetizing that list?

It's working. I slowly kept rising the price. Now I'm at $0.50 per click. That's too much for me to bid.

Is there any way to tell what price points will be for purchasing clicks or impressions? I've had terrible time setting up google adwords though I hear it's one of the easier ones.

I've used facebook with no hiccups what so ever but feel google might have more relevant traffic for my product / buyers.

[Musetester]

Use this as a rule of thumb: average amateur copywriters will convert luke-warm traffic at the $17-$47 pricepoint, upon first impression, at 3-5%.

So--this means each click to you is worth .51 to 2.35

Therefore, if you/re spending 50 cents to make 51 cents (worst case), you're still making 2% on your money...AND you're capturing contact emails.

There are a TON of variables here. Adjust one at a time until fully optimized. THEN worry about optimizing your adwords campaign.

You just need 100 visitors per variable adjustment to give you an idea of the direction you're heading.

As another rule of thumb, each subscriber is worth 50 cents per month to you.

A few caveats here:

1) You need a super professional looking sales page with REAL testimonials and an EASY way to make payment.

2) In today's age, you need video on that sales page--have it regurgitate your sales letter or re-enforce your argument in a tangential way--don't simply discuss the product. Sell the benefits of the product or the size of the demand (market demand, competition for this resource etc).

3) make sure to capture the contact information of the visitors you want. Where you put your opt in box will largely filter the people you don't want to waste time marketing to.

An information product example: www.application-university.com/specialoffer

A physical product example: www.rackjobmagic.com

[weinerschizel]

Use this as a rule of thumb: average amateur copywriters will convert luke-warm traffic at the $17-$47 pricepoint, upon first impression, at 3-5%.

So--this means each click to you is worth .51 to 2.35

Therefore, if you/re spending 50 cents to make 51 cents (worst case), you're still making 2% on your money...AND you're capturing contact emails.

There are a TON of variables here. Adjust one at a time until fully optimized. THEN worry about optimizing your adwords campaign.

You just need 100 visitors per variable adjustment to give you an idea of the direction you're heading.

As another rule of thumb, each subscriber is worth 50 cents per month to you.

A few caveats here:

1) You need a super professional looking sales page with REAL testimonials and an EASY way to make payment.

2) In today's age, you need video on that sales page--have it regurgitate your sales letter or re-enforce your argument in a tangential way--don't simply discuss the product. Sell the benefits of the product or the size of the demand (market demand, competition for this resource etc).

3) make sure to capture the contact information of the visitors you want. Where you put your opt in box will largely filter the people you don't want to waste time marketing to.

An information product example: www.application-university.com/specialoffer

A physical product example: www.rackjobmagic.com

THanks Musetester,

You've helped me on here several times before and I'll have to say your advice has been invaluable.

I see where you are coming from. Last night I stayed up till midnight going through www.shoemoney.com (I've been devouring the site like a spunge). However, he goes over very little split testing (so far).

I'm currently buying traffic on Pleanty of Fish and pumping it to click bank products related to success in dating / health / relationships. I'm slowly learning how to optimize the ads for click through rate.

However, I need to get my funnel working so I can capture their email, etc before passing them onto the offer / product.

I'm learning so much... I guess I gave up too soon before on buying traffic but I think there's actually a lot of money in it.

I do have one more question... When optimizing an ad for CTR how many impressions to you typically get before you feel the CTR has solidified? Eg. I'm getting around 1000 impressions before I feel the CTR is accurate. Is that a good figure or should I get even more impressions?

Thanks again for the help!

[Musetester]

At 1000 impressions you can consider your CTR and any other metric you devise "statistically significant".....in other words...."a lock"