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Most Likely A Stupid Question BUT ......

by Gregg Montgomery
4 replies
Hi

I am about to start using PPC, mostly as test runs at the moment just to get a feel for it and how it works/ or not lol

My question is: How long should I let an ad run before I start to make changes and what is the most important stat to measure thing by (apart from conversions, thats a given).

Cheers
Gregg
#question #stupid
  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Let me first say that PPC is a tricky game that could be costly for the newbie, so dont invest too much at first because you will likely start off in the red. The tricky thing is that you need to make this first leap though because the best way to learn is to actually be doing PPC and seeing what works for you and what doesnt. The point is that you dont want to go broke on PPC before you even start getting good at it, so dont rush into it.

    With that said some hopefully helpful tips...

    Start with long tail keywords which are normally a few words long. These are generally more inexpensive and the traffic is lower. Thats fine for you now though because you dont need crazy traffic when you first start.

    Also, set reasonable budgets. Assume that you are going to lose most of your investment at first. Be able to last long enough to start tweaking campaigns that look promising and get them in the black.

    Keep reading. There is a lot to learn in PPC adn there is a lot of strategy behind it. So as you get your toes wet in PPC, keep reading and learning

    Do your keyword research. Keywords are the heart of PPC so try and be a bit creative in your keywords, but keep them focused enough so you have targeted traffic to your offer. Untargeted traffic is no good.


    Good luck my friend. THE GREAT THING ABOUT PPC IS THAT ONCE YOU FIND A WINNER AND OPTIMIZE A CAMPAIGN, ITS PRETTY MUCH AUTOPILOT CASH.
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  • Profile picture of the author darkblue
    to answer your question Gregg, you should let your campaign run without making any changes until you reach a cost that's equally to what you would earn for a sale.

    For example, if you make a sale and earn a $40 commission from that sale, than you should run your ad until you reach $40 in adwords cost.

    This is theoretically, now it's up to you if you want to wait so long.

    And there are no stupid question! That's how we learn, asking others for help
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    • Profile picture of the author TE2
      I will spend up to 2x the payout doing my testing.

      If the offer pays $40, then I will spend up to $80 to test it.

      You need data to make decisions. Too often, people give up too quickly.

      Said another way - You can't spend a few dollars and pull the plug. 20-30 clicks is not statistically significant and not what you should base a decision on.

      Regards,

      John
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    At the end of the day, your limit will be set by your personal investment budget. Obviosuly the more you let your ad run and collect data, the better informed you will be.

    But a vast majority of campaigns are just not winners, so you dont want to spend too much money on them and you want to weed them out as quickly as possible.


    Just try to find your personal balance.

    I know when I first started I barely had a budget, so I would turn off losers very quickly. I probably turned off some campaigns that would have been winners, but I just couldnt afford to test enough to find out. I turned off losers quickly and finally found a winner. Then tweaked and tweaked and tested some more and optimized that campaign to make a decent amount of money.

    Then I reinvested that in PPC and was able to test campigns longer since I had a larger budget


    good luck
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