A Few Questions From An Adwords Newbie

[anexplorer]

Hey guys,

I've just started using Adwords and I went through a few PPC courses to. I just have a few quick questions I want to clear up before I start:

What should I do with keywords that are below the CPC bid needed to go on the first page? Right now, I'm playing it safe by bidding only $0.52 on my keywords, considering that I'll make $50 for each conversion. Should I go ahead and make them active to test and see what the CTR rates are like for those keywords? Should I test them all at once or carefully one by one, watching each of those keywords very closely? Should I raise the CPC bid so that they go onto the first page or should I eliminate those keywords altogether?

I'm afraid that the CTR rates for those keywords aren't going to be good at all since they're on the second page, which will lower the quality of my account and raise the bid prices of my other keywords. I'm really trying to be careful about the CTR rate and quality of my account because I do not want to be Google slapped. Any suggestions on what to do will be much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Davin

[digitalproductreporter]

from one of my favorite ppc people out ther

1. Bid prices. Assuming you have a decent keyword set, if you aren’t getting any traffic your bid prices may be too low. This is by far one of the most common problems I see with campaigns. Its very tempting to try to ease into a niche going after cheap clicks, but its also an biggest way to shoot yourself in the foot. You have to bid enough to get the clicks, no matter what that price may be. If the top ads are bidding $1.75 and you start with $ .85, your campaign might be doomed to never get any impressions. Set your bid aggressively - you have to pay to play.

Common affiliate marketing problems - low traffic | CDF Networks - Affiliate Marketing Blog

[Louis Raven]

This will set you on a straight path: Visitor Value Sytem..

Hope it helps and good luck,

Louis

[JimCarter]

I think you should always use a tracking system to track not only your CTR but your actual conversions as well. See what is working and not working and weed out the ones that don't. Concentrate only on the winners and your CTR and conversions will go up.

If you are worried about the price of your clicks and your position, create relevant ads and landing pages for your ads. This will help your quality score and possibly cheapen your clicks!

[P_Cerrito]

Good info given already. When I am faced with keywords that aren't bid high enough to trigger an ad I will raise the bid. Once that keword is used and has a history- the cost can go down or up sometimes a little-sometimes a lot- depending on relevance, #impressions divided by #clicks, etc. My goal is to find the sweet spot. Example: $2 to be #1 or #2 or $1 to be number #3-#5, etc. Position isn't what matters the most to me- it is how many conversions for how much money spent. I have ads that convert just as good in position 4 and lower because not everyone is split testing their ads for max viewer click appeal. I have others that must be positioned higher. Someone else please add more.