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Quick Question about PPC advertising

by Kevin Marshall
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I want to try my hand in PPC advertising for the first time. I found a keyword getting over 600 searches a day with no PPC advertisers. There are various forms of this keyword, and the most advertisers I see for any keyword is 4. For the keyword I really want to target, there are no advertisers at this hour. I am monitoring the keyword regularly today to see if any advertisers show up throughout the day.

My questions are: 1) Since there is no competition for the main keyword I want to target, if I bid .01 cent per click for that keyword, will that put me in the prime position for that keyword?

2) For the other keywords that get a lot of hits, if I bid .01 per click, will I appear below the other two to four advertisers, or do I need to bid more to appear with them on the page?

Any responses on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
#advertising #ppc #question #quick
  • Profile picture of the author mloveridge17
    PPC is a bidding game. If there truly are no other bidders, then $0.01 should do the trick to get you at the top of the list.

    Just be aware that you may spark interest in that particular keyword and, as a result, start getting competitors. In fact, if it's a profitable keyword, you should expect competitors at some point. When you get that competition, you may have to raise your bids to stay at the top position (unless your CTR is high enough), and remember that Google doesn't like it when you raise your bids too high, too fast.
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    • Profile picture of the author johnng
      Originally Posted by mloveridge17 View Post

      PPC is a bidding game. If there truly are no other bidders, then $0.01 should do the trick to get you at the top of the list.

      Just be aware that you may spark interest in that particular keyword and, as a result, start getting competitors. In fact, if it's a profitable keyword, you should expect competitors at some point. When you get that competition, you may have to raise your bids to stay at the top position (unless your CTR is high enough), and remember that Google doesn't like it when you raise your bids too high, too fast.
      I don't understand where the statement "doesn't like it when you raise your bids too high, too fast" came from.
      As far as I know, Google is only interested in the relevancy of the Keywords to the Content of the Landing page.
      If you use the Keywords "Frying Pans" to land on a page that only promote dating, you won't pay $0.01 for sure, more like $5 even if no one else competes for that keyword.
      As far as I know, Google will welcome you to raise your bid to sky high, you won't be punished for it. However, just bidding higher than your competitor will not guarantee you to rank higher than your competitors, CTR is also a very important factor.
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  • Profile picture of the author JadeCloud
    Without knowing more about the keyword it's hard to say. A keyword that's getting 600 searches a day is either not really getting that many searches or is not profitable. There's usually a reason why a keyword has no competitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
    I already know it is getting a lot of hits, so that isn't the issue. I can't say if it is a converting keyword. I'll find out for sure once I run the campaign. I am going to go ahead and set it up and see what happens.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lucid
    Originally Posted by kevinmarshall80 View Post

    I found a keyword getting over 600 searches a day with no PPC advertisers.
    There is always other advertisers. They may not be advertising right now or advertising in your area. But they are there and have been historically. Google will also use similar terms to figure out your QS and therefore your costs.

    For example, the exact phrase "feline nourrishment" may not be show ads where you live, but there may be in other countries or even in your country but not advertising in your geographic area. Google will use that information. Then, most advertisers use broad match mostly but it knows that your keyword means the same as "cat food". Google will use that info as well.

    Therefore, it is unlikely that if you bid one cent that your ad will be served. It will likely show that you need to bid a certain amount to appear on the first page. All the above information is used to determine that.

    Your quality score will determine where your ads show and how much to pay to get on the first page. Relevancy of the keyword to ad to landing page is key. Create great ads and your QS will be high and reduce your costs. Find out more and download my Adwords FAQ.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
      Well it looks I screwed up the ad because I put the redirect link in the display URL. I got my ad disapproved because of the inaccurate display URL.

      I have a redirect on my .info domain redirecting to the clickbank page. For the display URL, do I just need to show the page where the user will end up, or do I need to include some other URL address? I've read a few threads and I am kind of confused. It doesn't seem like I should be showing my affiliate Clickbank link, but I'm not really sure what I should be showing now.
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  • Profile picture of the author bigbyte
    $0.01 will not get you anything on Google. You need to "earn" a good quality score and your click prices will eventually go down. Even with no competition you would have to bid significantly higher and the slowly over time lower your bid prices.

    Also, do not trust the base number of daily searches. You might be disappointed when you get 20 impressions only.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
      Originally Posted by bigbyte View Post

      $0.01 will not get you anything on Google. You need to "earn" a good quality score and your click prices will eventually go down. Even with no competition you would have to bid significantly higher and the slowly over time lower your bid prices.

      Also, do not trust the base number of daily searches. You might be disappointed when you get 20 impressions only.
      I already ran a test ad and got 77 impressions in an hour. I raised my click price to .05, but it sounds like that's not enough.
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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Hi Kevin,

        There are a lot of variables the you should consider. If you are using a broad match and/or phrase match versions of the keyword then you are likely to see far more impressions then you expected. Using Broad Match keywords in particular are likely to trigger impressions from irrelevant keyword phrases.

        Additionally those impressions from variants and related keywords may have various levels of advertiser competition and search volume. You may also see your ad being triggered for keywords that aren't highly relevant to your ad or landing page offer.

        There are always minimum first page bid requirements even when there are no other competing advertisers. The minimum bid will vary based on your current keyword Quality Score. Fortunately, the AdWords system will report the minimum bid requirement, and as long as you meet that you should generate impressions.

        I recommend that you avoid using broad match keywords and stick with exact match and phrase match to pickup those longer search phrases you may not have setup up as exact match yet. As you discover longer, relevant phrases that are triggering you ads you can add them to your exact match list.
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        * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
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        • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
          Originally Posted by dburk View Post

          Hi Kevin,

          There are a lot of variables the you should consider. If you are using a broad match and/or phrase match versions of the keyword then you are likely to see far more impressions then you expected. Using Broad Match keywords in particular are likely to trigger impressions from irrelevant keyword phrases.

          Additionally those impressions from variants and related keywords may have various levels of advertiser competition and search volume. You may also see your ad being triggered for keywords that aren't highly relevant to your ad or landing page offer.

          There are always minimum first page bid requirements even when there are no other competing advertisers. The minimum bid will vary based on your current keyword Quality Score. Fortunately, the AdWords system will report the minimum bid requirement, and as long as you meet that you should generate impressions.

          I recommend that you avoid using broad match keywords and stick with exact match and phrase match to pickup those longer search phrases you may not have setup up as exact match yet. As you discover longer, relevant phrases that are triggering you ads you can add them to your exact match list.
          When I did my keyword test, I made sure all of the keywords were in brackets so that I was searching for the exact keyword term and not just a broad phrase. I have a list of over 140 keywords I tested, and I have about 30 keywords I am going to target for the PPC ad. According to the adwords system, the lowest bid amount is .05 for most of the keywords I am targeting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Kohler
    My problem with PPC advertising is that I cannot seem to get the campaigns running. I have raised my bids to over a dollar, but I believe Alex Goad said that you need to raise the daily budget to a huge amount and monitor it. He did $1000 a day, which sounds ridiculous, but it apparently makes Google think you are a "player". Is this true?
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by Michael Kohler View Post

      My problem with PPC advertising is that I cannot seem to get the campaigns running. I have raised my bids to over a dollar, but I believe Alex Goad said that you need to raise the daily budget to a huge amount and monitor it. He did $1000 a day, which sounds ridiculous, but it apparently makes Google think you are a "player". Is this true?
      Hi Michael,

      While it isn't always necessary to set your daily budget limit to $1000 per day, it is necessary to give your budget enough headroom or else your impressions will be severely restricted. Often impressions come in bursts and, due to the stateless nature of web browsing, AdWords must wait for a period of time to see if your impressions resulted in a click, otherwise they could risk overshooting your daily budget.

      So if you are bidding $1.00 per click and have a daily budget of say $30 then they need to stop impressions for a while after you have receive only 30 impressions, since it is possible that each one could be clicked upon, exhausting your daily budget. Anyone searching during the waiting period would not see your ad displayed.

      By setting your daily budget much higher then your anticipated daily ad spend you can prevent this interruption of impressions. You may see some days with higher then average ad spends, but it is easy enough to control your ad spend by adjusting your bids to lower or raise your ad position.

      Using set-and-forget settings in your campaign may be convenient, but it will severely limit the profit potential compared to an actively managed campaign.
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      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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