Tons of impressions - ZERO clicks

Your impressions are from the content network or from the search network?

Ah, didn't even take that into consideration.

About 30% is from Google, the rest is from "Search Partners" which I guess is just showing on other people's websites?

All clicks have come from Google.

Search partners is different from the content network, it's other search engines that displayed your ad.

With such a low CTR, you probably need one or both of those 2 things:

-more targeted keywords
-a couple of very different ad to split test.

Did you split your keyword list in groups with an a different ad for each of them?

I suggest that you read a good book about PPC, like the one from Perry Marshall or doubledigitctr which is pretty good.

Patrice

I've got The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords at home, but I'm currently working in California (other side of the country) so I don't have access to it right now, which bums me a little.

I've got my keywords together in one category, but its a list of about 20 VERY similar long-tail keywords. They get a good amount of search traffic, the ads just aren't converting.

Right now I only have the one category set up. I have not taken the time to do more keyword research after the initial setup a few days back.

If you think your keywords should catch people ready to buy your product, then try to change your ad.

Start with a different title for example, "Learn something" is probably not sexy enough for your audience, and split test with the one you have.

Add some negative keywords to your keyword list

-free

for example to filter out all the freebies seeker.

Patrice

Which network are you running? Search or Content?

I found that you have more control and customization freedom if you create two different campaigns, one for search network and another for content.

Second is, what are your matching preferences used for your keywords? Broad match, phrase or exact? This is crucial to getting targeted traffic..

Broad match is not helpful, because your ads get triggered for any search as long as the words are present and in any order, PLUS also get triggered for synonyms or other related words.

On the onset, you may use broad matched keywords only to test which ones convert, and once you do know which convert you may focus on these and delete those keywords that only cost you money but don't bring in a sale.

Also if you are targeting a specific phrase, its best that you use phrase or exact.

You should also be tracking to know which convert and don't, you can start off with Google Analytics but there is some data that GA does not tell you, like if you got clicks for a synonym of a keyword, what you see reported on GA is the keyword that you were bidding upon and not the synonym that triggered the ad that got clicked. You need tracking software for that.

Hi scheda,

I agree with Patrice, drop the "Learn" from your headline. People usually don't want to "Learn". They may be willing to learn to get what they DO want, but learning is not what they want. The keyword by itself will probably do better than with "Learn" as the first word in your headline.

Study your competition, ask yourself "which ad copy would you be most likely to click on?" Then write very similar ads. Try to come up with at least 4-8 different ads and run them all as a test.

In order to create highly relevant ad groups be sure to group your keywords together using the "common" keyword method. If all keywords have at least one common word you will be able to use this word in your adcopy. Use your "common" words in your title and description to achieve a better quality score and higher CTR.

If your shooting for a opt-in use a stronger 'call to action' than learn.

How many clicks does google estimate that you should be receiving?

steve