Can PPC work for me

Hi rms1,

Your reasoning is flawed.

Your average AdWords profit of "you" and Google together is actually about $34 million per minute.

See what I mean? While that statement is technically accurate, when you use "averages", it doesn't tell the truth about your personal individual experience, does it?

As Tim Ash likes to say "averages lie".

Looking at the "average" performance of any metric is only useful to evaluate your overall performance. It can tell you if "your" overall strategy has worked it doesn't tell you much of anything useful about your campaigns beyond just that. It doesn't tell you if AdWords will work for you or not, it just indicates that you are not looking at the right metrics, and you will likely never succeed until you start actively managing your campaign using proper marketing principles.

A key principle of sound marketing is the proper use of market segmentation. In AdWords, your marketing strategy should center around keyword segmentation. Just as you have had a personal individual experience in profits that is very different from the average profits of "you and Google" together, each of your keyword segments will likewise have their own individual story of performance. Within those keyword segments you may find some true top performers that are hidden by averages that include terrible performers.

If you get this concept, then congratulations, you have just completed the first step in learning how to manage a successful AdWords campaign. You are making progress, get busy and pickup the pace, as profits are just around the (learning) bend.

Not all keywords will have the exact same "average" CPC, and not all clicks, for the same keyword, will have the same cost. Segmentation is your friend, she's a lot of hard work, but good for you in the end, she makes you into a better marketer.