Why PPC difference in traffic?

17 replies
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I've just started using PPC again but I'm confused. I usually use google's keyword too exernal to find keywords. In that it says my keywords are searched 6,000 times a month. However when I put the same keywords in google's adwords traffic estimator it suggests I'll get 20 a month! Why the big difference? Is it that adwords for these keywords isn't used much at the moment?

Rich
#difference #ppc #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author KirkMcD
    Why do you think a huge number of the people would click on your ad?
    Estimates are based on ad position. How much are you willing to spend to get a higher position?
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
      Originally Posted by KirkMcD View Post

      Why do you think a huge number of the people would click on your ad?
      Estimates are based on ad position. How much are you willing to spend to get a higher position?
      Hi Kirk,
      Thanks!
      Sorry I should have said that 20 is the total available per month regardless of budget. I understand that only 10%-20% of search traffic will click an adwords add. But it's like 0.3%. That's what I can't work out why the estimate tool suggests such a low PPC volume compaired to keywords too external.

      Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author wchua24
    i am new to this ppc stuff. what you mean is different ad position have different cause? is that right?
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
      Originally Posted by wchua24 View Post

      i am new to this ppc stuff. what you mean is different ad position have different cause? is that right?
      What I mean is if I search in googles keyword tool it gives the average per month search as 6900 whereas the adwords estimator tool says I can expect 20 clicks per month regardless of budget.
      I think I figured it out. The estimator only uses historical info and as these searchs are showing little competition that could be the reason.

      Rich
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      • Profile picture of the author RinggitHit
        Yeah, 20 a month is based on your keyword bid.... increase it & the figure will surely increase too.... good luck!
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        • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
          Originally Posted by RinggitHit View Post

          Yeah, 20 a month is based on your keyword bid.... increase it & the figure will surely increase too.... good luck!
          I've tried leaving it blank and also increasing the bid to £100,000 but it still tells me I'll get 1 click a day!

          Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author Suzanne Morrison
    Hi Rich,

    In was under the impression that the Adwords traffic estimator estimated the number of clicks per day rather than the traffic and the estimated number of clicks is based on a combination of a system wide average, your bid and your daily budget.

    If you use the traffic estimator here, this is what it does:
    https://adwords.google.com/select/Tr...timatorSandbox

    I often find that the Google keyword tool over estimates the monthly volume. I have quite a few keywords that I am in the number one spot for (in the organic results) but the traffic I am getting for the phrase is quite a bit less (even taking into account the fact that other websites will be clicked on as well as mine).

    Did you select a geographical area for your ads? Or did you select a specific language? If so, could part of the reduction be related to this as well.

    Cheers,
    Suzanne
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
      Originally Posted by Suzanne Morrison View Post

      Hi Rich,

      In was under the impression that the Adwords traffic estimator estimated the number of clicks per day rather than the traffic and the estimated number of clicks is based on a combination of a system wide average, your bid and your daily budget.

      If you use the traffic estimator here, this is what it does:
      https://adwords.google.com/select/Tr...timatorSandbox

      I often find that the Google keyword tool over estimates the monthly volume. I have quite a few keywords that I am in the number one spot for (in the organic results) but the traffic I am getting for the phrase is quite a bit less (even taking into account the fact that other websites will be clicked on as well as mine).

      Did you select a geographical area for your ads? Or did you select a specific language? If so, could part of the reduction be related to this as well.

      Cheers,
      Suzanne
      Hi Suzanne,
      Thanks for your reply. I've left my budget blank and increased it to £100,000 a day but it still says I'll get 1 click a day for an average of 20 clicks a month. I'm imputting the same keyword phrases and using the same demographic info. I'll test it and see if it is 20 a month!

      Rich
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    • Profile picture of the author Chirag
      Hi Suzanne,

      That's a really great tool I didn't know about. Thanks for sharing!


      Regards,
      Chirag

      Originally Posted by Suzanne Morrison View Post

      Hi Rich,

      In was under the impression that the Adwords traffic estimator estimated the number of clicks per day rather than the traffic and the estimated number of clicks is based on a combination of a system wide average, your bid and your daily budget.

      If you use the traffic estimator here, this is what it does:
      https://adwords.google.com/select/Tr...timatorSandbox

      I often find that the Google keyword tool over estimates the monthly volume. I have quite a few keywords that I am in the number one spot for (in the organic results) but the traffic I am getting for the phrase is quite a bit less (even taking into account the fact that other websites will be clicked on as well as mine).

      Did you select a geographical area for your ads? Or did you select a specific language? If so, could part of the reduction be related to this as well.

      Cheers,
      Suzanne
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Rich,

    You asked "Why the big difference"?
    • Lets say a keyword get 6000 searches a month. The estimator tool will first filter out searches from locations outside your campaigns target market. Let's say that you are advertising in th US so that 6000 is then filtered down to say 1200 searches from within the US.
    • Now they apply the historical CTR for that keyword at the estimated position of your bid. Let's say that it is 2% and it brings the total clicks to 24.
    • Now they estimate how often your ad will display based on daily budget limits. Lets say that your ad gets displayed 83% of the time. That brings the total estimated clicks to 20 per month.
    Obviously, the range of locations your ad runs, the language of your ad, the historical CTR, and your daily budget limits can all reduce the number of possible clicks. Hopefully this explanation clears up the reason for the "big difference".
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      Hi Rich,

      You asked "Why the big difference"?
      • Lets say a keyword get 6000 searches a month. The estimator tool will first filter out searches from locations outside your campaigns target market. Let's say that you are advertising in th US so that 6000 is then filtered down to say 1200 searches from within the US.
      • Now they apply the historical CTR for that keyword at the estimated position of your bid. Let's say that it is 2% and it brings the total clicks to 24.
      • Now they estimate how often your ad will display based on daily budget limits. Lets say that your ad gets displayed 83% of the time. That brings the total estimated clicks to 20 per month.
      Obviously, the range of locations your ad runs, the language of your ad, the historical CTR, and your daily budget limits can all reduce the number of possible clicks. Hopefully this explanation clears up the reason for the "big difference".
      Hi Don,
      Thanks! However I'm using the UK on both the estimator and keywords too external. If I remove UK from keywords too external then the search goes from 6900 to 54,000.
      I've set up a blog to test what clicks I'll get anyway.

      Rich
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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Hi Rich,

        I simply used the US as an example. Each person's scenerio is likely to be different. You could apply the same scenerio to your own situaton and use a lower CTR history to arrive at the number you are seeing.

        I was just offering a likely explaination why 6000 searches can result in only 20 clicks. A lot of keywords will have less than 0.5% CTR. An average CTR of 0.34 will result in only 20 clicks out of 6000 searches no matter how high you set your daily budget.
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        • Profile picture of the author Richard Tunnah
          Originally Posted by dburk View Post

          Hi Rich,

          I simply used the US as an example. Each person's scenerio is likely to be different. You could apply the same scenerio to your own situaton and use a lower CTR history to arrive at the number you are seeing.

          I was just offering a likely explaination why 6000 searches can result in only 20 clicks. A lot of keywords will have less than 0.5% CTR. An average CTR of 0.34 will result in only 20 clicks out of 6000 searches no matter how high you set your daily budget.
          Sorry Don I wasn't dismissing your post. Just posting 'out loud' as it were. Thanks again. I'm testing to see if it's worth my time doing PPC for this long tail keywords.

          Rich
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    • Profile picture of the author michaelbeauchamp
      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      Hi Rich,

      You asked "Why the big difference"?
      • Lets say a keyword get 6000 searches a month. The estimator tool will first filter out searches from locations outside your campaigns target market. Let's say that you are advertising in th US so that 6000 is then filtered down to say 1200 searches from within the US.
      • Now they apply the historical CTR for that keyword at the estimated position of your bid. Let's say that it is 2% and it brings the total clicks to 24.
      • Now they estimate how often your ad will display based on daily budget limits. Lets say that your ad gets displayed 83% of the time. That brings the total estimated clicks to 20 per month.
      Obviously, the range of locations your ad runs, the language of your ad, the historical CTR, and your daily budget limits can all reduce the number of possible clicks. Hopefully this explanation clears up the reason for the "big difference".
      Hi Don,

      that's a great explanation. I'm not experienced with PPC, but often wondered about this too.

      I found your explanation easy to follow and understand. Thanks.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author magnum3
    thanks.. ive just learned something here..
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  • Profile picture of the author nistan
    My experience is that the estimator is WAY off. I'll get 5-10 times the real traffic with smaller bids in most cases, thats as long as my quality score is at least 7/10!
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