Is it worth doing PPC on a well ranked site?

[Seamaster]

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I have a site that is number one for its keyword in Google.

There are ads above and on the right of it in the SERPS so only about 10% of the searches convert to hits (according to the Google KWT).

This site does convert to sales quite well so I would like more traffic.

Do you think it would be worth running a PPC campaign on the same keywords that site is ranked number one for?

Would this get me more hits or would the add take away from the people that reach the site organically?

Do people generally do PPC on well ranked sites?

Thanks

[aero_mansoor]

How about a PPC on MSN?

[Seamaster]

Don't know about MSN PPC will have to look into it.

I've set it up.

Am in top 3 at the moment for 10p. Each sale I make will get me £1 to £3.

So lets say £1 per sale. 10p per click.

To break even I will need to make 1 sale per 10 clicks.

Is there anyway to tell where the sales came from - organic or PPC - as I will be getting a mixture of both.

Perhaps this is not such a good idea after all if I can't track it!

[Kyle]

Yeah definitely test the PPC ads. If they are appearing above the organic rankings then they will potentially be sucking up a massive percentage of the traffic and conversions (unless they aren't as targetted as your site).

Only way to find out is testing as you're doing.

I think Google Analytics will identify organic vs PPC traffic? (we use our own in-house tracking ). Can any Analytics users confirm this?

[Seamaster]

I think Google Analytics will identify organic vs PPC traffic? (we use our own in-house tracking ). Can any Analytics users confirm this?

It does yes. You can see where a user came from and which campaign.

But that won't tell me which of those users then went on to make purchase will it?

[Barry]

Is the campaign your running on a network?

If so all networks (well all except very few) have the ability to add a tracking identifier such as the epi in TD or the clickref in AW and WG etc etc

You can use this to decipher where your lead/sale has come from.


In answer to your question - I would give it a punt for sure - so long as your PPC ad is making profit. or - Even if you PPC ad is only making 'evens' your taking up a competitors space thats over your organic, pure profit making listing.

Have you maybe thought PPCing direct to the merchant (I am presuming you are talking about an affiliate site here for all points made)

Ta

Baz

[Seamaster]

If so all networks (well all except very few) have the ability to add a tracking identifier such as the epi in TD or the clickref in AW and WG etc etc

How would the click ref tell me how the visitor got to my site? I thought it just told you what link the user had clicked on to get to the merchant?

Have you maybe thought PPCing direct to the merchant (I am presuming you are talking about an affiliate site here for all points made)

Yeah its an affiliate site. The merchant in most cases is Amazon and I see they already have an ad campaign for the keyword so I don't think I can do another one.

[Barry]

Its harder with amazon as they don't offer clickrefs like most other networks (I think that word should be the industry standard now thanks to AW and WG)

What you need to do is create another Tracking ID thats specific to your campaign - say your PPC campaign - call it 'mywidgetppc-21' or something.

On your PPC ad destination url just append a '?campaign=ppc' to the end which will tell your website that anyone arriving with that on the end of your url has come from google adwords. - When your website sees this on the end of the url (use php or asp etc etc) change you amazon tag to your new tracking id.

The downfall of this is that you can only tell the effectiveness of the campaign rather then by each keyword which you can do by using clickrefs and dynamic keyword insertion.

I hope this is not to much babble.

Ta

Baz

[aidanjb]

Hey,
Do a trial and see what the results are. If at the end of the day you're making more money from have the number 1 ranking and a PPC ad then fantastic, if not, dont do it. I find it often works quiet well for my sites - just keep a close eye on the numbers.

[Seamaster]

If at the end of the day you're making more money from have the number 1 ranking and a PPC ad then fantastic, if not, dont do it. I find it often works quiet well for my sites - just keep a close eye on the numbers.

Its hard to say for sure as the sales the site makes at the moment varies from day to day.

At the moment, for the last 38 days it has made an average of 9.7 sales a day. Will see if PPC makes it go up.

On your PPC ad destination url just append a '?campaign=ppc' to the end which will tell your website that anyone arriving with that on the end of your url has come from google adwords. - When your website sees this on the end of the url (use php or asp etc etc) change you amazon tag to your new tracking id.

Thanks, I'll have a look into that and see if I can work out how to do it.

[wilsonf1]

i tried out a £50 voucher from google adword in March and at 50p a click, i was at the very top for some good phrases, i made £56 from spending £50 LOL! Alan Sugar would call that a profit and let me go flying and driving in something though.....

Notice how easy it is to work out PPC campaigns if you can use clickref tracking!



was a pretty awesome month for me as you can see

[submantom]

wilsonf1.... i love to see real-life examples, great inspiration. but i don't know what this is showing, could you explain please!!

[submantom]

wilsonf1.... i love to see real-life examples, great inspiration. but i don't know what this is showing, could you explain please!!

ok.... think i've answered my own question!

so the lines in yellow are tracked from adwords, add them all up and it gives you the £56 commission.

because you got the £50 free voucher, you made £56 profit, but do you still do it now you have used the £50?

[Seamaster]

Were you linking straight to the merchant?

I got a £50 voucher the other day but I've already signed up an account.

[submantom]

Were you linking straight to the merchant?

I got a £50 voucher the other day but I've already signed up an account.

create a new account using an email address off one of the domains you will be promoting and just forward it to you main account.

i think the vouchers work for accounts under 14 days old.