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1 question though how much do you think i should set my maximum CPC and maximum daily spend im going to keep my first campaign quite small?
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This is the biggest problem with learning Adwords
Unfortunately, things like this can't be learnt. With adwords, the basics can be learnt such as how to use the interface, but the important bits can't be learnt, they come mainly from trial and error.
The reason is for this is because every type of industry is different. If you go for a keyword such as gifts, at the moment you would pay around 80p per click to get your ad in a decent position (1 - 4). If you advertise lawyers who deal with asbestos claims, you're looking at £10 a click (or more). However, if you go for a niche with little competition, you could be paying 2p per click to get to the top.
Everything is relative, what works for one area doesn't work for another. For some areas jokey punchy ad works whereas they will faily miserbably in a different market.
The main part of adwords is trying things out and learning from experience. It's also difficult as the goal posts are often moving, google change the way they generate their quality scores, events such as christmas happen (which usually increases CPC's as everyone bids higher as they all want to be in top spot).
Even for a normal niche campaign, you`ll find that you have to bid high at first, to establish a track record with google. If you get a consistently good CTR (Click through rate), your bid prices will drop. For my main campaign, I started at 30p for a postition in the the top 1 - 3 slots, now, after a 4 or so weeks I`m paying 8p for the same position. So at the start you need to be brave, and bear in mind that your click prices should come down.
Try and make your landing page (the page the advert points to) as relevant as possible to the advert, as this will lower your cost per click, and also get more conversions (people buying from it).
Try different spots, for one campaign positions 1 -3 might be best, however for others 4 - 6 could be best. Positions 4 - 6 aren't clicked as much as 1 - 3 obviously, however they can convert better, as if people are bothering to look down that far, then they are fairly sure they want to buy the product.
Also bear in mind that a high CTR (click through rate) is not always best! It does lower you cost per click, however you can make more money with a lower click through rate sometimes, even though you are paying more per click. For example (with very rough figures).
Click through rate of 10% - at 20p per click - 100 visitors = £20 - 2 sales generating £40
Click through rate of 5% - at 50p per click - 50 visitors = £25 - 5 sales generating £100
So in this case, you are paying more per click, are in a lower position, but it attracts people who are serious about buying, so you get more sales.
One of the problems with being in top spot is that you get a lot of "Browsers", people who are clicking through who are interested in the product or service, but aren't really interested in buying. If you just want to get people to your site, thats great, but if you want people to buy lots of people doesn't always mean more sales. The lower positions can be better for more targetted traffic.
Again though, this varies by industry. These rules work well for some areas, and not at all for others.
The only people who can tell you what works in your area are your competitors, and they aren't going to!
As a result there is a lot of trial and error involved, and after a while you get a feel for your area, how much to bid, what time of day you can raise and lower prices (for example after 6pm, a lot of peoples budgets are used up, so you can stay in the same position but lower your cpc rate, as theres less competition you stay in the same place).
A couple more tips:
Watch the Content Networks very carefully - I have never had success with these, and turn them off now all the time, they`ve always converted very badly, and can lower your CTR significantly.
Use the Accelerated option to spend your budget - You can see whats happening faster, and can adjust your budget as needed, letting google space your ad's over a day gives you much less control, and isn't always good, as you ad can be displayed less at "peak" times.
Use more than 1 advert for the same ad group - You can give google a couple of different ad's for the same ad group. At first these are rotated evenly, but over time the best performing ad's are shown the most. Every couple of days, or week, kill the worst performing ones, and add new ones, so you're ad's keep getting better and better. Make notes of what you do, and what effects changes had (to help you improve, and its very easy to forgot which change had what effect).
Hope this makes sense
Just rambling on about what i`ve learnt off the top of my head, but hope it helps!
Re: Adwords tutorial
