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***mandy*** · 01-04-2007, 01:23 PM,

Quote: As I manage quite a few PPC campaigns I always notice the silly and sometimes not so silly mistakes that advertisers make with their PPC programs.

Mistakes when creating PPC ads, click fraud detection, and lack of testing are just a few of them. Fixing each of these mistakes could mean an extra 70% of revenue or a savings of thousands of dollars every month.

Below is a list (we all love those lists don't we?) of the most common mistakes marketers make with their paid search (PPC) advertising campaigns.

1. Bidding Broad ...
2. Fighting for #1 Spot...
3. Avoiding Geo-targeting...

full article: http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/blogt...takes.html

thentavius · 01-04-2007, 05:07 PM,

The last few campaigns I've run on Google seem worthless. Like they're just eating up money with no sales in return.

Is it just me?

I'm going to read the article and see if I've done something glaringly wrong.

thentavius · 01-04-2007, 05:13 PM,

That was an excellent article.

Quote:5. Getting Rid of Fraud Networks - Every paid search engine, be it Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc, has a network to which they distribute your ads. Unfortunately, many of these networks are fraudulent and do not refer quality traffic. Look into your web statistics and find domain names that bring you traffic with a high bounce rate. Usually it will be around 90%. Google allows you to drop these domains into a "negative excluded sites" folder while Yahoo and others make you call them to address the problem. Doing this will prevent you from paying for garbage traffic.

I'm not sure I understand the bold sentence above. Bounce rate? I can check a list of referrers and referring domains--but how can I tell if these are negative sites? Anyone know off the top of their head?

Quote:10. Not Separating Content Match from Search Results - This is a mistake 101. Yes it takes time, but any campaign should separate their regular search advertising from content match. This will allow you to get better reporting, set different cost per click, different budget and overall have a cleaner look at both of these campaigns. Just separate into 2 campaigns. Both will have same keywords but one campaign will be created only for "search" and the other one for "content match".

I've seen Google sidebars offering to do this, but I wasn't sure I understood the difference. Is content match the blocks of links that appear on websites vs. the sidebars of links that appear in Google searches?

DecorativeDishes · 01-04-2007, 06:26 PM,

Just like eBay keywords I don't feel that Google Adwords did anything for me. I think I'd be better off buying a classified ad in a magazine or something (I haven't tried that yet--has anyone else?). A big magazine took pictures of my items for an article, but they didn't end up using them--damn. I wanted to see (for free) what would happen to have my url in a major print venue.

My organic rankings are good. There are so many junk matches on adwords that maybe my real shoppers don't bother with them. As a small boutique type store I'm lumped in with Macy's, Target, and bargain shopping sites which don't fit my niche. Kim

thentavius · 01-04-2007, 08:04 PM,

DD, maybe that's what's happening with me.

Before I closed my role playing game shop, Google Adwords were really rockin'. They had a marked impact on my sales and visits.

The last time I used Google AdWords on that site was in early 2005. Things have changed quite a bit, since I'm using them again for the new site.

Maybe it's not worth me even fiddling with some of the backend part of it and work more on other avenues. I will probably still use Google for really specific or obscure search strings, but not for any serious keywords.

maryrussel · 01-04-2007, 09:48 PM,

I tried Pay Per Click for several months last year with dismal results as in no sales from a $50 per month marketing budget. Since I didn't feel confident that I had enough knowledge to choose effective keyword phrases, I used the fast start option where they pick keywords for you. Perhaps that was my mistake. I think they tend to go with phrases that are too generic. They are more motivated to spending your money than they are in making sure that the phrases used result in high conversion rates.

**amy** · 01-04-2007, 11:52 PM,

Quote:The last few campaigns I've run on Google seem worthless. Like they're just eating up money with no sales in return.

Is it just me?

Their effectiveness (click through rate) is declining. The same thing happened to banner ads 6 or 7 years ago--which is why Overture developed contextual ads and why Google 'borrowed' the idea.

I don't even look at Google ads when I'm searching.

BellisimaJ. · 01-05-2007, 12:04 AM,

Quote:I don't even look at Google ads when I'm searching.

:ditto:

They just annoy me. :blinkie:

thentavius · 01-05-2007, 12:38 AM,

I used Overture in 2005 as well, but didn't notice much of anything from it. How is Overture nowadays?

***regic*** · 01-05-2007, 01:46 AM,

[quote author=thentavius link=topic=6535.msg39303#msg39303 date=1167957535]
I used Overture in 2005 as well, but didn't notice much of anything from it. How is Overture nowadays?
[/quote]

Yahoo is rolling out an update to their ad platform which is supposed to help advertisers increase conversions.