Rank: Member
Joined: 4/23/2007(UTC)
Posts: 53
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Seeking a cool tip here . . . just curious if anyone else has noticed a decreased ROI with regard to search engine advertising such as AdWords. We sell coffee, candy and nuts on our web store and while things usually do soften right after Easter it seems that we've received an unusually high percentage of "empty" clicks the last two weeks. Maybe time to spend more time ramping up our natural listings. Other more effective online advertising buys? Blogs? Social sites? Thank you, Joe http://www.georgehowe.com/
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
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Probably competitors. We've never had much luck with PPC, we can watch our competitors come in and out. We once had someone click 27 times in 10 minutes, of course goog now removes those fees automagically but it's still frustrating. I think one of the big problems is that people on the other end - real searchers have no idea that the clicks are so costly. PromoManagers
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
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Wanted to relay our experience continues to mirror yours. $271 spent last week, 0 conversions. 97.3% of all paid clicks came from untrackable IP addresses, residential Comcast and other similar services and not businesses. Without getting into the demographics that is way out of line with our normal demo. We'll continue to try it periodically but at least for us it is akin to burning money. PromoManagers Promotional Products
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Rank: Member
Joined: 3/3/2006(UTC)
Posts: 1,737
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Tried ppc years ago... the smell of burnt money still lingers.
I get a great ROI on targeted print advertising. Close to 500% return if done carefully and sparingly. |
Optimists invent airplanes,
Pessimists buy parachutes. |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
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Mitch thanks for relaying that experience.
What bothers me most about it is the changing demographic only on paid clicks. To me it screams "bad" clicks from competitors etc. That would be fine if the bids were priced accordingly but when you are paying $3 a click they need to be real clicks. Most don't even leave the landing page.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 3/3/2006(UTC)
Posts: 1,737
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From http://www.ecommerce-gui...sing/article.php/3679166In July, 2006 Google settled a class action suit filed for over billing due to PPC fraud and accounting glitches, with the search giant doling out $90 million, $30 million in cash for lawyer fees and the rest in the form of credits to the advertisers participating in the suit. (This translated to $3.82 credit per $1,000 in paid ads, a settlement contested by advertisers but upheld in court.) In June, Yahoo settled a similar suit for $4.95 million in cash for lawyers while setting no limit on Yahoo's liability for over-charges going back to 2004. google "PPC fraud" |
Optimists invent airplanes,
Pessimists buy parachutes. |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/23/2003(UTC)
Posts: 909
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Can't argue with the fraud aspect as I have similar feelings on the subject. However, I have a client that has built their business on adwords and shells out a very pretty penny on a monthly basis. Mind boggling, but the expense is justified on a monthly basis. I still sit back in disbelief when we talk about it.
This is because PPC campaign management is reviewed and monitored on a daily if not hourly basis. Very effective marketing tool if administered properly and resulting landing pages and product pages are setup correctly. Negative terms, filters, etc.
Lesson: This isn't a set it and forget marketing tool. Research, Plan, Build, Execute. Pay to play. Go to amazon and look for "Landing Page Optimization" books.
Issuing credits to merchants was one of the smartest things Google has pulled in the past few years. How do you get merchants to up the cost on any given search term? Give them "free" money to bump them to the top. Once their credits are depleted, well... the bar has been raised... Google invested $30 Million to quadruple their profit. |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 2/21/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,113
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I actually got a small refund out of that class action suit because I documented a competitor running up clicks before Google was above board with not charging for them.
But as far as conversions, since I have moved our store model to a "discount store" model (ala Wal-Mart) and slashed prices across the board, our sales are up and our conversions are running at Adwords anywhere from 15-20 percent. I have slowly limited my search terms to those that are effective for specific items that I know that I'm competitive on. I also have seen an increase in conversion and a reduction in PPC costs by using the Adwords Conversion Optimizer |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
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We just completed the experiment. $500 spent on clicks, not one conversion. The final tally was over 90% of the traffic was non-commercial versus 30% on all other clicks/visits. Regularly we would see certain IP ranges continue to appear, we know it was likely fraud but there's no way of proving it. We will experiment in the future with much less popular terms that will get less fraudulent clicks with any luck. Ultimately I do not like the idea that the bidding price is totally anonymous. Unlike Ebay where you know what you have to bid to play with adwords we all have no clue. PromoManagers logo products
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Rank: Administration
Joined: 4/2/2004(UTC) Posts: 2,393 ![United States]( "United States") Location: Hummelstown, PA Thanks: 6 times
Was thanked: 163 time(s) in 158 post(s)
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That's interesting, HPros. Some business are definitely better suited for PPC than others, but on the surface it seems like it should work for your business. Keyword selection (and negative keywords) is critical. If you go too general you will hemorrhage money. Like Matt, we have some clients that spend crazy amounts of money each month, but they make it back and turn a profit. |
Aaron Sherrick
BV Commerce
Toll-free 888-665-8637 - Int'l +1 717-220-0012 |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
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Aaron, we literally used one keyword and it was specific to our industry. I think 99% of the problem is competitor clicks.
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