Google Adwords

[Johnny]

I've been trying something really simple: using Google Adwords to advertise my affiliate links. So far, my record has been abysmal. I've gotten one click/790 impressions. While I didn't expect to get rich overnight I figured I should get SOMETHING. Is this normal? Is doing this even a good idea? Any input would be appreciated.

[Johnny]

Nobody uses adwords?

[Ian_Philip]

I have tried using AdWords on and off for some years now.

Sometimes I have got as many as 300 clicks to my site but not made one single sale.

I checked out some sponsored listings on Google in June 2007, and then 1 month later in July 2007 using a range of different keywords.

Of 4,000 listings on the first page of Google in June, only 28 (about 0.7 %) were still on the first page in July. I could only conclude that the other 99.3% had given up on AdWords!

[Johnny]

Ouch. What alternatives do I have to google adwords? Is there one decent place where I can get a lot of hits or do I have to advertise all over the net (video sites, article databases, ebay classifieds, other PPC sites, etc.) en masse and hope I make something?

[mike1115]

"Hope" is not a good business plan. Read up on using PPC via Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Rosalind's book and Jeremy Palmer's free ebook are great places to start. There is a lot to optimize and test before starting (and during) a PPC campaign to an affiliate landing page. You can lose a lot of money quickly if you don't know what you're doing. Go to quityourdayjob.com and read Jeremy's book. Plan, execute, test, and optimize.

[Johnny]

Thanks for the tips, I'll get on that right now.

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Hi Johnny,

Successful affiliate PPC is part luck and part science. Few have good results the 1st couple campaigns. There are so many variables that you could have had not quite right, so hard to know what happened on that one.

mike1115 gave you some good advice. Take advantage of those resources PLUS there are also a couple of PPC affiliate blogs that are awesome and really give away meaty PPC secrets. Cashtactics, UberAffiliate, CDF Networks Blog and JonathanVolk are the ones that come to mind.

Also the Google Adwords help, training and FAQs have tons of good into if you dig.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

[chastill]

1. Keep your website relevant to the keyword(s) used in your AdWords ad.
2. Your site needs a "Privacy Policy", a "Contact Us" and (optional) a "Terms of Service" page. Those three pages must be linked from your main page.
3. Your website must have proper structure and no broken links.
4. Your site needs an easy, understandable and proper navigation structure.
5. Your Site must allow the customer to purchase an advertized item within two clicks.
6. Keep the ad-text in AdWords relevant to your keyword.
7. The *exact* keyword must show in the headline of the Ad as well as once in the Ad body.
8. Even *minor* variations of keywords should go into a new, seperate AdGroup with new, exact matching Ad-Text. ("Acne", "Cure for Acne", "How to cure Acne" all should go into their own Adgroups)
9. Keep the Number of keywords per AdGroup at a minimum, at best use only ONE keyword per Adgroup - but use all three match types for this keyword. Example: Acne, "Acne", [Acne]
10. Use negative keywords. If you sell something use negative keywords like "-free", "-gratis". This filters out clicks of people looking for free stuff.
11. Monitor keyword and adgroup performance. Delete keywords and/or campaigns with low number of impressions and clicks. Low performing keywords affect all other keywords, thos the whole AdGroup and finally the whole campaign.
12. Read some books covering the basics and more advanced techniques how to use Google Adwords, otherwise you could lose money.
13. Use the Google Help Center