250 kph
Google Stupid Tax
I don't know if anyone has vast experience with ppc, specifically adwords, but I was reading this traffic report (clearly an upsell) and was curious if anyone had used a huge adwords budget in their business?
I figured you would know about this "Google Stupid Tax", which is supposedly the cost for not having your ad and keywords in alignment, along with lander delivery.
My take away from what is said in the pdf and what I've seen elsewhere is that by using certain matching criteria and overdelivery in the relevancy department, you can lower your cpc, thus "buying traffic at wholesale."
Any thoughts? Experiences? Thanks!
295 kph
Re: Google Stupid Tax
Not sure what qualifies as a large PPC budget.
Ours for this year is about $32,000 (about 3.5% of gross sales).
Once the other inn gets up and running (2009 or 2010), PPC will go to go over $60,000 a year.
-Russ H.
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250 kph
250 kph
Re: Google Stupid Tax
Well thanks for the figures, but what about experiences? I guess you may be paying someone to setup and tweak your campaigns?Originally Posted by Russ H
A large PPC budget to me is anything over 10 -15k per month. It's all relative to your business model though. Everyone cringes over ppc budgets, but if you're pulling in sales, you're reaching people you wouldn't have otherwise.
Also, no reason for a large ppc budget in the question, other than my thinking that those who have spent more would have more insight toward concepts and tweaks.
290 kph
Re: Google Stupid Tax
The way to get clicks for wholesale is just as mtnman touched on.
It involves perfect alignment of three factors:
- keywords you're bidding on
- the text of your ad (having your keywords or related ones in it as many times as possible)
- the focus of (having your keywords on it)your landing page (the destination for your ad click)
The more tightly focused these three factors are, the cheaper your clicks will be.
The forth factor is the click through rate of your ad.
Most people dramatically overpay for their AdWords because they:
- group their keywords improperly (there should be lots of narrow groupings) not big general ad groups
- don't have a distinct and corresponding landing page for each narrow adgroup.
- don't split test their ads to find the ones the result in the highest CTR.
That's the Google stupid tax in a nutshell. Don't do these steps and you'll pay Lambo prices for the same Toyota Yaris that I drive.
295 kph
Re: Google Stupid Tax
Mtnman,
My reply wasn't to brag-- I honestly didn't know what you considered a "large" PPC budget. Thanks for clarifying.
Also, since there are so many net-savvy folks here doing WAY more biz online than us, I was reluctant to volunteer info.
We do have an agency that checks our PPC bids every hour (partly automated), to make sure we are getting the positions we want. And they work LOTS at optimizing-- we use hundreds of terms.
They are not cheap.
If you're budget allows, I can PM their name to you-- but I will not share it on the forums (I do have close to 100 direct competitors within 30 min drive, after all).
Oh, and I figured I'd here someone make the comment about SEO and organic listings. When you have at least 20 direct competitors that got their domains THREE to FIVE YEARS before you (97/99 vs 2002), and ALL have been SEO'ing for at least the past 5-7 years, it's a bit tough to get on the first page above the crease.
Every highly-recommended SEO person we've talked to has done a bit of research, and then gotten back to us and said, "Ain't no way I'm gonna be able to get you in the top 5."
We respect their honesty. And I know I have a salesbag on the phone when they say they're sure they can get me #1 placement-- before they've even done any research!
-Russ H.
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