AMA about PPC Advertising. Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, whatever...

[Stu_Hefner]

Yeah it's doable, but very hard if at all on Google anymore. Try a social site like PlentyOfFish or Facebook for starting out with ppc to affiliate offers.

Hi, I have recently tried to drive traffic to cpa offers and clickbank products through POF to no success.
My CTR is horrible, and a lot lower compared to some of the exact same campaigns I have tried to run on facebook. I've tested a bunch of banner type of ads but they are not doing any better.

Is there any tips you can give regarding making ads that draw attention and increase my CTR? I've tried copying some case studies from reputable PPC/CPA marketers but to no success. Could you tell me where I can be going wrong and what I can do to improve?

I'll be more then happy to email you and show you some of my creatives if you have the time to give me some feedback?

 

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[sammich]

Eskil,

If you're developing a website via wordpress and have the site access blocked off until its ready for launch by lets say http status code of 503,
does that hurt your in terms of SEO/SERP placement upon launch?

Does developing your site within a subdomain of the main domain hurt SEO/SERP? In other words, if you have the exact same content as your main domain say at www.domain.com that you're using for development on www.dev.domain.com, does google count that as duplicate content?

 

[Eskil]

Hi, I have recently tried to drive traffic to cpa offers and clickbank products through POF to no success.
My CTR is horrible, and a lot lower compared to some of the exact same campaigns I have tried to run on facebook. I've tested a bunch of banner type of ads but they are not doing any better.

Is there any tips you can give regarding making ads that draw attention and increase my CTR? I've tried copying some case studies from reputable PPC/CPA marketers but to no success. Could you tell me where I can be going wrong and what I can do to improve?

I'll be more then happy to email you and show you some of my creatives if you have the time to give me some feedback?

Hey there,
I'd have to see your ads to tell you how to improve them, so feel free to shoot me a pm with your email address and we can take it from there.

 

[Eskil]

If you're developing a website via wordpress and have the site access blocked off until its ready for launch by lets say http status code of 503,
does that hurt your in terms of SEO/SERP placement upon launch?

Does developing your site within a subdomain of the main domain hurt SEO/SERP? In other words, if you have the exact same content as your main domain say at www.domain.com that you're using for development on www.dev.domain.com, does google count that as duplicate content?

Hey sammich,
Since your question relates to SEO and not so much paid traffic, I think there are other guys on here that can probably help you with those questions better than I can. Check out this thread:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/we...-optimization-blackhat-whitehat-whatever.html

 

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[sammich]

thanks, must have just missed that!

 

[Deanna]

Are you still helping with AdWords? I need help. Im lost. Can email the ads and site info if you have time/inclination to look at. My other issue is my landing page stinks...but i dont know what to do about that either. Never done any of this til last week.
Thanks

 

[Eskil]

Are you still helping with AdWords? I need help. Im lost. Can email the ads and site info if you have time/inclination to look at. My other issue is my landing page stinks...but i dont know what to do about that either. Never done any of this til last week.
Thanks

Hey,
Yes you can still help, and you can pm me your email address and details. I'm on vacation right now but can look at it when I come home.

 

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[Vick]

Hey Eskil, been reading through your thread here, and you seem to know a ton about PPC campaigns. Any chance you can help me out with mine? My budget is pretty tight, so I would like to optimize it the best I can, and I just don't know enough about AdWords yet. Thanks!

 

[psaco131]

Eskil, is nice enough to help you guys out on HIS time for FREE. Many people normally charge a fee to give advice. Before getting advice I suggest you learn exactly how PPC works:

Pay Per Click Advertising Explained: Your Sane Guide to PPC Management

PPC on a budget:

Maximize Your Small PPC Budget
13 Optimization Tips For Managing Low-Budget PPC Accounts | PPC Hero®

 

[Vick]

Thanks for the links! I'll go through these tonight. Cheers.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Eskil is hosting an INSIDERS call in 2 days.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fo...der-conference-calls-upcoming.html#post261716

Here is his call agenda:

- Search vs Display
- Preparation and planning (Do’s and Don’ts)
- Bids and budgeting, CPM vs CPC
- Reaching the right customers (Targeting)
- Split-testing ad copy and landing pages – best practices
- Optimizing for conversions and ROI. (Tools and processes).
- Campaign issues, Account suspensions/recovery, other.
- Questions from the thread
- Questions from the listeners

 

[frieden70]

When you run a Facebook ad, and it gives you the suggested bid per click, is it necessary to stay in that range?

It's been about 8 months since I bought media on Facebook and I've heard there have been some changes but when I was doing a fairly large amount of buying there, I never went for their recommended bid.

I always started at about half and worked my way up if need be (and rarely needed to).

In my mind, you can always bid more if you aren't getting the clicks and the traffic, but I personally find that moving my way up vs down worked better.

Hope that helps.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

Is there a replay of the conference call in the INSIDERS forum?

 

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[Eskil]

Re: Ask Me About PPC Advertising. Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, whatever...

Yes the whole thing was recorded and is available there.

 

[Talisman]

eSkil, I have a question.

How the &*@!(# do I do this! (picture attached)

 

[DeletedUser11]

I understand that you were involved in the supplement field ? Me being on the other side of the spectrum (I sell direct ads), how much do you think is fair to charge for ads on a health/fitness site, CPM wise ?

 

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[Eskil]

eSkil, I have a question.

How the &*@!(# do I do this! (picture attached)

You mean the image ads showing up alongside the regular text ads? Those are Google PLA ads (Product Listing Ads). You can set that up through the Google Merchant Center, and link them to your Adwords account. In your Adwords campaigns, you can then target the product(s) in your various adgroups to trigger the images.

Not surprisingly, the CTR and conversion rate on those are often much higher than the text ads.

 

[Eskil]

I understand that you were involved in the supplement field ? Me being on the other side of the spectrum (I sell direct ads), how much do you think is fair to charge for ads on a health/fitness site, CPM wise ?

CPM rates can vary greatly (from $0.25 to $25), but you can get some ideas here Buy Ads | BuySellAds. Since you are in the fitness/health niche and if your site has good volume, good content, and ad placements that are strategically located throughout - I don't see why should charge less than $5 CPM - and perhaps upwards to $10 or more. But these are just rough estimates, not knowing your site volume or having seen it.

 

[H. Palmer]

Hi Eskil

Very kind of you to share your knowledge!!!

I have a question for you...

In your opinion is PPC a viable option to promote a paperback book?

What im getting at here is that over the last few years ive dabbled with adwords but have found the CPC to be too high to make it a profitable venture.

Obviously due to the relatively low margins on a paperback book it is tricky to find PPC sources at a price which makes it worthwhile (in my opinion)

What would you recommend for this type of promotion?

Thanks in advance
Brian

Brian, I have also been trying out Adwords for promoting a book.
I found that the only profitable word combinations were almost word for word the title of the book.

Other keywords or combinations were difficult to make profitable because people don't expect a book in the first place. They expect a consultancy.

Another tip is to upsell your customers to buy other stuff as well. Like a PDF with some specialized information or a hardcopy workbook. That way your margin will go up and you have more room for experimenting with Adwords.

 

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[Talisman]

You mean the image ads showing up alongside the regular text ads? Those are Google PLA ads (Product Listing Ads). You can set that up through the Google Merchant Center, and link them to your Adwords account. In your Adwords campaigns, you can then target the product(s) in your various adgroups to trigger the images.

Not surprisingly, the CTR and conversion rate on those are often much higher than the text ads.

Sorry should have been clearer - yeah I got the images into my products, google merchants is great (shopping or whatever they're calling it now).

How did they get a little text box there, and a "subscribe" button, inside their ad?? Is that in shopping somewhere too??

 

[Eskil]

Sorry should have been clearer - yeah I got the images into my products, google merchants is great (shopping or whatever they're calling it now).

How did they get a little text box there, and a "subscribe" button, inside their ad?? Is that in shopping somewhere too??

Oh that.. sorry. Yeah that is still only in beta and not available to all accounts yet. It is basically part of the Site Extensions that you can add onto existing ads (if you have the feature enabled in your account under Site Extensions).

 

[DeletedUser11]

CPM rates can vary greatly (from $0.25 to $25), but you can get some ideas here Buy Ads | BuySellAds. Since you are in the fitness/health niche and if your site has good volume, good content, and ad placements that are strategically located throughout - I don't see why should charge less than $5 CPM - and perhaps upwards to $10 or more. But these are just rough estimates, not knowing your site volume or having seen it.

Would CPM rate increase as volume increases or is it the other way around ?, I mean it would be tough to find companies willing to pay 150,000$ per month for 30 million impressions.

 

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[Eskil]

Re: Ask Me About PPC Advertising. Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, whatever...

Well basically the CPM is dictated by what advertisers are willing to pay be in the best spots. You can command say, a $15 cpm rate for a great site - but the amount of advertisers who want to throw money at you for that rate may indicate if the CPM is right or not. If no one wants to buy ads at your rate, it's probably overvalued - and vice versa.

 

[Chris_Willow]

Hey Eskil,
I seem to be having an issue with Adwords QS. When I set up a new ad group with a few targeted keywords, most of those are rated at 7 or 8 initially. Then it goes down to 4 for all keywords.

Now at this point I'm getting 2% CTR, but have to keep increasing the bid to keep them on the first page. CTR goes down as a result and QS is still stuck at 4.

Do you have any suggestions for increasing quality score and/or click through rate?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge :driving:

 

[LightHouse]

Hey Eskil,
I seem to be having an issue with Adwords QS. When I set up a new ad group with a few targeted keywords, most of those are rated at 7 or 8 initially. Then it goes down to 4 for all keywords.

Now at this point I'm getting 2% CTR, but have to keep increasing the bid to keep them on the first page. CTR goes down as a result and QS is still stuck at 4.

Do you have any suggestions for increasing quality score and/or click through rate?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge :driving:

I will let Eskil put in his own answer, but i researched this as well. Essentially like organic search, you get a boost of QS when you start or refresh keywords or ads. Then you go to a 4 which is baseline it seems. It takes about 1200 impressions before you get your real QS which is largely based on CTR in the beginning to gauge relevancy. So those first few days/weeks you really have to focus on getting your CTR up so when you get your real QS its better. You also have to watch each level of CTR from campaign to group to keyword.

Like to hear what Eskil has to say on this as well.

 

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[Eskil]

I seem to be having an issue with Adwords QS. When I set up a new ad group with a few targeted keywords, most of those are rated at 7 or 8 initially. Then it goes down to 4 for all keywords.

Now at this point I'm getting 2% CTR, but have to keep increasing the bid to keep them on the first page. CTR goes down as a result and QS is still stuck at 4.

Do you have any suggestions for increasing quality score and/or click through rate?

As LightHouse pointed out - it is correct that new ads are given an initial score and then given a brief "tryout" period. The most important factor for your QS however is going to be your keyword VS ad copy VS landing page relevancy. QS is essentially Google's way of grading your ad based on how relevant it is to the page you are sending clickers to. The ad CTR itself also plays a role - but if you are having QS issues, your priority should be to look for improvements to make on your site.

Other than being relevant - your site and pages must also avoid to look like a "thin" site that provides little content or trust to the visitor. One example would be affiliate sites, which Google frowns upon.

I will try to illustrate relevancy with an example:
You have a site where you're selling guitars and related gear. You have category pages for electric guitars, amplifiers, effect boxes, accessories, tabulature and songbooks, etc. etc.

You have gathered lots of keywords for these categories and grouped them nicely in their own campaigns and ad groups. Then you create some ads for your campaigns like:

Love Guitars and Amps?
Rock out with these combo deals!
yourguitarsite.com/guitar-deals

Crank it up to 11 with our
Electric guitars, effects, and more!
Free shipping of orders over $100
yourguitarsite.com/guitar-deals

The problem with this is that these ads are not specific enough to be used on any of your category type landing pages. They are more suited for pointing to your homepage, or a "deals and offers" type page where you have a little bit of everything. If you use those ads and send visitors to your page for effect boxes, or the amps page, or the page where you're selling strings and guitar picks - it is not relevant enough. At least not in Google's eyes, because from their point of view - they see 18 other advertisers who are competing with you for the same keywords, and THEIR ads are much more specific and pointing directly to very relevant pages individually.

Make more individual ads that relate only to the ad group and category page in question. Don't try to cover all your bases with just a few broad sounding ads.

How does Google determine relevancy? They do so by analyzing your on-page content. Descriptions, title, headings, keywords on page, keywords in image descriptions, image file names, etc. etc. If you have only a handful of pages, you can do it manually - but if you're dealing with a large amount of pages, some PHP can help you a long way. One trick I have always used for this is to use PHP to dynamically inject the destination page with the keyword that I send from the destination URL. The basics of this is explained here.

Remember also to include the keyword in the ad text, and display URL if possible. Your page for guitar effect boxes should have ads like:
Guitar Effect Boxes and Pedals
Rejuvenate Every Riff with These Effects!
Huge Selection and Great Prices
YourGuitarsite.com/Guitar-Effects

As far as avoiding a "thin site" - make sure that your page has unique content, descriptive information (and enough of it), several pages on the site that are properly linked to such as About Us, Privacy Policy, Contact Us, Return Policy, etc. Try also to add a Google+ account, link to your social media accounts, and maybe even a Google Merchant account if that works for the business you're in. The more you can look like a 'proper' site with multiple pages of interlinked solid content - the more you will be looked at seriously by Google.

I hope this helps!

 

[Chris_Willow]

Thanks guys, solid advice.
My site is basically a one page sales letter. I've got links to legal pages and a blog with some content on there as well. Right now I'm linking to the homepage, so keyword relevancy might be one of the issues as you mentioned.

Will see if creating a targeted page for the main keyword makes any difference and go from there.

 

[Talisman]

Good advice about the QS - it's a strange one, which I hate having to mess with. Just because stupid Google doesn't think my page is optimised.. blah!

Speed+.

Edit: Was just reading that link you sent. Can't believe I didnt think to make a generic landing page with full product injection.

Take template > Inject data. Nice. Simple. Should be pretty easy with my asp.net sites (I dont use php).

Thanks again. I'd give you more speed, but you'd probably get booked.

 

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[Eskil]

Thanks guys, solid advice.
My site is basically a one page sales letter. I've got links to legal pages and a blog with some content on there as well. Right now I'm linking to the homepage, so keyword relevancy might be one of the issues as you mentioned.

Will see if creating a targeted page for the main keyword makes any difference and go from there.

Yeah relevancy and 'user experience' is what Google want to see. Let me know how it goes.

Can't believe I didnt think to make a generic landing page with full product injection.

Take template > Inject data. Nice. Simple. Should be pretty easy with my asp.net sites (I dont use php).

Thanks again. I'd give you more speed, but you'd probably get booked.

Lol, thanks for the speed. Yes if you can set up a good generic enough page that you can inject data into on the fly - it will save you lots of time. This technique is great for e-commerce stores with many products.

 

[Yussef]

Eskil,

Your always giving up the goods bro. I would like to know what you use to track your campaigns and what do you think about software like CPV Lab for tracking? I own it but have not yet used it for tracking my campaigns, but plan to in the future.

You have been doing this for a while and I would like to know what you use to test, track and rotate campaigns, and what you recommend based on your past experiences?

Thanks in advance.