Google AdWords highly ineffective?

[Wolf]

Hi,

I started my AdWords campaign yesterday and I was very happy. If you looked for sweating, sweat, hyperhidrosis... my ad was in the top 3 of the sponsored links all the time, mostly on position 1.

But today? Today it's crawling around somewhere at the bottom of the page. Wtf? See here: http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en...cr%3DcountryZA
(it is the Odaban website)

No click budget limit, 1 click costs me 10-28R, and then this? Now I have a click through rate of 0.07%. How ridiculous is that?

I have to pay a **** load of money just to show my ad somewhere at the bottom where nobody is looking anymore?

I set my click budget limit down on 5, and what happens? Nothing! Doesn't make it any worse. So why should I offer up to 28R for a click if 5 does the same?

Damn, I'm so angry right now, and I can't even call anyone there to crap someone out.

[Dave A]

It's your CTR that's hammering you. Ad rank is based on bid*CTR as far as I know. The lower your CTR, the more you have to bid to climb the rank.

Diabolical I know, but there you go.

You're going to have to work on your ad so that it attracts clicks, or be more selective on your keywords - although it is hard to think how you could be more selective off the top of my head.

I'd work on the ad to be honest - think benefits rather than features. Right now you're selling the steak, not the sizzle.

[IanF]

Exo
I use google ad words, and it works for me. The way I measure is what business I get vs the cost. Whenever a new customer phones I ask how he got our number. It only takes 1 reasonable order a month to pay for it. But I limit the cost per click.
The most important thing is to have a relevant landing page. I would change the way you evaluate and start off at lower click amount and then build it up if you have to.

[Dave A]

Another thought - have you targetted SA only sites and searches?

With the co.za extension in your URL, if your ad is coming up in North America or Europe, you could be getting lots of pageviews, but probably very few clicks.

[Wolf]

Yes, I targeted SA.

Budget is set on R2000, no limit per click.

Dave, what don't you like about the ad that makes you say I should work on it?

Keywords are all directly related to sweating and the landing page is IMO absolutely perfect.

[Wolf]

I just set the budget on R5000 and no click price limit. Now I'm curious what's gonna happen.

But what I still don't understarnd is why it is suddenly so bad even though the settings are the same than yesterday. Makes absolutely no sense to me. I was on top of the page all the time.

ps: just realised it's ineffective, not uneffective. Sry, not english.

[Dave A]

But what I still don't understarnd is why it is suddenly so bad even though the settings are the same than yesterday.

Yesterday you had a default CTR record.

Can you post the text of your ad and let's pick over it. Doing the search thing to get the ad up is just hurting your CTR even more.

[Wolf]

I have 3 variations:

No More Sweating
ODABAN - The Most Effective And
Safest Antiperspirant in SA.
www.odaban.co.za

No More Sweating
ODABAN - The Antiperspirant
Guaranteed To Work. Order Yours Now
www.odaban.co.za

No More Perspiration
ODABAN - South Africas Safest And
Most Effective Antiperspirant.
www.odaban.co.za

Maybe I shouldn't be so impatient and give it a couple of days to adjust? I am impatient by nature.

[Dave A]

I think it needs emotional appeal.

For example:
Embarrassed by perspiration?
Get your confidence back with safe, reliable ODABAN - Now available in SA.

Problems associated with excessive sweating are:
Embarrasment, lack of confidence and rejection from bad body odour, unsightly sweat stains and visible symptoms associated with stress.

The main emotional benefits of your product are confidence, acceptance, trust.

Words I would also work around include:
Safe, hygienic, long-lasting, pump dispenser

You're not selling an anti-perspirant, you're selling self-confidence, social acceptance and success

I've got to say - this is a product that just screams for Youtube marketing and viral campaigns.

Boy meets girl.
One knocks the other out with BO - or breaks out in serious sweats.
Boy loses girl.
Bring on the ODABAN and repeat
End with things getting steamy (rather than sweaty)

Or someone starts drowning in persiration doing that big make-or-break presentation to the Board of Directors...

Question: Is ODABAN fragranced?

[Norri]

The BEST resource for AdWords is www.perrymarshall.com

Buy his eBook and it won't be a mystery to you any more.

There are a LOT of tips I could give you but not one that I didn't first learn from Perry :P

Enjoy!