Starting Out With PPC, Need Some Advice
-
We are starting out with PPC for our site. I wanted to know what the best starting point is for our site. First, some basic info:
-
We sell thousands of products from a large number of manufacturers
-
We can offer the same prices as competitors, but we can't beat their prices
Here are my questions:
-
What would be my USP if my prices are the same, and we have the same store policies as competitors?
-
Is it best to start with product pages (as opposed to keywords)? Meaning, setting up a feed via MC and connecting to our adwords account.
Any advice is appreciated
-
-
I agree with David, find a reputable and experienced PPC company that is experienced with your situation, and pay for their expertise. Even if you are spending $1,500 per month on their services. Chances are they will also do MUCH MUCH better than you would in terms of your bottom line.
Let's just ignore the time savings from hiring out a good PPC company and focus on your return. Then it just comes down to a number game, and that should help you decide on how much you can invest on hiring a PPC company. Here's an example:
Let's say your budget is $4K a month on non-brand campaigns, and you're averaging 40 conversions, so your CPA is $100. If the PPC company does 100% better, you're getting 80 conversions for $5.5K a month ($4K + 1.5K service), and now your CPA is about $67. So what's better? You managing $4K and getting 40 conversions, or spending $5.5K and getting 80? And we haven't even factored in the possibility of an increase in average revenue per conversion yet! If the company can increase that too, well then... you get the picture.
Now, let's just focus on just the TIME savings, and let's say you can't go above $4K in total. So the PPC company eats $1.5K, and the rest goes towards your spend. Then the PPC company would only need to do 38% better to achieve the same results and number of conversions.
Hope all that made sense.
-
We do ppc and Let me just warn you if you are a drop shipper and can't do better pricing then your competitors and have no real advantage over the competitors it is very hard to make alot of money with ppc especially if you have small margins. I would try to find a ppc company that has experience with your situation and it would be worth every penny.
-
Generally in the UK the industry average is 12% of monthly Adwords spend.
-
No, I haven't heard of reputable PPC companies accepting of percentage of sales in lieu of a flat fee or percentage of the spend.
Why would they?
Because they're nice guys who want to mitigate their clients' risk? Um...no.
-
BTW, have you ever heard of PPC companies managing campaigns in return for a percentage of sales generated via PPC?
-
I have talked to a few reputable PPC companies. Many of them want what amounts to 30% of your PPC spend if you are on a small budget (around $1,500/mo), PLUS a setup fee of a few hundred dollars.
I talked to one that suggested starting with products and moving to other categories/section - a narrow to broad approach. This seems like the best way to go if you are starting.
The others want similar startup/monthly fees, but they will do the keyword research, ad group creation, etc.
It seems to me the best way to go is either create my own feed via MC and connect to my adwords account, or pay an exorbitant amount to a very reputable PPC company and hope their expertise will bring in revenue. I am leaning towards the product feed.
-
The problem with agencies -- at least the good ones -- is that they have little interest in small accounts. Commissions of $1,000 to $1,500 per month are often required to attract their attention. That implies an ad spend of $100,000 to $150,000 per annum.
You might try to educate yourself by joining the Google Engage program and taking other education steps. But this will most likely take weeks or months and you will waste hundreds or thousands of dollars along the way. And beware: the advice you get from Google is not only self-serving, but surprisingly ignorant about PPC basics.
I describe myself as a "web strategist" and PPC is only about 10% of what I do. I use PPC for only a few of my clients; a purely organic approach works best for most.
It's impossible to say more without knowing more about your client's competitive position. But I agree with emphasizing the USP, if prices are the same as competitors.
I've had success with ad copy that talked about:
- family-run business
- guaranteed
- personal service
- made in USA by licensed ________
- Save 12% in big summer sale
These lead directly to landing pages that repeat the keywords and and ad text phrases.
Too many people confuse PPC with a roulette wheel: if only you get lucky on a magic phrase you will win big. Unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated.
PPC is hard.
You have to come up with ad groups containing tightly related groups of keywords. You have to test ad copy over time. You have to refine keyword, dropping some and breaking others into new ad groups. And you have to develop the capacity to easily create new landing pages.
-
Based on what you are saying, I'd suggest getting an Agency to set this campaign up for you, as it will take a lot of time. Getting the feed in of your products will help a lot, but there will be a large number of ads you'd want to run alongside your individual products to your category pages etc.
SEOMoz probably isn't the best place to ask about PPC, so I'd recommend asking some more questions on a PPC forum.
You'd be best to lead with a USP - perhaps free delivery, next day delivery, local call centers, live chat, freephone numbers, etc.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to Find Competitor PPC Keywords ?
Can anyone suggest best way to find all PPC keywords of a competitor. Any tool recommendation ?
Paid Search Marketing | | singhmahendra0 -
Seeking Critique on PPC Campaign Gameplan
Background: We're a home service business with potential for recurring clients. In the past, I've run PPC campaigns for a much larger company, and was profitable, but the business model was vastly different. The campaign also took place during their busy season, allowing flexibility I won't receive here. Campaign Details: AdWords only SERPs only (not partner network) Desktop users only Data Available: Lots of past data was incomplete, prompting my best estimates and judgment calls. For past leads data, I'm using Google as lead source (organic + local pack rankings), generated specifically from our quote form. Since our quote form doesn't render on Mobile/Tablet, I omitted those visits from our Analytics data, and only target Desktop in the campaign. I wound up with the following statistics: Organic (any web search), Desktop visitors who viewed our quote form page: Number of overall pageviews Number of overall leads generated from our quote form Number of overall leads which converted to sales And for our sales/numbers end of things: % our clients choose targeted package Revenue of initial sale on that package Profit generated from sale on that package Using these numbers, I calculated the % of clickers likely to bounce, complete the form, convert to clients, etc. Using our sales records, I calculated revenue/profit expected from each. And with that, I calculated the highest CPC to break even (unacceptable, obviously), as well as the projected ROI from lower, more reasonable CPCs. Notes: We're a home service business. Not all homes are created equal. Through data, I found our clients average home size and the average estimate for that home. Due to incomplete records, I can't know which Google _clients _are specific to our quote form. Some likely called through the local pack or manually dialed and said "Google" if our staff asked. To combat this, I found the % of Google _leads _who completed the quote form vs. phone call, email and applied it to clients for a reliable estimate (our system removes the quote form identifier upon lead to client conversion). I'm not factoring in the % of clients who become recurring customers as I don't have this data. Given that it's much higher than 0%, I think this allows a LOT of breathing room on my estimates. Many of our clients have stayed with us for years. If only a small number convert to long-term status, the current ROI shoots WAY up. Similar to above, I'm also not factoring in the % of clients who don't choose the initial package, but instead choose a lesser package. Again, I think this provides breathing room. Any PPC campaign will have a plethora of variables, especially intangible issues (damages, refunds, etc). I feel I have the important things down, but I'm far from an expert. I'd love to receive any advice or things I'm overlooking. Thanks.
Paid Search Marketing | | kirmeliux1 -
PPC Keyword list
Hi Im embarking on a PPC campaign targeting one single product that we sell. I am compiling a key word list just now and was just wondering if there is a maximum number of keywords i should be looking to target for this? Thanks in advance
Paid Search Marketing | | TheZenAgency0 -
PPC strategies in a competitive ecommerce market
Hello, What's the top 5 things to keep in mind when doing PPC in a competitive ecommerce market? Our competitors are buying PPC leads based on gathering long term customers that only have to get bought once and then they are repeat customers with no more cost. Thus, PPC cost is through the roof in this niche. Anyways, what's the top 5 pieces of advice you would give and you're also welcome to reference any good or harder to find references for me to read or watch. Thank you, Bob
Paid Search Marketing | | BobGW0 -
I want to try some Google PPC ads on other sites but don't know what i'm doing.
We have seen a massive drop in traffic this year and i am contemplation using banner ads to try to increase sales and also to help with marketing. the problem is i know nothing about doing this. I have used it in the past but to limited success and i was just stabbing in the dark. I have a few questions. Am i better to target keywords related to the product or to the people who may buy my products? Is it better for direct sales or brand awareness? What kind of ROI can i expect if i get it working well? Is it better to pay for the big keywords or pic all the low hanging fruit? Does it work? Should i employ an expert, are they worth it? Any insights into the world of PPc would be a massive help.
Paid Search Marketing | | mark_baird1 -
Youtube ad video ppc
anyone has any experience with youtube for adwords and how its converting, etc? tips on how to really narrow it down to keyword level and making sure impressions are based on your preferences? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | PaulDylan0 -
Canonical or noindex for PPC landing pages?
I have two pages for this example. http://www.designquotes.com.au/web-design-quotes/ http://www.designquotes.com.au/web-design-quotes-melbourne/ The first URL is an SEO optimised page. The second URL is 99% the same, except that it specifies a city. It's intended use of for a PPC campaign. The first page has major cities mentioned on the page so I don't have to build a separate page for every city variation. The second URL is designed to be city specific for a geographically targeted PPC campaign. The more specific, the higher the conversion rate. Should the second page (the PPC landing page) use a canonical URL (since it's 99% the same) or should it be noindex?
Paid Search Marketing | | designquotes0 -
How do you assess PPC ROI?
I thought this would be pretty straightforward, but I'm trying to put together my first PPC ROI spreadsheet and it's turning out to be much more complicated than I had anticipated. Would anyone be willing to tell me what you look at to determine the return you're getting on PPC -- and if you're using AdWords and Analytics, what screens/reports you rely on? It seems to be more complex than simply comparing Paid Search Revenue to spend ... but I could be overcomplicating things.
Paid Search Marketing | | CMC-SD0