How to set an appropriate Adwords max CPC?
-
How do you gauge setting your initial max cost-per-click for specific keywords?
For example, you have a keyword that has an estimated "first page bid" at $6.25. If you are wanted your ad to show competitively with your competition, how much should you start at? Two times the "first page bid?" Three times?
I'm working on revamping some ad campaigns to help with our paid marketing expenses. I do have quite a budget to work at, but we are hoping to cut down some of this cost. We just spent the past few months trying to spend our way out of some poor quality scores and CTR's. Our metrics have improved drastically, now I want try and cut down our CPC, which is over $19! Our ROI is hard to calculate due to the fact that it can take a few years to obtain profit from the market we are in. Our conversion rates are over 9% from paid advertisement to leads (which is pretty decent for our market).
I am all eyes and ears on this subject... I am ready to start playing around with prices tomorrow to see how we fare, in hopes I get some solid responses before then.
Thanks in advance!
-
This is another great suggestion and YES I do this on a weekly basis. IMO, your answer fits right in with the discussion.
I usually like to pull my full reports from AWStats from within the server. I then "weed" out certain words that should be within my negative campaigns and find others that may be worth running.
-
It's one step away from your question, but have you looked at your search query report recently, to see the actual keywords people are using? If you can raise your CTR by getting rid of irrelevant impressions, you can hopefully lower your CPC, and also avoid paying for some off-target clicks.
-
Lol. No worries! Always reply with great responses. Never know who may be looking for that answer as well.
Right now, we are not running location specific campaigns. Only nationwide 24/7. Haven't had the time to really "fine tune" this account due to the massive amount of keywords, landing pages and ads running already.
Job security maybe?
-
Totally. Sorry if I sounded too generic but it's always difficult to figure out the back story on someone's question. It sounds like you're doing all the right things. You're likely doing location specific and day parting as well where applicable.
-
Excellent information and well put together answer!
I don't want to take away from it, but I have already done all of my homework (as you have already suggested above). I was merely searching for a modest starting point at cutting down our CPC to a certain extent.
I would have to imagine I have answered my own question while asking it. I need to simply adjust my pricing (decrease max CPC) till I feel satisfied with our positioning and our conversion rates.
-
First, I'd spend a little extra time on getting at the value of your leads, if at all possible as this is a key component of answering your own question. Perhaps you can find that number in generalized industry data, or you can extrapolate from what you currently have.
Next I'd begin breaking the high cost CPC keywords into their own very specific ad groups and/or campaigns so that you have maximum control over the ads running, split testing, and placement.
After that I'd begin lowering bids until I'm in the 2nd or 3rd place slot and then split test ad titles and descriptions to find my sweet spot, as well as continuing to run conversion tests on the landing pages. At the same time I'd be looking for content placements on highly applicable sites and see if I could find some markets where I'm plugging in to my target demographic but at a lower cost than search.
Finally, lather, rinse, repeat. Keep working the system to increase current lead/sales volumes while decreasing costs.
But to answer your first question, typically I aim high at the beginning in cost and then work my way down with the price as the data comes in.
-
use http://www.semrush.com/ to get ideas of cpc prices - but i normally just start first page page bid or low then watch positioning
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 add Adwords rating stars extensions to my ads ?
Hi guys, In trying to add the rating stars extensions to my ads but i have 0 knowledge on this. I triad to so it through the Google plus account, but its not working. Any good instruction on how i can add it to the ads ? Any help are welcome! Thx
Conversion Rate Optimization | | EdmondHong870 -
Adwords shows clicks but no conversions in GA
Hi Folks, I was wondering if anyone has come across a similar situation, I have setup adwords campaigns and included these in my Google Tag Manager setup and deployed the GTM snippet to a clients site. In adwords I can see clicks (2,000+) however in Google Analytics I can see only a handful ot conversions. Is there anyway I can test/track a conversion to ensure that it is being processed and report correctly? Also within AdWords Conversion Tracking I have noticed that under the "Webpages" tab that pages other than the pages that should have the conversion code on them are listed. Have I setup my Adwords camapign or GTM tags incorrectly? Any and all feedback or insight would be greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | icanseeu
Regards,
Dave0 -
Adwords Support...
Hi Mozzers, I have a Adwords campaign that I am taking over very soon. Involves quite a big spend (between £500-£1000) a day. Sales and conversions have dropped and I am coming in to try get them back up. I know my way around but with this ever changing Adwords tool now I would like to some decent tips if anyone has any on how to increase conversion, use of sitelinks, is optimizer any good, and get the Ad to the top of the page (currently around 3-4th). any help would be great. thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | YNWA0 -
Youtube Adwords click/visit discrepancy
We started a Youtube ad campaign. Over 2 days we got 60 clicks. However on our site we only measured 19 clicks. We used Kissmetrics to do the measurement. We're trying to figure out if the problem is on our end, or whether people are clicking but then closing the tab before the Kissmetrics JS loads. We're going to implement adwords conversion tracking to get a second measurement. But I was wondering if anyone else has experienced big gaps in how many people click a Youtube ad and how many actually visit the site. We got about 40 people who viewed the video 100%. I'm hoping bots aren't an issue with Youtube ads.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | lighttable0 -
Adwords Conversion Optimiser
OK Mozers! Here's the situation (my parents went away on a weeks vacation...) • I am managing an online furniture retail website Infurn .com • Our budget is 500 euro per day and we need basically 20% cost per sale and im hovering at 30 - 35% • I recently was given the opportunity to participate in The Conversion Optimiser which allows you to set a desired CPA and Google works its magic geting you that target by adjusting your bids accordingly using historical campaign data. • Is this something I should use? Or should I continue to hone my ad groups, bids, products, landing pages, and ad copy until I reach my 15 - 20% CPA goal? Thanks!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | TheGrid0 -
Setting Up Ecommerce Tracking for Google Analytics?
Hello SEOmoz members, this is my first forum post, so i hope that it goes well. my question for today is, How can i set up set up Ecommerce Tracking for Google Analytics, if my website Does NOT use a Shopping Cart tool? I am currently SEO'ing a couple of Translation Service websites, and the Ordering System is a little different from the regular Shopping Cart tool that you would normally find on a Product website. so far i have added the analytics code to all the pages so i can track my SEO efforts, but is there no way to track the sales from each visitor if the website only provides Quotes? the website has a Quote form setup into 3 steps, and at the end of step 3, a general price is generated for the visitor and a CSR is supposed to contact them to completete the order. we can normally see the total orders and clients in our own system, but does anyone have any way to combine SEO with this information, like how google analytics Ecommerce can? if anyone could provide any helpful information, i would be very Greatful. thank you!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | misterSEO0 -
Reviewing my Adwords Strategy
Before I started working on Organic SEO, I did Adwords. Being that I am entirely self-taught with adwords, I am concerned that about what I might not know. From time to time I have looked for outside advice, but I never got very far. It seemed that I would be talking to a salesman, someone who knew less than me, or someone who was horrified that I had 7,500 tracked words. So I am presenting my methods here for comment. Each keyword I have used is placed into an exact match campaign, phrase match campaign, and broad match campaign. Exact match gets the highest bid, broad match the lowest. Every week, I cull new keywords from phrase and broad results. I also create negative keywords each week based on searches that are obviously not looking for my products. Over time, I get very few searches triggered from broad matches. Keywords are kept in ad groups that generally have less than 6 keywords. Acceptable conversion costs are decided based on product category. I have made an assumption that first position adwords results are too expensive (idiots overpay for them). I automatically reduce my bid 10% on any ad that has an average position of greater than 1.5. I automatically reduce my bid 10% on any ad that has a conversion cost greater than my target. I delete keyword that have a CTR below 1%. I generally require 300 clicks to make a determination. All ads have been endlessly split tested to the point I don’t split test them much now. I judged ads for both click through rate and conversion rate. End result: After 4 years of doing this, conversion costs are below target costs. Not sure what else I could do to improve it, but looking for ideas. Management of the system is pretty easy now, as well. Anything I am missing?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | EugeneF0 -
Adwords Question
Hi, Not your standard SEO question, but I need expert advice all the same! I am looking to set up an adwords campaign to track several things. I need to track the initial page the click lands on from the PPC advert I then need to track this click to see if they click to register on the site I then need to track if they fill out the registration form and complete The aim of this is to measure just how many people click the PPC advert, then drop off the site as they go through the sign up process. Can this be done on adwords PPC tracking with the code adwords generates? and if not has anyone done something similar? many thanks all!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | theconstructioncentre10_gmail.0