AdCenter - Not Getting Much Action

[PHPGator]

I'm using Adcenter right now, started up a campaign and set my max starting out at $10.00 per day. I set it up on Saturday evening and I'm really not getting near enough impressions for my liking and not as cheaply as I would like either. Do others encounter this when they start out with them?

My CTR is an average of 4.11%.
I've gotten only 146 Impressions, 6 Clicks and spent only $1.03 ($0.21 CPC Average).

Hopefully this is enough information to help guide me in the right direction because any help would be appreciated. I'm willing to answer any question you may have and disclose information (except for keywords). I just want it to be a successful campaign, so don't hesitate to ask for more information if needed to help me sort this thing out. Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PHPGator]

Well, with 53 views and no responses, I'll just assume that not very many people are using or have used Adcenter.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry, but I think that's the case. We do not have people talk about it very often at all.

 

[PHPGator]

Yeah, actually, I decided to come here and talk about it because I feel like people in this forum are a little more mature than some other forums I participate in. Also, I was listening to you talk to Shoemoney on one of his old podcasts about AdCenter. My niche targets a little bit of an older crowd and that was one of the things mentioned by Jeremy about how a lot of MSN/Bing users are people who don't even know how to set their homepage to Google. So, I decided to give it a shot. I may just have to accept that i'm not going to get much traffic there and head on over to Adwords.

Thanks for the response though!

-Travis

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yeah, actually, I decided to come here and talk about it because I feel like people in this forum are a little more mature than some other forums I participate in. Also, I was listening to you talk to Shoemoney on one of his old podcasts about AdCenter.

Thanks for the compliment Travis.

Oh you heard me on ShoeMoney? Seems like that was eons ago!

Actually I use Adcenter for 5 Star traffic too, but it's so dead and I get so little from that campaign that I never even go there to check it. It just sits. Same KW as I use for Adwords and Yahoo too.

I have heard some affiliate bloggers though say Adcenter converts better and costs less.

 

[PHPGator]

It was a pretty old podcast! LOL

Yeah, I'm not getting super cheap clicks yet, but it is lowering. I guess most PPC works that way in the major search engines, doesn't it? Started at around $0.23 CPC, down to $0.19, would like to see it less than $0.15.

I'll probably fix up my ad groups a little better and test out the ads to see if I can increase the CTR a little bit, but other than that, I don't think there is enough searches on my niche to really be able to get a good amount of traffic.

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

I'm using Adcenter right now, started up a campaign and set my max starting out at $10.00 per day. I set it up on Saturday evening and I'm really not getting near enough impressions for my liking and not as cheaply as I would like either. Do others encounter this when they start out with them?

My CTR is an average of 4.11%.
I've gotten only 146 Impressions, 6 Clicks and spent only $1.03 ($0.21 CPC Average).

First of all, "getting cheap clicks" is NOT what you're after...your after very targeted and qualified clicks.

I would gladly pay $1.50 - $5.00 a click if they converted to sales because I caught someone in "buying mode" (i.e. solving problems that have an immediate solution, a burning need etc...).

I would rather not pay .25 a click for 100 clicks that don't convert.

And...the cheaper clicks tend to be just that, not because of the price of the clicks, but because Adcenter, Adwords, YSM, and such aren't stupid...they have programs in place to make sure that any phrase that really converts well won't be cheap for long.

Example...

"Fix Windows Registry Windows Vista" is a better phrase than "Windows Registry software" because someone is in the "I gotta fix it" mode when searching. It's called an "action keyword phrase", as the searcher is looking to take action on the solution they find.

(we'll save the CPM discussion for another time )

Now the impressions...

Adcenter really doesn't get a high volume of searches (say as much as Adwords or YSM etc...) so you may have to be patient there.

Your keywords may not be high-volume keyword phrases?
Not action-oriented?
Not information gathering oriented?

Hard to tell.

Your CTR doesn't sound too awfully bad. I can't tell for certain without details like what keywords your bidding on and the ads you've written etc... nor do I expect you to post those on a forum either.

Hopefully that's a little bit helpful.

 

[PHPGator]

Right, I'm not after generic keywords and I am targeting exact match at the moment to ensure that the traffic I do receive is targeted.

I also have action keywords in my keyword list, although not all are action oriented, but many are. For example, I have "buy [product]" and "[product] for sale". Just as an example, lets say I sell balloons. I have "buy balloons" and "balloons for sale" I also have descriptive keywords, "buy red balloons" "buy purple balloons".

FYI, since I am in such a small niche, i'm at position 5 or so for just "[product name" (Example: "balloons" (its actually a three word product, but you get the idea).

Most of these came off of the 2nd tier level of the Adwords Keyword tool so most of them had at least some volume of search each month at Google (not necessarily MSN/Bing). I'm only up to 152 keywords. Looking at the list, there is probably a few more that I could add but I need to work on my Ad Groups before I do that probably.

I was just looking at Adcenter and realized that they had their own little keyword generator. I threw in my keyword and the biggest keyword suggestion they came up wtih only had 156 searches per month. My niche might just be a little bit too small to get any real volume from Adcenter.

I appreciate all the advice I can get, so keep it coming!

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

I'm only up to 152 keywords. Looking at the list, there is probably a few more that I could add but I need to work on my Ad Groups before I do that probably.

Well, tight ad groups are another area that can increase CTR.

I'm hoping that with 152 keywords, you wouldn't have them all in one list with a few ads.

I would look for "tight" groups, with a few keywords per ad, related to that ad and the landing page.

So...

ad group ---> keyword phrases ---> ads ---> landing page all must be related and tightly focused on the keywords being promoted.

I have gone so far as creating an individual landing page/website (single pages can get lower quality scores in Adwords) for each ad group with all other factors being related and tight.

 

[PHPGator]

Yeah, I really need to get that done.

I am offering a select few different products. Do you think it is acceptable to link directly to a sub-page instead of your index? For example, instead of linking them to the index where they have to go find the product in the list, would it be better to just send them to the product page directly where all they have to do is buy it?

Note that I am using P202/T202 and that would probably screw up the tracking. Would there be a way to fix that part?

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

Do you think it is acceptable to link directly to a sub-page instead of your index? For example, instead of linking them to the index where they have to go find the product in the list, would it be better to just send them to the product page directly where all they have to do is buy it?

Tightly focused. But remember, you're NOT selling stuff with your little Adcenter/Adwords/YSM ad directly, you're selling the click itself.

So...

The page you direct them to MUST do the preselling/selling of whatever action you want them to take. Do not put that burden on the little ad.

Think like a searcher...you're not going to buy something off of a little ad, and possibly not on the next page either depending on the "urgency" of what you're buying right?

You need info if the urgency isn't there yet...right?

So...if that info is in the form of a PDF that is readily available on the page, or a newsletter you can opt-in to...well, that's another discussion entirely.
(i.e. building a list, recycling traffic, providing a "separation" between you and the other "me too" pages out there etc...).

Bottom line is, when it comes to conversions...most marketers are too "quick to the money/sale", and don't satisfy the needs of the searcher first (a person with feelings, emotions, problems, families, short of money etc...).

 

[PHPGator]

Yeah, that is probably something else I could do a little bit better. I am running a heavily modified OSCommerce shopping cart. Generally though, what I offer is generally listed directly on the front page with very little content.

 

[danmicheals]

Hi Linda, I was wondering if you could provide some insight on whether MSN or Yahoo could actually converts as well as Google? I was wondering if I could replicate some success in PPC over at MSN and yahoo.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Dan,

I had read some reports quite awhile back that MSN actually converted much better for some people. I think MSN and Yahoo actually both probably convert fairly well, it's just they don't have nearly the volume that Adwords provides.