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PPC with Google Display Network

IMsights

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So I bit the bullet and start this case study :p

This is my first ever proper CPA campaign and so far I feel like my progress is so s-l-o-w :mad: Mainly because I don't have fixed time devoted to IM so it's an hour here and there and there are so many things to do. Hopefully I can work faster in my next campaign.

So far I've done:
- 2 landing pages with opt-in for split test
- 2 ads variation, each in 2 different sizes (do I need to make them in all banner sizes?)
- Mini site in the niche (to make Google happy) with about 10 posts
- 2 eBooks for opt-in bonus
- Create mailing list
- Write autoresponder (so far only cover 1 week)
- A bunch of keywords from AdWords Keyword Tool and split them into few groups

I've signed up for new AdWords account so I can get the $100 voucher, but they said it takes 5 business days for their rep to call me and set up my account. Is this common? The last time (long time ago) I opened AdWords with my personal email account it was instant.

Once my account is set up I will start the campaign.
 
No news for my AdWords account yet and I'm getting impatient so I signed up using one of my Gmail account. Hopefully it qualifies for the voucher later on.

I added 13 ad groups (each having between 3 to 15 keywords) and uploaded 4 banners for each group. All groups are using the same 4 banners for now. The status now is 'Under review'.

I don't use any negative keyword/placement/topic/interest yet.
 
Thanks! It takes up to 3 business days to review the ads so the soonest I can work on thi campaign is next week. Man, the wait is killing me.

Do they always take this long to approve ads or just for new campaign?
 
The ads should be approved or denied usually in 1-3 hours ( at least that's how my campaigns and ads are approved ). When big G kills one of my accounts then it gives me that 3 day manual review error.

If they smell affiliates they gonna get your account into review and eventually ban.

I hope you made your lp ok so they won't have any problems approving it.
 
My campaign was finally approved! I didn't expect it to happen until next week so I was surprised to receive alert from my mailing list that few people joined my list while I was out and about :)

First thing first, lessons learned so far: triple check your sales funnel before starting a campaign. I found out, after 17 people subscribed to my list, that my autoresponder series was inactive :mad: I had everything ready but forgot to activate it so none of the subscribers received the welcome email with bonus, etc. Then I also found that my cron didn't work because I moved the autoresponder to a new subdomain last week and forgot to change the cron path.

Update so far

I think my ads are performing OK for display network based on AdWords stat but the offer is not converting. I have zero conversion so far.

AdWords stats:
Impressions: 6897
Clicks: 63
CTR: 0.91%

My CPV Lab stats:
Views: 179
Subscribers: 17
Subscribers Rate: 9.50%

AdWords is showing 63 clicks but CPV Lab is showing 179 views. I'm not sure why they have large discrepancies here. The interesting thing is my landing page performance.

LP1: 98 visitor, 17 subscribers (17.35%)
LP2: 79 visitors, 0 subscribers (0%)

Each landing page receive less than 100 views so far but I think it's pretty conclusive that hands off LP1 beats LP2.

Questions for PPC experts here:

1) Am I correct to conclude so far that my ads are performing OK and it's the offer that's not converting?

2) Do you think the first adjustment I need to make is to change the offer?

3) Should I wait for more data or can I make decision now?

4) Should I just kill LP2?

I know it's Sunday but any help will be HUGELY appreciated :)
 
Wait for more data and then take action - you need to see WHY page 2 isnt getting clicks and why page 1 is and improve on it.
 
Well, not so good news. I received an email from G that my campaigns are paused because they think I violated their terms and I have to re-submit my site under review else my account will be banned :(

My offer is in money making niche, most likely that's the reason although I make a proper landing page and mini site around it.

Not sure what to do now. While the campaign was running, I got 15 people subscribed to my list so for the time being I'm polishing my autoresponder and backend offers.

Do you think it makes sense to re-do the campaign from a different angle, which means new ads, new landers, etc? Or should I just forget about Google and start elsewhere?
 
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