SSWT Internet Marketing Forum

Any comments from the full-timers out there? How much did you spend on PPC when you first started?

Eric,
I sure hope you get some feedback on this. I don't do PPC so I can't help.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by controlling the spending by adjusting the bid. I'm not really into PPC, so I've not read those guides. In my mind it would make sense to set your daily spend limit to what you can actually spend. I always hear that it's so easy to go over fast, especially with Adwords.

I'll Tweet this thread out on Twitter and see if we can get some fresh opinions on this for you.

That was my initial thought as well, but isn't what is taught in Perry Marshall's Adword Guide. He says that reducing your cost per click and showing up as number eight on Google is better than reducing your daily budget and only being shown a portion of the day.

I see the advantages of PPC, but am really hesitant to jump in. The last thing I want to do is blow my monthly budget in a couple of days.

I'm really surprised that this hasn't gotten any responses? As much as PPC is touted as being the best way to promote an online business, I thought there would be all kinds of opinions.

Hi Eric ...

Building PPC Campaigns can be a very fragile marketing strategy and also very profitable!

Congratulations on doing your homework and reading some of the Best information out there before jumping right in!

I would recommend getting started with a daily budget you can realistically afford to spend. Even if this is much lower than where you would like to be ... the key is getting started, learning the in's and out's of building and managing campaigns ...and not getting crushed eating up your entire bankroll in 24 hours!

Campaign Settings:

- Show your ads on Google Search.
- Don't use "content" until you are really running strong.
- Later when using content, keep those adgroups separate from those running on search.

Device Platforms:

- Go with desktops and laptop computers.
- I would stay away from mobile devices for now.

Keyword Match Types:

- use phrase and exact match.
- broad will drive a lot of clicks and go though your budget fast.
- once you do use broad, be sure to add negative keywords.

Adgroups:

Keep your ad groups tight with very targeted ad copy that contains the keyword you are targeting.

The more competitive the niche .. the more it's going to cost to compete.

Wish you the best!

Robert Avila

Just curious why you suggest running search THEN content?

I think content would be a little easier to control with a smaller budget. Its gonna be less traffic, but you can work on things like copy writing and learn how to launch a campaign and adjust it and all the little stuff easier in a more forgiving environment.

So my suggestion is to start the other way do content then search. You will likely not even spend your daily budget at first anyway till you get a little history and you get better at attracting people to click your ads. Give it a shot id set bids like .20 and daily budget at 20 bucks or something with that ratio so you can get around 100 clicks for statistical analysis to make sure you dont have a loser.

What he means is this.....set your budget higher so that you wont run out of money during the course of the day.

You will find that at different times of the day, you will get higher responsiveness to your PPC ads then at others...so if you run out of $$ before the day is out, you'll never be able to fully test a keyword.

Here is my advice to get started.....put ONE keyword in and activate it. Once you get a feel for how much $$ you spend with that keyword...add another the next day...and then another....etc.

What affects your spend on each keyword is your position on the page, or even which page you are on. So, the higher the position, the more the spend, make sense?

Hope that helps.