David Fiske Affiliate marketing & web development musings from Fiske Towers

In an attempt to a) relieve boredom, b) increase revenue and c) boost search engine interest, I decided to look at PPC again. The last time I tried my hand at it, I failed somewhat dismally more or less because I didn't know what I know now. Experience certainly wasn't on my side!

I've launched a classy blog type site recently which switched between result 1 and 11 for the site name search. I pitched the idea to some manufacturers and the outcome was that if I wasn't on page 1, how could I help them?

I set up an AdWords campaign 3 days ago to at least get an ad on page 1 and here's the story since.
 
Attracting The Wrong Audience

First and foremost, I don't have money to splash so I decided I needed to be frugal. I found some nice 2p and 3p keywords and went after them. I linked the ad to a blog post which I love (less work), Google loves (great quality score plus a 3p bid) and hopefully my visitors will love (quality and accurate information).

The problem was that a) I'm advertising very high end products (up to £1,000) and that's not great for impulse purchasing! I've since paused that campaign as it was running away without any sort of chance of making a return.

Keeping An Eye On The Spending

I've been glued to my keywords for the last few weeks for the site as natural search visitors find me. I also benefited from a PR agency sending me a sample product. A honest review of this product was exactly what was required to make my campaign a success.

The stats

Bear in mind this is a very targetted niche campaign and has been run for 3 days by a PPC numptie (that be me)!

Commission value: £11.00

33 clicks (4.11% CTR) at a grand total of 80p. I've made 13.75 times my investment! 1375% ROI!

What am I going to spend my profit on?

I got too carried away and decided burn that cash this morning with a pointless advert using the keyword "Beijing 2008 Olympic Games" after it was highlighted as an empty phrase (no competition) by Patrick and Sitevisibility.

I bought 12,000 impressions and 34 clicks before I gave up. The thing is, I should have used my PPC calculator. Running the figures through that, to make 1% ROI, the maximum CPC on a 5% order conversion rate would have been £0.04 - I was bidding £0.15. FOOL!

The Lessons

There are a couple of lessons here.

1. Persist (but make sure you start small and work big)
2. Work the numbers (use my PPC calculator to do some rough maths or make a spreadsheet)
3. Track (Grab as much information as you can about where visitors have come from and where they are going
4. Watch the cash (ROI in PPC is everything. It's easy to lose money. It's difficult making it)

If at first you don't succeed, look behind the sofa for a few pennies and try again. Above all, know and stick to your limits. PPC is more or less a form of gambling.