# Is Pay Per Click Ads Worth The Money You Pay?



## Spicetag (Jun 7, 2011)

Hello All,

I was looking up some new ways of promoting my website and was looking a little into Pay Per Click. Is it worth it? I've heard its good to advertise this way, but I have to pay for every click even if that click doesn't mean a sale. Has any one got any information on this area, share the same issues or even has experience with this advertising method.

Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks for reading,
Jordan


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

Pay per click is worth it if you have product people like enough to buy. So the trick is to make sure those who are doing the clicking are your target market. Your key word search terms are very, very important. 't-shirt', 'funny tee', etc. probably won't cut it. Search terms should be as detailed as you can make them to attract your target market while not so detailed as to not have hits at all.


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## dottavig (May 2, 2011)

Yes, pay per click is not going to blindly create sales for you. You have to come up with marketing wording for your ads and you have to really think about who to enable those ads to be seen by. The right search words make all the difference, T-shirts i imagine is incredibly over used and expensive per click while "insert unique click here" T-shirts is not only a better fit but also cheaper.


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## dottavig (May 2, 2011)

also i forgot to mention, Google ads and Facebook always seem to have try us out programs that give you $50 or so worth of free click money. When i did google i got 50$ plus free marketing help. I dont remember where i found the freebies from but im sure with a little searching they shouldnt be too hard to find.


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## CharlieK (Aug 12, 2011)

Yeah Google sent me an e-mail with a coupon for $100 in free advertising, so make sure you watch out for those offers.

If your keywords aren't too general like they were saying above, and the user finds what he originally searched for on your site, he'll possibly turn into a sale. But it's up to you to make sure that what he finds after he clicks the ad causes him to buy from you. That's why google always talks about relevance & landing page quality, they're very important!


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## pinkmomto3 (Apr 13, 2009)

They weren't for me!
(


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## beanie357 (Mar 27, 2011)

At our linen rental business, which is wholesale only, the only real outreach we did for 2 years (20 year old business) was google pay per click. We spent 350 a month (budgeted-bid max) and were quite pleased, except we got a lot of retail, we have not decided wheter to try this on our apparel decorating business, but will probably give it a go and see what we get. Since we are gearing for wholesale or retail maybe it will work. Never be afraid to try anything.


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## starchild (Jul 22, 2009)

Pay Per Click works exceptionally well with higher price point items. an extreme example: 1000 clicks resulting in 1 sale- a yacht.. but you get the idea..


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

How much does it generally cost per click using google ads?


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## starchild (Jul 22, 2009)

Louie2010 said:


> How much does it generally cost per click using google ads?


It honestly depends on how many clicks, generate a sale or lead or what ever you are trying to accomplish. 

How much does it cost for desired outcome?


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

Doesn't Google charge a specific amount per click when you sign up? That is what I was wondering, what range that rate might be.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Louie2010 said:


> Doesn't Google charge a specific amount per click when you sign up? That is what I was wondering, what range that rate might be.


Depends on the popularity of your search words. The more popular the term, the higher rate you pay.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

splathead said:


> Depends on the popularity of your search words. The more popular the term, the higher rate you pay.


Thank, that makes sense. Do you happen to know an approximate range? Are we talking from low to high something like .01-.25 or something like .25-$1.00?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

I've seen it as high as $10. You don't have to pay to set up an account and look at going rates. Just google 'adwords'


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Ad Words is great espcially if you have a niche market you are targeting. You set the keywords, you set the highest amount you will bid per click and you set how much a day/month you want to spend. Allows you to easily try it out with you setting the rules on how much you want to spend.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

> "you set the highest amount you will bid per click "


So it is a bid, rather then a set rate? Who are you bidding against?


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Pay per click ads can work quite well, if you do a couple of things:

1. Make sure you pick your keywords carefully. As others have pointed out, too general leaves too much competition, and two specific means your ads will never show. You need to research carefully to determine which keywords will work for you. 

2. Your ads have to be written carefully. Having your ad show up is half the battle. People still have to click it. No clicks means no charges, but also no sales. 

3. Your web site has to convert visitors into buyers after they click your PPC ad. If they click your ad and your website is hard to navigate, your landing page is misleading or a hundred other things, you'll lose the sale and your time and money is wasted.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

What if your keywords are very common. What determines which company gets a better spot, is that what the bidding is for?

For example, _"Embroidered Polo shirts"_ would have to be a very common one, but also specific. How does that play out?

Also in the above example, would you pay for all three words or just pay per phrase?


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Louie2010 said:


> What if your keywords are very common. What determines which company gets a better spot, is that what the bidding is for?
> 
> For example, _"Embroidered Polo shirts"_ would have to be a very common one, but also specific. How does that play out?
> 
> Also in the above example, would you pay for all three words or just pay per phrase?


That is what the bidding is about - who gets the best spots. Most people set up multiple words and/or phrases. The above would be a single phrase . If you wanted a match on embrodered shirts that would be another phrase. You can also set regions so if you are not selling nationally the competetion would not be as large.


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## DYZYN (Aug 27, 2011)

Some quick tips:


 You can set a daily budget and bidding maximum.
 Search for vouchers and coupons that you can utilize. I've seen $100 Google vouchers go for $15, though I have not used them as of yet.
 Use the keyword search tool, find out how tough competition is, how many searches are made for those keywords and use it to find more keywords.

Do this, but meanwhile work on the organic side of things. Try to update a blog or pages daily or a few times a week, in order to slide up the rankings.

Hope this helps.


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## mountainman1938 (Sep 3, 2010)

Spicetag said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I was looking up some new ways of promoting my website and was looking a little into Pay Per Click. Is it worth it? I've heard its good to advertise this way, but I have to pay for every click even if that click doesn't mean a sale. Has any one got any information on this area, share the same issues or even has experience with this advertising method.
> 
> ...


Only worth it if you have a way to track hits, such as a reply form at your website.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Louie2010 said:


> So it is a bid, rather then a set rate? Who are you bidding against?


You're bidding against other advertisers who also want to show up higher in the ad results for that keyword.


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## sarconi11 (Aug 3, 2011)

good information!


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