Budget Problem, and bidding against myself

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mgroark

Joined: Jan 11, 2007

# Posts: 6

Posted: 01/11/2007 09:24 am

Hi everyone, this is my frist post here as I have been checking out the forum for a few months and learning as I go but I still am having a problem I can t seem to get an answer to. Ive tried searching and reading more online but cant really find an answer.

PROBLEM:
We have 'generalized' keywords that get a low ctr but lots of exposure. i.e. "shirts"

We have specific keywords that get high CTR but less exposure i.e. "big & tall shirts"

With a set daily budget, our campaign gets "turned off" for most of the day because we've reached the budget.

I don't mind the generalized keywords being turned off, but I would like the more specific ones to run all day.

How can I do this?

If we have two campaigns with different budgets, won't we be bidding against ourselves? Is it possible that our ad would appear twice if someone entered the specific keywords because they also contain the general keyword?

What I think the answers are:

I think the answer to the first problem and what Ive learned on these forums is to increase our budget so we get the max number of impressions. Should we get rid of the generalized words because they cost the most but get the most clicks and lowest CTR?

For the second problem, if we had a high budget for our non generalized words and started a new campaign for the more generalized ones would we A. be bidding against ourselves if someone searches Big Shirts will we get the ad for "big shirts" and the ad from the other campaign for "shirts"?

Thanks for all the help in advance and I hope as I get better at this I will be able to contribute more and hopefully return that favor. Thanks smile

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

Website

Posted: 01/11/2007 10:33 am

If you want to do this create two separate campaigns. Use the specific adjectives you have in the campaign that has the specific products in it as negative keywords in the general campaign.

To use your example, in the campaign that has general keywords enter both "big" and "tall" as negative keywords at the campaign level. This will tell Google's system to display your ads for the specific keyword phrases instead of the ads for the general ones.

You could then set the Daily Budget for the specific keyword phrases to Google's Recommended amount to ensure that those keywords always run. I strongly believe that having ads run consistently is necessary for success. When your ads run randomly as they do when you set your budget too low, this is what can happen:

1. Someone finds your ad, comes to your site, decides what they want to buy and plans to come back later.

2. When they're ready to buy they do the same search they did before to get to your site. When your ad isn't there they may look a little harder. A few might even do another search. But most likely they'll end up buying elsewhere.

You paid them to come visit you once and then lost a sale to someone who already wanted to buy from you because your ad wasn't there.

I believe you would be money ahead and see better results running only the keywords that you can appear for consistently at your current desired spending level.

When you move your ads and keywords they lose their historical advantage, so if your CTRs are strong on your specific keywords and those are more important I would advise you to move the general keywords to another campaign.

Then leave the general keywords paused and run the specific keywords at Google's Recommended Daily Budget. If that is still more than you want to spend, either pause the least important specific keyword phrases or lower your bids on them to get spending where you want it.

If you're not adjusting bids at the keyword level you can buy more traffic for less money by doing that. See Adjusting Bids at Google to Improve ROI for my method for doing that.

Note that Google's system will only display one ad for any given search so you're not really bidding against yourself; however, their system may display the ad it decides is more pertinent based on CTRs and bid instead of the ad you want to display.

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mgroark

Joined: Jan 11, 2007

# Posts: 6

Posted: 01/11/2007 11:31 am

flyingrose, thanks for the quick response, i had an idea that you'd be the one with the answer. Ive read your post on Adjusting bids about a month ago and have found good results. The above question I aked was posed to my by my boss and so I had to go to the experts when I couldnt find a suitable expert. Thanks for the help and if anyone else has any more ideas or suggestions please feel free to add. Thanks!

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

Website

Posted: 01/11/2007 06:32 pm

One thing I do want to mention about general keywords. I believe they convert far more often than it appears and may be critical to online success for making future buyers aware you exist.

Many analytics solutions only track conversions to the last click. Many actions taken between the first visit to your site and when the visitor buys will over-write your ad tracking. Your actual conversions generated by ads will be far higher than these types of analytics programs indicate.

One action that definitely over-writes tracking for your general keywords is clicking on another ad. I believe it very likely that a person first searches on a general keyword or phrase, clicks on your ad, looks around your site and finds what they want to buy.

Then if they don't remember the URL or name of your business (and maybe even if they do) they'll search on the specific item they want to buy. That more specific keyword phrase then gets credit for the sale.

If they didn't find you in the first place they may not have chosen you when they decided to buy. I believe if they liked your site on the first visit they're more likely to select your ad when they're ready to buy.

So even if your general keywords don't show conversions they may actually be driving sales growth. That said, if I had to limit my spending I would buy the specific ones first because they'll have a much higher ROI and usually be more profitable.

Then as the ads generate more disposable income I would continually expand. General keywords create faster growth and lower profit per sale while specific keywords often have low traffic, low costs, and much higher conversion rates. Because ad spending is usually lower profit per sale is usually higher.

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