5 Days to Success with Google AdWords

5 Days to Success with Google AdWords:

"The price you bid is almost never the price you actually pay. You almost always pay less. First, it's a little bit like Ebay: You pay 1 cent above the position below you, not the maximum that you bid"

Your Click Thru Rate (CTR) is MORE important than how much you bid.

The Click Thru Rate is the percentage of people searching who click. If 100 people search, your ad shows up 100 times, and one person clicks through, that's a 1% click thru rate.

So let's say I've got a 1% CTR and I'm paying $1.00 for position #2. Let's say you've got a 2% CTR --- you only have to pay 51 cents to get position #2 and knock me down to position #3. That means if you're 2 times as relevant, you pay 1/2 as much!

Here's an example of two ads - one got nearly twice the CTR as the other:

Simple Self Defense
For Ordinary People
Easy Personal Protection Training
www.tftgroup.com
Clickthrough Rate: 0.8%

Simple Self Defense
For Ordinary People
Fast Personal Protection Training
www.tftgroup.com
Clickthrough Rate: 1.3%

Notice what happened: Only ONE word changed - "Fast" instead of "Easy" - and the Click Thru Rate jumped from 0.8% to 1.3%. That means that the ad on the right gets almost twice as much traffic for the same amount of money.

NB Google ranks your ad higher as your CTR goes up. Overture does not do this. In Overture, the highest bidder always wins. That rewards people who have more money than brains. Which means that for the smart marketer, Google is vastly superior....