Success with AdWords

Getting the Best Ad Spots 2

Pay the least you can to get into the top three. Obvious, really. But how?

Unfortunately Google doesn't tell you how much your competitors are paying for their clicks. There are various 'bid management' systems which will charge from $25 a month to track your keywords. Don't bother, unless you are a large company with a massive budget and you just can't keep track of your ad campaigns.

There are also programs which claim to provide detailed information about keyword popularity, competitor bid levels, etc. Probably the best known of these is Key Word Elite. I would love to have advertised that product on my site. It pays affiliates $93 per sale! Then I tried it. I found it clunky and confusing, and its results were only intermittently more useful than Google and Overture's free tools.

Even though Google doesn't tell you what competitors are paying, it does tell you when your bid is enough to get into the top three. When you set up your adwords campaign, the keywords traffic estimates page will tell you (roughly) where your ad will be positioned - eg 1-3, 4-6, etc. For example, a bid of just 20c will get you a 4-6 position for the phrase 'computer parts'.

But you want to get into the top three. Try increasing this to 85c (just a guess at this stage). Yes! This will get you a top three result. Google also tells you your actual cost will be between 52c and 78c. You can find screen captures of this on my site mAdWords.us

Now go back and enter a bid of 53c. Click 'Re-estimate traffic.' Still yes! This bid will get you a position between 1 and 3, and at a cost of between 32c and 53c.

This means you are in the top three at perhaps half the price you might otherwise have paid. This process takes a little time, but as I said at the beginning, if you want to be a success, you have to be prepared to put both time and thought into your business.

Remember you don't always pay your maximum bid - only what you need to beat the person next in line (like Ebay). If you put some thought into it, you may be able to come up with other ways to use this fact to your advantage!

Because effective advertising is essential to the success of your business you should check your advertising campaign at least daily. Your competitors will be doing this (or you should assume they will be!) and bids can change frequently.

You also need to check which keywords and ads are working for you. Keep the ones that are, make small changes, one thing at a time, to the ones that aren't. Check whether those changes have made a difference. It will take a little time, but you will gradually build up an arsenal of highly effective and efficient (ie money-making) ads and keywords.