Google Adwords - Minimum Bid To Show Up on Page One

I really like Google Adwords as a source of high-quality traffic. It's not perfect, but then no source of traffic on the Internet is.

Think about it for a minute. A bride goes to Google, types in a search, a keyword search of three to four words (most likely), and then sees your ad.

If you bid high enough you show up at the top before the organic search engine results. If you're not a top three bid you probably show up on the narrow, right column.

She sees it (20% of the people who search at Google click on Sponsored Ads)

She likes it (it has the words in it that "connect" with her head in it's current state!)

She clicks on it (she's on her way to your website's home page or maybe a landing page).

The chances are at least 50-50 she's a good prospect for an inquiry. That is, if you're website converts well. If you have traffic but aren't getting inquiries you have a conversion problem.

Recently, I discovered a little weirdness with Google Adwords while bidding on keywords. Specifically, new keywords and their bids that would get me on the first page of Sponsored Listings.

Google Adwords, Keyword Bids, and the "Minimum Bid" to Show Up on the First Page

Google Adwords

Often understanding the concept of how something works leads to better use.

But in the world we live in "fire, ready, aim" are words that come to mind and I've been accused of applying.

Who has the time to figure all of this stuff out.

Plus Google makes using Adwords look so easy.

Many of my clients don't understand Adwords (which is why I manage it for them).

For those of you who want a better understanding of Google Adwords you'll find this explaination and documentation very helpful and valuable.

If you're new to the entire Adwords playground you may want to start with this glossary of terms.

Adwords works. If you are using Adwords and it's not working for you two things are the likely problem: (1) you don't have it set-up correctly, (2) your website has a conversion problem and can't turn a qualified click/visitor into a desired form of action (inquiry, phone call, sale).

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com/

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

PPC and Landing Page Quality Score

Too many people I speak to who are using Google Adwords don't know what a landing page is.

Even worse, they're not familiar with Page Quality Score, which will impact your bidding costs (poor quality score requires higher minimum bids, higher quality score has a positive impact: lower minimum bids and potentially more impressions and clicks - for less cost-per-click!).

For more information about Quality Score visit:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/09/websites-that-may-merit-low-landing.html

For more information about Landing Pages visit:
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46675&hl=en


Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.