Anybody know any good and ACTIVE Adwords forums?

[Naughty]

The ones i found/have bookmarked all seems pretty dead.

Since it is totally unrelated to any adult business i guess GFY wouldn't mind posting a link to such a forum here.

After 11 years of using Adwords i find myself puzzled on some matters, i need answers;-)

[suesheboy]

Suggest you take the training from Google. Expect to spend less than 20 hours if you are a fast learner. It will be time well spent especially if you spend lots and /or Adwords is crucial to you.

[Naughty]

Been there done that. Still puzzled.

[suesheboy]

Make sure you have done it in the last 2 years. Much has changed.

Call them on the phone. They will help you.

[Naughty]

We already scheduled a meeting with one of our phonereps.

Silly issue though i am never gonna get an answer to, but we rank high in everything: QS 10, CTR > 5%, we have pagelinks, etc. but our clicks are high priced for only #3 pos. Yet a competitor who is selling the item at a third of the price, keeps being at #1. No way he can make a profit, just impossible.

Its either their way of getting people to buy anything and bank on them later, or we are doing something wrong;-).

No matter how high we put our PPC, never above second pos.

[suesheboy]

Quality and relevance of landing pages? Geotrargeting? Do they (or you) have conversion turned on?

Some people advertise to get customers and are willing to lose money on the first sale, use Adwords for branding more than direct sales, or know well enough what their cost of acquisition is worth.

[Naughty]

Originally Posted by suesheboy

Quality and relevance of landing pages? Geotrargeting? Do they (or you) have conversion turned on?

It's not 10/10 for nothing. Pages are perfect. Whereas they just have the storeitem page, on similar pages like they have on this certain item, we get no further than 6/10, maybe 7/10. We target only our small country. We have conversions turned on, this week we're trying the CPA (1,5x their selling price) instead of CPC. Yesterday that cost us money, while still only getting third pos.

The only thing i can think of it that they have more Social media presence and exist longer than the URL we market now, which is only 14 months old.

Originally Posted by suesheboy

Some people advertise to get customers and are willing to lose money on the first sale, use Adwords for branding more than direct sales, or know well enough what their cost of acquisition is worth.

Yup, i said that in a previous post. Could be the case, but this 'must' be costing them a lot of money. Their store has many other items so they are basicly throwing away money.

[Naughty]

By the way, i know Google doesn't play the bidding war game anymore, but that is just not the case here. It's a much deeper reason and i am trying to figure out what and why.

[woj]

maybe they are a known brand? at least more known than you since they were around longer than you... so they probably get higher CTR...

like if you search for "domains"... godaddy will get higher CTR and will outrank MikesDomains.com, no matter what mike does, or what goddady does...

godaddy could put "We will scam you" as the ad, and link to a landing page with porn, and they will still outrank and pay less per click than MikesDomains.com


also, since your competitor is pretty cheap, they get much lower bounce rate than you, helping him "rank" high...

[Naughty]

Actually they are no brand at all, we are.

They sell an OEM food supplement in an envelope instead of in a real packaged bottle or box.

Their store is pretty well known though, they have many many facebook likes.

That must be it.

[suesheboy]

Originally Posted by Naughty

By the way, i know Google doesn't play the bidding war game anymore, but that is just not the case here. It's a much deeper reason and i am trying to figure out what and why.

I am intrigued now. Adwords has always been simple to figure out for me.

Out of curiosity do they or you have a really good Google plus presence? Do both sites have GA loaded?

I have also found that position 2 and 3 sometime performs better in closed sales than position 1 even though 1 can have a a higher CTR.

Be sure to post results from what you find out in this thread.

[suesheboy]

Originally Posted by Naughty

they have many many facebook likes.

That must be it.

Doubtful. Gog+, maybe, FB, I doubt it.

[suesheboy]

...how well do they do organically?

[woj]

Originally Posted by Naughty

Actually they are no brand at all, we are.

They sell an OEM food supplement in an envelope instead of in a real packaged bottle or box.

Their store is pretty well known though, they have many many facebook likes.

That must be it.

that's probably why they can sell for 1/3rd the price... bulk powder is damn cheap, you can probably get a ton of whatever you are selling for a few hundred bucks straight from china...

[Naughty]

Originally Posted by woj

that's probably why they can sell for 1/3rd the price... bulk powder is damn cheap, you can probably get a ton of whatever you are selling for a few hundred bucks straight from china...

I know. Our marketing is based on selling the "real|" thing, backed up with many documents for both labs, EU and whatnot. We also buy pretty good since we buy larger quantities, but even then, even if they got it for free they 'should' lose money at what we pay for 3rd place.

Originally Posted by suesheboy

...how well do they do organically?

Not sure. Almost nobody has any ranking for this product organically. At least not for the basic keyword, mostly US Youtube videos that rule the first page.

Originally Posted by suesheboy

I am intrigued now. Adwords has always been simple to figure out for me.

Out of curiosity do they or you have a really good Google plus presence? Do both sites have GA loaded?

I have also found that position 2 and 3 sometime performs better in closed sales than position 1 even though 1 can have a a higher CTR.

Be sure to post results from what you find out in this thread.

We both have these: Google Analytics & Remarketing Tag

Not sure about Google+, we do not have it.

They do have a shitload of reviews though which is pretty good, over 3500, where we only have 30-ish;-). We are however rated high, mostly 8-10.

I notice they do have one of those trusted stores icon, one that we're not too keen on buying since it is all money in the pockets for these guys and no added value.

If it helps in ranking we have zero issues paying a couple hundred bucks for this of course.

I guess i will open this thread as a reference once the Google rep gives us a call this week.