Has anyone used Google's adWords advertising program? I'm curious to hear what experiences anyone has had using this. Is it effective or just a waste of money?
Google Ads are very effective at bringing in a large amount of targeted traffic - that's good and bad since you pay for click.
You do need to know how much you value a click - but this is hard to do if, like me, you don't have enough traffic at your site yet to evaluate this. You can run a campaign at Google for a week or so to learn.
A good position to aim for is the bottom of the first page (position
or so. When I had a specific and well performing ad last week, I had to keep lowering the bids to keep the position down. I suspect Google gives higher weight to ads with more clickthroughs even if the bid is lower. I haven't seen where Google specifically states this.
Don't go for the thrill of heavy traffic. You might come up with very specific keywords that Google will estimate will get you only 4 hits a day or so. But you will get targeted traffic that will like your product. If they like what you have to offer, your hits will be higher than forecast.
My week of experience with GoogleAds convinces me that it is cost effective for scooters, though I need to learn how to use it better. I don't know yet if it is effective for say, Harry Potter Coins or Aquarium filters, where even .05 per click is high.
Nathan
http://www.zilard.com/
