# General Business Category > Marketing Forum >  Google AdWords highly ineffective?

## Wolf

Hi,

I started my AdWords campaign yesterday and I was very happy. If you looked for sweating, sweat, hyperhidrosis... my ad was in the top 3 of the sponsored links all the time, mostly on position 1. 

But today? Today it's crawling around somewhere at the bottom of the page. Wtf? See here: http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en...cr%3DcountryZA
(it is the Odaban website)

No click budget limit, 1 click costs me 10-28R, and then this? Now I have a click through rate of 0.07%. How ridiculous is that?

I have to pay a **** load of money just to show my ad somewhere at the bottom where nobody is looking anymore?

I set my click budget limit down on 5, and what happens? Nothing! Doesn't make it any worse. So why should I offer up to 28R for a click if 5 does the same?

Damn, I'm so angry right now, and I can't even call anyone there to crap someone out.

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## Dave A

It's your CTR that's hammering you. Ad rank is based on bid*CTR as far as I know. The lower your CTR, the more you have to bid to climb the rank.

Diabolical I know, but there you go.

You're going to have to work on your ad so that it attracts clicks, or be more selective on your keywords - although it is hard to think how you could be more selective off the top of my head.

I'd work on the ad to be honest - think benefits rather than features. Right now you're selling the steak, not the sizzle.

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## IanF

Exo
I use google ad words, and it works for me. The way I measure is what business I get vs the cost. Whenever a new customer phones I ask how he got our number. It only takes 1 reasonable order a month to pay for it. But I limit the cost per click.
The most important thing is to have a relevant landing page. I would change the way you evaluate and start off at lower click amount and then build it up if you have to.

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## Dave A

Another thought - have you targetted *SA only* sites and searches?

With the co.za extension in your URL, if your ad is coming up in North America or Europe, you could be getting lots of pageviews, but probably very few clicks.

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## Wolf

Yes, I targeted SA.

Budget is set on R2000, no limit per click. 

Dave, what don't you like about the ad that makes you say I should work on it?

Keywords are all directly related to sweating and the landing page is IMO absolutely perfect.

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## Wolf

I just set the budget on R5000 and no click price limit. Now I'm curious what's gonna happen.

But what I still don't understarnd is why it is suddenly so bad even though the settings are the same than yesterday. Makes absolutely no sense to me. I was on top of the page all the time.

ps: just realised it's ineffective, not uneffective. Sry, not english.

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## Dave A

> But what I still don't understarnd is why it is suddenly so bad even though the settings are the same than yesterday.


Yesterday you had a default CTR record.

Can you post the text of your ad and let's pick over it. Doing the search thing to get the ad up is just hurting your CTR even more.

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## Wolf

I have 3 variations:

No More Sweating
ODABAN - The Most Effective And
Safest Antiperspirant in SA.
www.odaban.co.za 

No More Sweating
ODABAN - The Antiperspirant
Guaranteed To Work. Order Yours Now
www.odaban.co.za 

No More Perspiration
ODABAN - South Africas Safest And
Most Effective Antiperspirant.
www.odaban.co.za

Maybe I shouldn't be so impatient and give it a couple of days to adjust? I am impatient by nature.

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## Dave A

I think it needs emotional appeal.

For example:
Embarrassed by perspiration?
Get your confidence back with safe, reliable ODABAN - Now available in SA.

Problems associated with excessive sweating are:
Embarrasment, lack of confidence and rejection from bad body odour, unsightly sweat stains and visible symptoms associated with stress.

The main emotional benefits of your product are confidence, acceptance, trust.

Words I would also work around include:
Safe, hygienic, long-lasting, pump dispenser

You're not selling an anti-perspirant, you're selling self-confidence, social acceptance and success  :Wink: 

I've got to say - this is a product that just screams for Youtube marketing and viral campaigns.

Boy meets girl. 
One knocks the other out with BO - or breaks out in serious sweats.
Boy loses girl.
Bring on the ODABAN and repeat 
End with things getting steamy (rather than sweaty)  :Big Grin: 

Or someone starts drowning in persiration doing that big make-or-break presentation to the Board of Directors...

Question: Is ODABAN fragranced?

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## Norri

The BEST resource for AdWords is www.perrymarshall.com

Buy his eBook and it won't be a mystery to you any more.

There are a LOT of tips I could give you but not one that I didn't first learn from Perry :P

Enjoy!

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Dave A (06-Dec-08)

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## Wolf

Thanks Dave and Norri,

I like your suggestions Dave. No, Odaban is not fragranced. 

I think I will have a look at this book. 

I had a meeting with a guy specialising in viral marketing, unfortunatelly he never came back to me. Since my budget is limited, I have chosen an ad that should somehow get the business running. Odaban is published in the recent Huisgenoot magazine. I hope it'll show the desired effect on Monday. Also on Monday, the sales reps will start working in the western cape.

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## derrickm

Here are a couple of things you can do to improve your CTR:

*Split your keywords into multiple ad groups*

This is one of the first things you'll find in Perry Marshall's book.

You need to make sure that the keyword appears in the headline of the ads.

When I typed 'perspiration' into Google, I got this ad:

Sweat Through Your Shirt?
Stop This Embarrassment With ODABAN
Now Available in South Africa.
www.odaban.co.za

and when I typed in 'sweating', I got this:

No More Perspiration
ODABAN - South Africas Safest And
Most Effective Antiperspirant.
www.odaban.co.za

Google highlights the keyword if it's in the ad. In both of these examples, the keyword is not in the ad, so you're wasting this feature.

You need to have a separate ad group for each keyword or keyword phrase. That way, you can have 'perspiration' appearing in the perspiration ad headlines, and 'sweating' appearing in the sweating ad headlines. 

*Use the Google Keyword tool to find long tail keywords*

The Google Keyword tool (under the 'Tools' menu) can suggest additional keywords to try. Look for 'long tail' keywords, like these:



```
                           CPC     Volume
deodorant sweating         0.51     1300
stop underarm sweat          -       880
excessive armpit sweat       -       880
```

CPC - Cost Per Click ( a '-' means that there is no information on the keyword)

Volume - Approx. average monthly search volume for South Africa

The Keyword Tool can suggest keywords based on what it finds on your website - select 'Website content' and enter your URL.

*Use a powerful benefit*

'Now available in South Africa' is weak.

'Guaranteed To Cure Sweating' might be better.

*Your domain name is part of the ad copy*
You might want to think about registering another domain name for your landing page. www.StopSweatingNow.co.za is available, for example. At R50 a year, it could make a big difference to your CTR. You might go as far as having a separate optimized landing page for each keyword group.

*Your landing page affects your Quality Score, which affects your CTR*

Google tracks things like how long people stay on your landing page - obviously, the longer the better. Although your site has plenty of depth to it, there's very little to immediately capture visitors attention and get them reading what you have to say. 

Have a good look at these two competitors sites:

http://preventsweating.com/

http://www.notosweat.com/

You need:

1. A compelling headline. 

"At Last! Discover An Amazingly Simple Method To Combat Sweat In Less Than Two Weeks... 100% Guaranteed!"

Eliminate Underarm Perspiration For A WEEK! 

2. Testimonials
Both of the examples have a testimonial almost immediately after the headline. Yours are hidden away on another page. Notice the pictures.

3. Clearly defined benefits
Your benefits would be better listed as bullet points:

The safest and most effective treatment for all perspiration problemsConvenient and inexpensiveThe only antiperspirant guaranteed to workUnique, non-aqueous, silicone formulation helps prevent skin irritationHermetically sealed container prevents damaging water contaminationrevolutionary pump spray also ensures an accurate and consistent doseSafe for children and those with sensitive skins

4. A call to action
Your site is informative, but in a rather corporate-brochure kind of way: "Have a look around our website, and if you happen to come across the order page, you might like to think about buying..."

Your landing page should accomplish one of two goals:

1. Get your visitors name and email address so that you can follow up with them - maybe offer a free sample (which doesn't last 6 months!) or a valuable free report in exchange for their name and email address.

or 

2. Get them to buy something NOW.


I hope you find something in this post that you can use!

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Dave A (07-Dec-08), duncan drennan (09-Dec-08)

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## Norri

Great tips, Derrick  :Smile:   Exo, pay close attention, Derrick knows his stuff!

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## VinceYork

Well all the above has given me great food for thought and even more research to do over the few hours holiday I hope I can take. LOL.

I have been battling to figure out how to get AdWords to be in my "affordable" favour but have also to undertake getting my site pages into a really appealing & sellable layout first. www.yorkaccounting.co.za
Spent the past few years learning html and now this dnn story (find it opens rather slowly) so am gradually on the way to a professional look.
Must see more on this perry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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## Dave A

> Spent the past few years learning html and now this dnn story (find it opens rather slowly) so am gradually on the way to a professional look.


Dump it. Apart from being very slow to load (probably using too much processing resources on an overloaded server), the page might look pretty but navigation is hopeless. You need links in "news" blocks, not just in the top navbar. It took me a while to figure out what was going on.

If you want to use a simple CMS that is surprisingly effective, go with Wordpress.

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## Wolf

@ Derrick

Thanks a lot for your input, I'll try to get that done asap.

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