How can I see if my CPC is too high in Google AdWords?

If you are running an Adwords campaign you know you are constantly managing your keyword's maximum CPC in order to keep your ad running in the top positions. But how can you decide what is the best value for Max. CPC?

When starting a new ad you decide the maximum price you are willing to pay for clicks for each of the used keywords. The price has to be above a minimum price which depends on the amount of other advertisers using the same keyword. If your bid is below this minimum you will be notified of this so you can increase your price.

Once your ad is running and you start getting clicks you can see how well your ad is doing and on which position your ad is showing. If your ad is performing well and has a high clickthrough rate your ad will be shown on a higher position. If your clickthrough rate is lower then the ads of your competitors your ad will be shown on a lower position. To get your ad to show higher than your competitors ad you can try to increase the clickthrough rate or bid a higher price.

You can raise and lower your CPC's by trial and error but there is a way to check what the expected CPC for a keyword is. You can do this as follows:

• Click on "Tools" and then "Keyword tool"
• Perform a search for the keyword you want to check

You now see a list of keywords related to the one you searched for. To see the CPC prices fill in a value for Max. CPC and click "Recalculate"

Now you will see estimated CPC and Ad position.


You can use this information to see if the CPC you are paying is in range of these prices. If your price is a lot higher you could try and lower your price. Experiment with diferent maximum prices and check the amount of expected clicks. If the clicks stay high enough you can try and lower your max. CPC.

Get more traffic through Google Adwords

A quick and guaranteed way to get traffic to your website is by using Google AdWords. Although this service is not free you are guaranteed to get traffic and you get to specify how much you are willing or able to pay for it.

Advertising with Adwords

Adwords allows you to create advertising campaigns which can start to run as soon as you finish creating your campaign. Adwords allows you to create various types of campaigns and offers a lot of ways to target your ads so you can better reach your desired audience. In a later article we will discuss the various targeting options that are offered but for now we will discuss the basic principals of advertising with Google AdWords.

Creating your advertisment

Adwords offers various types of ads you can create which include audio ads and ads in printed media but for this article we will stick to online advertising using text ads. Text ads consist of a title and two lines of text and are shown above and to the right of search results when searching on Google. Optional your ad can also be shown on relevant websites in the content network.

Adplacement options

Placing your ad on Google search results page
This is probably the best way to target your ad at a specific audience. You select keywords which are most relevant to your ad and when users search on Google using these keywords your ad is shown. You don't pay for the times your ad is shown, just for the times people click on your ad.

Placing your ad on other sites
You can have your ad placed on other sites within Google's content network. This network consists of websites which have implemented Google Adsense code. Based on the websites content Google desides if a site is relevant to your ad and they show the ad on the site.

• The content network offers large amounts of expected views of your ad but click rates may be lower
  
• The average Cost per Click is usually lower for content advertising than search advertising
• Traffic is less targeted advertising on the content network which means more chance of reaching the wrong audience
  

Advertising costs

Ad prices are based on Cost Per Click(CPC) where you pay for each click that is generated by the ad. In Adwords you can specify a maximum price you are willing to pay. Prices vary and depend on the keyword and amount of competition the keyword has. Competition in this case means the amount of other advertisers using this same keyword. Although there are some other factors that determine the price for a keyword you can say that the more advertisers there are using the same keyword the higher the price.

You specify a maximum budget you are prepared to spend on advertising and Adwords will show your ad until your budget is reached. This ensures you will never pay more than the maximum you specified which makes it a relative save way to advertise on the internet.

Google Adwords: Adwords.google.com
Help with Adwords campaigns: mexmax-internet.com

Conversions? What does this mean for my site?

You may have heard the term "Conversions" or "Conversion rate" being mentioned in regards to a website's performance. What do these terms mean and how can you use them to improve your website?

If you already have a website or are thinking about creating a new website you know that your site has a specific goal or a set of goals. If you have a site just because you want to have a website this article is not for you. A goal could be to sell products but it could also be to generate interest in your services and have potential customers contact you. You create your site in such a manner that it will help achieve this goal. You present your products in such a manner that it will lead to a sale, or so you think.

It is very important to measure your websites traffic but even more important to be able to analyze the data in such a manner that it tells you if your site needs improving or not. This is where "Conversions" come into play. The term "Conversion rate" is described as: "The percentage of unique visitors who take a desired action upon visiting the website"(Wikipedia). So this means the amount of visitors that came to your site and completed one of your website's goals. So a conversion occurs when a visitor to your site "converts" himself from a regular visitor to one that fullfills one of your goals. For example a visitor orders a product. At the moment he orders a product he creates a conversion.

By keeping track of your conversions you will be able to find out which percentage of visitors converts and therefor which percentage of visitors is of value to you and generates revenue. You can use this information to set up an online advertising campaign or use it to further finetune your website in order to increase your website's conversionrate.