Do High Cost PPC Keywords Really Convert Better?

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kjb1891

kjb1891

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I just started a PPC campaign for a new niche that I've never marketed before, and the first thing I noticed is that some of the keywords are pretty expensive just to get onto the first page compared to the niches I've worked in before. I'm talking in the $0.50-$1.25 CPC range.

I've read many times before that higher cost keywords are expensive simply because people know that they're higher converting. For any of you with PPC experience have you found this to be true for the most part?



PS - The keywords are more expensive based off of the competition NOT because of QS issues
 


There's no absolute rule that you can rely upon. Some high-cost keywords convert. Some don't. Often, whether a keyword converts or not depends on your copywriting (both ads and landers) and the offer.

The same keyword can convert well or fail miserably given different scenarios.

I track my stuff. So, I know the EPC for my keywords for a given ad, lander and offer (and traffic source). Ultimately, you need a lot of data so you can make good business decisions for your keywords given your ROI goals.

Nothing trumps your own data.
 
Oh not doubt about the data. I track and split test everything I can in my campaigns and on my landing pages.

I was just wondering what other people's experiences were because I just started this new niche a few days ago, and I definitely noticed the higher CPC for some of the keywords compared to the other niches I've worked before. It must just be a higher competition/converting niche.

I was just curious :)
 
Rule #2: Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

Expensive keywords are expensive because they have been bid up by people who can afford to do so because their take per lead/sale is high enough to keep them in the black. Hence why we call it "bidding" on keywords.

If you look at an expensive keyword and wonder how anyone is making a profit bidding on it, one of many factors involved is the fact that the company paying you commission is making WAY more than you from each sale/lead. So they can afford to pay a premium. Again, that's only one factor (not getting into QS, account history, etc) but a valid one.
 
I wish Google would not only show you your average position for a keyword, but also show you how many ads are running on the first page.

I usually target the bottom of page 1 when first starting a new campaign, but when some keywords have more than the normal 8 ads that run on the right side it makes it almost impossible to know if I'm actually at the bottom or the middle when I have a shitload of keywords.

For example, most keywords only have up to 8 ads per page on the right side sponsored column, but some higher demand keywords show ads in the top positions above the natural results. So, there could be as many as 12 ads or so on page 1 sometimes. If I were targetting position 7-8 to get to the bottom of the first page, and some of the keywords had 2-4 top position ads running I'd actually be in positions 3-6 on the right side.

Does anyone know how to find out how many ads are running on the first page of results whitout manually going and checking for every keyword?
 
kjb1891 said:
Does anyone know how to find out how many ads are running on the first page of results whitout manually going and checking for every keyword?
Click to expand...

To find out if your ad is on the first page just click on the little keyword analysis button beside the keyword. If you are not on the first page it will say "although your ad is showing it is not ranked high enough to be on the first page blah blah blah" or use the ads diagnostic tool.

That's probably your best bet to figure out if you are there or not without checking manually. As for how many ads are on the page it could fluctuate so it's really not much help.
 
To increase CTR, i concentrate on the title of my Google ad. Ads get more impressions when they are clicked regularly (high Click Thru Rate). High price keywords do not mean higher conversions.
 
beejeebers' point is exactly why I like to use my noggin' (along with some grassroots research) to come up with keywords. Using tools is great for the initial ideas. But, with some creativity, you'll likely come up with some high-converting keywords that others miss (especially the newbies with budgets to burn).

And if you're tracking things down to the keyword, you can continue to find the less-competitive (and often, though not always cheap) stuff by extrapolating your high-ROI keywords.

beejeebers said:
They can also cost more because people bidding on them are new and don't understand how to find any cheap keywords... :)
Click to expand...
 
There are some high competitive keywords out there that are worth paying a lot. The campaigns that I've launched so far had a great conversion rate, at google at least. Anyway you must make sure all the time that your ROI is positive!
 
often more expensive keywords are broadband keywords, that happen to be less effective than long tail keywords.

example:

if Jay is looking for "LCD" maybe is just looking for info about the one he just bought, or maybe is just curious to see what's on the market.

if Jay is looking for "where to buy a Samsung 42" hd 1080p" maybe is really close to buy it and if you get that click you have excellent probabilities to get the sale...

got it?
 
If I have a campaign making money, whenever I raise my bids I end up losing money, then I have to lower the bids, but I want to be able to get more traffic and make more from the campaign. Although I end up getting more traffic, but the conversion rate reduces greatly and I end up losing.
 
ubaidabcd said:
If I have a campaign making money, whenever I raise my bids I end up losing money, then I have to lower the bids, but I want to be able to get more traffic and make more from the campaign. Although I end up getting more traffic, but the conversion rate reduces greatly and I end up losing.
Click to expand...

This is an issue that is best dealt with by tracking on a very granular level. The drop you're seeing in your conversion rate is probably being caused by a spike in traffic for one or more keywords that aren't converting. You probably weren't getting too much traffic for them before, but now that you are bidding higher, you are getting a bunch of traffic on these keywords and they will begin to present themselves as bad earners.

What you need to do is track everything on a keyword level so you can see which keywords are returning you a good ROI and raise bids on only those keywords that will actually make you more money if you get more traffic from them.

Sorry if this is incomprehensible, I'm tired and I feel like I'm rambling a bit. Hope this is of at least some use to someone.
 
beneth said:
This is an issue that is best dealt with by tracking on a very granular level. The drop you're seeing in your conversion rate is probably being caused by a spike in traffic for one or more keywords that aren't converting. You probably weren't getting too much traffic for them before, but now that you are bidding higher, you are getting a bunch of traffic on these keywords and they will begin to present themselves as bad earners.

What you need to do is track everything on a keyword level so you can see which keywords are returning you a good ROI and raise bids on only those keywords that will actually make you more money if you get more traffic from them.

Sorry if this is incomprehensible, I'm tired and I feel like I'm rambling a bit. Hope this is of at least some use to someone.
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying, when there isn't much traffic the keywords are on a different "level" of a conversion rate, compared to when they have a buncha traffic thrown at them. That makes sense.
 
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