Comments on: How I Wasted $6843 on Adwords http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/ Small Business Help, Coaching, Inspiration, and Practical Advice for Entrepreneurs Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:49:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Kelly Andrew Brown http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-690 Kelly Andrew Brown Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:25:10 +0000 http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-690 @Catherine - I agree it's just one piece of the puzzle in your marketing tool kit. @John - thanks for your kind words. Re: the research on the entrepreneur word and more details. Yeah, I think I will publish that out. I know this pieces was going on a bit long but will plan to put something on on that later this week. Thanks! @Catherine - I agree it’s just one piece of the puzzle in your marketing tool kit.

@John - thanks for your kind words. Re: the research on the entrepreneur word and more details. Yeah, I think I will publish that out. I know this pieces was going on a bit long but will plan to put something on on that later this week. Thanks!

]]> By: John Hoff http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-689 John Hoff Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:40:19 +0000 http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-689 Hello Kelly. Found you from Catherine's blog. I'm totally with you about focusing on your target customer/readers and not worrying as much about what Google thinks of you. I clicked over because I liked what you said and your website seems to be on the same page as mine (nice site, by the way). I'm subscribing to RSS now. About your post: Interesting post. Maybe the title could have read - How I Wasted $6843 on Adwords and here's what I learned . . . or something. That part where you said "Don’t PAY Money to Give Away a FREE Service" had me cracking up :). Well, yes, I'd say this is true ;). Definitely a good lesson there. Perhaps to recap some of the money you could have a donate button on your free site. Probably won't bring in a ton but who knows? Maybe say you'll donate 1/2 or so to charity. And about the landing page. You're right. If you're going to do an AdWords campaign you <em>really</em> need a LASER focused landing page. You have to answer immediately the questions in your visitor's mind: (what's in it for me? why here? why you? why this? why now?). If you don't answer those things right up front as soon as possible, their gone. I'm curious, which of the three test landing pages worked the best for you? Also, I was wondering if you would share the info you have on the term "entrepreneur?" If you check out my site I'm sure you'd understand why I'm interested :) Take care, John Hello Kelly. Found you from Catherine’s blog. I’m totally with you about focusing on your target customer/readers and not worrying as much about what Google thinks of you.

I clicked over because I liked what you said and your website seems to be on the same page as mine (nice site, by the way). I’m subscribing to RSS now.

About your post:

Interesting post. Maybe the title could have read - How I Wasted $6843 on Adwords and here’s what I learned

. . . or something.

That part where you said “Don’t PAY Money to Give Away a FREE Service” had me cracking up :). Well, yes, I’d say this is true ;). Definitely a good lesson there. Perhaps to recap some of the money you could have a donate button on your free site. Probably won’t bring in a ton but who knows? Maybe say you’ll donate 1/2 or so to charity.

And about the landing page. You’re right. If you’re going to do an AdWords campaign you really need a LASER focused landing page. You have to answer immediately the questions in your visitor’s mind: (what’s in it for me? why here? why you? why this? why now?).

If you don’t answer those things right up front as soon as possible, their gone.

I’m curious, which of the three test landing pages worked the best for you? Also, I was wondering if you would share the info you have on the term “entrepreneur?” If you check out my site I’m sure you’d understand why I’m interested :)

Take care,
John

]]> By: CatherineL http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-688 CatherineL Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:40:54 +0000 http://www.small-business-guru.com/how-i-wasted-6843-on-adwords/#comment-688 Hi Kelly - I'm sorry you lost so much on Adwords, but at least you learned something from it. I don't use Adwords all the time simply because I find it more complicated and a real pain to manage than actually doing SEO for organic traffic. But, I really did think it was going to be easy at first. The reality is, you need a targeted ad and sepeate landing page for each keyphrase so that you don't overpay for each click and it is a real pain to set those up. I was using it a lot for our plumbing site but competitors were just bidding keywords up to ridiculous amounts. In the end it was a whole heap easier to get organic traffic. But, I wouldn't rule out Adwords completely. I think it's fine as part of a marketing campaign, but it definitely isn't as straightforward as some people make it sound. Hi Kelly - I’m sorry you lost so much on Adwords, but at least you learned something from it.

I don’t use Adwords all the time simply because I find it more complicated and a real pain to manage than actually doing SEO for organic traffic. But, I really did think it was going to be easy at first.

The reality is, you need a targeted ad and sepeate landing page for each keyphrase so that you don’t overpay for each click and it is a real pain to set those up. I was using it a lot for our plumbing site but competitors were just bidding keywords up to ridiculous amounts.

In the end it was a whole heap easier to get organic traffic. But, I wouldn’t rule out Adwords completely. I think it’s fine as part of a marketing campaign, but it definitely isn’t as straightforward as some people make it sound.

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