google adwords costs very high on campaign

[0ldfart]

Google adwords costs for the last 2 months:

July - $515
August - $404

I have max bid @ $2.50. I pay average of $1.30 per click. Daily budget is set at $15. Ads are regionalised, (only displayed in my State), and my ad wording is very specific about the area I provide service to. "Adelaide West Mobile PC Repairs"

Most of the queries I get are for the exact service I provide, although occasionally I get a random query about xbox, ipad, printer or other non-related repair. I assume these are because adwords has occasionally chosen unrelated placement. These sort of queries are quite rare though (one ever 2-3 weeks).

My core business is mobile PC repairs and laptop hardware repairs. This works out to about 30/70% split

I get about 3-4 calls per day from the average 12 clicks per day I get from adwords, which I figure is a good conversion rate.

Its a lot of money to pay for advertising though :/

Anyone care to comment?

 

[iptech]

Anyone care to comment?

Google have to justify to their investors their unfeasably high market valuation, customers like you help them do that.

 

[WDHIII]

Tweak area

You should chose a custom area to show ads, not the entire state. I show my ads in a 30 mile radius of my home. These are the the locations I will travel to. I don't want my ad showing up outside of my service area because someone may click on it, costing me $$!!

 

[trapped]

Are you doing all networks or just search? I tried the content network and it seemed like i was getting a lot of clicks, but not enough calls to justify it. Right now I am spending about $40 a week and I get 1-3 calls a day that I can say are from my AdWords campaigns. I just started a full time job so it is enough for me right now. I have my max CPC at $2.09. It seems to me that the higher your max CPC the more they are going to charge you.

 

[dmurphy315]

The use of "negative keyswords" in your campaign(s) helps keep costs down for for misc. terms/searches you don't need your ads displayed for.

I show my ads in a 30 mile radius of my home. These are the the locations I will travel to. I don't want my ad showing up outside of my service area because someone may click on it, costing me $$!!

same here, use a 20-30 mile radius


www.PCTechAugusta.com/

 

[WDHIII]

Negative keywords

I have read about negative keywords before, but do not understand how to apply them to 'our' business. What is an example of a negative keyword that I should be using?

Also, Oldtimer I do not show ads in the "content" network, just search. I really don't don't want my ad showing up on parked domains, etc.

 

[0ldfart]

I have changed the radius to 16km, which is the minimum allowable area, from where I live. Didnt realise it could be tuned that precisely, but this should make a difference I think

I have also changed it to only display on search results. I did not know you could specify what content it displayed on, so I think this should also help reduce irrelevant clicks.

Thanks very much for the responses, guys. I think this should make a big difference to the bill next month

You guys travel 30 miles? - are you in rural areas?

 

[maclaptech]

From what you are saying, you really need to read up on how to use Adwords. As I have always said, Adwords is a science and you need to master it.

If you just through money at it, you will go broke. I can't tell you in here how to use it because it would take pages and no time to do it. Get some good books and read some articles on it.

 

[dmurphy315]

I have read about negative keywords before, but do not understand how to apply them to 'our' business. What is an example of a negative keyword that I should be using?

you know about Googles keyword tool? if you don't, search and use it. to help find negative keyword that do not pertain to your area, or work,,,, search "computer repair" for example,, any term in there list that does not match to your business, repairs and work copy and paste a txt file, then add them to the negative keyword into the campaign.

Also use Google analytics to help find negative keyword terms. Use adwords reports to find how people found your site, which will show the keywords used.

i repair/replace laptop screens,, i don't repair any other type of screen, phone, tv, television, window porch screens, iphone, plasma etc.

it has happened, my adwords site was being shown, and a few have clicked on my "Laptop Screen Repair" ad for, even when the reports shown keyword used was "porch screen repair".... porch, door, "window screen" are now negative keywords just for example............ my add is not shown if any of those terms are in there search querry.

most of my adwords campaigns have 300+ negative keywords, computer repair campaign has i think 500.

i don't repair apple computers: apple, macbook, ibook, ipod, g4 ,, etc are all in my negative keyword lists for adwords. i am constantly monitoring the reports, querries, keyword tool etc and adding to that negative list.

i usually do not have laptops for sale, or rebuilt etc,, sometimes i do, but do not want to adwords for that:
rebuilt, refurbished, used, for sale,, etc are negative keywords also

auto, automobile, vehicle, car,, also are negative keywords, have found thru the reports and tools people searching for repairing/replacing the computer in there car to!

don't want my site being shown for services i can not provide,, also the higher the "site impressions", and no clicks effect your quality score with google. which effects your overrall cost, and positioning with adwords.

Also all my negative keywords ARE now "phrase" or [exact] match type, my list began using all "broad" match type, then realizing the negative broad search was knocking my site out from maybe relevent words, or searches to.

Soooooo, target your campaigns, fine tune the keywords, AND negative keywords only to what your REALLY do, or can do, and where.

Search Term: "how to repair computer" , "computer repair how to" , "do it your self computer repair", "computer repair schools", "free computer repair"
how to, do it yourself, schools, training, courses, certification, lessons, class, classes, free, , etc are all negative keywords for me

Not using "content network" here either, just search.




www.PcTechAugusta.com/