McFilter

Thomas Wetzel runs Wisco, who make tools for Outlook and Adwords Reporter - a tool to help you analyze your Adwords account.

It's all about marketing.

He's not an Adwords guru, just a developer using AdWords to make money.

1st sale took 14 days

1000 licenses after 9 months

Not losing money with Adwords is the first goal. Remember that Google isn't working for you, you are working for Google.

The magic number is Click-through-rate (CTR).

Tools you need:

• Google Adwords account
• (Online) Adwords editor
• Web log analyzer software (Absolute Log Analyzer Pro)
• Set-up conversion tracking
• Analysis tool

...and...

• Your brain
• Time
• Ideas

Adword Tips

• Create a new campaign for each product
• Use descriptive names
• Divide Adsense from Adwords
• Create a group for Adsense and for Adwords
• Bid small amounts on Adsense

Choosing keywords

• Google offers a tool
• Make use of 'site-related' keywords, but for competitors sites
• Start with the most obvious keywords as a broad match
• Look at competing websites
• Two word phrases are ideal (or 3 word)
• Use negative keywords

Creating your Advert

• Describes benefit with a few words
• Use the user's language
• Again: look at competition for ideas
• Don't forget the 'call to action'
• Good landing page is important
• Use at least 3 different ads and use ad rotation - monitor which work

Choosing right budget

• Low amount on Adsense
• Choose cost-per-click (CPC) to land on position 2-4
• Or position #8 (or #16... depending on niche)
• Initially don't limit your dally budget (say $50/day) but check results daily

Track Your Results

• Use Google's tracking tool. Not ideal but okay.
• He doesn't like Google Analytics
• Track visitors through to purchase page if possible

Monitor and Improve

• Daily at 1st
• Analyse account - how often are ads shown; which keywords are better; etc.
• Analyse web logs

Improve your account - what to look at

• Most popular keywords
• How high is CTR
• What position do you get
• Conversions (although the Google tracking tool only tracks for 30d)

Improve your account - what to try

• Change keywords
• Bid for exact phrases
• Use phrase and exact match
• Delete ads with low CTR
• Create new ads with different content or wording. Even different punctuation

Possible tests

• Try ditching Adsense and just using Adwords
• Check CTR and cost-per-conversion
• Try specific phases and negative keywords

Click fraud

• Don't worry about click fraud
• But worry about view fraud - competitors trying to destroy your CTR by performing lots of searches but not clicking on your adverts so Google thinks your ads aren't any good. Look for spikes in your impressions without similar rises in click-throughs

Questions and Comments

Tony Wieser: Froogle is good and free.

Dave Collins: Microsoft AdCenter is horrible and not worth it at present.

Thomas doesn't are CPM, just CTR.

Use different campaigns for different counties so you can tailor the campaign for that locality.