Google Adwords Click thru ratios?

[Devman]

Hello guys,

I just signed up with Google Adwords for my screensaver. I am advertising on the keywords space screensaver but so far have about 75 impressions with zero click thrus (technically one click thru but that was me testing it out!)

So I was wondering for those of you that use Google Adwords, what is a good click thru ratio for you?

This is what my ad looks like:

Space Screensaver
Planetoids orbit black holes and
fill the screen! Free download.
www.heroicvirtuecreations.com

Any suggestions?

[anothersomething]

What keywords are you targetting?

[Devman]

All my keywords are broad matches (so they don't have to type in the exact phrase or put quotes around it or anything).

I have three campaigns:

1.
Keywords:
space screensaver
space screen saver

Ad:
Space Screensaver
Planetoids orbit black holes and
fill the screen! Free download.
www.heroicvirtuecreations.com

2.
Keywords:
physics screensaver

Ad:
Cool Physics Screensaver
Planetoids collide with each other
and black holes! Free download.
www.heroicvirtuecreations.com

3.
Keywords:
black hole screensaver

Ad:
Black Holes Screensaver
Balls whiz by black holes and fill
the screen! Free and quick download
www.heroicvirtuecreations.com


So far the black hole one has 0 impressions (not a popular search I guess), the physics screensaver has had 1 impressions, 0 clicks, and the space screensaver one has had 75 impressions, 1 click (which was me clicking it).

Any help or ideas are appreciated! Thanks,

[anothersomething]

The keywords you are going for aren't exactly popular.

According to overture:


Searches done in August 2004
Count Search Term
777844 screensaver
357705 free screensaver
203019 popular screensaver
23941 matrix screensaver
17453 ringtone screensaver
15615 3d screensaver
13936 screensaver downloads
13696 wallpaper screensaver
12573 free screensaver downloads
12291 aquarium screensaver
9820 nude screensaver
8898 free screensaver and wallpaper
8699 download free screensaver
8163 free 3d screensaver
7404 movie screensaver
7273 adult screensaver
7256 animated screensaver
7068 free animated screensaver
6915 sexy screensaver
6470 disney screensaver
6449 anime screensaver
6359 fish screensaver
5071 christian screensaver
4798 spongebob screensaver
4715 celebrity screensaver
4511 bikini screensaver
4413 free nude screensaver
4371 cool screensaver
4257 waterfall screensaver
3648 cell phone screensaver
3604 free aquarium screensaver
3601 inuyasha screensaver
3538 sprint pcs screensaver
3464 dolphin screensaver
3362 cat screensaver
3164 porn screensaver
3054 screensaver maker
3034 screensaver heaven
2945 screensaver software
2769 cartoon screensaver
2755 desktop screensaver
2724 nascar screensaver
2707 screensaver com
2681 finding nemo screensaver
2621 free cell phone screensaver
2620 flash screensaver
2587 clock screensaver
2463 funny screensaver
2375 spider man screensaver
2356 mac screensaver
2277 matrix code screensaver
2264 harry potter screensaver
2211 halloween screensaver
2176 christmas screensaver
2169 free adult screensaver
2165 screensaver and background
2105 hello kitty screensaver
2056 music screensaver
2031 usher screensaver
1947 free christian screensaver
1941 dallas cowboys screensaver
1863 hot screensaver
1806 girl screensaver
1805 simpsons screensaver
1779 family guy screensaver
1772 xxx screensaver
1764 south park screensaver
1738 nfl screensaver
1727 horse screensaver
1689 free dolphin screensaver
1675 dog screensaver
1642 sports screensaver
1617 slide show screensaver
1604 lord of the ring screensaver
1590 animal screensaver
1571 winnie the pooh screensaver
1503 sex screensaver
1500 babe screensaver
1487 star trek screensaver
1486 nature screensaver
1480 free sexy screensaver
1465 golf screensaver
1457 window xp screensaver
1432 shrek screensaver
1423 dancing baby screensaver
1406 beach screensaver
1373 free fish screensaver
1348 naked screensaver
1333 care bear screensaver
1322 free screensaver and background
1313 star war screensaver
1309 harley davidson screensaver
1305 dragon screensaver
1280 xp screensaver
1273 after dark screensaver
1271 football screensaver
1255 free phone screensaver
1255 microsoft screensaver
1253 make your own screensaver
1239 yugioh screensaver


What I've always wondered is why people want porn on their PC when they aren't using it... lol

You can check out their keyword tool yourself: inventory.overture.com

I got a 4.5% CTR on about 5000 impressions. But my advert said "Free Game Downloads" - I was only targetting "download free games", "free game downloads", and "free games download".

My max cpc was at 0.05 and my average position was 5th.


When you target something so specific, I wouldn't expect good results at all. Probably a ctr of less than 1%.

[Devman]

The keywords you are going for aren't exactly popular.
When you target something so specific, I wouldn't expect good results at all. Probably a ctr of less than 1%.

Thanks for the advice, anothersomething. I will investigate the overture link. I am confused about your last advice, however. I thought it was *best* to target specific keywords, that way you get people who click on your ad who are looking for the exact thing, in this case a space/black hole screensaver. Can you elaborate on why you think that it is best not to target specific words?

Thanks for your help! I am a true newbie at this.

[terin]

Anothersomething has a strange approach:

The "better" the target (more specific the keywords) the higher your CTR should be.

Highly searched "Broad" matches tend to have a LOT of impressions and a low CTR...

Worse yet, because a lot of impressions mean a lot of clicks (even at low CTRs) the target being less accurate means you get less valuable traffic for your money.

I have no idea why download free games would get you 4.5%....

-Joe

[Devman]

@Terin

Yeah, my ratio right now is about 0.5% CTR. I don't know if that is good or bad. It doesn't seem very high to me! With about 400 impressions, it means I have only gotten about 2 clicks.

I just added a new campaign targeting the keywords
after dark screensaver

since my screensaver was inspired by the old After Dark Marbles or Balls screensaver. I have about 1.6% CTR on this campaign right now, but with only about 70 impressions there is not enough data for it to be accurate yet.

Peace!

[terin]

If you could get .5% on ALL your advertising for all eternity... you'd be in pretty good shape :-)

.5% is the minimum for google before they pull your ad though, so keep a close eye on it.

[Sillysoft]

My narrowly targeted ads mostly have CTRs between 1% and 3%. I have also been trying out some less-specifically targeted ads and they have lower CTRs of 1.5% and down (some have been disabled).

This is after playing around with keywords and ad text for a while. It is hard to accurately judge how well you are doing till you have a significant number of impressions.

[anothersomething]

Thanks for the advice, anothersomething. I will investigate the overture link. I am confused about your last advice, however. I thought it was *best* to target specific keywords, that way you get people who click on your ad who are looking for the exact thing, in this case a space/black hole screensaver. Can you elaborate on why you think that it is best not to target specific words?

Thanks for your help! I am a true newbie at this.

No problem. The best thing to do is target specific keywords.. but when they only get 1k searches every month, you'll never make any money. It's better to have a .1% conversion rate (not on the downloads - on total visitors) on a $20 prodcut and pay 5000$ for 100000 visitors ($20,000 - $5000 advertising = $15k) than to have a 20% (yeah right) conversion rate on 100 visitors.

The best thing to do though is get a bigger selection of screen savers. That way, you can either have a lot of very targeted traffic, or a lot of generic visits from people that want screen savers. And since you have every screen saver type on the planet, these people should download anyway.


Terin:

My advert didn't say "download free puzzle game" or "freeware breakout game". It just said something like "Great free game downloads. Only full version legal games are listed".

However, I'm anything but an expert at this. I think the best thing to do would be to hack into the mind of the advertising manager at RealArcade.

edit: Did Terin by any chance run for VP in the USA in 2000?

[mathgenius]

This is what my ad looks like:

Space Screensaver
Planetoids orbit black holes and
fill the screen! Free download.
www.heroicvirtuecreations.com

This is too hard to understand. When I first read it, I looked at it for about half a second, and read "Space Screensaver Planetoids orbit" and some giberish URL at the bottom. At least get rid of planetoids, no one could work out what that is in half a second. I would change it to "planets orbit black holes"; now that sounds cool.

Simon.

[terin]

An ironic name for the game industry isn't it? Oh well

I think your high % had more to do with the content than it did with the keywords.

Full version free games? That is a great way to get clicks: For any of my clients it would be false advertising (which is not illegal in this case... or at least cant be tried in court, but the problem would be your conversion would be zero when the person realized there was no free full version games.

You dont have to hack anyone's mind to figure out google advertising. Its the combination of two factors: Common sense and trial and error.

[Devman]

Wow, thanks for the feedback guys!

@mathgenius
I agree with you about the "planetoids" being hard to grep quickly, so I changed it to planets like you suggested, although really my screensaver just has balls that bounce around (people can use their imagination!), though they DO swirl around black holes.

@another
I understand what you mean now about pure numbers of visitors. I may target some broad keywords just to generate visitors. I also think you're right about needing more screensavers for people to download.

Now my question for you guys: Did you try out my screensaver? If not, give it a go! I bet you'll like it (all my fellow geek friends at work have :)

Peace to you!

[anothersomething]

Full version free games? That is a great way to get clicks: For any of my clients it would be false advertising (which is not illegal in this case... or at least cant be tried in court, but the problem would be your conversion would be zero when the person realized there was no free full version games.


Well... offer full version free games. You don't need to be selling anything, you can make enough off advertising.