AdWords has a recommended budget for your campaigns. Should you spend more, less, or follow their advice?

I found that I really get the best results when I set my daily budget to 150% of their recommendation. (So, if they recommend $200, then I set it to $300).

This get’s me not only more clicks, but also sometimes can lower the CPC.

One possible reason for that might be that some competitors run out of budget at some point – at which there is less competition for that keyword, thus the ad price drops temporarily. But that’s just a guess

David recently made the point that lower AdWords positions can actually increase your conversion rate.

How much should you bid for a click? That’s what is being answered on AdWordsBuzz.com – not in much detail, but as a general, “strategic” overview.

A.M. Khan is a well-known AdWords expert in the internet marketing field. He’s now offering to manage your campaigns for $399/month and a one-time $999 setup fee, which is actually really cheap if he does a good job. Read more…

Many of the AdWords accounts that I take over display the same ads for the content network, that they display for the search network.

And it’s always the same thing: the content network is wasted traffic. They just don’t buy. (At least when we’re talking high-priced items).

So, is the content network just a way to throw money into Google’s deep pockets without getting anything in return?

No. You can get cheap and money-making traffic from the content network IF you understand that there is a difference in the quality of the visitors.

Someone who found you via search is someone who is actively searching for what it is that you have to offer. Many times, they are ready to spend money.

But someone who found you via the content network is someone who was doing something else, and then got interrupted by your ad and was curious to find out more. But there was no deliberate attempt, no previous decision like “i want to know more about ___”.

And it’s very hard to make these people spend big money. But what you can do is – you can get them to opt in. And then build a relationship with them via follow-up email. This is a great way to build a list, because the content network is a whole lot cheaper than the search network.

Dreamhost is offering $25-$75 for AdWords to all it’s customers – not just the new ones, but also the existing ones. You must have a US or Canada billing address, and must NOT be a current AdWords customer.

I myself have been using Dreamhost in the past, because it is actually a heck of a hosting company in terms of value for money EXCEPT FOR ONE THING: the reliability. Sites are down way more often than at other companies, and in terms of security, they are not top of the line either. But if you are new and just getting your feet wet, Dreamhost is a good way to get started, because it truely is a no-limits account for just a couple of bucks.

Google recently published this video that shares some basic tips for writing ads, basically:

• Capitalize the words in your AdWords ads for higher CTRs
• Use specific wording
• don’t make your homepage your landing page for a specific keyword, but send them directly to the site where they can find what they searched for
• offer a discount or other incentive
• insert a call to action

Nowadays there is a lot less click-fraud around than it used to be, specially with Google.

But that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent. If you want to educate yourself on the subject, read How To Detect and Protect PPC Click Fraud and Make More Money From PPC Marketing.

According to ClickForensics, the industry average in PPC ads is: a 12.7% click-fraud rate. That means out of 100 clicks, almost 13 are click-fraud tricks. This is NOT the Google data, but PPC data, Google is a lot better than the average, but it still makes a point: lots of wasted clicks.

I often get taken in to optimize existing campaigns by people who make enough money with their business so they can afford losing a lot on marketing without getting any results.

Oftentimes, these people just read a magaazine article or heard that Google AdWords is a much better way of marketing and then they set up their campaigns.

And they don’t have a clue about what it is they’re doing. It shows….

one thing: ALWAYS (without exception) separate your search network campaigns from your content network campaigns. It takes two completely different kinds of strategies to succeed in both of them, and it’s just silly to put the two in one campaign.

(I realize that’s Google’s default setting, and I have no idea why that is. Maybe they want to see if you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own?)

Here’s some further reading for you:

• Separate your Google AdWords search advertising and contextual advertising
• Create Separate Content Campaigns
• Separate Your Content & Search Campaigns

Google’s changed it’s rules again a bit. This time it’s disallowing the use of multiple display domains within the same ad group.

You can still use multiple domains, but they have to be in different ad groups then.

Not a major, but a minor ouch – split testing display URLs has been important part of optimizing CTR & conversions, and conveniently simple within the same ad group previously.