Thread: Marketing with google Adwords

I am so proud - I found a new exciting way to market our festival with Randa Kamel. I have used it twice now and it really works wonderfully. This is not a marketing talk for google Adwords, I am just amazed how effective it is.
(sorry if you are more familiar with this than I, wanted to explain it for everybody)

Let me explain. You want more publicity for your event. In finnish people type "itämainen tanssi" to google when they want to search for belly dance events. If I want my event to pop up on so that people notice it, I use Adwords (click on google page on marketing). There I set that all people who type "itämainen tanssi" see my add on the RIGHT panel. I only pay for those who actually click the link on the right. You can choose up to 20 keywords
and optimize them.

With this, until now I have lost only about 7 euros, but I have got many many registrations and inquiries for the event. Of course, it is also part of the
her being so popular but as the customers also mention this ad I am so happy that I found it and want to share it with you, my dance sisters, too.

So go to google and type 'Randa Kamel' and see what happens on the right
side of the page.

..l;, ..l;, ..l;, ..l;, finally something which WORKS..l;, ..l;, ..l;,

I use google adwords to publicize my site -- using words like 'belly dance class' and 'bellydance lessons' (also yoga) and the names of the towns I serve. I get a lot of hits that way!

Looks good . . . I think you will now have to pay for another click thru to your site since I just went to check it out!! LOL.

I am actually not very happy about them. I have signed up about 3 weeks ago, set my budget for up to $150 / month. I was going to spend that much!! I saw there thousands of impressions (over 60 000 in a week or so) and a lot of clicks. But then when I checked through my webhoster how many visits were on my site (from all over, total) it was less than what Google was reporting. Which means it must be inaccurate. For example Google say there were 45 clicks that day to my website but my webhosting company says it's only 30? That makes no sense.
How do you really know if those many people clicked on your ad??
I sent Google an email describing the situation and asked for someone to get back to me. That was over 2 weeks ago! An automated email said "they get back to me within 24 hours or so" but after 3 days I sent them another email. A week after another one. In the meanwhile I paused my campaign, because I do not want to spend any more on something that could be a rip off and I receive no customer service at all.
Needless to say they still haven't responded.

I am very upset about this. I also advertize on Yahoo sponsored search, but I think people search more on Google. At least Yahoo gets back to me within 1-2 days, no matter what and they customer service is great.

Marianna

Oh, sorry to hear, I mainly celebrated because the results which I wanted (registrations) started to go up right after I started this thing and people mention this when they book - that actually made me write here.

The difference in statistics is another issue, normally the webhost statistics show more hits because they count also the robots action. So hopefully you compare the right things with each other.

Also I noticed that this is much easier for me, because "itämainen tanssi" is so unique language area if you compare something like "belly dance"
so I pay less. As you have a bigger budget you should really get more out of it. Hope they email you back soon.

I was happy at first because my ad kept showing up - I checked it all the time. I like all the advanced options, such as you can even set when you want your ad to appear. For example I blocked between 2 and 5 am, just in case some weirdo is looking for hot babes:))
Also you can set "negative keywords" (your ad won't be shown for these) such as stripper, nude dancer, nude belly dancer, etc. Your site might show up because it has "belly dancer" as a keyword. This way you won't be shown when you don't want to.

But these statistics look bad. From yahoo, the total would be when anyone gets to me from someone's site, when people type in my website, when someone has me bookmarked. I can see if someone gets to me from here, for example. So I know the total number of visits, and Google should be part of it. Google's visits should be smaller than my total visits, not the other way around.
I'm pretty sure there's an explanation (I would love to know wht) but the fact that they still haven't responded makes me mad. I already spent 50 bucks, and I feel like I was ripped off.
From a company as large as Google I would expect better customer service.

marianna
www.mariannabellydancer.com

Wow, Marianna, that sounds maddening! I've been told that the best way to track it is to give yourself a special entry URL to list ONLY with google adwords, then see how many visitors land on that page. Sounds like a good idea for testing!

Sometimes people get confused (and I know this isn't your situation, just mentioning it) because Google adwords show up on LOTS of sites that aren't Google sites. That's why it's such good advertising, because there are thousands of affiliate sites, so you show up on all sorts of related sites, not just in google searches. Scroll down, there's probably one at the bottom of your Bhuz screen right now.

If I clicked on it, it would show up as a link from Bhuz, not from Google.

Many, perhaps even most, of your Adwords hits are NOT going to show up as Google hits.

Initially I was happy with Google - but as more of you get in on the act we end up in a bidding war. Since I started - maybe 18 months ago - my pay per click has had to go up 900% just to stay in. So then the competition sees they have to racket up their PPC to stay in - and does - so then I do etc etc ,m::

Clever marketing on Googles' part but now I use it mostly at the start of a new term.

Lauren, the test you mentioned is a good idea. I guess I culd create another index page, similar to the main one and have Google hits visit that. Thank you!
I will do that as they respond to me with something, because now I m very grumpy and I am not budging :))

I have to look into what you said about the adwords. I know I have seen them separate, I saw how many times my ad showed up through searches,and how many showed up with Adwords on other sites. (almost 100 000 in a week!).
If the total number of clicks do not include hits through Adwords, those should show up that they came from those site directly (like Bhuz, you said)
But I haven't seen any unusual sources. With yahoo you can see exactly which website referred you. If someone bookmarks me as favorite or simply types in my site, it will show as "unknown" , other than that I see where they came from.
Either way I think the numbers just don't add up.

But thank you for the info, I will look into it!

Marianna

I also want to add, that when you click on a Google link from a site that has Google ads, like here, or any other site that you would want to support, that site gets moolah? So click google ads on bhuz if you want to support them. Although I guess conversely, be careful of random clicking because you don't want that advertiser to have to pay through the roof either!

Originally Posted by kashmir

Initially I was happy with Google - but as more of you get in on the act we end up in a bidding war. Since I started - maybe 18 months ago - my pay per click has had to go up 900% just to stay in. So then the competition sees they have to racket up their PPC to stay in - and does - so then I do etc etc ,m::

Clever marketing on Googles' part but now I use it mostly at the start of a new term.

No kidding. Personally, I just set my budget very low so I don't get any nasty surprises, and keep my keywords REALLY specific. I dont' need to come up every time somebody searches for 'belly dance,' only when they want MY town! And I can mostly count on Google to deliver that information -- through my own site and partypop -- so I'm not willing to pay for a lot.

The other great one is Google Local - and it's free! ,r:;

When you search on something with a town or area included in your search you get a list at the top with a map of the nearest local supplier plus a list of four or five other local firms. You can have a link through to your website and information about yourself, all of which shows up immediately.