Google Adwords

Google Adwords have produced some good results in my experience, and I would recommend Google for both UK and US markets. We have been able to generate click-through rates of around 1-2% with a relatively high conversion rate from click-through to registration of around 15%, targeted solely at the UK market. This has given us an acquisition cost of around $7 per user, which is well below the industry standard. However, out of those registered users, approxiamately only 35% are now regular users, that results in a $20 acquisition cost per regular user. This stat however is influenced by many other factor.

The problems we have encountered thus far with Google are:
1. The number of Google searches performed daily in the UK for very targeted keywords is pretty low in comparison to the states. Although the UK is a far smaller market, we have found the number of searches to be lower than expected, as the estimates given are for global/US searches. Using well targeted keywords along with text advertisements which show a clear corollation to the keyword search on, has definately resulted in substantially higher click-through rates, but a much lower number of searches daily.
2. Acquisition costs seem to be climing slowly over the last 2 months. This could be due to a number of factors though including familiarity with the advertisement, freshness of the Adword concept is become less so, market saturation etc.

In regards to changing text, we did try creating a number of ads, and we definatley noticed a difference in click-through rates. Although we were not using huge numbers of click-throughs as a sample, the stats could have been slightly distorted. However, we found that a very concise offering in the limited space that is available, that correlates clearly with the keyword searched on helps. Also, remember to use the negative words when choosing keywords i.e. if you are trying to attract an audience interested in orange the mobile operator, a good idea would be to exclude any searches which contain "orange" and also contain "juice".

Another option to look at is goto.com. They have recently arranged deals with some of the large ISPs and Search Engines, and offer a bidding system. You pay only for the number of click-throughs which is a model that appeals to many marketeer and advertiser. I haven't personally tried the service, but did discover that there are still lots of targeted keywords that are currently not part of the bid race for the top position. This would allow you to place advertisements at a cheap price for a very targeted campaign. Much like Google, the adverts appear as text advertisements, but offer a bit more space for descriptions etc.

Hope this helps.
Matt
www.thincdigital.co.uk

hi Rob

Thanks very much for this (and the plug!).

You're absolutely right, effectiveness is everything at the end of the day. And your posting proves that they do work, and have already paid for themselves in effect.

I'd be interested to see how other people got on, as I suspect as Matt says, keywords are crucial too.

Anyway, everyone, we're proof that the pudding works!

Best wishes
Charon
www.media.co.uk