CPA bidding advice needed please?

[smoki666]

Morning all!

I need help with my adwords budget (not a loan :-)), when I use the Google recommended CPA bid it eats my money whatever budget, (I spent £135 yesterday which is far too much.. I can keep topping it up as long as the sales keep coming in, but when i take my eyes off Google uses my budget fast.

My adwords account has been tweeked by a pro since Feb 12 with 722 conversions at 10.22%. I have now taken over and personalised the campaigns (I've read many books and have 5+ years adwords experience)

Anyhow here's the question;

Today Google suggests a MAX CPA of £9.75 and a target of £6.72. what prices do you suggest ? I've set daily ammount at £60.00

And which option should I choose in Ad rotation; Clicks,Conversions or rotate evenly?

My best ad has had 134 conversions.

I'm selling Tigi Bed Head & Redken hair care products. www.thehairroom.co.uk

Thank you

[Solvari]

I would use target CPA. This option gives AdWords more flexibility to generate conversions and it tries to keep the average CPA over a longer period below your target CPA. As target CPA you put a price that you are happy to pay for a conversion. (Don't lower the recommended bid too much)

Since your campaign's main goal is to drive conversions, I would choose the 'optimise for conversions'  Ad rotation option. After a while you can remove ads that have a low converison rate and add new ones, based on your best performing ads.

Good luck!

[smoki666]

Thank you for your reply Joram ten Ham.

Does the target CPA bid slowly get lower the more CPA is used over time?

I have over 250 campaigns and it eats my budget fast! Do you advise CPC which is so slow to convert or CPA which there isn't much ROI left? I still ahve to watch it like crazy.

Mark

[Solvari]

Hi Mark,

Your average CPA can get slightly lower as your conversion rate improves. When the campaign is running at your target CPA for a while you can try to lower your CPA bid a little.

Conversion optimizer only works on campaigns with at least 15 conversions over the last 30 days. It's a great tool to use for campaigns that already have a satisfying average CPA . For these campaigns the tool can save you a lot of work optimising and managing the campaign.

This new tool might help you control your budgets.
http://adwords.blogspot.ca/2012/09/new-adwords-budget-option-shared-budgets_17.html

[smoki666]

Hello again, thank you for that, I will try it..

I've had 305 conversions in the last 30 days, so my history for CPA should be very good?

Last question, how much lower than googles target CPA do you recommend lowering to, or should I leave it alone?

Best Regards
Mark

[Solvari]

If you had 3305 conversion on that campaign last month then Google definitely has enough data to use to optimise your campaign!

I wouldn't lower the recommended bid with more than 10%. If you can't afford losing some conversions I wouldn't lower it at all.

[RobertFisher]

Joram,

Excellent answers here. Thanks,

Robert

[EGOL]

Today Google suggests a MAX CPA of £9.75 and a target of £6.72. what prices do you suggest ? I've set daily ammount at £60.00  And which option should I choose in Ad rotation; Clicks,Conversions or rotate evenly?

If I was taking over a campaign like this....  I would...

1. take another shot at improving the quality score

2. drop the least effective ad and rotate the rest giving conversions the preference

3. write two more ads that might be superior to what's currently the best and in review their performance monthly

4. Google is guessing at your MAX CPA. ... the real answer depends upon your costs of filling a sale and your selling price (which can be tweaked)....   Your goal is to make a maximum profit per day.

========================

If you have not done so, consider reading. Advanced Google Adwords by Brad Geddes.   I have read it twice, and reread some parts of it many times.  Best book anywhere for adwords.

If you are spending major money on PPC then you must attend Brad's Adwords Seminars.  This is  two days of intense training for Adwords.  This is not a fluffy seminar.  The first morning covers the basics and then you get deep into spreadsheet math.  Adwords is not a word game, it is a math game.   This is not a seminar where you will sit, sip coffee, fart and go home an expert.  You are going to do lots of math that will require you to think VERY HARD.  But if you can learn what is being taught you will definitely make a lot more money and your competitors will be making a lot less.

[smoki666]

Hi EGOL,

Now that my friend is an answer! Thank you.

I have got my Brad Geddes book back out to read again, and I shall get rid of the lower quality words, again.... most of my words are 6 - 10? average of 7...

I have around 50 ads which I use, all paused, should i get rid of a few to improve quality?

How many ads should I have running at any one time? 2?

I'm burning money here! and making a lot of parcels! but ROI is too low.

Regards

Mark

[EGOL]

Quality scores of 7 to 10 are good.  Nice work!

When I write ads I start with about six.  I let them run until superior / inferior ads can be identified.  The number that I have running depends upon performance.  I might only have one good ad or I might have several.  However, I always have a new one in testing - unless I am really happy with results.

You might try tweaking the landing page to improve conversions.

I don't delete old ads, I keep them for reference although I don't know if that has any impact upon the performance of the campaign or ad group.

[smoki666]

Hi EGOL, thank you again.

Last question ( for today )

My ads, should i use the best conversions or CTR's?

Have a good week end.

Mark

[EGOL]

I use best cost for conversion by keyword.  But, I will run other ads if the volume is really low.

[smoki666]

Ta very much.