Google Adwords Took Me To The Cleaners

[abidams 0]

Like a sheep led to the slaughter, I believed all the hype about people making hundreds...in some cases thousands of dollars a day doing affiliate marketing using the Google Adwords system. What they didn't tell me is how complicated the whole thing can be.After spending a small fortune joining a number of membership sites and investing in the adwords program. I watched helplessly as my account failed to shift off the zero mark.If you are planning on going the affiliate marketing way, I'll advise you learn from my mistakes and not just believe when they tell you it can be done within 45 minutes. I know a lot of people are making good money with the Adwords program, but I also know that the learning curve is rather long and winding.Don't make the mistakes I made. You have been warned! lol

[Ouroboros 0]

Like a sheep led to the slaughter, I believed all the hype about people making hundreds...in some cases thousands of dollars a day doing affiliate marketing using the Google Adwords system. What they didn't tell me is how complicated the whole thing can be.After spending a small fortune joining a number of membership sites and investing in the adwords program. I watched helplessly as my account failed to shift off the zero mark.
If you are planning on going the affiliate marketing way, I'll advise you learn from my mistakes and not just believe when they tell you it can be done within 45 minutes. I know a lot of people are making good money with the Adwords program, but I also know that the learning curve is rather long and winding.
Don't make the mistakes I made. You have been warned! lol

Google adwords is at best a tool for those with fully developed websites with a strong product that has already been tested by SEO optimization and a host of other promotional techniques.

For someone unfamiliar with the system, the adsense program makes a lot more 'sense'

You apparently were a victim of unrealistic expectations, would you care to tell us about your experience?

[abidams 0]

Google adwords is at best a tool for those with fully developed websites with a strong product that has already been tested by SEO optimization and a host of other promotional techniques.
For someone unfamiliar with the system, the adsense program makes a lot more 'sense'

You apparently were a victim of unrealistic expectations, would you care to tell us about your experience?

Sure. This is what i did. I simply went to clickbank, pick a few products I thought would sell, got key phrases as provided by the owners of such products, and I just took all that and applied to create the adwords campaign. I lost all my money and didn't sell a single item. Don't get me wrong, I know I was the foolhardy one here. The Adwords program is probably good for those who take the time to do it right. I have been running adsense on my website for a long time and I have been satisfied with the income I get from that. I just thought I could make a kill with adwords. But guess who got killed?

[Ouroboros 0]

Sure. This is what i did. I simply went to clickbank, pick a few products I thought would sell, got key phrases as provided by the owners of such products, and I just took all that and applied to create the adwords campaign. I lost all my money and didn't sell a single item. Don't get me wrong, I know I was the foolhardy one here. The Adwords program is probably good for those who take the time to do it right. I have been running adsense on my website for a long time and I have been satisfied with the income I get from that. I just thought I could make a kill with adwords. But guess who got killed?

Clickbank is touted by many as a way to make a lot of money online. My experience has been that by the time they add in a commission that would allow you to make a profit by advertising their products, the e-books or whatever are so over priced that no-one will buy them.

Some of the clickbank products are priced reasonably and might be ok to advertise as an affiliate, but these are very few and require a lot of research to find and then promote.

No offense, and I don't know which products you chose to promote, but clickbank is not the fortune making 'do all and end all' that it is promoted to be.

I went to the clickbank site that came up highest in the google search and found that clickbank itself has not been updated for ages. The actual site that I found that had all the current clickbank offers on it was on page two or three of a search for 'clickbank'

That in itself should tell you something!

[anwiii 17]

you weren't a sheep lead to slaughter. you were a sheep that was trained to stay in one place for good reasons and decided to stray on your own.

google adwords is not easy to master. first, even if you recieve a $50-$100 credit when you join, that is still not enough for an effective ad campaign. you will need at least $1000. then, you need to target the best keywords. the best keywords wont be the ones advertised by your affiliate program since there will be many competing for them. best keywords are actually key phrases that are very targeted that may get 10 clicks a day or so. it may not seem like alot, but those keywords are VERY targeted and less competition so if your website is built on making a sale, if you have a 20%+ conversion(which you should have if your using very targeted methods), then that's 2 sales a day off one keyword or phrase.

now the problem with beginners is they will choose the most obvious keywords which will be clicked on 100+ times a day and eat your adsense account literally over night if you don't set a limit per day.

but even when you have your keyword and enough money for a proper ad campaign, you still need to write your ad effectively. this is where you REALLY need to target your visitors so that you don't attract lookie loos that will eat up your ad campaign money.

the mindset i like to guide people in when setting up a google adwords account is to think small. just try to set up a system that creates only 1 sale a day with the least investment possible. the people who have the right mindset(with little to invest) may not make a sale for the first couple days. GOOD! think small at first. that way you have enough money left for change. keep changing your ad wordage until you make that one sale. then duplicate it trying to reduce your previous costs for that one sale. once your happy with your profit, target another keyword and set up another ad. the goal making two sales a day now. then grow from there.

if you have even a 1% sales ratio to your clicks and each click is .10, then you will have to spend $10 before you even make 1 sale which means you will have to sell a product for $20 just to make $10 profit(not including your time). if you are selling an affiliate product that you get 50% commison on, then out of 100 clicks where you make that sale, that commsional product or service needs to sell for $40 just to make $10 (40-50%-10)= profit.

now, sometimes, your google adwords campaign is perfect, but you don't make any sales. that would be the fault of the website they visit. when you are paying for people to visit your website, you better make sure it's sellable and can create the sales you need. it has to be user friendly and easy to get around. it will have to be pleasing to the eye and you will have to capture their email somehow.

most people wont buy on the first visit. this is a FACT. that's why you can either trust that they will return to YOUR website and not a competitors, or you can capture their email address and start another advertising campaign through email. most people will visit a site at least 5 times before they buy from them. during this time, you want to keep them coming back and keep emailing them with who you are. you want to basically be building your reputation and credibility and portray yourself as professional.

there is alot that goes in to effective marketing. much much more than i can ever write here. this is some of the basics though and the basics are complicated. so do your proper research before you jump in. be business smart and very creative. nobody succeeds online without being creative. you also need to be able to take a risk. unfortunately, like you who got burnt because you didn't know how to effectively market yourself and product/service, you will be less likely to take a risk in the future. people who give up never succeed in anything. that's why that saying "if at first you don't succeed, try....try again" is so true. a saying we learned as children a long long time ago and a concept most forget when older and not wiser.

if it makes ya feel any better, most people fail in their adwords campaign the first time around. if you try again, then i suggest spending a week doing research and preplanning everything. chalk it up as a learning experience that most people go through so you don't make the same mistakes the next time.

there are some GREAT free ebooks out there and marketing articles related to google adwords campaigns. but don't just concentrate on the campaign, concentrate how your website will effectively make a sale as well along with your email campaigns. if you think it's alot to think about, you're right! it is! but well worth it in the long run. unfortunately most people think short run and fail.

Like a sheep led to the slaughter, I believed all the hype about people making hundreds...in some cases thousands of dollars a day doing affiliate marketing using the

[abidams 0]

you weren't a sheep lead to slaughter. you were a sheep that was trained to stay in one place for good reasons and decided to stray on your own.
google adwords is not easy to master. first, even if you recieve a $50-$100 credit when you join, that is still not enough for an effective ad campaign. you will need at least $1000. if you think it's alot to think about, you're right! it is! but well worth it in the long run. unfortunately most people think short run and fail.

If all you just told me is right, then I am more convinced than before that I was misled by those I paid to guide me in Adwords. This is not about blaming anybody but me though, I know the way such things work on the internet. If you are not looking out for yourself, you get into trouble.

I invested close to $1000 in several campaigns, got quite a lot of clicks in so short a time. In one campaign, I had hundreds of clicks in the space of a few hours, and yet no sale. Now I know what I did wrong - wrong keyphrases, overbidded on keyphrases, too eager to make quick returns etc.

I shall be trying my hands there again,i.e. after doing more research and getting a better grasp of how it works. But more importantly, I'll be taking my time because those folks who were clicking my ads and not making any purchases should have known they were literally clicking the shirt off my back. lol
Edited December 23, 2007 by abidams (see edit history)

[megawebs 0]

Take heart. I agree Google Adwords is quite involving. Key word research. Bidding on low volume keywords. Your budget being eaten up and yet you are not making sales. I know what it's like. I have felt helpless before. Try out this exciting opportunity that really pays well.

 

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[simonnielsen 0]

I also have Google Adsense on my website, its work. Google is a very big and ussefyl site, your i am sure of the safe at google adsense. (sorry the bad english)

[iGuest 3]

1,000.$ on advertising????? what?!Google Adwords Took Me To The Cleaners

We just had to join in here.  Our friends (a couple) use google adsense and such with their blog, and they get decent money from simply updating their blog with their stories and key words/links.  They spent all of 8. Bucks on their blog page and that is it.  They get paid through paypal and another account.

-reply by erik