Google Ad Words... Expensive?!

Hi All

I'm hoping some experienced nopCommerce users might be able to give me a little advice on something not strictly related to the software...

I Finally got my site up and running using nopCommerce for the first time! http://www.famousteacompany.com

Anyway, I thought I'd try some Google Ad Words. Well, it certainly generates traffic - but I'm getting NO conversions, despite the budget draining FAST.

It certainly doesn't seem to be a targeting issue as I've checked the search keywords and phrases and it's hard to see what someone else might need other than what I'm offering. I also have negative keywords to reduce irrelevant clicks where possible.

Has anyone been down this expensive path before me that may have discovered some DO's and DON'Ts about Google Ad Words?

I would appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks everyone

heliNet wrote:

My two cents:
You have visitors but no conversions. Maybe the problem lays not in Ad Words but in the store itself. You have a great site, weell designed, excellent picures, deep contents, etc. etc. I see so far some problems:
- Many of your products do not have the buy button (I guess out of stock) . This gives a bad impression /frustration to the custommer. This is a sever handicap for you
- Sometimes your category descriptions are so long that do not let the visitor see the products, which are the main thing you want to show.

Make sure the text in your ads says exactly what the visitor might get by clicking: BUY TEA and nothing like get information about teas (which your site does have in dept). Invest a lot of time trying to optimize the content and messages in your adds.

Have you experimented  to focus just to Australia, for instance,and see if you get a higher conversion ratio? Are your prices competitive? What are your competitive weaknesses and advantages against your cometitors (internet and real world)?

Maybe I can help more if you give me some basic montly statistics such as:
- Number of visits and %  coming from organic search, Ad Words and others
- Search words: do they include words such as "information" o more as "buy", "purchase", "sale"
-% conversion rate (above 1% is good)

eadameg wrote:

Hi Eduardo

Thanks for your feedback and kind remarks. I was wondering if the design was ok.

a) I take your point about the Buy buttons missing - I was wondering whether I should show out of stock products to show a wider range. I guess it's probably best if I un-publish them for now and re-publish when I get the stock.

b) What do you think a visitor would prefer:

     1) A shorter category description with a link to more info? (I was thinking about using Tabs to do this (although I'm not sure how easy that would be in nopCommerce)

     2) A link at the top of the description to jump to the product lists

My keywords are about Buying Tea Online etc. Nothing about info at this point. In the site, I'm trying to give people a little more information about Tea, how best to brew the tea, the health benefits etc. Do you think this might be backfiring a bit?

Currently, I'm focusing on Australia only and I can see from Google Analytics  that this is where Clicking is coming from. One of the clicks cost me $4.50! The stats seem very uniform too, as if someone is deliberately racking up my budget!

My hits are mostly from search, currently 75%. 25% Direct traffic.

Currently, conversion is 0%. My prices are definitely competitive compared to other big and small suppliers but it concerns me that the cost per conversion could go sky high - which will mean I will have to bid significantly less for keywords - which I'm sure my competition would prefer!

I appreciate your input. This is my first store so I'm trying to plug any big holes that I am missing.

Thanks

Thanks for your feedback and kind remarks. I was wondering if the design was ok.

a) I take your point about the Buy buttons missing - I was wondering whether I should show out of stock products to show a wider range. I guess it's probably best if I un-publish them for now and re-publish when I get the stock.
I agree it could be better tu unpublish them


b) What do you think a visitor would prefer:
Igo for  1)

    My keywords are about Buying Tea Online etc. Nothing about info at this point. In the site, I'm trying to give people a little more information about Tea, how best to brew the tea, the health benefits etc. Do you think this might be backfiring a bit?
I think information is allways very good to attract traffic, but be carefull that it does not hide your products

Currently, I'm focusing on Australia only and I can see from Google Analytics  that this is where Clicking is coming from. One of the clicks cost me $4.50! The stats seem very uniform too, as if someone is deliberately racking up my budget!
I cannot belive US $4.5 for a click!!! It should not be more than US $0.45 per click, or even less. Something must be wrong or there is much competition for the same search phrases/words that you have in your ads. You can check that by making searches with your words and checking if there are many sponored ads (right column or on top of organic (non paid/sponsored) search results. I made some checks myself (using google.au) and only saw one sponsored ad from www.eumuntea.com.au. You may try to put a limit of US $0.45 in your bid for clicks and see if you get any click from Ad Words.


My hits are mostly from search, currently 75%. 25% Direct traffic.
How many from those 75% are from AW (Ad Words) and how many from organic (non paid) searches?

Currently, conversion is 0%. My prices are definitely competitive compared to other big and small suppliers but it concerns me that the cost per conversion could go sky high - which will mean I will have to bid significantly less for keywords - which I'm sure my competition would prefer!
0% is very unprobable. Something must be wrong in your site. I have not checked yet if there are any other obstacles for buying in your site, like technical problems, costly delivery, wrong or unpopular payment options, etc. Do you get any sales, mails, comments ?

I appreciate your input. This is my first store so I'm trying to plug any big holes that I am missing.
Welcome. I hope this is of any help.

eadameg wrote:

I just made a shopping trial and got the following error, so I could not continue the shopping process!!!

Select Shipping Method:
Shipping options could not be loaded

You must fully test your site before publishing it, otherwise you will be waisting your money! If  a visitor encounters problems in your site it will 10 times more difficult/expensive to get him back.

HI Eduardo

That's worrying.

I can't reproduce those errors.

Could you give me a little more detail?

What Browser? I've tried IE and FF.

Was it a Mexican address? I'll try that, if I can.

Thanks

P.S. I can see the 2 errors logged on nopCommerce, this is the first time it has happened... so, it's good to find it now... just need to find the cause!

heliNet wrote:
Hi heliNet:
When ever I reach Select the shipping method I get the same error. Today for the 3rd time. Try it using my account impersonating me. Tests using IE 8 from Mexican IP.

Now I see that you have many empty categories, with just the Gift Certificate. It is URGENT to correct this or close the site.

Hi Eduardo

Thanks for the heads up. I've been going through all categories and products to 'un-publish' all the products not in stock.

The reason you were getting the error in Shipping, is that you were using "test" for the post code. I entered a valid post code and it worked no problem.

I changed your password to ed, btw.

I also noticed an entry in the Log to do with emailing - did you have trouble there?

heliNet wrote:

Hi heliNet:
1) I saw the changes and hope it will help for conversions.

2) I just finished a purchase using a fake credit card number, but then I made another trial, using the same australian address, same post code and got the same error again. I tried a mexican address with a valid postal code and got same error :(.

3) I had troubles to loging-in so I requested my password but never got the mail