Adwords Q&A: My ROI is not satisfactory Why?

November 30, 2007

1- My average CTR is 2%, it is not too bad and I can see progress whith fine tunning.

2- The Converstion rate is bad, only 0.5%

3- Here comes the most important point, the ROI is not satisfactory. My average order is only $30. My site design and products is acceptable (compared to big names). I may set a minimum order but my history shows that I will not have a good chance in that direction.

4- I only have 400 kerywords on my campagin. Mostly, set to 0.2 and 0.25.

What do you think by looking at these numbers? I only had 3000 visitors so far, is it too early to judge? Do I have a chance in CPC?

1- My average CTR is 2%, it is not too bad and I can see progress whith fine tunning.

You seem to think that is OK. What is the average position?

2- The Converstion rate is bad, only 0.5%
3- the ROI is not satisfactory.

OK. So you need 200 visitors to make a sale on average. You make only $30. Right now, to make a profit, your actual CPC should be below 15 cents. Not much room to manoeuvre.

My guess is one or all three of these things:

1. Not very targeted keywords thus spending money on clicks from keywords you shouldn’t be using.

2. Not a good ad or at least saying something in the ad but not on the page.

3. Not a good sales letter, at least, not as good as it should be.

My site design and products is acceptable

The message is what will sell, not what the site design is or even the product. If you can pursuade the visitor that he absolutely needs your product, you have a good chance of making the sale. The more you convince them, the better chance of making that sale. The flashiest site in the world will not sell if the message is wrong.

4- I only have 400 kerywords on my campagin. Mostly, set to 0.2 and 0.25.

I don’t know your niche but the number of keywords is irrelevant. Sometimes less is more. You need 400 very targeted keywords. Then again, maybe you only need 20.

CPC is irrelevant. CPC does not make the sale. You obviously, as I said above, are losing money.

What do you think by looking at these numbers?

Nice numbers. Don’t mean a thing as they are just numbers. I don’t know your product, your site, or anything about your campaign.

I only had 3000 visitors so far, is it too early to judge?

You should have applied analytics on your campaign long before 3000 visitors. I’d say you are very patient. Many people I know would have quit if there was no sales in the first 100.

In fact, I hope you have tried different ads and different sales letters. If not, I can tell you right now that the campaign is a failure. Time to try something else. You know the results you have with 3000 visitors. There is no reason to expect vastly different results for the next 3000.

Re-think your ads, your keywords and your sales letter.

Do I have a chance in CPC?

You might. You’ve got to test more as I said a few times before. You’ve got to take steps to improve. Set a goal. Learn.

If it still doesn’t work, then your product may just be one of those things that doesn’t sell well online.

Source: Webmasterworld