Ran my Google keyword report today like I do every other day or so, and noticed that they now tell you how far below the bid you are for estimated first page listing.
Here are some examples:
Medicare $23.00 first page bid estimate
Health Insurance $19.00 first page bid estimate
Health Insurance Quotes $14.00 first page bid estimate
Medical Insurance $18.00 first page bid estimate
Insurance Life Mortgage $13.00 first page bid estimate
Insurance Plans $23.00 first page bid estimate
I do both Google & Yahoo PPC.
For now, I only do them within 50 miles of my area.
Most of my bids are in the $3.00 to $4.00 range.
------------------------------------ Michigan Health Insurance Is my main site. Check out the links directory, more than 9875 helpful links and growing.
I also used google adwords for another business (service business) and got little or no results for it. I did better using a ad placement firm that got me first page every time and also recorded all calls coming in to my office for quality control.
Right and most of our leads come from Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., etc., The reality is those "exclusive" leads go to other sites and 99/100 other sites are lead companies anyhow (since they are the only ones that can compete on the high traffic keywords).
If anyone wants to play with PPC I recommend small budget and limited targeting (area or speciality).
I utilize a keyword list of more than 900 search phrases and growing, on my PPC ads.
While I do bid $3 to $4 a click, my average cost per click is $1.61, my lowest being 16 cents I believe.
I don't try to compete for the top 50 or so keywords, but every once in a while I will get a click off of them, when people drill down 5 to 10 pages deep in their search, and my ad catches their eye.
I specialize in long tail search phrases.
You would be amazed at the many different phrases people can use to type in their search on the internet, to find what they want.
One of the more different keyword phrases to date that resulted in a sale was: "A shopper's guide to healthcare insurance," that phrase was only used three times within my 50 mile radius, but it produced one click that produced one sale, and only cost me 38 cents.
I have some web sites that are in the top ten on Google & Yahoo for search phrases.
I bid accordingly on those search phrases as well, so when someone types in that particular phrase, not only am I sometimes number 1 or number 3, in the generic search results, but my Google & Yahoo ads, are also in the top spots.
That means on the that particular phrase, my web site is sometimes represented in 4 different locations on Google or Yahoo's first page of results.
So much more to factor in besides Top Listings. (Conversion is the Key)
1. Ask yourself this? What is your Bounce Rate?
2. Most Prospects will visit another site if they are not provided the (Instant Information) they requested. Especially when the Site Promised "Instant Quotes"
If you dont provide this, and have told the prospect you provide this, then yes, they are more than likely will go to other sites untill they get the results they were requesting. Especially when the Lead Vendor drives the prospect to the Lead Vendors Page with Links.
EXAMPLE
Requesting a quote, site promised Instant quotes, prospect fills out all information, Hits enter, then receives nothing? except taken to a new page to enter State Information again, then directed to another page with a huge listing of Health Insurance quote Lead Vendors with Links to thier lead page. Talk about a Scam!!! The Main Vendor has captured your information provides no rates or plans as promised and then sends the prospect to this lead vendor page?
No wonder this prospect will go to the other sites to get information, Sad part is the Lead Vendor or Owner of the Website has created this problem, Not by accident either!!!!! But at the expense of the Agent buying these type of leads.
Can you imagine going to expedia.com and requesting specific flight information and entering all your data, only to hit search and you get a "Thank You Page, or better yet directed to 50 more Flight companies to provide you rates?
To make matters worse? If these are PPC leads,(Very Low Conversion) which most are to generate volume, You have no idea of the Keyword Phrase they typed to locate this vendor, May not have even been in the market to buy, May have been just research, and with most PPC campaigns, they will pick the non-converting keywords or very cheap keywords to bid on, because of cost
Disaster
1. PPC Campaign(No Idea of keywords that drove the traffic)
2. Prospect fills out information, Lead Vendor Captures Data to use or sell "Does not deliver on Promise. "Instant Quotes or Instant Rates"
3. Directs Prospect to "New Page" with 50 Lead Vendors Listed. E-Health Top Listing
4. You buy lead at $8.00-$10.00 and you wonder why quality is horrible
Last edited by dmiller90 : 09-17-2008 at 08:48 AM.
Used pay per click to advertise for Flood Insurance in Texas. Really just ended up costing quite a bit of money. Actually wrote about 3 flood policies ($150 Commission) over 2 months. Spent about $400 on the campaign. Website is important as I learned you should have the quote page come up immediately after the click thru.
Used pay per click to advertise for Flood Insurance in Texas. Really just ended up costing quite a bit of money. Actually wrote about 3 flood policies ($150 Commission) over 2 months. Spent about $400 on the campaign. Website is important as I learned you should have the quote page come up immediately after the click thru.
JP
Most of your success or failure in PPC with be determined by the keywords you select to bid on.
I can see where you could spend a lot of money on the term "flood insurance."
The more descriptive you are with your keyword phrase, the more successful your campaign will be.
Perhaps "flood insurance quotes in texas" "flood insurance in galveston" and "flood insurance galveston texas," would have been less competitive terms to bid on?
All my PPC is with my state or city name in front of it.
That way I am able to stay under $4 and be on the 1st page. I have written a lot of business from my website and my ROI is high.
The lead selling portals have really taken over. My site is listed but then its surrounded by 7 sites that are selling leads.
I have been doing natural/organic SEO on my site for the last couple of years now. I shifted what I was spending on PPC to SEO. The results have been much better. Right now I am getting about 15-17 unique IP addresses a day.
I am still doing PPC but I only have about 6% of the people coming to my site from PPC.
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