Help with google/search engine advertising!

[jamescheema]

First of all, hello to everyone on the forums!

I'm currently using the actinic catalog trial and am contemplating buying it to launch my online clothing shop. I'v been playing around with alot of the features and am in the process of sorting out a payment system (PROTX, does everyone recomend this service?).

However a main concern of mine is getting people to view the site. I'v been on google and discovered adwords but i'm confused on how much i should be paying, what keywords to be advertising etc! Please tell me your views/experiences with search engine advertisement, i shall be extremely grateful for your time! James

[Duncan Rounding]

Welcome.

Protx is very popular and used by many people.

Adwords is a very good marketing tool to get traffic - but needs to be used wisely for best returns as it can be very expensive. There's lots of info around on the internet about this but the most important is to try and bid to get your ads on the first or second page.

There's 4 points to remember:
1. Select your keywords that exist in your product and make them phrases (not broad searches) - also exclude other words that you don't want.
2. Design your ad title to contain the keyword.
3. Design your ad body to reinforce and possibly contain the keyword again.
4. Make sure the landing page of your ad shows exactly what was searched for and that the prospect has the opportunity to buy it on the landing page.

Also make sure you analyze your click through rates and click to order rates.

There's many other marketing tools as well, to mention a few... shop feeds Froogle - free, Shopzilla, Kelkoo and of course Google's competition Overture.

Hope this helps as a starter. Read lots - become wise - with ads it can cost a lot with little ROI.

Duncan R

[chris ashdown]

It is easy to get carried away and get a large bill

I suggest you start with a keyword price of about £0.10-£0.12 and limit yourself to a maximum of £1-£2 per day

After a month you will get some idea of how its going

Dont use general terms if possible as they are expensive and also wastefull try to describe your item as you would like to find it i.e. be specific

[jamescheema]

Thanks for the information guys. Yeah i think i'll be aiming to keep to a budget of £1 or aroundabout that per day. Another question, will the 'landing pages' content (words) make any difference to the search, ie. if it contains keywords would it help the search?

Being in retail trade for a few years i'm having to give up the shop because of rent and rates. The internet seems like a great alternative which i'm prepared to work my ass off to make it take off.

Bit of a random query perhaps but i'm just wondering... on average, how many sales do you make per month (roughly of course), sorry if this is a bit personal but this is going to be an expensive investment and i'm just apprehensive about whether i'll sell anything at all.

Thankyou for your help, James

[Duncan Rounding]

The landing page content won't help the search as such but it will help the search robot index your site. The landing page will make a big difference to the number of visitors making a purchase though.

Some say it can take 12 to 18 months of site tweaks, tuning and variations to create a succesful site.

Just how much money you can make will completely depend on your product, pricing, website, compettion and marketing. many people do very well, other's don't - much like high street retail.

Marketing can be your biggest cost - don't under estimate your advertsing.

Duncan R

[chris ashdown]

Agree with every thing Duncan says

Also bear in mind the customers cannot pick up and feel the products so only have your photo's and description to go by.

Therefore give the best description and images as you can and make everything as simple as you can

Try and keep the number of clicks from your home page to purchase the product to 3 if possible as the more clicks it takes the more chance the customer will say Bi Bi