Ok, here's the deal. I started up about a month ago and have done some big advertising campaigns and some small ones. Small meaning $5/day with Google, big meaning a couple hundred for an advertising spot on a huge site. Here's the thing... I seem to be converting google clicks at about 1:20 which isn't bad. At an average of $.75 per click that's getting a new client for $15, which is totally worth it for me. Here's the bad news. My untargeted campaigns on huge sites (note they're not high quality sites by any means) drive me thousands of clicks, about 1:2000 turning into a sale. Does anyone else have something similar like this, or is no one else doing untargeted advertisng? I'm thinking my site is great for Google advertising, but maybe a different design would be better for untargetted traffic? It's still not converting terribly, and I know I'm reaching a different audience when I advertise on the cheap sites. The reason I say this is, the people who sign up from untargeted sites tend to be newbies that don't know how to do websites. 20-30 emails later their site is up and running and I'm the greatest man that ever lived according to them. 2 of my 5 clients I've gotten this way swear they'll be telling the world about my services. The problem is, are these customers worth it at around $40 a pop? The untargeted traffic always go for the $5 hosting option too of course. Anyway, I guess I've put a lot of questions in here and would like some advice.

whats the site? the one in your profile is irritating, and i dont think its your business.

Google adwords are extremely targetted. Banner impressions on a big site are not so targetted.

Think about it. If someone types in "webhosting $5" and your advert is up first... the chances are they will be interested in exactly what you need.

But if you put the same advert on say WHT.... how many people here are looking for $5 webhosting.... probably less than 10%.

The site is http://www.properhosting.com

Here's the thing though, it's all text link advertising I'm doing. It'll say something like "Web hosting packages starting at just $5 per month". Why do people click on that and then leave 5 seconds later? It makes me think something is wrong with the site for untargeted traffic.

Text links generally suck... there only good to gain search engine rankings.

Spend that bit more and get yourself some ad space where you can express exactly what you have to offer, this will filter out a lot of clicks right away.. only people who like what they see will click througgh and you will get a genuine idea of the response your campaign is having.

Also try tracking. Make each campaign link to a different url and track where the real click throughs are coming from... then dump the unsuccessful campaigns.

Originally posted by Leif
The problem is, are these customers worth it at around $40 a pop?

It depends really. If you are able to handle the support issues that these clients submit, then I'd say yes! Also remember, if they really believe that you are god's gift to webhosting, that $40 per customer for the first ~100 customers can _easily_ turn into a constant stream of new customers every month. (Word of mouth is NICE!)

I'd stick with the ads untill have found something better AND/OR you do not have any extra money in your advertising budget

Nice site btw :)