subj =]

i typed in some keywords and the 'expected clicks' google coughed up for them just didnt look right. so i looked up the number of expected clicks for 'web hosting' and it came to a <sarcasm> whopping </sarcasm> 625.

am i missing something or are their estimates completely offbase? it seems somewhat odd that there would be a gazillion companies advertising competing for a measly 625 visitors a day.

'sex' would only get me 32,000 clicks - come on, there has to be more horny people than that in the world.

(note: i maxed out the bid so all estimates are based on my ad being in position #1).

i know some people here use adwords extensively, please chime in and clear this one up for me =]

paul

thats how many clicks per day YOU would get from the campaign.

so you are saying that even if i max out the bid, my expected clicks wont be 100% of the total?

is there a way to check the total number of searches made for a certain search term on google?

google gives you the estimated number of impressions for keywords does it not. That should tell you more or less the number of searches each day (in the market you have chosen).

Originally posted by rusko
so you are saying that even if i max out the bid, my expected clicks wont be 100% of the total? No, certainly not. There'll still be other ads appearing for the same query and some clicks will go to each of them. And for a competitive term like 'web hosting' your ad won't even appear each time the phrase is queried -- it'll be rotated along with the rest of them.

You can see why the expected clicks number is only a very rough estimate. They can't really know how many other ads there will be, and what those advertisers will be bidding, let alone how many times a phrase will be searched for -- while they do have historical data for all of those things, it won't lead to precise numbers.

Originally posted by freakysid
google gives you the estimated number of impressions for keywords does it not.

does it?

Ah - it seems I am mistaken. Yes you are right - it only gives you an estimate of clicks based on your bid and your predicted average position I guess.

When you are actually running a campaign, it will tell you how many impressions you have had for each keyword, as well as your average position and the cost per click. As with all direct marketing, you are best off testing keywords, ad copy, bid amounts, etc yourself and see what results you get and where to concentrate your budget.

Its all estimates anyway. Just dive in and try it, then refine your strategy - It took me about a month to get my head around good tactics, now adwords are our biggest source of new signups!