Are they worth it?

I have signed up for $15 worth as a test and well they seem to be pants so far.

Has anybody had any success from using these?

I'm using them right now, though you have to be very specific (I think) and target a certain group.

Putting in words like: hosting, host, free, etc. will make sure you blow all your money in a few minutes (hours?).

So, yeah, they're worth it if you have a target audience that's smaller then 'people who want hosting'

I use them and they are costing me about $1 per visitor with good conversion. I usually make about double of what I spend for adwords.

Hi, I have used it no so far. And actually I will not do it again until I able to spend large amount of money for Adv. I mean google's adv. is too expensive. Here are my results:
I submitted $250 on keywords web hosting; web host (was only one as advertiser) - and I get about 230 hits. So that mean the one hit cost more then $1. Google's visitors are quite good. They will need nothing expect CGI, PHP and uptime :)

I used them for a while -- when I had a hosting company -- and got a very good response. As dhabets mentioned, your best bet is to try to be as specific as possible. For example, we used the key words RaQ Hosting and got much better response, than for just the key words web hosting.

Originally posted by Ned
I have signed up for $15 worth as a test and well they seem to be pants so far.I'd agree with most of what's been said here; Google's AdWords seems to be among the best of the pay services as long as you're careful about what you buy and pay attention to the results. Really that kind of stumps me, because I use Google almost exclusively when I'm searching and I never even glance over at the AdWords results on the right -- my eye is focused on the regular search engine results.

Also, common wisdom does agree with NinthSwat in that Google visitors tend to be more technically advanced and internet experienced than, for example, Yahoo users.

But I really have to ask Ned: does "they seem to be pants" mean they are good, or bad? :)

Bad hehe :P

But I am gonna tweak the wording and the key words I think and have a play around until I can get awinning combination.

Also, common wisdom does agree with NinthSwat in that Google visitors tend to be more technically advanced and internet experienced than, for example, Yahoo users.

Yahoo uses Google. :)

It doesn't use googles adwords though :(

just the search engine

If you pick good key words, you can generate amazing results. If you choose bad key words you will be wasting your money. I say that you order a few small test campaigns and see which does best, then fine tune the key words to generate the best results.

Thats what I did and they are generating a large amount of high traffic. My HostingCatalog Google campaign has a 2.2% CTR!

theres an option to set to say only advertise on google sites, do you know what other sites they use if you uncheck that box?

Hi there-

I can't stress enough how important it is to be specific. Google does not work well at all once you are pushed below the page fold. You're paying CPM, and once tossed below the fold, clicks drop.

Be Specific - spend a lot of time coming up with numerous keyword combinations. I saw the example of "RaQ Hosting" -- this is great.

The rule of thumb - when advertising CPM, be as specific as the site will allow -- that's the beauty of google.

Be prepared, however, to loose a few bucks before you come up with a killer strategy.

Also, common wisdom does agree with NinthSwat in that Google visitors tend to be more technically advanced and internet experienced than, for example, Yahoo users.

Yahoo uses Google. Those two statements are not mutually exclusive. The common wisdom referred to is that users who do searches through Yahoo tend to be less experienced, and less "internet savvy," than those who search through Google. Which databases are the sources of each set of search results isn't relevant to that statement.

Ask your friends who are "in the business" where they search, and it's likely to be Google... ask a newbie and it's likely to be Yahoo, AOL, or "I don't know."

And, as Ned said, AdWords placements do not appear at Yahoo.