I'm trying to figure out my PPC budget and my question is:
What is your convertion rate from PPC search engines like Overture, findwhat, Goclick?

Between 5-7% on Google Adwords Select.

Between 5-7% on Google Adwords Select.

Jeremy,

Do you consider this as a good result?

Thanks,
Peter

I ran per impression and per click on google. Both were a complete waste of money with absolutely no turn around. I will never run anything on a search engine again.

poncho, average CTR on the Internet right now is a paltry .5%. Anything about 2% is considered good, and anything about 10% is astronomical and you could sell a book about it.

Our average is about 0.40 with banners on the myecom network. So far both overture and myecom have been worth the money, however little spent.

I recieve about 2%

My first 5 clicks ever all signed up

I love it

Search on overture for "windows 2000 hosting" and all first 3 positions are > $5.
I wonder how some of the hosting companies can afford to pay over $5 per click if their conversion rate is only 2%. So the price per customer is ~ $250 USD. The minimum plans of the 3 companies are as follows: $10 / $15 / $25. How is that possible? Are these companies expect to start making money from their customers after 18 months or what?

Regards,
Peter

Originally posted by poncho2000
Search on overture for "windows 2000 hosting" and all first 3 positions are > $5.
I wonder how some of the hosting companies can afford to pay over $5 per click if their conversion rate is only 2%. So the price per customer is ~ $250 USD. The minimum plans of the 3 companies are as follows: $10 / $15 / $25. How is that possible? Are these companies expect to start making money from their customers after 18 months or what?

Regards,
Peter

The answer is yes and no. Some companies convert more than others. Some plans do better than others. Everything, including site design and the offer itself plays a roll.

Even with a better conversion, many firms will still have to wait over a year to profit from clients acquired through advertising -- it's just how it works. But since billing is recurring, that is how many hosts look at things.

Also, a customer may be worth much more than what he pays for hosting. One must remember: people talk about good service AND bad service. A person with a bad experience will tell an average of 9 people not to use the cause of it. A person with a good experience will often tell people (refer people) to your company.

A poll on conversion rates really should be broken into some categories. Distribution partnerships and the type of search engine (and search term) will all impact the conversion rates experienced at each engine. In addition, certain hosting product types will appeal more highly to users at varying engines with different user bases. Perhaps this poll can be further refined or more general comments posted.

Maybe, but at the end of the day it comes down to this: Impact one person with a truly positive experience and you WILL get 10 new clients.

IMO, never invest on PPC engines because you will always get higher click through ratios on PPC then PPM. You will understand me what i am talking about if you have advertised in both ways.

Google adwords is another peace of crap like overture and sprintlink. They suspended our campagin because it was generating good click throughs in lesser amount. IMO, never advertise with google unless you have huge amount to burn on branding.

Actually, I like the fact that Google requires a minimum click-through. It keeps their relevancy high as customers are what determine what campaigns stay up, not the amount people pay.

We had one campaign suspended so we simply redid it. Nowadays we will testrun a campign on Adwords (CPM), and if it meets the click requirements we will switch to Adwords Select.

Anyone want to share their average CTR for PPC search engines such as Overture, Google, FindWhat, and Sprinks? My guess would be around a 10% average click through ratio due to competetor clicking.