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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295

    Your experience with advertising campaigns

    Targetedvisitors.info - spent 150 Dollars, got no orders
    Overture - Getting no traffic although I've bid 1 Dollar on all keywords
    Adwords - Getting good results but also fake traffic and it is very expensive.
    Own Affiliate Program - I'm getting about 10 % of my orders from affiliates. Afterall I don't think it has paid off to make my affiliate program
    Hostvoice.net - spent 200 Dollar, got nothing
    Hostpulse - spent the 60 bucks or how much it is, got nothing so far, been there for a month or something.
    Other hosting directories - Although I've paid on many of them I'm not getting any orders.
    Linking my own webmaster related sites to my hosting company - gets me about 30 % of my traffic.
    Bying untargeted visitors - 0 signups, total waste of money
    Other customers spreading the word - giving me about 10% of the orders...not bad since you don't have to pay anything.

    Afterall everything besides Google and linking my own sites to me has been a total waste of money. I got no or only very few customers for the money I have paid.
    On Google I've spent around 3000 Euros in the last two months. Got around 2000 back so far... not bad. Still 3000 Euros is a lot and I fear I will not be able to keep it up.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    6,623
    Originally posted by taketo
    Overture - Getting no traffic although I've bid 1 Dollar on all keywords
    Doesn't seem likely that $1 would be the correct bid on "all keywords." But maybe I don't understand what you're trying to say with that "although." I wouldn't expect bidding $1 across the board to work very well... maybe "because" in that sentence would be a better choice.

    For a lot of potential hosting-related keywords a $1 bid on Overture would be way too low. For some it may be higher than you need. Same thing with AdWords; part of optimizing your campaign is finding the right bids for each term. Unless, again, I'm misunderstanding it seems like you bid $1 for everything?
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Location
    Colorado, USA
    Posts
    814
    Maybe it is time for banner advertising on some hosting or web design related websites. Might be more expensive, but very targeted. Also - local advertising going after small businesses might be a more affordable option, too.
    Web Hosting Resource Kit - Web Hosting Reviews & Hosting Tutorials

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    @JayC:

    $1 PER CLICKTHROUGH !!

    On Adwords I pay $0.05 per clickthrough and I'm getting about ten times more traffic then I get on Overture for $1 per click !

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    My all time stat on Adwords is:
    Clicks: 20,969 Impressions: 3,978,715 CTR: 0.5% CPC: €0.14 Total: €2,988.37

  6. #6
    taketo,

    I'm curious. Are you getting more sales through Adwords or Overture? Are you getting 10 times more traffic through Adwords because its less 'targeted' than Overture?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    973
    Overture has never been effective for my ventures. Adwords has been extremely effective (not with Tripod Support) but other projects I've worked on.

    I've heard that going after local markets in the hosting industry is now a safer bet than putting banner ads on websites. Thoughts on this?

    Roj
    Web Hosting? Been there. Done that.
    I am niyogi.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    6,623
    Originally posted by taketo
    @JayC:

    $1 PER CLICKTHROUGH !!
    I realize that, but is it that your average click is costing $1, or that you're bidding $1?

    Generally with Overture if you let them create the initial campaign for you (of course I don't know if you did that) they'll bid on just about everything that might apply. You'd really have to thin it out once you can identify what keywords are effective.

    While your difference between .05 at AdWords and $1 at Overture is pretty extreme, one reason why they can vary even for similar campaigns is that if you get a good CTR with AdWords, that's taken into the formula for ranking... so you can get away with paying less per click to get the same positions as at Overture to maintain the same positioning. Of course, the opposite is true if you have a low clickthru rate -- you'd have to spend more to maintain those positions.
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    The problem about these Hosting directories is that the prices they charge are much to high. Some charge like $20 CPM ! That means you pay like 10 Dollar per click or something. You can not do this as a small or new business. You can do it if you are a larger company with 1000 customers + but not with 200 and below. Advertising on websites isn't bad but the prices are WAY to high. They should drop the prices about 100 times...then it would be a good deal.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    >I'm curious. Are you getting more sales through Adwords or
    >Overture? Are you getting 10 times more traffic through
    >Adwords because its less 'targeted' than Overture?

    Well I only got around 40 clicks from Overture so far so you can forget it, I got nothing from them. Adwords claim they sent 20.000 visitors. According to my tracker I got around 5000 to 10.000 and it turned into about 70 customers and I had to pay about 3000 Euros for that. So as you see it is very expensive and I am not sure if I like that campaign but on the other hand there are no alternatives to Adwords. I am forced to buying their stuff. Now I am only paying 0.05 Dollars a click and have changed my price model so I am now getting more customers for my money. I hope it will pay off better.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    Also if you advertise with Overture do not sign up for that crap that costs $200 just for signing up. Its a total waste of money !

  12. #12
    "According to my tracker I got around 5000 to 10.000 and it turned into about 70 customers and I had to pay about 3000 Euros for that."

    taketo: May I ask which service(s) you offer (if you're allowed to state it on this board)? I understand you're not overly happy with that campaign, but in the end did it pay off for you?

    thx

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    295
    @Cassius:

    I am still using Adwords if that answers your question. I think I will limit the expenditures to 2000 € per month. My budget is tight so I hope I will have enough customers to keep that campaign up before I run out of money. If I run out of money before I will have to wait for 2 or 3 months until the customers have submitted more payments and nothing is more frustrating than losing time just by waiting for payments At present I have like 4000 Euros left. After spending that I hope I'll have at least 300 customers so I can keep up the campaign.

  14. #14
    Try searchfeed.com. The quality of the traffic they send me is on par with Google, but usually at a lower cost. I know there are plenty of web hosting related terms at well under $1 per click.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

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