Google Adwords
by Leadwerks · in General Discussion · 09/25/2006 (3:12 pm) · 9 replies
I've had horrible results with Google Adwords. I got about 2000 clicks the first month (people actually clicked on the ad) with no noticable change in sales. Assuming that maybe 1% of clicks turn into an actual sale, it should have done a lot better. I suspect that this traffic might be automated bots, or Google might simply fabricate the stats.
What is your experience with Google Adwords? I've had much better results with traditional banner ads.
What is your experience with Google Adwords? I've had much better results with traditional banner ads.
#2
09/26/2006 (7:10 am)
Most likely it has to do with the words that you chose, though a large percentage of the traffic may very well be bots. I get them constantly reindexing my sites. 
#4
09/26/2006 (8:52 am)
Interesting read! Thanks Tom!
#5
09/26/2006 (9:57 am)
Wow... I never even considered that possiblity. It's too bad the ad engines don't put in some kind of protection or buffer.
#6
09/26/2006 (10:32 am)
The bigger ones like AdSense and Overture do have fraud detection, but of course it's not ever perfect. I've seen some reported cases of having to report click fraud to Google which then verified it and reembursed the person. To be able to do this you have to have factual data (like your server logs) to back it up and not just a suspicion.
#7
I'm pretty sure something fishy was going on. During the GameDev.net test campaign, I had only 200 clicks, and sales increased by 30%!
09/26/2006 (11:05 am)
Thanks for the info.I'm pretty sure something fishy was going on. During the GameDev.net test campaign, I had only 200 clicks, and sales increased by 30%!
#8
On the GameDev.net site you can about garanteee anyone that see's your ad is interested in game development tools. An AdWords campaign it's all down to the keywords and even then.... if you use Level + Builder as keywords are the people looking for that or a Builder's Level?
Adwords is much harder to tune to your target your audience than a banner on a gamedev site... but it can be cheaper and get much more impressions.
09/26/2006 (1:17 pm)
Well an AdWords campaign and a GameDev.net banner are apples and oranges. On the GameDev.net site you can about garanteee anyone that see's your ad is interested in game development tools. An AdWords campaign it's all down to the keywords and even then.... if you use Level + Builder as keywords are the people looking for that or a Builder's Level?
Adwords is much harder to tune to your target your audience than a banner on a gamedev site... but it can be cheaper and get much more impressions.
#9
A better idea is to increase your web page rank. You might try submitting to shareware sites since there's a lot of them and it's a relatively quick way to get decent page rank (by 'quick' I mean in about 3-6 months).
01/23/2007 (12:07 pm)
I've found that Google Adwords is the most honest of any pay-per-click site (I've tried about 4 other ones). As was said previously, you have to target your keywords to your customers - general keywords usually don't do well. Also, game sales rates are usually very low (from what I hear) - somewhere around 0.5% or lower. Another problem is advertisers are generally willing to pay more for pay-per-click these days (since they usually can re-sell the customer multiple products).A better idea is to increase your web page rank. You might try submitting to shareware sites since there's a lot of them and it's a relatively quick way to get decent page rank (by 'quick' I mean in about 3-6 months).
Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games