Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

The Campaign Buildout Prime Directive

To repeat, the safest way to start using AdWords is to use Search network only and all-exact-match keywords. These settings remove all ambiguity, so you know exactly what you're getting and how much each element is contributing to your profit or loss.

Figure 7-9 shows a hypothetical (but very common) scenario in which the exact match keyword [supplements for women over 40] generates a sale at an average of $4.25 in click costs, whereas the phrase match of the same keyword generates a single sale after an average of $12.32, or almost four times the cost. Broad match requires $22.48 per sale, whereas the Display network cost jumps to $73.32 for a text ad and $125.54 for an image ad. Mobile ads generate sales at an average of $31.22, or more than seven times the cost of exact match.

Figure 7-9: Starting with the Search network and exact match only gives you the best chance of initial success.

The moral of this story can be found in the last line that totals clicks and conversion, while averaging the cost/conversion. If you had set up your first campaign the way Google recommends for new users, all you would see is a total cost per conversion of $19.09, or four and a half times more expensive than exact match. That's a major reason most advertisers give up on AdWords — they think the traffic is too expensive. Some of it is — but if this advertiser ...