The cynics in the crowd will say, "OUR MONEY!!!" ...but that ain't necessarily the case. As anyone who's had Quality Score problems will know.
Google wants much more than that. If that was all they were after.... they wouldn't have any. It's their willingness to walk away that makes them successful. (And there's a lesson in that, too.)
Today, some clues to the difference between what is merely good and what is great.
-First of all, Google wants ads that get clicked on. If nobody clicks on your ad, they don't get paid for the click. That's why your ad position is not just determined by bid price but by the Click Thru Rate. I've seen CTR's lower than 0.1% for search traffic and CTR's upwards of 30%. The difference between a bad ad and a good one is gigantic.
-Google rewards and prefers stability and longevity. When you first open a brand new Google account, every assumption they make is *not* in your favor. Before the very first click comes - while they're still taking all the risk for you - they're going to assume you don't know how to write good ads, that people who come to your website will probably leave right away, that you're incompetent.
You pay the highest click prices in the beginning.
But.... if you establish a good click thru rate and users don't hit the "back" button once they hit your site, the Big G starts breathing a sigh of relief and gives you more breathing room of your own. I've been observing for years now that good advertisers' click costs tend to stay level. I've even seen, lately, some going down instead of up. Just last night I talked to one of my Roundtable members, who's competing with hundreds of advertisers, and in the last year he's seen his click costs slowly drop from $2 a click to under a buck.
I think some of that is his market but some of it is also the trust he's earned from the search engine. His websites are quality, his ad campaigns are properly constructed, and he's got an automatic advantage over the New Kid In Town. At least until New Kid In Town proves himself.
-I know another guy in an equally competitive niche who started out paying $11 per click but after a few days dropped down to about $2. Once again, it's that trust and stability Google was looking for.
-Google likes to see a low "bounce rate." That's the number of people who click to your site and immediately bail. Google Analytics (which will be covered in detail during the upcoming Bobsled Run, starts September 25) reports this for you as a percentage.
-Ideally Google would like to see those people click on your ad, disappear into your site and never be seen again. Hopefully because your visitors are so deliriously happy and involved in what you are doing that they don't want to search again. THAT is your mission, should you choose to accept it.
-Ads that consistently have a high ranking and high CTR will begin to show up on the premium space across the top of the search results, instead of running down the right side.
What you most need to know is that the "real money" in your website is all about what happens after the first click - and after that - and after that - and after that. What that person does over a long period of time. That's where the real wizardry is. I can assure you, there's a ton of money you're leaving on the table right now. But it can be yours.
Source: Perry Marshall's email newsletter
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