Thread: Promoting NetBuilders with AdWords

We are now using Google AdWords to promote NetBuilders.

The strategy I am currently following is to bid low, but on a huge number of keywords. This seems to be working reasonably well, and the results are improving as I add additional keywords.

I am not worrying very much about market focus when bidding on this mass volume of keywords. I'm bidding on 1,798 keywords right now and over time we'll see which ones perform.

Here are the top performing keywords so far, in terms of raw ad impressions:

• html
• vbulletin
• google webmaster
• webmaster tools
• webmaster
• adsense
• google adsense

Next though, I'd like to initiate a second AdWords strategy.

It seems to me that we should focus on (and bid more on) the types of members we want in the community.

My first targets are buyers for the marketplace, so I've added a number of keywords with the word "buy" in them.

What specific keywords would you like to see us bid higher on? i.e. what sort of new members would you like to see at NetBuilders?

I would like to see some more newbie Net Builders here so that I can know more than someone on the topic. But seriously I think your on a win if you can get some more buyers to the market place as that in my opinion is the only thing that is lacking but it is starting to pick up.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

What specific keywords would you like to see us bid higher on? i.e. what sort of new members would you like to see at NetBuilders?

Will,

You might need to change your approach a bit with targeting buyers for the NB marketplace, since they will not be able to buy anything if there isn't a lot of people "selling".

I suggest you follow this pattern:

#1 - Target high quality / profile sellers, they will be more motivated to display their products / services here since they have nothing to lose and its free.

#2 - Follow this up by targeting buyers, if the quality of services offered at NB is good, the forum will succeed thro' word of mouth.

#3 - Give sellers incentives for performing good service - like give them a bonus if they hit 100 itraders or open 100 highly informational threads.

I also believe you should start experimenting with Facebook Social Ads - I have a metric there which I believe can get netbuilders a lot of users.

I still believe that future users need to be incentivized with "learn stuff that can make you more money" rather than "learn webmaster tricks and tips".

That will get NB more traction.

Looks great, what about the keyword 'DigitalPoint'? Everytime the forum homepage loads the advertisement of NB will be seen

I don't have any real suggestions, maybe also 'Proxy Webmasters' as a lot of things about proxies are being discussed here on the board..

That's it for now I guess

Sorry I forgot to add I would love some more seo experts and affiliate marketers to come to NB so I can learn some more about both topics. Not sure what the keywords would be though.

I added a lot of new keywords to our AdWords campaign, incorporating feedback from everyone in this thread. I added these keywords over the course of several days.

Finally yesterday our AdWords campaign met my initial target of attracting 30 new visitors a day. Yesterday we had 133,116 impressions which resulted in 43 clicks.

I think there is still improvement to be made by adding additional keywords.

I could improve the Quality Score of each Ad Group by changing the landing page from our front page to a more optimized page -- but I want visitors to start on our main page.

I could also increase the volume of visitors by raising our bids, but that would be like admitting defeat to the AdWords gods.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

I added a lot of new keywords to our AdWords campaign, incorporating feedback from everyone in this thread. I added these keywords over the course of several days.

Finally yesterday our AdWords campaign met my initial target of attracting 30 new visitors a day. Yesterday we had 133,116 impressions which resulted in 43 clicks.

I think there is still improvement to be made by adding additional keywords.

I could improve the Quality Score of each Ad Group by changing the landing page from our front page to a more optimized page -- but I want visitors to start on our main page.

I could also increase the volume of visitors by raising our bids, but that would be like admitting defeat to the AdWords gods.

Maybe the private forums should also be hidden for the guests? I prefer it being seen for members-only, and ofcourse entering that part of the forum for joined members only.

Ofcourse it's up to you whether to keep it visible for guests or not

I've also started an adwords campaign as well as a facebook one.
This isn't the first adwords campaign I've ran, the first few I ran like it sounds like you are, with tons and tons of keywords. This time I'm only running a dozen or so, I can see benefits to both types.

Good luck with yours Will

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

Maybe the private forums should also be hidden for the guests? I prefer it being seen for members-only, and ofcourse entering that part of the forum for joined members only.

It should work that way now.

Originally Posted by Brandon Sheley

I've also started an adwords campaign as well as a facebook one.
This isn't the first adwords campaign I've ran, the first few I ran like it sounds like you are, with tons and tons of keywords. This time I'm only running a dozen or so, I can see benefits to both types.

How is your Facebook campaign working for you? Is it for vBulletun Setup?

I using a lot of keywords for this campaign because I just want people to see the forum. Heck, I'm happy to be putting the forum name in front of 100k+ people a day -- whether they click or not. That has a certain value for building the brand.

If I was selling a specific product, or if I was paying a lot for these clicks, I would definitely follow the other strategy.

The AdWords campaign is making me laugh.

We've had 9,605,284 ad impressions. From that, we've generated only 3,626 clicks - a CTR of 0.04%.

This looks more like a branding campaign than a direct marketing campaign.

Ad impressions are effectively free. Google is giving away "branding" ad placements. No wonder their fill rate is so good.

I'm targeting pretty much every relevant keyword. I can't improve the campaign much by adding keywords.

My Quality Scores are all terrible, because the Google reviewers don't like me sending AdWords traffic to forums.

I could increase my bids, but the bid increases necessary to make measurable improvement as simply not justified.

It looks like our AdWords campaign will limp along, providing NB with a lot of page views and a few clicks.