MSN adCenter PPC Experiment Update 3

Time for another update of where my MSN adCenter PPC experiment is at now.

It's been a few days since my second update, and while my total ad impressions have increased somewhat, despite being low traffic terms, the CTR is still very low. During my testing, there have been a total of 14 clicks so far, which has cost me $5.97, which works out to an average CPC (Cost Per Click) of 43 cents.

While my traffic has been crawling along, this is the ideal time to do further reading and research on what is needed to improve conversions, and indeed in running a successful PPC campaign fullstop.

My current landing page (my first such page) is very simple and plain in appearance, with a lot of text, a small photo, and 2 affiliate links.

My initial thinking had been to not through the links in the faces of the visitors, and instead to "talk" directly to them, in a very human manner - with no salestalk. I then concluded my two columns with an affiliate link.

It had been working alright initially, but the CTR has since dropped off sharply.

After doing some further research into successful landing pages, I decided that I needed to make sure that even at 800x600 there were always affiliate links above the fold. For those of you who don't already know, this means that the links are visible as soon as the page loads, without needing to scroll down to see them.

I also realized that I should be drawing attention to the links, by placing the logo directly relating to the search terms which people are finding my ads with.

So last night I moved my affiliate links up the page, to ensure they were visible above the fold at 800x600, and also placed a small logo image directly above one of the links.

Since last night, I have had one click through from my ad, and the visitor immediately clicked on my affiliate link and completed the lead, bringing my total leads so far to 3.

This brings my earnings to almost $70. Not bad for only $5.97 spent.

At this stage I am unfortunately still not using any keyword conversion tracking, but a custom script is being developed as we speak, and I hope to have this ready for my second phase of testing.

To date I have only been using one MSN adCenter Campaign, which contains one Order, which is running one Ad. That lone Ad has several hundred longtail keywords associated with it, and as I mentioned has sent a total of 14 visitors to my sole landing page.

Of these 14 visitors, 6 have clicked through to my affiliate's offer, and of those 6 clickthrus, 3 have completed the lead.

I have been planning my second phase of testing, which is based around the same type of offer, and which I have bought a separate domain name for. This will be the testing ground for further campaigns, on hopefully a much larger scale.

I will use subdomains to break down my domain into logical separate areas relating to the various offers in my chosen industry. Initially I plan to start this second phase of testing with only a few of these subdomains active, but it will give me the scope to be able to continue to add further landing pages, while keeping the logical groups together.

The keyword conversion tracking script should be ready for use shortly, and will be implemented across my landing pages, so that during this broader test I will still be able to identify and remove non-converting keywords, and concentrate my expansion into keyword groups that are converting well.

I will continue to post my progress in this PPC test, so stay tuned.