Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Hey guys looking into launching my site soon. Anyways i've heard great things about adwords for other business's....has it worked well for any of you? Im looking into getting a conversion rate of %2. Sound reasonable? Any hints, tips....tools that could be helpful?
Hey guys looking into launching my site soon. Anyways i've heard great things about adwords for other business's....has it worked well for any of you? Im looking into getting a conversion rate of %2. Sound reasonable? Any hints, tips....tools that could be helpful?
I used it in a previous business. It was an extreme niche so it was asey picking cheap key works. Heres how it works.
You pick a key word and tell them how much you are willing to pay per click when that word hits. if someone other people have the same key word, the system displays those who offered the most money per click first. If you use a keyword like "t-shirt", you'll probably need to pay a high per click fee to be near the top. If you find keywords that no one else is using, which will be hard in this business, then it's easier to be near the top without paying a lot per click.
Keyword selection is the key. You want the traffic but you want unique keywords also. It's a difficult balance to strike.
Go to google and type in t-shirt. The links to the right and at the top are adwords ads. The guy(s) at the top are paying the most to be there.
I use google adwords and I just set a monthly budget of what I want to spend and they just kinda divide it up throughout the month, that way I dont have to figure out how much I want to pay per click and they do work well for my site, but I think it is definately easier setting the monthly budget setting for paying.
Anything "t-shirt" related is highly competitive on AdWords. Hopefully, your site is designed well and navigates easily which will help with your conversion rates. I've done a lot of Google AdWords campaigns and the margins aren't high enough on t-shirts for the price you end up paying per click. My suggestion would be to get VERY specific in your keyword phrases and try to fill a niche with little competition.
I use google adwords and I just set a monthly budget of what I want to spend and they just kinda divide it up throughout the month, that way I dont have to figure out how much I want to pay per click and they do work well for my site, but I think it is definately easier setting the monthly budget setting for paying.
Bobbie
The monthly budget lowers your per click cost by lowering your ranking. IE: Two people with the same per click bid. One has a budget of $500 per month and one has a budget of $100. The one with the $500 budget will get placed higher. The lower budget will be placed lower so the cost per click is less and you don't exceed your budget. The problem with that in a competitive market is that you can end up so low on the rankings that it's just a waste of money. I forget the actual statistics, but it's been proven that most people don't go past the first page in search results, so if you're paying to be on the third page, you're throwing your money away.
I agree with Harry. I think there are more effective ways to advertise this business. You could end up paying $3 per click t sell a $15 t-shirt and only a percentage of those will be buyers. In my past business, my bid on some key words was as high as $5 per click, but the products I sold ranged from $1500 - $3000 each. Picking unique keywords is the trick to adwords, but don't make them so unique that no one else will ever use them.
For this business, it would be cheaper to pay someone to tune the website and submit it to the search engines. I'm thinking about doing that. $75 + $30 per month.
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Last edited by rrc62; November 17th, 2007 at 07:02 AM.
For this business, it would be cheaper to pay someone to tune the website and submit it to the search engines. I'm thinking about doing that. $75 + $30 per month.
SE Submits are no longer that important.
Adwords advertising works but you need to look at it longer term, doing it for 1 week only will not work as geat since all the various google indexing takes a little time and sites like AOL for example will need to approve your listing. Plus other factors.
To hire someone for 30-75 $/month would not be enough to really make it work. So in a sense a waist of money. This type of work requires a little more know how and time.
BUT
there are some things you can do yourself.
example: here is a search for personalized imprinting
because that is the (key words) domain for --http://personalizedimprinting.coma that search result should deliver your site at the top. I think if you can fix that anything else you do from there on will have a higher value as SE find your site. So it really is all about having users finding your site, as i have just searched. A SE is a tool.
Adwords pays in a sense you do not need to spend $ on making your site visible. The thing is that when someone arrives at your page due to your keyword selection the sell-rate should be high, that page needs to offer exactly what the visitor wants.
I have used adwords for a month, it seems to take a lot of tweaking. Not sure it's doing much good yet, too soon to tell. I did get a good book at the used book store (Google Adwords For Dummies), which came with a cd in the back worth $10 towards Adwords. The book has a lot of good tips, one thing I noticed is there are a few places where it seems to explain why you should do things differently then the Google Adwords tutorial/help suggests. I thought that was interesting, it does explain the reasoning why.
I think because I sell baby clothes I get alot more higher page clicks as there is not as much competition for babies as adult tees. I am very often on the first page and at the top. I also put alot of thought into my keywords and they have been working great for me. Another way I bring business to my site is donating personalized items to something that I represent on my site that is unique. In my case my designs for premature babies. I donate free garments with a design I make just for an event, the last one was march of dimes walk america for preemies, I put how many gestational weeks they were born into the design for each baby to wear to the walk. Not only did I get alot of loyal customers that I donated the shirts and onesies to but alot of people at the walks asked where they got them and that brought me business also, plus the donations were tax deductable. So thinking of what you sell and how it can work for you is also important.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee