Finding the Golden Ad with a Pay-per-Click Campaign

This has been a really great year for my art sales, especially my commissioned art sales. The upswing really started at the end of last 2010. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, I had a little extra cash that I earned through some Christmas gift art sales. I decided to start up a new Google Adwords Campaign. 
   I had just read a book that I borrowed from my neighbors called The Ultimate Guide to Pay-per-ClickAdvertising by Richard Stokes, and I was eager to try out some great new ideas. 
   The first thing I did was decide on my budget. I decided I wanted to spend $100 or so per month. That's only $3.33 a day. I rounded my daily budget up to $3.50. Then I decided I'd be happy with 10 quality clicks on my ads per day. So I bid between 25 cents to 30 cents on my keywords.
   At first nothing much happened; a few impressions and no clicks. When something finally did happen, I found that my ads were so far down the page, that they were probably never getting seen. So I went through my keyword list and picked the best performing keywords and raised my bid on them. This gave me fewer clicks, but it also put me near the top of the first few pages. 
   There are basically three kinds of searchers typing in queries in a search box: There are browsers, shoppers, and buyers. Browsers are like window shoppers. I tried to target the shoppers and buyers by using words like "buy" and "collect" and "get". I also included the starting price of a custom commissioned piece of art. 
   I experimented with different ads to see which ones got the best response. I tried an image ad (as opposed to the more common text ad). I made an ad showing a portrait of my son's dog I did for him for Christmas. The ad got a lot of clicks, but I suspected that people were just clicking on it to see the cute puppy. So I got rid of it.

 

"Todd" 2010 Pet Portrait

    The results: I found a few keywords that work really well for me. I place a little more money on those keywords that the others. I also found some ads that work really well. Below is my most successful:

 
Original Custom Paintings
Can't Find the Perfect Art? LOOK:
Custom Art Direct from Artist! $200
www.artofjohnfrench.com

 

I've gotten two good paying commissions from these ads, and more than a few inquiries.  

  Interestingly enough, I recently modified the same ad so the price read $250. Lately it's been performing better with the higher price! But it's too early to tell how it will do in the long run.

   So if you decide to start your own Google Ads, don't be afraid to experiment! You don't have to go completely broke to run a fairly successful  Adwords campaign. Be creative... that's what we do!