Return to Mount Budawang

We drove to the Budawang National Park on Sunday to climb Mount Budawang (1128 metres). This time around the weather didn't prevent us from reaching our destination.

The walk to the summit of Mount Budawang is mostly uphill, but more of a step walk than a climb. Therefore, it's not that challenging but really nice all the same. It took about 90 minutes to get to the top from where we parked the car. We ran down which took about 45 minutes. 

Although it was overcast, the view from the summit across the Budwangs was pretty inspirational. It definately made us want to go deeper into the park and explore.

According to the DECCW website the Budwangs are ...

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Changes and new campaign

DAYS 19 to 23

I changed my first campaign according to the campaign organisation tips outlined in the March 18th post. So, now, in Campaign #1 I have seven ads in one Adgroup with no duplicate keywords.

Today, I set up and started Campaign #2. In this campaign I have 2 ads that (1) use main keywords taken from the text on the web page; (2) use the main keyword(s) as the ad heading; (3) use a single benefit sentence that goes across lines one and two of an ad; and, (4) that are specific and unspectacular.

Let's see if Campaign #2 outperforms Campaign #1.

Drive to Mongarlowe

Went for a drive on Sunday to Mongarlowe via Braidwood. Braidwood (pop. 1200 approx.) is 91 km (57 mi) east of Canberra. Mongarlowe, with a current population of about 20, is situated on the Mongarlowe River and is about 13 km east of Braidwood.

We were looking for the entrance to the track to climb Mt. Budawang (1128 metres) which you get to via Mongarlowe. Mt. Budawang is situated in the Budawang National Park which according to the DECCW website (http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parkHome.aspx?id=N0045) "is a rugged wilderness of steep slopes and remote trails. The summit of Mt Budawang reveals a magnificent panoramic view of the southern highlands and the distant coast." I've seen some photos of the view and other parts of the park and it looks amazing. The entrance to the Mt. Budawang trail was down a muddy gravel road. It was raining heavily so we decided to postpone the walk and see what the weather is like next weekend.

Arrived home at 5.00pm and went for a run to the Stromlo Forest Park. Stromlo Forest Park is a multi-use recreational sporting facility that contains a criterium cycling circuit, a Robert De Castella designed grass cross country running track, equestrian tracks and mountain bike tracks to suit various level of rider. It also has various running and walking trails through the surrounding countryside.

The purpose designed groomed grass running track comprises a 2.5 km loop that can be reduced to 2 km, 1.5 km or 1 km (http://www.stromloforestpark.com.au/cross_country/).

The round trip from our place to Stromlo is about 8 kms. Add a circuit or two of the grass running track and you have a really nice run. We saw some pretty big Kangaroos grazing on the grass track to boot.

Campaign organisation

DAY 18

Checked Google's 'Tips for Success' section and realised that my account/campaign was poorly organised. Google provides four main campaign organisation tips.

Tip #1. Organize campaigns by topic: No problem here as I only have one topic and related product.

Tip #2. Target the right languages and locations: I'm focusing on the major English-speaking countries which makes sense given that 'Sales Essentials' is an English language course. However, I also included China. In fact, China is my primary source of clicks, but, and this is a big but, how many Chinese shoppers have the capability to complete a transaction using a credit card or via PayPal's international site? This is something I really need to look in to. My feeling is that very few Chinese shoppers have the capability to make an online purchase outside of China. That there is not a Chinese language version of the site or course doesn't bother me too much because many Chinese under the age of 35 have a good grasp of English. And this number is growing all the time.

Tip #3. Create highly specific ad groups that centre on a single product or service to ensure ads reach the most qualified users: This is a problem with my campaign that I will change. I've set up three ad groups when I only require one. Google also suggests building a list of keywords or placements, and then separating them into related ad groups. Placements is an area I am yet to look at.

Tip #4. Avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups: Google shows only one ad per advertiser on a particular keyword, so there's no need to include duplicate keywords in different ad groups or campaigns. Identical keywords compete against each other, and the better-performing keyword triggers the ad. This is a problem that I had. However, it will resolve itself once I've made the change to a single ad group.

My next step is to refine the keywords I'm using in the new single ad group I create, and then look at 'managed placements'.

New ads and website header

Another early morining trip to Parliament Drive to watch the balloons and grab a coffee prior to hitting the library.

DAYS 16 & 17

84 clicks. CPC is HK$4.39. Still no sales.

I made a couple of tweaks to try and improve my AdWords campaign. By improve I mean more impressions, and more clicks at a better click-through-rate (CTR). First, I edited the poorly performing advertisements in each of my three Adgroups to see if I can get them to out perform the better perfroming ones in each group. Second, I changed the text on the header of the website's landing page to more closely reflect the text used in my advertisements.

Balloons

Nice start to the morning. Up at 5.30. Rode in to town through the fields and past the lake. Arrived in town, got a coffee and watched a couple of hot air balloons filling up with gas and taking off.

The balloons are part of the Canberra festival. The festival runs from Friday the 11th of March to Sunday the 20th March and plays host to a range of events; each day providing something different to showcase the city's diversity and culture.

The 'Canberra Festival Balloon Spectacular' sees giant hot air balloons launched from the forecourt of Old Parliament House and provides a picturesque backdrop to Canberra’s iconic attractions. 

The festival's official website is (http://www.events.act.gov.au).

Adgroup pairs

We drove from Canberra to Melbourne and back this weekend. The 650 Km trip took us about 8.5 hours. However, we did take our time stopping for four breaks along the way. It's a good drive with some nice scenery; especially through the NSW stretch from Yass to Albury.

DAYS 8 to 15

To date, I've created one AdWords campaign that consists of three Adgroups. I've set my daily budget at HK$50.00 (US$6.50).

Each Adgroup within my AdWords campaign consists of two advertisements. The reason for having two advertisements in each Adgroup is so I can play them against each other. Once one of the advertisements is clearly outperforming the other, I change the underperforming one to try and see if I can create a new one to outperform the exisiting best performer. Playing this game forces me to constantly tweak my advertisements to make them more effective.

Keyword 'Quality Score'

Took the 'Express' bus this morning! Jumped on at the bus terminal (stop 1) thinking, "great, an express bus to the town. I'll be there in about 20 minutes."

However, we then proceeded to loop through the surrounding suburbian streets stopping each minute to pick up passengers. It took about 25 minutes to travel right past the street where I am staying, which was a 5 minute walk from where I caught the bus in the first place. Arrived at my destination about 45 minutes later! Cylcling is definitely the way to go as we can cycle the 12 kms into town in about 30 minutes.

DAY 7

Logged in to check my AdWords account. On the positive side (without changing my daily budget of HK$48.00), I am receiving more clicks each day and they are costing me less.

One thing that I was a little confused about was my 'Poor' 3/10 Quality Score for the keyword 'sales skills'. It seemed to me that my advertisement, the Sales Essentials product, and the Sinowrite website are all highly relevant to this keyword. So, I checked the Google help centre for the criteria for a 'Great' keyword.

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Changed price and ads

Spent the day working from the National Library of Australia. It's an excellent library and has a beautiful lakeside location.

DAY 6

I decided to change the price of Sales Essentials from $19.95 to $29.00. Why? Because, although I have set an low daily budget, I realised that given the development costs and the cost of the AdWords campaign it would be almost impossible to generate any income from the course at $19.95.

I checked out Google's AdWord Optimisation Centre and read that the most fundamental step in AdWord optimisation is using 'keywords' in your adverts. So, I changed my adverts to match my keywords. 

6 days/26 clicks at HK$9.49 per click

I know I said it a few days ago. But, I've got to say it again. Canberra has got to be Australia's best city for cycling.

It really is amazing. One minute you are in the middle of the city and the next minute you are in the countryside. For example, the 12 km cycle from the suburb where I am staying to the Parliament area in town takes you through open fields with Kangaroos, past a river, through a grove of Irish Oaks and past paddocks with horses until you reach lake Burley Griffin which you then follow until you arrive in the middle of the city.

DAY 5

No time to work on marketing Sales Essentials today. All I did was log-in to AdWords; add a few more keywords to my campaign and check what has been happening over the last week.

In the last 6 days I have had 26 clicks at an average price of HK$9.49 per click. To date, I've spent HK$246.72 (US$31.60) and am yet to make a sale.