An Angry EBay Sellers Guide to Using Google Adwords

I'm assuming you have been selling on eBay and I'm also assuming you are fed up with the size of fees you are being charged. It seems likely you want to do something about it.

I've discussed before the potential of using a low cost site like Tazbar.com to enable your sales and Google Adwords advertising to generate buyer traffic. But all the time I hear people complaining that Google Adwords doesn't work for them. If that is what you are thinking then perhaps this article is for you.

All too many people begin to use Adwords and set things up to attract hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors to their sales listings. This is going to prove very expensive and is plain wrong.

As an auction site seller you only want one very well qualified visitor to your listing if he or she is going to be the buyer. So, to get the best from Adwords you need to approach the setting up of your advert to target that one click alone.

Once you realise the aim is to stop likely non-buyers from clicking then you see Adwords in a totally different light. Your advert should only appeal to the person likely to buy your product.

So how do we do this? It's quite easy. You say exactly what it is you are offering and at what price. For example, you want to sell a DVD of Amy Winehouse in concert. It's not new but in very good condition. You want $8 for it. How would you word the Adwords advert? And what keywords would you bid on?

The wrong listing says "Amy Winehouse Fans! - Amy Live In Concert! - Click to see more". Worse still, the keywords you bid on include "Winehouse" and "Amy Winehouse". When you start to receive thousands of clicks you will be firghtened by the cost. To sell a DVD? Plainly it isn't worth it.

But imagine an Advert that Says "Amy Winehouse Live! DVD - 2nd User Sale $8 - Bid or Buy at Tazbar". Now the potential clicker knows exactly what is at the other end of the click. The chance to pay $8 for a second user DVD of Amy in concert available at Tazbar.com. If someone clicks that wording are they likely to buy? And 99% of the people who would have clicked the first advert wont go near the link now, never mind click it, and cause you to pay Google.

Having worded our advert, what keywords should we use? The chances are "Amy Winehouse" is a competitive keyword and we don't want to pay more than a few cents per click maximum. So let's target the people likely to be looking for what we are selling. The keyword; "Amy Winehouse Live Concert DVD cheap" will exclude all the general fan searches from seeing the ad. But - in among the millions of searches on Google every day, there possibly will be a hit or two. Now, to match that keyword, it is someone who has searched for the actual item you are selling and is keen to find it at rock bottom price. Perhaps they are expecting to pay $25 for a new DVD but will they be tempted to go for an $8 second user option instead? If they're interested and click the ad to see your listing which confirms it is as good as new then it's likely you've just made a sale and can stop the ad running after just 2 or 3 clicks costing almost certainly less than 20c.

If your keywords were so tight you never got a click then you've gained some experience for future use and it hasn't cost you a penny.

The aim with your Adwords advert wording and keyword bids is to target precisely the person that wants what you are selling, knows the price before clicking and any other relevant facts. This deters most curiosity clicks and most of the unwarranted cost. After all, when someone browses eBay they often see exactly that information before deciding to bid or move on. So the clicks you get from the reworded ad, as you are now using long phrase keywords, will be cheap, much fewer in number and from much more likely buyers.

It's in the nature of buyers to check other listings before leaving a site so the potential value of these customers doesn't stop at the one sale. If you don't sell and forget but use every fair means possible to market to your existing buyers you could quickly find your eBay fees become a distant memory. Paying just $8 a month in total to Tazbar.com for 2000 listings a month and then a few cents to advertise a number of your listings with Adwords can, in my view, turn a struggling eBay business in to something far more enjoyable.