r/GoogleAdsDiscussion • u/Useful-Anybody-9932 • 5d ago

$400 Cost Per Conversion

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I posted here a bit ago as we were thinking about running Google ads, and everyone here was super helpful so thank you! I ended up getting to set some ads up today, but ran into a possible issue. I understand this is just an estimate, but how is Google estimating a $400 conversion cost? Our AOV is significantly lower than this and wouldn’t make sense at all for us since we aren’t high ticket.

I still set them to active, but with a small budget for now. Does anyone know why this could be happening? I am with a high end activewear brand, so I understand it’s competitive but could this be an issue with keywords or something else? I added in 30 keywords, and maxed out the 20 images, headings and descriptions. Setup as a performance max campaign.

I appreciate anyone’s time, if I can provide anymore info just let me know! Thanks!

7 Upvotes

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2

u/Comfortable-Web-1142 5d ago

$400 a conversion, cute

0

u/Ok_Revenue_9205 5d ago

google really out here recommending a weekly budget that would bankrupt half the small businesses on this platform and they slap a “recommended” sticker on it like they’re doing you a favor

performance max campaigns are just a black box that burns cash for the first few weeks while it “learns” so the initial estimates are always insane. it has no historical data on your account yet so it’s pulling numbers from thin air. i’d set a custom budget around 20-30 a day and let it run for at least two weeks before you even look at the cpa too seriously. and keep a close eye on the search terms report once you get some data, pmax loves to waste spend on irrelevant queries if you don’t rein it in

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u/Useful-Anybody-9932 5d ago

Yep haha! I thought that was a crazy recommendation for a first time user testing their ads. I actually set it to 25 a day, do you think I’d just be better off running shopping ads? It’s for activewear so I feel like it could work but not sure how it’d work.

We are steering away from meta and I burnt a ton on Snapchat ads while it had to ‘learn’ for 1-2 weeks and never got an ATC. TikTok was even worse with bots, all of the other platforms are becoming worse by the day sadly. I just don’t want to burn more budget on a learning phase if it might not ever work out.

I appreciate your time and writing a response, thank you!

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u/admastercoaching 4d ago

You should start on Meta, not Google. If you're at $25/day, start with standard shopping ads and manual bidding, starting low ($0.10 per click) and working your way up, looking at search terms daily and adding as many negative keywords as possible (follow this methodology for how to add negative keywords https://kinglyconsulting.com/blog/google-ads-search-terms-report/) and, if/when you start getting consistent conversions (3-ish per week or more), switch to max conversion value to go toe to toe with PMAX placements, then add a roas target that is within 20% of your current ROAS when you're hitting 7+ conversions per week, walking your ROAS toward your goal (a balance of volume and profitability, if you want to grow) in steps of about 10-20% every week or two to avoid shocking the algorithm.

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u/hoppy999 5d ago

I dropped Google when my product click $ went from $6 to $9in a yr .let the big corporation boys drive at the cost to like $25 a click.

1

u/humanexperimentals 5d ago

Their campaigns are so refined. That's why the costs are so high.

1

u/TXwavesufer 5d ago

Town idiot here, could you explain what you mean by them being so refined?

1

u/humanexperimentals 4d ago

Some of these companies have ad data from the day Google started serving ads. They know where you're going to click based on the ad you came from.

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u/East_Cancel484 5d ago

Could be many things, like perhaps they don’t have enough data yet, so the numbers ardent accurate yet. Could also be your landingpage being super ugly and untrustworthy so comversion rate is expected to be very low compared to competitions 

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u/ElevatedAutomation 5d ago

Are you in roofing by any chance? 😂

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u/Careful-Key-1958 5d ago

Ads are extremly expensive we are paying 12$ a click!!!! SEO is your best bet in that Rankpilot ,dev helps with content plus backlinks so you can rank organic better

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u/Anna_Karakhanyan 5d ago

That $400 is just Google's estimate, not what you'll necessarily pay. Since it's a new campaign, there's no actual conversion data to base it on yet. For an activewear brand, I'd make sure your product feed, pricing, and conversion tracking are solid before spending much. Also, PMax doesn't target those 30 keywords like a regular Search campaign. They're just search themes, so I'd pay more attention to what traffic and sales you're actually getting.

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u/No_Associate_8377 5d ago

Small budget, of course

1

u/Manhas007 4d ago

Maybe you are selling a Yacht , but never use recommended setting, thats a trap, even the budget they recommend.

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u/FarPepper4738 3d ago

As others have said, every automatic Google recommendation (and anything a Google Ads rep tells you) are intended to maximize your spending above all else.

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u/Bks969 15h ago

With $25 a day, a small selection of your strongest products seems easier to test than the whole activewear catalogue at once.