I've just launched a startup, and as it will take awhile for SEO to work i'll use adwords to get new customers.
I've been doing this for the last couple of weeks, and find that my money goes very quickly.
So, i'm guessing that the best strategy would be to set my maximum CPC to the very lowest amount that will still get me enough clicks to reach my daily budget - disregarding whether the ads appear on page 1 or not.
For example, rather than getting 100 page 1 clicks, i'll get 500 page 3 clicks instead for the same money.
My question is - is this a good strategy? Is there any reason why "page 1 clicks" are more valuable than "page 3 clicks", other than the fact that most ppl won't get to page 3 to view my ad (but enough people will click to reach my daily budget)? I hope that makes sense
I invested heavily on Adwords in the past. Personally I don't see any difference with page 1 clicks vs page 3 clicks.
The only thing you need to consider is that most clicks happen in page 1 and less in page 3. If you are competing for a low search keyword, you may not get any clicks at all if you are bidding for page 3.
What's concerning about your question is that you didn't mention conversion rates. If you were, then your conversion rates would answer your question for you. There are cases where page two or three clicks will actually convert higher because those searches tend to be deeper and more "motivated."
However, your ads should be driving visitors to specific landing pages where you're measuring conversions. Then you can look at your analytics and compare your revenue per visit for page one visits versus page three visits and make your decision.
I have similar experience and I would strongly advise using a adwords professional to sort out your strategy. I blew a few thousand on adwords in first 2 months of new venture and countless hours failing to learn how to effectively conquer adwords. I found a pro through blog and they saved me money on the CPC, CTR shot up and I spent 90% less time staring at the analytic page.
Full disclosure - I am NOT an adwords professional or connected in anyway to that industry. I still firmly believe Google is powered by pixies and magicians and is still to hard for me to fathom 8-)
According to me investing more on SEO, AdWards are qite risky, and might drain much of your finance. Better you focus more over the store design. It must be easy to understand, do emphasis on search feature, and batter categorized.
Kindly focus on following points
Considering above 3 points, you should fix on advertise budget. I may suggest you go for conventional marketing funda like paper add, banners, pamphlets etc...
Now if your initial clients like your service then you may ask for testimonial and your community page like. It will automatically market your service to numbers of people. After words you may launch your final store with full product category and range.
Best of luck!