Are my Competitors clicking my PPC ads?

I know I have. Not every day; in fact probably only about 5 times in total, but still, I've done it. And now I'll never ever do it again.

I've tried PPC online advertising through Google Adwords for the first time. I signed up less than two weeks ago.

I first studied the ins and outs of using ppc adwords, and have been doing keyword research work for a client, and felt I had learned enough to at least try using Google Adwords on my own.

My efforts were good. I have three ads all targetting the same page, and each one has more than 20 keywords that trigger the ad to appear on Google search results - on page one of Google search results, because the quality score and relevancy of most of my keywords is not too bad, and I've placed maximum cost per click bids that are high enough to warrant a position on the first page of Google search results.

The problem is that I don't have a fortune to spend on online advertising using PPC through Google Adwords.

I was hoping that I could spend just a little, get a couple of clicks on the ads, taking clickers to a page on one of my sites with my business services offer, prices, interesting header banner I spent a few hours creating, short paragraphs, neat page, also displaying some of my portfolio on one side. All neat; everything done "correctly."

Then my aim was to pause my PPC campaigns until I felt I needed it again, and even then, only if I had the money for it.

Okay, so because of my small budget for online advertising through PPC campaigns, I can't expect too many clicks through to my site before my money runs out each day (daily budget reaches its limit after just 3 or 4 hours) but I really expected at least one conversion (or further query) from about 40 clicks.

I've created a plain and simple page describing what it is Tony and I are offering. It's the same service that over a thousand more in South Africa are offering, but more than 95% of the others are charging more, sometimes as much as ten times more than we are.

The 95% is just a rough figure based on my own research, and, who knows, it may not be very accurate.

The portfolio of work (images) is right there to click through and view more closely - people can visit the work we've done for different clients, and can see that the work is exactly the same as what other service providers are offering at ten times the price.

It is expected that when people see a really cheap price for something that they may think the quality of work is cheap too. They can visit the portfolio to see that it's not poor quality work and that they could save a fortune by using us.

I can think of a few reasons why I have not yet had any orders:

1. Even though people want to save money, and are excited to see that they can get a service for such a good price, they are still wary. They think "What's the catch?" - even though it's all there: the description of what they get for their money, and the portfolio can be visited too, to see that the work is the same that others charge much more for. Because they're so wary of being taken for a ride, they're probably not even bothering to look through the portfolio.
2. They ARE interested, have bookmarked the page because they were only browsing, and will contact us in a few days (it has just been the December holidays and people are not yet in full "working mode." (Of course I'm hoping this is the biggest reason of the three.)
3. It's mostly the people who offer the same services that Tony and I do, that are clicking the ads, just because they're curious to see the details of what we offer for such a ridiculous cheap price, compared to their own probably higher prices.

Obviously that last one I can do nothing about, and I'm beginning to fear is exactly what's happening (due to myself having clicked competitors ads about 5 times in my life - not everyone feels bad about clicking competitors ads, and we have probably over a thousand competitors here in South Africa.)

If it's not competitors clicking my PPC Adwords ads, then I must just be a bit patient and hope some people have bookmarked the page and will contact us soon enough.

If it's the cheap price putting people off, am I supposed to up my price? I am aware that a cheap price can appear just as negative to wary spenders as a cheap price can appear positive to people who don't have a lot of money to spend on a service they need, but Tony and I are nice people and we don't want to charge a fortune for our services.

I feel sad that being nice does not seem to be bringing in the money, but we're not going to change, so we'll just have to keep slogging at it (cheaper or free marketing of our services,) and hope for the best!