Many people that have used pay per click advertising with Google Adwords often describe it as operating in a hostile environment. Even while this search engine giant is making $15 billion dollars a years on their paid search business, there aren’t doing anything that makes it easier for you to work with them.
However, to be fair to Google, it does have to balance two distinct customer bases that can’t exist without each other. On one side you have the searchers. They expect good information, quality content, fast answers, no spam, and relevant results. On the other side, you have the advertisers. They expect traffic and lots of it as cheaply as possible. Unfortunately there are a few bad apples out there that are constantly trying to get away with get rich quick schemes and underhanded tactics. These are the advertisers that Google is most concerned with. However, the problem with the measures that Google employs to protect both themselves and their searchers, can make it very difficult for a well-intentioned advertiser to make Adwords work fro them.
Adwords pay per click ads can be a very profitable way to use your advertising budget. In fact, I make a majority of my living doing so. The real key to success with Adwords is to understand the tricks, tips, and rules (sometimes unwritten) that must be used in order to keep Google happy. You will quickly find that if Google is happy, your per click cost goes down and your traffic increases. The added benefit to keeping Google happy will usually result in better profitability for you. Google is the happiest when the ad you place gets a high CTR. The people that click on the ads are happiest when they are satisfied with what they see on your website. This will make the most money for Google and should work the same way for you as well. Google measure how happy a site visitor is by how quickly they leave the site after landing on it.
Here are a few tips and strategies that help you rescue your Adwords campaigns:
Tip #1 Keywords
You probably don’t have nearly enough keywords in your campaign.
If you aren’t using at least 300-500 keywords in your ad campaign, regardless of the market you’re in, you are definitely leaving profitable keywords on the table.
Use one of the keyword research tools like Wordtracker and Keywordtopia. If you plug in your
“root” term (the most general term or two that describes your product or market), you’ll be
amazed at the things that pop out and have you thinking.
Don’t forget plural versions of existing keywords.
Look for different combination multipliers like cities and states. For example, rather that using just one keyword like “weight loss center”, use that term along with each state and then with each city.
Spend some time brainstorming with friends or colleagues to come up with additional keyword ideas. In no time at all you’ll have thousands of keywords to use in your pay per click campaign.
Tip #2 Correct Usage of Match Types
There are three match types in Google; broad, phrase, and exact. Check out Google’s
This is one of the most common mistakes that Adwords beginners make. They bid only on broad match keywords. This is done by adding the keyword to the campaign without brackets or quotes around it. In fact, the suggestion to use only this match type is built into the system, but this isn’t always the best route to take.
I think its best to bid on all three match types. This also triples your keyword list. Since there is really no way to know which match type is most effective, you have to try them and track them and make adjustments as needed.
Tip #3 Keyword Grouping
Many advertisers start with just one ad group and stuff hundreds, maybe even thousands of keywords into in. This practice will not make Google happy. They automatically think that there’s no way to write relevant ads for this many keywords and provide relevant landing pages. As a result they Google will give you a low quality score and your clicks become very expensive. You may never even get your ads running using this strategy.
The key is to make tightly focused adwords groups. The way that most people do it is by a
“theme”. Generally, if all the keywords or phrases in an adgroup can be served by one highly
targeted ad and landing page…they are in a good grouping. However, my suggestion is to
have one adgroup for EVERY keyword (include all three match types, so every
adgroup really ends up having three keywords or phrases). This is a lot of work, but there are
tools out there that can help. Google’s own Adwords Editor is free and will help a lot.
Tip #4 Landing Pages
You simply must have targeted landing pages for each of your customers’ “conversations” that
are going on when they sit down to search for something.
If you’re doing advertising and trying to capture leads from people who are looking to sell
their home in San Francisco, send them to the page that talks about why they should use you
to be their listing broker. If you’re capturing leads from people looking into relocating to
London, send them to a page that talks about your expertise in handling relocations
and helping people buy homes.
Too often, advertisers capture totally different type of customer leads and simply send them
to their home page. This does not make people happy, as they want to continue the
conversation they were having quickly…and get answers to their questions and problems, not
try to navigate through your web site to find the information. They’re not happy, so they hit
that back button in less than 5 seconds. This does not make Google happy, you’ve lost a sale,
and Google may penalize you with higher click charges.
Tip #5 Writing your Ads
This could be a whole article in itself. Common mistakes to avoid:
Use the keyword in the ad. This is why it important to group keywords as I’ve recommended. Google assumes that if your ad repeats what the searched typed in, your ad is relevant. You will be rewarded with lower bid prices.
Don’t continue a thought or sentence from one line to the next. Not many people actually read
the ads…they skim and click when their eyes are attracted to something.
Capitalize the first letter of every word. This is scientifically proven to increase clicks. Why? I
don’t care, and you shouldn’t either…it just works!
Use the display URL effectively, especially if it has the keyword in it. Don’t use
www.wieghtlossclinic.com use WeightLossClinic.com. It should be obvious which one draws
the eye more.
Tip #6 Split Testing
When you set up an adgroup, always write two different ads. You must then monitor them to
see which one is performing better. You can literally increase your clicks 3x or more by doing
this. It doesn’t matter what you change and make different in your ads. Just change something
and always test and monitor.
When one ad is declared the winner, ditch the ad that under performs and write a new one immediately. Strive to write one that beats the one that was previously declared a winner.
Tip #7 Content Network
I think its best to turn the content network of in the beginning and then take the profitable terms and start a separate campaign that only advertises on the content network.
If you run both types of ads from one campaign, it can be very hard to track your keywords and ads’ performance as well as monitor your return on your investment.
Tip #8 Geographic and Schedule Targeting
If these options make sense for your market, use both.
In our real estate example in London, you’d want to run two different campaigns for trying to
get listings in your area. People searching on “Sell house London” not paying attention to
geography, and people searching on the more general “sell house”…targeting only those
people in London.
Use the scheduling feature to examine all the metrics. There will be some campaigns that will only be profitable to run on weekends for example. If you are able to determine this, it would make sense to only run your ads then.
Tip #9 Conversion Tracking
If you do nothing else, do this. You must track conversions!
If you don’t know what you’re getting for you’re advertising dollar, how can you make good
decisions?
If you are selling an actual product online, the easiest way to track conversions is with Google’s own conversion tracking. This simple bit of code is added to a sales confirmation page and works very well and lets Google know that the keyword or phrase led to a sale. Google stores and reports the information, making it possible to go to one place to see exactly what you spent on a campaign and what your return on the investment is.
Of course, there are a few other ways to do it and it can be more difficult if you’re not actually selling something. Either way, it’s absolutely mandatory. In order to learn more about conversion tracking, do a simple online search.
Tip #10 Bid Adjustments
You have to remember that every keyword is not created equally. You have to examine your spend and your conversions for every keyword and adjust the bid (individually) for each of them.
Bonus Tip – Learn the Adwords editor…and use it.
Find out more about AdWords, by visiting www.internetmarketingeureka.com to find the best advice on internet marketing for you.