Tried and true Google Adwords tips are essential to ensuring that you get bang-for-your-buck for your Google Pay Per Click campaigns. Adwords can be a complex beast to many businesses, but it doesn’t need to be.
However, it is also important to realise that simply choosing a few keywords to target will not do the trick. There are some best practices to be adhered to. As a non-optimised Adwords campaign can quickly burn your money.
Here are some areas worth consideration. These are just as applicable for new campaigns, as they are for existing campaigns.
What’s the goal ?
Before you open your wallet, you need to consider “What do you want to be when you grow up ? ”
What does your business offer ? What is your USP ( Unique Selling Proposition ), that is, what makes you unique in your marketplace. Who EXACTLY is your target audience ? What language do your customers use ? Where will you find them ? What are your success factors ; more money, more traffic or more exposure ( note: these success factors can be very different with regard to the keywords you target, and the landing pages you bring your prospects to ) ? What is your offer, is it compelling ?
This is an area that is consistently overlooked. Yet it is essential to any Adwords campaign success. It is also one of the main Google Adwords tips in this article, as you will see.
Recommendation: For any given campaign, build a profile of your ideal target customer, their pains, how you solve their problems, and the edge you have over your competition. This goes a long way in determining the baseline for any proposed ROI.
How do I decide on my overall budget ?
Firstly, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as they say. The Google Adwords basket will of course include your Ad Spend budget ( how much pay Google for the Ads they display on their search network) . It can also include 3rd party services if you intend on outsourcing your Adwords campaign. This can take the form of set up and management fees . Ensure that you have budget for other appropriate areas, including your website, social media and mobile marketing.
Thankfully, Google allows you to have a great deal of control over elements of your PPC campaign, including setting a daily dollar limit, which is invaluable and lets most of us sleep well at night.
Recommendation: Start slowly, with a hard daily limit, that allows of multiple Ads, Ad Groups and keywords, so that your campaigns and their budgets can be refined and optimised as you move forward. It is a dynamic marketplace that requires close attention. Further Google adwords tips below help round out the answer to this question.
How do I choose my keywords ?
Keyword research is probably the most important step in an Adwords marketing promotion. It starts before a campaign is even created, and continues throughout the campaigns, as adjustments and refinements are applied. Remember, you are actively bidding against an open market.
Recommendation: Successful keywords will include not just generic product or service terms, but “buying intent” variations as well. “Buying intent” variations are usually based on solving a problem immediately. For example “where to buy a cheap ipad “, and “how to fix dry rot”.
What type of ad targeting should I use ?
Google Adwords provides several ways your advertisement can be displayed. These include deploying your ad on the search network and display networks.
For example, contextual targeting can be an effective advertising strategy, as your exposure can increase dramatically. On the flip side, you can lose a little bit of control over the process. There is a labour overhead in monitoring where your ads are actually appearing and ensuring target focus. Results depend on the market you are targeting, your offer and the amount of additional time and effort that can be afforded.
Recommendation: In order to maintain the most control over your budget and campaigns, it is recommended to have Google trigger your ads on the Search network only. At least for the short and medium term.
Can I afford to advertise for a particular keyword ?
Simply put, it is important to determine if a keyword, or set of keywords can be profitable for you. There may have to be some educated guestimates involved, but it will be better than nothing.
To help determine how much you are willing to bid for a particular keyword, you need to work out several areas, including ; your (lifetime profit per customer ), your website conversion rate, and the advertising profit margin you are targeting. The Max CPC ( cost per click ) will be based on the above variables.
Recommendation: If the estimated keyword CPC ( cost per click ) is less than the Maximum CPC , then you are on your way to profiting from campaigning for that particular keyword. If not, then the alternative are, choosing a different keyword, optimising your website conversion rates, or adjusting your targeted profit measures. This section and the previous one provide Google Adwords tips that help determine your ROI.
What keyword match type should be used ?
Google allows keyword matches based on 3 different, but sometimes overlapping categories.
Broad – This match type includes grammatical forms, synonyms, and related words to the actual search term you are targeting. For example, for the keyword “Carpet Cleaning Melbourne”, Google will also display your Ad when someone types in “Cleaning Products”, “Melbourne Carpet Supplier” and so on. This match type ensure the widest reach and exposure, but can result in false positives.
Phrase – This match type includes the whole phrase or near variants of the whole phrase. for the keyword “Carpet Cleaning Melbourne”, Google will also display your Ad when someone types in “Cheap Carpet Cleaning Melbourne” or “Commercial Carpet Cleaning Melbourne” and so on. The targeting is more focussed than Broad Match.
Exact – When this match type is chosen, your Ad can display when someone types in the specific keyword itself, and close variants ( like plurals ). This is the most targeted match type, and reach is obviously reduced, but in a positive way.
Recommendation: It is advisable to ultimately have Exact Match campaigns. But using Phrase or even Broad Match campaigns initially can prove to be useful as part of your campaign optimisation steps and continuing due diligence.
Are there any tools I can use to help ?
Google’s Keyword Tool has been the mainstay for keyword research for some time now. Unfortunately, Google has decided to shut this down shortly. Their companion tool, Keyword Planner has been suggested as its immediate successor . There are of course other tools that Google provides for advertisers.
HOT OFF THE PRESS : Google AdWords has just launched its Google Display Planner, which is a combination of three existing AdWords tools: the Contextual Targeting Tool, Placement Tool, and Google Ad Planner. Stay tuned !
There are also many 3rd party tools that provide both free and paid keyword research services and software . The most notable include ; Market Samurai, Traffic Travis, and Keyword Spy.
Recommendation : Certainly maintain the use of any tools Google provides. However it may be prudent to accompany any information you gather from Google with that provided by a 3rd party provider ( free or paid ). Some of these 3rd party companies provide additional user-friendly tools. They also include reporting features that are often useful in justifying certain keyword decisions.
Can I create and maintain a Google Adwords campaign by myself ?
Certainly. This method of advertising was not meant to be brain surgery. Google has many helpful guides and tutorials, and there is always Google Search to answer any questions along the way <grin> . You can request phone help as well directly from Google. There are certain recipes of success you can deploy directly, should you have ready access to these. And of course, you have the Google Adwords tips above to help you along.
Ultimately the decision as to whether you run this yourself, or whether you outsource, comes down to many of the Google Adwords tips discussed above. Many businesses opt to outsource their Google Adwords campaign for the same reasons they outsource their car maintenance, or house painting. They could probably do it themselves, but there is a higher chance of speedier success, calling upon a professional who can deliver value affordably.
For a no-obligation consultation regarding your existing or new Google Adwords campaign, and for more Google Adwords tips, please contact Webmentum Marketing, or Click Here.
