Google AdWords (P4P) is the online marketing tool that businesses invest the most in. When I first started using Google AdWords, I had an extremely low budget, therefore I really had to ensure that my plan was efficient and effective. Therefore with the help of books, journals, tips and reports I put together a list of key essentials that if followed will help YOU run a more successful Google AdWords campaign.
1. Don’t use broad terms and keywords
If you include very general keyword or phrases, for example such as “football shoes”, in your keyword list, your ads will appear when users search for football and shoes separately as well. You should use very specific keywords which will also save costs as a lot of general keywords have a high click price.
Using keywords like this is usually used by experienced advertisers who also have a long list of negative keywords. It often gets a bad rap, but there are times when broad matching can work well, but only when using together with negative keywords.
2. Use dynamic titles
Dynamic titles are easy, they don't cost anything and they usually have a good effect on CTR and conversion rates. The phrase that the searcher uses in their search will come up as the title of your AdWord. This saves you having to create an individual ad for each keyword and means that your ad will be more targeted. In the title field of your ad simply your keyword first, then a backup/follow up title. However If all your competitors are using Dynamic titles, then using a static title can make your ad stand out compared to the others.
3. Negative keywords
If you're selling something, you don't want people finding your ad if they're searching for free stuff. This sounds obvious, but do some searches and you'll see it happening. Use the word 'free' in your campaign global negatives. You can also use this for other words you don't want to turn up for. Using negative keywords is especially important if you're using broad matching.
4 .Be creative, being number one position doesn’t always matter
Everyone tries to reach to be the top ad on the list but you got to think just how much of a difference will being in the first position, as opposed to the second, third or sixth position make? If you are creative then it doesn’t matter on your position.
A powerful way to do this is buy using a keyword specific URL in your advert. If you're selling some Nike Airwalk shoes you might want to set the URL on your creative to display as: www.example.com/adidas/nike-airwalk. Remember this doesn’t have to match your real click domain name, and is better than a long URL made up of random letters.
5. Optimize your landing page
The landing page is the page which the person who clicked on your ad will see when they come through to your site. Remember its import that you don't use your homepage as your landing page unless it deals only with selling the product you're advertising.
6. Track your keywords!
Track everything. Google will track impressions, clicks and click through rate. Just because an ad has a high CTR doesn't mean that it is making you money! If you don't know how each keyword is performing – then you won't be able to optimize your campaigns, by turning off the keywords that aren't working and investing more in the keywords which are.
7. Don't enter into bidding wars
It is easy to get into bidding wars with your competitors. You want to be number one and so does your competitor. This is the last thing you should do unless you can justify it. Let your competitor be number one, and be happy to be number two. Remember if you have a better product, your click through rate will get you to the top and you'll still be paying the same as you were in the second position.
8. Set a weekly budget and stick to it
When you're first starting out this is really important. Google AdWords is very addictive, and before you know it you have spent a week’s budget in one day! Set a weekly/ monthly budget and stick to this.
9. Target by region
By targeting individual countries and even cities, this will make more targeted users feels that your ad is meant for them. If you have the advert in the local language this would improve your advert even more, and the more likely they are to click on it. Just remember you would have a English printed advert in Japan, AdWords is no different!
10. Pick a timeslot when you want your ads to show
If you have your ads active 24 hours, your ads may be wasted on “Midnight Clickers” By choosing specific times for your ads to show this will help save money and ensure that you are targeting your specific customer more effectively. For example if I was targeting office stationary buyers, I would set my ads to run from 7am to 8pm, rather than have them running 24 hours.
11. Keep your campaigns organized
This will make it easier for you to know what is doing well and what isn't.
12. What are your competitors doing?
Remember before you begin and throughout your campaign you should take a look at what your competitors are doing. Are they doing something better than you? What keywords do you share with your competitors? Can you discern their strategy? Do they use automated bidding software? Do their landing pages have some magic which you should be emulating? This is the sort of stuff you can find out and the kind of stuff that you need to know.
