Guide to Google Adwords

  1.      KEEP CAMPAIGNS & ADGROUPS TIGHTLY THEMED.
It’s important to make sure your campaigns and adgroups are all relevant.  This primarily relates to the keywords or phrases being used within each.  This is very important for campaigns that have opted into the Content Network, while also being displayed within search.  If the ad groups are not tightly themed, it is very difficult for Google to determine the context of your groups.  It’s possible they will misinterpret what you represent within your key phrases, for display within the content network. Another reason is ability to custom tailor your ad copy.  If you are trying to cover too much ground within one ad group, it will be challenging to create compelling ad copy. 

2.      USE ANALYTICS AND CONVERSION TRACKING –   
        BOTH  OFFERED FREE BY GOOGLE
Through the use of Conversion Tracking, you are able to easily identify within the Adwords interface the performance of each keyword and its cost per conversion.This is helpful to optimize poor performing words or make bidding decisions.  It is not enough information to make decisions regarding keeping or removing terms.  A full suite analytics program is required.  This type of analysis is critical to determine success of your paid efforts, as well as compare them to other campaigns or organic search.  Google Analytics is a robust platform and easy to use. 

3.      TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST ….. (alright, you get the picture)
It is impossible to know if you are doing your best unless you try something else and compare it.  If that doesn’t work, there could always be something else that does.  Without this mindset, you run the risk of plateauing and being railroaded by competition.  With a very competitive landscape, along with rising costs, the need to continually improve is paramount for success.  Google offers  tools to make this easier.  By default, Adwords rotates your ads and will then serve the one that performs better more frequently.  To get true stats, opt-out  and let them run at 50% distribution each.  Your click through rates will highlight the better ad. Google Website Optimizer, offers a way to test and edit Landing Pages easily. 

4.      CREATE COMPELLING LANDING PAGES THAT CONVERT
Many advertisers think they have to find a page on their site that will also serve as a valuable landing experience for paid searchers.  This is often a challenge, as your website is built around the philosophy of having many other supporting pages for a user to follow up with.  In paid search, time and real estate are precious commodities.  Testing is critical and can be done manually by inserting different pages in the destination URL spot for the same word and watching the results.  Try Website Optimizer,for A/B tests or multivariate experiments. 

5.      MONITOR AND IMPROVE YOUR QUALITY SCORE
The Quality Score is a very important, dynamic, metric and can impact visibility and cost.  Each keyword is assigned a Score,  tied to the relevancy of your ads and landing pages.  The score is comprised of several factors and  correlates to your keyword status, active/paused, as well as min. bid and position.  The score is determined separate for content.

A new addition to the score is Landing Page Load Time.   


6.      LONGTAIL KEYWORDS – BROAD ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER Although volume is higher, more generic keywords have increased competition and are more costly.  These also tend to be less qualified visitors who are researching or early on in the buying process, therefore less likely to convert.   Having a good mix of short and long tail terms in your campaigns,  will maximize opportunities and leverage budgets to determine where the best ROI is achieved.Google has an easy to use Keyword Research Tool.  


USE THE CAMPAIGN OPTIONS ADWORDS  to include:

 7. Geographic Targeting – market to users in your local area or expand out to specific areas/states of the country.  If certain parts of your business can only be serviced or delivered in specific areas, then those keywords or ad groups should be broken out into a separate campaign so the options can be targeted appropriately just for them.  Everything else can remain in another campaign targeted to the  country or world. 

8. Day Parting/ Ad Scheduler – this is particularly effective if you know when your customers are searching for you or if you drive visitors to a phone number and you aren’t available 24/7.  If you are trying to maximize budget, and have an idea of traffic patterns for your business, this should be considered.  Keep in mind other time zones, so you don‘t exclude any qualified visitors.
 
9. Budget Delivery – you can choose a staggered delivery throughout the day for even distribution over a 24-hour period or an accelerated delivery. This option will serve ads until budget is reached, regardless of how quickly that may be after the day begins.  Implementing this feature can be dangerous if not used properly.  Good reasons to consider it are if you are running a timed promotion or offline marketing effort to achieve maximum exposure when you need it most.  


10.        CONSIDER THE OPTIONS BEYOND TRADITIONAL 
              ADWORDS
 Google has expanded into many new areas.  These advertising options include TV, Print, Mobile, Radio, Display and Video.  Google affords smaller advertisers ease of entry for testing these traditional outlets.