Guide to Managing Your Google AdWords Campaign

There are many features of the Google AdWords system that are designed to help marketers effectively manage their pay per click advertising campaigns. Many are used frequently, so they are surely familiar to most of you, but others don’t get much play. If you manage paid search advertising programs for a living, you can probably stop reading now. But if your AdWords knowledge level is beginner to intermediate, here are some little-known tips for using AdWords that you should find helpful.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Shorthand for Keyword-Level Control

It is relatively easy to manipulate bids and landing pages at the keyword level using the AdWords interface. However, if you are working with a large number of keywords, or want to manipulate bids in Excel and transfer them easily to Google, you can do this in the “Edit Keywords” window. In Excel, put the keywords in the first column, their corresponding bids in the second column, and the associated landing page URL in the third column. Then you add double asterisks (**) between the variables. An easy way to do this in Excel is with the following formula in the fourth column: =A1&"**"&B1&"**"&C1 This formula will produce this output: Keyword**0.10**http://www.landingpage.com Paste this output into the “Edit Keyword” window and you’re done.

I recommend: Learn more about Pay Per Click Advertising Management.

Embedded Match

All you Google Advertising Professionals will know this one, but probably few others. “Embedded match” refers to using a specific match type to specify negative keywords. For instance, suppose you’re selling clothes online and you want to run on the keyword “cardigans,” but you notice you’re getting a lot of traffic for the music group, The Cardigans (ok, maybe not a LOT of traffic, but some). You can’t negative match the keyword “cardigans,” so you need something more sophisticated. The solution is to combine the minus sign with brackets to denote an exact, negative match. This is called embedded matching. By entering: – [the cardigans] (minus sign and brackets and all) into your keyword list, you will get rid of those impressions due to users searching for the band, The Cardigans, and still be able to run on the keyword “cardigans.” This seems esoteric but comes up more than you might think if you’re doing your due diligence on negative matches.

I recommend: Learn more about Search Engine Marketing.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion

This functionality allows a search engine user’s query to be inserted dynamically as the title of your ad. You can also use this feature in your descriptions, but it is less useful there because it needs to make sense with the rest of the description. You can use dynamic insertion by typing {keyword:default title} (just like that, with brackets and all) into the title. This will cause Google to insert the user’s query (unless it is more than 25 characters) into the title. If the query is too long, it will display the default title that you enter. The example above produced all lower-case letters. You can capitalize the first letter using this code: {Keyword:Default title} Or, capitalize the first letter of each word you are using like this: {KeyWord:Default Title} In both cases, you can enter the default title however you choose to have it displayed. In the example above it simply mirrors the code for consistency.

I recommend: Learn more about Search Engine Optimization.

Customized Geo-Targeting

This feature allows you to define the geographic area in which you want your ads displayed. This is primarily useful if you have a business with a physical location that only services a particular area. An easy example is a pizza delivery business. By specifying coordinates, you could run a Google AdWords campaign only in your delivery area. You can use this feature by editing your campaign settings and choosing “Customized” geo-targeting.

I recommend: Learn more about Paid Inclusion Services.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• BONUS: Campaign Negatives in Yahoo! Search Marketing Click on “Account Set-Up” from the login screen. In the “Advanced Match Type” box, you’ll see a little blue text link called, “Add Excluded Words.” Clicking this will allow you to enter excluded keywords that will apply to your entire campaign. Hopefully, by utilizing these features you’ll not only save time, you’ll do a better job of targeting your pay per click advertising campaigns. Better targeting is always the first step to higher ROI, higher ROAS, and lower CPA.