Google has created the most effective, targeted, easily measurable
forms of marketing & advertising in history. With Google
AdWords you can reach millions in seconds, and get in front
of an appropriate audience and sell your goods or services to
visitors throughout the world.
But, in order to harness the power (and it is powerful) of
this incredible system and maximize your results while minimizing
your spend there are a number of simple steps you should take.
Whether you are new to AdWords or a seasoned AdWords veteran
there are five simple mistakes I see in client accounts again
and again. Avoid the mistakes, increase click through rates,
decrease average cost per click and increase conversions!
TIP #1: Split Up Your Campaigns & Ad Groups
Stop bundling all of your keywords into one campaign and
one ad group. Time and time again I see client accounts with
one campaign, one ad group, and 100+ key-terms with only one
ad. Google's structure is hierarchical, allowing easy, precise
management of your keyterms. Campaigns allow you to manage
a number of Ad Groups, and ad groups allow you to manage the
specific ads for a particular set of key terms. I usually
break down my accounts as follows: The Campaign is usually
a base keyword say "cups" and the ad groups within
"cups" have variations on that key term "red
cups," "plastic cups," etc. Besides being more
organized and allowing you to more easily view the performance
of different terms, splitting up your campaigns and ad groups
this way will allow you to create extremely specific ads.
If you are guilty of lumping all of your ads and keyterms
together in one group don't worry, it may be to your advantage.
Although organization is helpful, it can sometimes be hard
to figure out how to initially organize an account. You don't
always know if a term or set of terms will be extremely popular
and should have it's own campaign and specific ad groups.
If your campaign(s) has been running for any period of time
you can leverage the history of your terms in creating and
organizing your new campaign and ad groups. Analyze the number
of impressions for each term and base your campaigns off the
most popular sets. For example an account I recently adjusted
had a lot of impressions for "medicaid attorney."
I broke this term out, pulling it into it's own ad group underneath
the "Medicaid" campaign. I then proceeded to create
like groups underneath the "Medicaid"
campaign with variations on attorney or Medicaid. When I
was done with the account the "Medicaid" campaign
had a large number of ad groups within it, all pertaining
to (or including the term) Medicaid.
Once you are finished organizing, your accounts should
look something like this:
Medicaid (Campaign) > Medicaid Attorney (Adgroup) >
Medicaid Attorney (keyterm) > Best Medicaid Attorney
Medicaid (Campaign) > Medicaid Lawyer (Adgroup) > Medicaid
Lawyer (keyterm) > Best Medicaid Lawyer
TIP #2: Create Extremely Specific Ads, Match Your Ads to
Your Terms
Splitting up your campaigns and ad groups is necessary to
create extremely specific ads and to match those ads to your
terms. Secret #1 allows you to properly manage and manipulate
your account (providing an upgrade path for more terms), but
Secret #2 will get more people to actually click!
The beauty of AdWords is its specificity. You can target
an ad regarding "Lightning Bug Jars," to only run
when a user visits a site with the terms "Lightning Bug
Jars", or when a user types "Lightning Bug Jars"
into a search query on Google's network. Google has leveraged
this specificity, creating a giant advertising network that
is destroying old advertising networks and mediums.
The problem with creating a television ad isn't so much the
cost of the production of the ad (which it can cost a great
deal) or in the cost of the actual spot (which can also be
very expensive), but in the fact that the ad will be seen
by an untargeted mass. Your advertisement for a new teen fashion
will be seen by an elderly Grandmother, who although hip in
her own right, has no interest in pink hot pants with the
word "juicy" smeared across the posterior.
Leverage Google's specificity!
To run a successful AdWords account you must take advantage
of Google's specificity. At first it might seem daunting (and
it will take some time and creativity), but split up your
campaigns, ad groups and keyterms as much as you can (see
Secret #1) and then make sure to make your ads as specific
as possible.
Once you have broken up your campaigns and ad groups into
key term specific groups the benefits will become immediately
noticeable. Where before you were limited to one set of ads
for a huge number of unlike keyterms, now you can target specific
ads for specific keyterms. Writing ads will become easier.
Many of my ad groups contain only two or three terms, for
example an account I was updating today had an ad group called
"Estate Planning Attorney" with the following two
terms: estate planning attorney, estate planning attorneys.
I have another ad group called "Estate Planning Lawyer"
with like variations. This will mean you may have a LOT more
ad groups and campaigns to monitor and manage, but the results
will be well worth your time and effort.
TIP #3: Use Your Keyword In Your Ad (sometimes)
Have you ever typed a search query into Google and realized
that the term(s) you searched for appears bolded in Google's
display results. Try it, go search for chocolate:
http://www.google.com/search?q=chocolate
You'll notice that the word chocolate is bolded everywhere
it appears, including the AdWords ads!
This subtle bolding has a huge impact on drawing people's
attention to your ad. The impact becomes more noticeable when
you have multiple word key terms like "milk chocolate"
or "dark chocolate." Any words that are in the query
will be bolded in your ad. So, as often as possible, and when
it makes logical sense and is appropriate, include the key
term in your ad, the extra visibility from the bolding should
help tremendously. Beyond the physical bolding, including
the key terms in your ads also has a psychological impact
on the user. By connecting the term with an ad you help connect
the ad to the visitor. They are searching for that term anyway,
help them realize your sites potential and relevance by including
it in the ad. The effect is stronger (or more visible) when
someone is searching on Google (or one of their search partner
networks).
Someone types in chocolate, sees your ad (with the word chocolate
bolded) and clicks. In Google's content network (where the
ad is based on the content of the AdSense site the ads are
on) the effect is subtler. The user may be reading a paragraph
or article with the word chocolate embedded in the content
somewhere and then sees an ad for chocolate. Although not
as in your face, it still has a powerful connection effect.
The bolding also occurs if your domain includes one of your
keyterms. If you are in a very competitive industry, and you
have seen a lot of impressions, but relatively few clicks
do a quick search for the terms you are already bidding on
(or are considering bidding on). If you notice all or most
of the ads are including the key terms in their ads or titles
(for the bolding effect) don't include your key term in your
ad or your title. Try to differentiate your ad. Make it stand
out by bolding (or not bolding) it when appropriate.
TIP #4: Create Multiple Ads & Monitor Those Ads
Google allows you to create a number of ads within each ad
group. Once you've organized your AdWords account properly
and have ads that correspond directly to the set of keywords
within an ad group, create multiple ads.
Google tracks and reports a myriad of statistics on each
ad (most of them probably already familiar to you through
keywords). The information Google reveals includes the following:
Percent Served is the number of times that
particular ad was shown in relation to the other ads in the
ad group. For example say I had an ad group setup with two
ads. The keyterms in this ad group were able to attain 100
total impressions. My first ad has a percent served number
of 46%, my second ad has a percent served number of 54%. Therefore,
my first ad was shown 46% of the time or 46 times (based on
the 100 impressions 100 x 46%). The second ad was shown 54
times (100 x 54%).
Clicks in the ad variations tab reveals
the number of clicks that particular ad received. Impr. or
impressions is the number of times that ad was seen by searchers
or those viewing your ad on the content network.
CTR or click through rate is the number
of click divided by the number of impressions (clicks/impressions).
This is a very important number. The higher the click through
rate the more you (and Google) can assume that users found
this ad or term relevant to a particular set of keyterms.
Better more targeted ads and keyterms receive higher click
through rates.
Cost is the overall spend designated to
or spent with a particular ad.
Conv. Rate or conversion rate, the number
of people who contacted you, or took the steps you consider
a conversion divided by the number of clicks.
Cost/Conv. or cost per conversion, is your
total spend divided by the number of conversions.
Gaining a familiarity with the above terms, what they mean
and how they relate to your particular account, terms, and
ads, is vital to success in AdWords. There are no hard and
fast rules for a successful account; there is not a default
average click through rate, or conversion rate. What might
be phenomenal performance for a high-end business consultant
can totally destroy a reseller of specialty key chains.
In order to properly analyze your ad performance you must
create multiple ads. I would suggest 2 or 3 ads to begin with.
At first your ads will be rotated consistently, but eventually
one will typically outshine the other(s) as being more effective
in garnering clicks. In this respect Google will proactively
monitor your ads, eventually showing the
most effective ad most often. This is a great, effective,
features of AdWords. It ensures that your most effective ad
is also the one most shone. But, you must continue to tweak
your ads! Try to compare the success of the one ad to the
failure of another, what are your users responding to? Was
your title well written with a catchy phrase or format? Redo
the body of your ad. Was the body of your ad enticing with
a great call to action? Redo the title of your ad. Eventually
this A to B to C testing will lead to huge gains in click
through rate and overall account performance. Finally, if
you are looking for inspiration you can always "market
research" a competitor's ad. See what seems to work on
other advertisers' ads and use them as a spring board to your
own ad success. Do their ads entice you? Would you click?
Secret
TIP #5: Stay Up-To-Date, Use Google's Help Resources
One of the best things about Google AdWords is that it is
constantly evolving. New features including mobile ads, image
ads, video ads, keyword tools etc. are added all the time
allowing advertisers to reach a broader network of targeted
visitors. New tools allow laser targeting and precise measurement.
But, one of the worst things about Google AdWords is that
it is constantly evolving. AdWords, like many other Google
services is tweaked, revised and added to at an alarming pace,
a pace that can sometime be hard to keep up with. Arm yourself
with the tools you'll need to stay current on all of the latest
revisions and tools. Some great resources include:
Google AdWords Help Center - http://adwords.google.com/support/
This is perhaps the single biggest resource. Every change
or revision is documented in the Help Center, including revisions
to algorithms and the Quality Score formula. In addition to
visible tool changes or additions, often major changes to
the AdWords system occur, but are not directly visible by
end users. An algorithm or formula change will directly affect
your advertising and you may be able to spot it by closely
analyzing your traffic and statistics, but learning of changes
as they happen will help arm and prepare you for changes that
need to be made.
Google AdWords Learning Center -
http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/
Google has really gone out of their way in facilitating the
use of AdWords. This has been illustrated through the ease
and intelligence of AdWords' interface, but also in the number
and method of resources for new users. This fantastic multimedia
breakdown of EVERY component of AdWords, from introducing
and setting up an account through Google's most advanced AdWord's
tools, will make you a confident AdWords expert. Each tutorial
includes a helpful audio/video presentation that is easily
presented and you are allowed to take a quiz after each lesson.
If you are new to AdWords I highly suggest
taking a day or two and going through each lesson one buy
one and completing the Google quiz.
Inside Adwords - http://adwords.blogspot.com/
Inside AdWords is he official source for information about
AdWords. In addition to offering an array of helpful links
regarding AdWords (including videos and tutorials) this incredibly
helpful blog is a great resource on current or upcoming changes.
Often times the developers of AdWords, the authors of this
blog, will explain why certain changes were made, what changes
will be made, and what advertisers should do to facilitate
and take advantage of these changes. By staying up-to-date
on upcoming or proposed changes you can get a leg up on your
competition and begin preparing for additions or revisions.
Conclusion Those are my five secrets, the five techniques
I use to gain success and continue to improve on that success
for each of my clients on AdWords. I hope you enjoyed the
five secrets to Google AdWords Success and it empowers you
to hold your marketing dollars responsible and perhaps consider
the use of this fantastic tool. If you have any additional
questions or comments please feel free to contact me.
Chase Rogers is the founder of Chase New Media, LLC. Chase
can be reached at (561) 702-8251. The company's web site is
http://www.chasenewmedia.com. |
