Google AdWords has become the market leader in pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. Not only are ads served through the most popular and powerful search engine, Google, but the user interface gives users more options than any other service, and tracking with Google Analytics is free and extremely reliable. While there are many success stories from Google AdWords users, you will hear just as many complaints from users who have not taken the time to understand how to properly set up a profitable campaign. Remember that you pay money for every click, and if you don't apply the principles of good Google Ads management, you run the risk of joining the group of those who failed to make a profit with PPC.
Here are 5 tips to improve your Google AdWords management:
1. Choose keywords that are highly relevant to your website. This is crucial. You need to understand what people are searching for when they visit your website. You can use the Google Keyword Tool in the AdWords Tools section or the External Keyword Tool if you are logged into AdWords. Just type "Google External Keyword Tool" into Google. You have the option to enter some common keywords and then find more related keywords for your campaign. You can also ask Google to review your website and provide keywords based on the results.
2. Create multiple ad groups for different topics. One of the most important aspects of good Google AdWords management is organization. Google likes it when you put some effort into your campaigns. If you're selling a cookbook, don't put the keywords "recipes for omelets" in the same ad group as "healthy dinner." They are two very different topics and should be treated as such. Create an ad group for "Recipes for Omelets" and put all the keywords related to this topic in this ad group. Do the same with "healthy dinner" and so on.
This way, you can create highly targeted ads for that ad group, resulting in a higher click-through-rate (CTR), which gives your ad group a higher quality score, which usually results in a lower cost per click (CPC). This is because Google rewards relevant ads by calculating the click-through rate. However, make sure that the website or page on your website that you are directing visitors to is relevant to your ads. If Google finds out that you are advertising cooking products, for example, but your website is about car insurance, you will get a slap in the face and your ad costs will skyrocket. We're talking $10.00 per click here. Again, it's all about making sure your Google ads are relevant and give searchers what they are looking for. The more precise you are, the more profitable your campaigns will be. Makes sense, right?
3. Don't be afraid to use long-tail keywords. Another common mistake many PPC users make is bidding on too many generic keywords. For example, if you have a website about hardware tools, you should not bid on the term "hardware tools" because it is very generic and probably quite expensive. If a general keyword like this isn't expensive, that's a red flag that the keyword isn't profitable because it's too general.
A long-tail keyword means that the keyword phrase usually consists of more than 3 words. For example, if your hardware tools website sells miter saws, you should bid on a keyword like "miter saw" or "sliding miter saw" to be as specific as possible. Chances are, bids for long-tail keywords will be lower, often significantly lower than for general keywords. You may not get as many searches for the keyword, but they will be cheaper and more targeted, both very important aspects of good Google AdWords management.
4. Use exact and phrase match options. A great way to reduce keyword click costs is to focus on the exact keyword phrases that users will be searching for. Many AdWords users only bid on broad keywords, even if it is a phrase. For example, if you only type in the phrase "find a job in new york", your keyword may show up for ANY keyword phrase that contains those words. That means if someone types in "how to find a second job in telemarketing outside of new york", your ad could show up.
Even if your website has nothing to do with the person's search, your ad could appear. Either the user clicks on your ad and you pay money for something you don't sell, or no one clicks on it and your quality score drops. In either case, you lose. Instead, add quotation marks around your keywords to list your keyword as a phrase. This means that the user must now type "find a job in new york" in that specific order for your ad to appear. This means that the phrase can be surrounded by words, such as "I want to find a job in New York today," as long as the words "find a job in New York" are entered in that exact order.
An even more specific search term is constructed by adding parentheses around your keyword phrase. This means that the search can ONLY consist of the exact words of your search entered in the same order. So only "Find a job in New York" will trigger your ad. If someone types in "how to find a job in New York", your ad will not appear. This is another example of successful Google AdWords management.
5. Track your campaigns. Google offers an extremely powerful free service called Google Analytics that integrates with your AdWords account. All you need to do is add your website address, insert a code into your website pages and you're good to go. With Google Analyics, you can track where your visitors are coming from, set up conversion tracking to see which keywords lead to the most sales, and much, much more. Tracking data will tell you a lot of valuable information about your campaigns. This will allow you to optimize your campaigns to get the most profit possible. It will also show you which ad groups aren't working so you stop wasting money on them. This can make the difference between breaking even and making a big profit.
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