Google AdWords Advice

Published on 05/04/2011 by Adrian

Google AdWords logoAdWords advice for anyone wishing to set up their own PPC campaign in Google.

When a user searches on Google, the web sites that appear down the left hand side are those that have been optimised for that particular search phrase in the ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ search results. This is called ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO).

The results that appear on the right hand side of the page are those sites that are advertising through the Google AdWords system.

If you intend on managing your own AdWords account, it is important that you understand how it works. Go through the help section or buy a good AdWords book. At the very least, follow the advice on this page.

There are a maximum of eight entries per page. Occasionally, there are additional sponsored ads above the natural search results too. Although Google experiment with colour of these, they are typically shown in a yellow block.

You don’t pay for traffic with AdWords unless a visitor actually clicks on your advert and visits your website.

In essence, if you do your research and spend time setting up your adverts and related key phrases, you’re only paying for qualified visitors to your website.

Clearly, there’s no substitute for either studying AdWords seriously or outsourcing to an AdWords professional but, if you are going to build your own campaigns, the following may just save you some time and/or money.

AdWords Process Overview

  • Carry out research into what your potential customers are actually searching for
  • Build your keyword list
  • Use a text editor (NoteTab Pro is excellent) or spreadsheet to sort and refine your keyword phrases in to tightly themed groups
  • Create your AdWords Account*
    • You’ll need a Google account for this which could be a Gmail or standard email address. There will also be a small activation fee that you’ll pay Google so have a credit card handy!
    • If in the UK, Bold Internet can offer a credit against new AdWords accounts (usually £50 – £75)
  • Submit your first campaign
    • Once you’ve registered with AdWords, you can set up your first campaign.This is the subject you’re dealing with, for example ‘Software’. You then set up ‘ad groups’ within campaigns and basically you should expect to have many groups if you have done your keyword/ad copy matching correctly.
  • Analyse and refine your campaign
    • You need to track your campaign and be prepared to delete keywords, add new ones and edit adverts. This is particularly key in the early stages to ensure your marketing budget doesn’t just vanish without trace!
  • Repeat the process until you’re happy with your campaign performance

Keep expanding your campaigns by adding new ad groups using additional, relevant keywords to expand your reach. Google’s own free keyword tool will help with this but there are many professional level solutions that will provide additional keyword ideas.

The really great thing about AdWords is that you can set a daily budget at the campaign level, but can also pause specific ad groups. This allows you to trial and adjust as you go. Keywords within ad groups can have individual bid amounts too.

Combine this with the fact that you also have language and multiple regional targeting options, and you end up with an advertising medium with which you have complete and total control.

AdWords Advice and Tips

  1. Bid on low cost relevant words
  2. Qualify your title and description
  3. Use unique landing pages
  4. Set a realistic budget
  5. Use conversion tracking
  6. Know your typical sales value and margin
  7. Work to achieve a high Click through Rate (CTR)
  8. Write effective ad copy (helps with CTR)
  9. Make sure you understand the different keyword match types
  10. Use negative keywords to prevent your ad being displayed for irrelevant searches

The key to successful AdWords campaign is to keep testing and tweaking until you’re happy with the profit you’re making. Then repeat the process!

Hopefully, this AdWords advice will help you build a targeted campaign that will make you more sales and waste less money. Of course, you may decide that you’d still like an expert to look over your account. If that applies to you, take a look at our free AdWords account review page.

Related posts:

  1. Google AdWords Negative Keyword Lists