With the ever growing increase in online advertising spend for both big and small businesses alike, no matter the size of business Google AdWords are seemingly a must.
Undoubtedly Google AdWords can be incredibly overwhelming to the novice, but don’t fear. Use these tips and apply them – one at a time and each time you place an advert.
If you don’t invest in the time to understand and manage your campaign effectively you may find your hard earned money isn’t bringing in the conversions it promised it would.
Consider these Tips.
Your Unique Selling Point?
Make it clear – With just 95 characters available to you to fashion a message that will convince customers to click your advert because they want to know more. It needs to outline the unique service, product or opportunity you have to offer, all potential customers need a reason to click on your business over all the others in front of them.
Be straight to the point about your business or campaign’s unique selling point. Why is your product better than your competitors?
Here are a few USP examples that you could offer:
30 Day Free Returns 50% Off Your First Order Free shipping Buy one get the second half price.
What is your budget?
It is imperative that before setting any campaign you must first determine what budget you have available to allocate to your AdWords … And stick to it!
It is so easy to get carried along with the crowd and overspend especially when you are putting together multiple targeted campaigns and multivariate testing.
Consider the amount of budget you have available – calculate the daily spend based on the budget and the duration the campaign will run over – daily costs will vary, as the per-day spend is based on a daily average per month.
A lack of discipline towards setting a limit on your online spend could be dangerous for your finances as costs can soon add up if you don’t full take on board the cost-per-AdWords or Google bidding process.
Set a Campaign End Date Always define a start and end date for your campaign.
Advertising costs money.
Establish your ad campaign objectives:
Are you marketing a sales promotion? Do you need conversions for an event? Are you boosting sales for the month? Based on your campaign objectives create a start end date for each of your ads.
Even if you haven’t set specific advertising objectives that are time sensitive, always have an end date. (Use the marketing SMART objectives – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based).
Remember if your campaign is set to keep running, and running and running – and so will your credit card bill.
Keep it simple
Don’t overcomplicate your advert – think about what you want to communicate to your customer.
If you have a clear, uncomplicated message you want the potential customer browsing the web to convert into your customer. It’s human nature to judge your ad copy in about a half second. If it is easy to understand, you will grab their attention for a second or two longer.
Group products into individual campaigns don’t try to squeeze into Google Ads all of your products. Think simple and targeted to increase conversions for each of your ad group campaigns.
Keep your Display URL simple – even if the landing page you direct to has a long name.
Include a Keyword within your Ad Copy Google ranks adverts based on search matches. So remember you must always include one of your main keywords in your ad copy or header. The more your ad matches the keyword search, the higher Google will rank your ad.
Some keywords are highly competitive, for example “jewellery”, if you don’t use the word “jewellery” in your ad copy or header, your ad is likely not going to be one of the top displayed.
At the same time remember Google isn’t keen on over-using keywords into copy either.
Limit your Keywords The keywords you use will determine how targeted your campaign will be and ultimately how many potential conversations you could receive. I recommend the ideal number of keywords be somewhere between from five to twenty.
Google gives you automated keyword suggestions, based on your advertising text. But consider more than 20 keywords and your advert becomes more expensive – also by using more keywords you will dilute those you potentially target. This is true regardless of whether campaign is Broad match, Phrase match or Exact match.
Plan your keywords in advance, based upon what you have to offer, your objectives and who your customers are. Using this information make a list of the keyword phrases you consider your customers will use when searching.
If your objectives are more wide ranging than a 20 keyword search. You may either review what you want from your ad or re-evaluate, timings or budget with multiple ads, each targeting specific searches.
For example if you advertise a specific product in a particular colour, and use the correct keywords to be found by your customers looking for that particular item…. link your ad to that particular product landing page. As a result you will see a higher conversion rate with customers ready to buy.
Take the time to do split testing Google AdWords offers loads of real time, top-notch, precise tracking Analytics to track your advert. Use it to ensure you are getting the best conversation rates per pound spent.
Try the A/B test for the:
Headline Descriptions Call To Action Images URL link Campaign landing page To A/B test, for example, set up an Ad Group:
Make two ads, with one as the control ad (A) and one with a different Headline and copy (B).
Run these over a few days to test which one performs better. Then use the better performing ad for the duration of your campaign period (or test it again).
Get rid of the poor performing ad. Google can automate your A/B testing, to run your best converting ones.
Is your advert misleading?
One of the biggest turn off for a potential customer is a misleading advert or inconsistencies. Be sure that your ad copy is accurate and consistent with your landing page. If it’s not, your possible customer is not going to trust you, and the money you’re spending on ads will be a total waste.
No Clear Call To Action All too often advertisers don’t consider what it actually is that your potential customer needs to do to get the product they want from you – make it clear from the start.
Always remember you can use different campaigns for different CTA you really only have that one chance to tell your customer exactly what action you want them to take, and what to do once they’ve clicked through to your landing page ensure your intentions are clear, for example use words like “buy” “shop here”.
I hope you found this article interesting and it covered some new ground for you. If you have a product or service you would like to promote via Google, please contact me.