Conquering Google Adwords

In this article I am going to outline my top 5 points for making sure you make money with it, and avoid the common mistakes people make when running their campaigns. So many people start off with adwords for a month or more, and then bin it because either their ROI/CPA or Conversion Rate or some other metrics is not what they envisaged and end up either just breaking even or losing money. You can make money from adwords  if you follow these simple, but effective 5 steps:

1. Hunt around for the best voucher promotions. You may have received Google Adword promotional voucher codes in the post, keep these and watch out for the expiration date. Otherwise you can find plenty of online vouchers from $50 to $100+ online. Just as long as you’re setting up a new account these vouchers are valid and automatically acredited. Also a tip, make sure you select postpay on the >Billing Options once you’re account is set up, otherwise you’ll have to lay down some credit immediately which most people aren’t too willing to do.

2. Check the settings very carefully. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how quickly costs can escalate because you’ve checked the wrong box on the campaign settings. You should be targeting just the search network or content/display network per campaign. If you target both, not only is it bad structuring, you’re costs will soon escalate. Also we recommend just targeting desktop and laptops, especially for the Search Network and unchecking Search partners. You can always set up a small budget for a test campaign, if you think smartphones and other mobile devices will get conversions for your niche. Often they don’t, as most people still prefer to buy using laptops and computers. This trend however is changing, so its worth testing with a SMALL budget.

3. Add negatives. Make sure negative keywords and placement websites (for Google Display network)  are included for terms and sites you don’t want your ads showing, or ads displayed on. Make sure to monitor and revise these on at least a monthly basis.

4. Use the free tools available to you for Keyword research, refining and monitoring performance. Adwords external keyword research tool will provide some important KEIs, get the latest trends and search patterns for the niche campaigns with Google Trends, if you have the cash its worth investing in some software before launching your keywords to make sure you’ve got the most lucrative ones. Market Samurai,  AdSpyFu etc. are highly recommended tools when it comes to decent paid tools. Also, make sure you regularly review the  keywords and performance, checking for no impressions and click on a fortnightly basis. Don’t be afraid to weed out underperforming words and add new keywords.

5. Run Reports regularly. Make sure your adwords interface is set up to show the metrics that are important for you and measuring performance. Easily down through customizing columns. Metrics like Impression Share (as a relative %) can help you ascertain if you’re losing out to competitors and need to increase the bidding on certain keywords.  Similarly, make sure you’re aware of your Quality Scores (7 or more is perfect, below and you need to review bidding strategies, match types etc of the keywords), CTR (%), Lost Impression Share (%), etc etc.

And finally, make sure you’re keeping up to date with the latest Google tools and features in beta testing.  Things like the Google Experiment Tool, can help you determine if the changes you’re making to bidding are having a positive or detrimental effect. Bid Management needs to be kept in check and again regularly implemented on a weekly basis if possible. Again, paid search tools and free tools can help with this. Finally, if you’re really struggling with profitability of your Paid Search Campaigns, get in touch with us and we can always manage them for you – if the price is right!