Checking AdWords

If you have a significant Google AdWords account then checking it on a regular basis to ensure that it’s performing at it’s optimum can be a drain on resources; I've previously spend days at a time ensuring that all keywords, ads ad landing pages are performing well together for particular AdGroups that contain thousands of keywords.

Whilst it works as an approach, it is very time consuming, and we don't always have the time to do a thorough check (although you should try to do one at least once a month).

If you want to spend less time working on your AdWords campaigns, but you also want to spend your time constructively, my advice would be to focus on the important elements of your campaigns.

Each week download a full list of your keywords - just click on the Keywords tab from Campaigns, then click on the Download Report icon). Ensure you are just viewing data for the Last 7 days.

This will provide you with a complete list of your keywords with all the relevant data you will need to check how your keywords and ads are doing.

Once downloaded, open the report in Excel (or your favourite Spreadsheet application).

Now you have your data, perform the following tasks:

High CTR, No Conversions

Sort the data by CTR (Descending) then by Conversions.  What you are looking for here are keywords with a high click through rate but low or no conversions. Note: You’ll need to make a judgement call on what you think are high and low values for your industry/site – but it should be clear that if a keyword has received a 50%+ CTR but no conversions, then something is wrong!

First of all check your ad(s) to ensure that they are clear on the benefits that your prospect will get, tweak the ad(s) if need to be ensure that they are crystal clear. Remember you can always have more than one ad, so if you want to make a change add a new one so you can check later which one had the best results.

Next check the landing page, are the goals clear? Is the benefit that you have suggested on the ad(s) clearly visible? Is the call to action nice and clear?

Low CTR

Next check your keywords that have a low CTR.

Your ads here just aren't working for you. Look to see how they can be reworded to make them more appealing, are you clearly getting across your core benefit?

Make sure your budget isn't running out too quickly.

Low Impressions

Low impressions are usually down to either low budget, low bids.

Consider adding more relevant keywords to help trigger your ads, slightly increase your keyword bids.

These are the absolute basic checks that you need to make every week, keeping up with these will ensure that your campaigns are in good working order.

Read More

PPC: bid for the right position

 This tip isn't the most obvious for lots of Google AdWords users so I thought I would pass it on as it could a) save you money, b) get you an improved CTR and c) get an improved conversion rate.

Let me start my saying that most new AdWords users start off with a single bidding strategy for AdWords and that strategy pretty much stays with them forever, it’s a good strategy, it’s easy to measure and it does bring with it some success, but it’s flawed!

Adwords offers fairly simple system where the amount you bid, combined with your Quality Score (a figure calculated by Google), equates to what AdWords position on Google your ad will end up with (a position from one to ten)

As a reminder, here the Adwords (Sponsored) ads are highlighted in red; I've also highlighted in red the ad position number.

This strategy that new AdWords users deploy is that they want position 1, it’s the highest position and is therefore the best position to be in right!  It’s the topmost position, so will be seen first as users scan the search engine results, it must be a winning strategy! Wrong (well sometimes it’s the wrong strategy to adopt).

A general rule of thumb and the one that should sound alarm bells is that the users of Google have become blind to the top ads, rather like we all have with banner ads (the ad images that appear at the top of web pages), we all tend to ignore those now.

What you need to do is look at your AdWords stats to determine which ad position you tend to get the most clicks and again as a rule of thumb the lower the average position the cheaper your clicks will be.

Take my latest gig as an example, we were paying more and more for top position ads and we got into a price war with our competitors, so it was getting expensive; no-one really knew what ad position was best for us, but a quick analysis showed that we got more clicks and an improved conversion rate when our ad was around position 3. 

Armed with this little bit of knowledge I did a simple test, I reduced the Max CPC bids where we had an average position better than 3 and increased the Max CPC where we were below position 3. (The plan was to bid for position 3 in all case).

These reduction in bid strategy meant that our ad was less likely to be shown; but where the ad was shown we would be closer to the natural search links, therefore be seen as more relevant, hopefully resulting in an improved CTR and conversion rate.

In just two weeks impressions dropped 18%, clicks dropped 15%, but CTR went up 5% and conversions increased a whopping 17%.  I’m now paying 30% less for AdWords here but gaining on my better conversions.

Don’t get me wrong, years ago when I started using Google AdWords I bid for the position 1 and did everything in my power to maintain it, it worked for me, it brought in business, but little did I know that I could have reduced my costs and brought in more business!

Remember, calculate where you best ad position is and bid for this ideal position, which isn't always the top one! 

Good luck

Read More

Optimising Your AdWord Ads

I’m not going to teach you to suck eggs, but let’s get some basics out of the way.

You have the following to play with:

Headline – 25 characters

Description Line 1 – 35 characters

Description Line 2 – 35 characters

Display URL – 35 characters

Destination URL – 1024 characters

Headline

This is the most important part of your text ad. It should feature a top keyword in you ad group to show clear relevance to the users search query.  Consider using the dynamic keyword insertion feature for an even stronger relevance.

Description Lines 1 and 2

This is your opportunity to better describe your offering and compel the searcher to the action you want them to take next.  Use these lines to describe the value proposition of what you are offering.  Be sure to include keywords and a strong call to action – tell everyone why they should click on your ad, create a sense of urgency.

Display URL

The Display URL should include a top keyword if at all possible (i.e. www.company.com/top-keyword) to further engage with user and to indicate that your site is highly relevant to their search.  This will improve your click through rate (CTR).

Destination URL

The Destination URL is the actual landing page that users will reach if they click on your ad.  Any offer that you make in your ad should be easily visible on the landing page so that the page becomes more relevant to the ad and in turn helps to maximise your Quality Score.

Read More

Google AdWords Quality Score

Google uses an algorithm to decide an ads Quality Score, the higher your Quality Score the more your ad will be shown and the cheaper each click will be!

Whilst the exact working out of the scoring system is a big Google secret we can confidently say that the main elements that decide the Quality Score are - Ad Click Through Rate (CTR), Relevancy of the text used in the ad and the relevancy/quality of the landing page.

It’s estimated that the importance of these are:

Ad CTR = 65 percent

Relevancy of ad text = 20 percent

Relevancy of the landing page = 10 percent

Other = 5 percent

It seems clear therefore that the best thing you can do to get more AdWords clicks to your site and pay less doing it is to improve your ad copy; doing this will definitely improve the CTR and improve your Quality Score in doing so!

I’ll take more about how to improve your AdWord Ad copy later.  Keep watching.

Read More