7 Tips for Google AdWords Optimisation. By Ferdie Bester

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1 7 Tips for Google AdWords Optimisation By Ferdie Bester

2 1. Set a single clear objective for your AdWords campaign With any marketing campaign you need to set an objective before your start. The same holds true for AdWords, you need to decide what you want to achieve. Generate traffic to your website? Generate enquiries? Generate sales? Brand exposure? Each one of these objectives requires a different strategy for keywords, ads and tracking. 2. Conduct keyword research and bid on the right keywords CPC = Cost Per Click When people use Google they are looking for something, if you choose keywords which are not relevant to your product or service you will waste money. Furthermore Google will penalize you with a higher CPC for bidding on irrelevant keywords. (Google actually spiders your specified landing page for relevancy). A great place to generate keywords is by using the Keyword Tool found in Google, you can specify a keyword or landing page and Google will generate keywords for you. You can then go through the list and choose relevant keywords. The tool will also show you keyword performance in terms of volume and pricing.

3 Lastly: When selecting the match type choose either phrase or exact. This would give you more control over when your ads are shown. 3. Quality ads will reduce your CPC and increase volume CTR = Click Through Rate There s only a finite amount of impressions available each day on Google and you will lose out on clicks with a low CTR. Your ad s CTR also influences the CPC. If your ad has a high CTR Google will notice its relevancy and lower your CPCs saving your money. 4. Group relevant keywords and ads Having more than one keyword theme, it s a good idea to group relevant keywords and ads together. This will ensure that your ads are shown for relevant keywords which will improve your CTR. It s also much easier to manage and monitor the campaigns when they are grouped together. Grouping also helps to manage your advertising budget when you group according to campaign. Here s an example: Let say you have two products: Car rental and hotel bookings with a total budget of R200 per day. Car rental is much more profitable so you want to allocate more resources to it. Create a separate campaign for each and allocate R150 of the budget to the car rental campaign and the remainder to hotel bookings campaign.

4 5. Use conversion tracking What is a conversion? It can be an enquiry, sale or view of a certain page. Something you choose which defines a success on your website. Not having conversion tracking on your campaign is like flying blind. You have no idea how the campaign is performing or how to make improvements. Google provides a free conversion tracking tool which provides you with information on which keywords and ads produce conversions and with this information you can improve your campaign by focussing on the best performing keywords and ads. This information can be used to calculate your Return on Investment. An example: You spend R on ads. Google conversion tracking states this produced 4 conversions (sales). Your cost per sale would then be R32.14 / 4 = R8.04 per sale. This is very useful management information.

5 6. Use automated reporting to keep up to date. It s a good idea to setup automated reports in Google to make sure you keep up to date with the campaign, the campaign dynamics change on a frequent basis and you must be aware of them. Here are some of the dynamic factors: Bidding changes from competitors on your keywords New ads from competitors Changes on your website influencing the landing page Policy changes from Google 7. Test Test Test The best way to keep improving your campaign is by conducting tests, utilise the feedback from Google conversion tracking and test some of the following: New keywords Fresh ads New keyword and ad combinations. Changes in ad positions. New landing pages. Everything can be monitored online which means you can methodically improve your campaign s performance every month.

6 Conclusion Google AdWords is a brilliant way to grow most businesses but you need to apply effort and the right expertise to get the most from it. I hope that these tips will help you improve your campaign s performance. More on ClickMaven We specialise in Google AdWords Management. To improve your campaign and increase your ROI give us a buzz (0) contact@clickmaven.net