7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE TRYING GOOGLE ADWORDS Discover how Google AdWords works and learn how to plan before investing in pay per click marketing to give your business the best chance of success. A publication of Share this e-book on
INTRODUCTION Let's start at the beginning. If you're thinking about advertising your business on Google for the first time this e-book can help you to plan for success. Google AdWords can be a hugely successful way of driving relevant visitors to your website. About 8 out of 10 buying decisions in the UK start with a Google search, so advertising there is pretty much unbeatable in terms of reach. So it s a no brainer then? Hold on a moment... The fact remains that many small businesses fail to get returns on AdWords because they haven t planned accordingly. So read on before you dive in!
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS GOOGLE ADWORDS? When you search for something on Google or any other search engine, you will be presented with a mix of results. Some results are there because Google deem them to be the most relevant to the search - these are known as organic results. The results highlighted in red are sponsored ads. These businesses are effectively bidding to appear on page 1 for relevant search results using Google AdWords. Google makes 97% of their revenue from AdWords, so it s no surprise that sponsored ads take up a much bigger slice of the prominent real estate you see when you search for something online.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? Google AdWords is a great way to generate more leads and sell more of your product or service. There are plenty of benefits to using AdWords including: Begin advertising with a free voucher offer either direct from Google or via a Google Partner agency. Get immediate results. Once live your ads will appear on Google within minutes. Target your ads by geographical location. Set your ads so that they appear within a certain radius of your business address, or target specific countries. You can configure everything around your business. Target your ads by device. Mobile specific ads can help you attract people when they re on the move. Manage your budget through Google s daily budget cap settings. This means that you have total control over how much money is spent. Measure everything. Providing you have some form of conversion tracking installed you can test whether your investment is paying off, and find out which keyword phrases are converting into business. You can then refine your campaign over time to receive better returns from your investment. Build brand awareness if people are searching for your products and services in your area, the very fact you re there, on the first page of Google can only improve awareness of your brand and increase your chances of winning business somewhere down the line. Stop at any time, so whether you re taking a holiday or closing for Christmas, you can tailor your bidding strategy by time of day, day of week or even switch it off and on again as needs dictate.
ESSENTIAL GOOGLE ADWORDS TERMS Click-through-rate (CTR): This is the percentage of people who see your ad (impressions) that go on to click through to your website or landing page. Landing page: This is the web page we direct people to when they click on your advert. Generally, the more tailored a landing page is to a specific search query, the better the conversion results. Quality Score: This is a numerical score out of ten assigned by Google AdWords. This score is based on a variety of factors, but the biggest contributory factor is your click through rate. The benefit of a high quality score is being able to bid less because you are (in Google s eyes) providing a quality, relevant experience to the end user. Conversion: This happens when your visitor completes an action you deem to be valuable; namely completing a purchase or filling in an enquiry form. To see this vital information you need conversion tracking installed. Conversion rate: The percentage of clicks that go on to complete the action you want them to once they have reached your website or landing page i.e. make a purchase or filling in an enquiry form. Want to know more? Check out our handy Jargon Buster here...
NOW YOU KNOW THE ESSENTIALS, LET S START WITH OUR 7 POINT CHECKLIST...
CHECK #1 HAS YOUR WEBSITE GOT A CLEAR PURPOSE? Have you thought what exactly you want your website visitors to do? If you go back to basics on this then chances are you can narrow it down to one of two things... 1. Get in touch, either by filling in a form or calling you direct, or 2. Buy your products online. It's amazing how many small businesses fall down on this relatively simple principle by making it hard for people to do the very thing your website is built for.
CHECK #2 DOES YOUR WEBSITE CONVERT? Extending on our first point, our own research found that more than 60% of small businesses had major issues with their website that were preventing them from achieving their goals. Ask yourself: Is my website achieving its objective? What percentage of visits to my website convert into enquiries? Has this changed over time and what could have caused changes? Understanding whether your website is fulfilling its purpose is the first step to addressing issues with it.
CHECK #3 HAVE YOU DEFINED WHAT SUCCESS ACTUALLY MEANS? Am I selling more? Am I getting more phone calls? Both are valid questions, but without quantifying their value it s all pretty meaningless. Before you invest think carefully about the following: How much profit do I make on average with every order received? How many orders have I taken? How many unique customers do I have? Now plug that data into this equation to calculate your average customer lifetime value (or LTV). Customer Lifetime Value = (Profit per Order * Number of Orders) Number of Customers Once you know what a customer is worth to your bottom line profit, you will know how much you re prepared to spend on acquiring them this is your target cost per acquisition or CPA. If you have multiple products you can split this calculation at product level too. By knowing these numbers you can begin with absolute clarity on what it will take to make Google AdWords a measurable success.
CHECK #4 CAN YOU MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS? We deal with thousands of small businesses, but it never fails to amaze how many don t have conversion tracking installed on their website. Why do you need it? Well without it you simply have no idea where your enquiries and sales are coming from, so any changes you make to your Google AdWords campaign presents a step into the unknown. For instance, what if your conversions are coming from a specific keyword or ad group that s taking up a fraction of your budget? It s rarely quite that black and white, but businesses running AdWords campaigns without conversion tracking are flying blind and inevitably creating some wastage. For more information on Conversion tracking and why you need it just hit play on our video link to the right.
CHECK #5 HAVE YOU GOT YOUR TARGETING RIGHT? Like any form of advertising, you want to focus your budget on attracting visitors who may actually buy, so using some of the tools Google make available to do exactly that is paramount. Location: Google AdWords has some great tools to help you target your budget to only show ads within a certain geographical area this is ideal if you operate within a limited radius from your business location. Keyword research: You want to appear on relevant searches so keyword research is fundamental to AdWords success. You can use Google s keyword planner tool to find out which phrases are going to attract traffic. Remember that longer, more descriptive phrases are generally more likely to attract people who are ready to buy. Ad grouping: You can target ad copy at ad group level, so segment your keyword phrases around specific buzz words that means your ad is relevant to people. Ad copy: Writing compelling ad copy is a science in its own right and can have a big effect on click through rates. Think about including the keyword phrase within your ad copy, look to other providers in your sector for inspiration, and make sure you promote a great offer, which leads me nicely on to...
CHECK #6 HAVE YOU GIVEN THEM A REASON? Remember check 1? Well to recap, when you go back to basics you ultimately want your visitors to either get in touch by phone, via a contact form, or buy your product online. We ve already covered the need to make this journey easy, but it s important to think about how you encourage visitors to take that next step. The fact is we all love offers, so get creative and come up with a special offer that is low cost to you but of high perceived value to your prospect. You ll be amazed at how this can increase the percentage of clicks that convert into leads and sales.
CHECK #7 GUT CHECK... DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR THIS? This guide has covered important concepts, but here s a reality check! Any business owner thinking of trying to do this themselves needs to know the reality. Getting a return from Google AdWords will take time, learning, and patience. So before you go any further ask yourself do I honestly have the time to do this myself as well as run my business? Outsourcing work to an agency can be a cost effective alternative option. If you do choose to outsource the work to an agency make sure that you look for the Google Partner badge. These are agencies trusted by Google because they have professionally qualified people who will be honest and transparent with you.
...SO TO WRAP UP 1. Check that your website has a clear purpose and is easy to use 2. Check that your website is converting leads and sales for you already 3. Check your numbers, and know what a customer is worth to you in terms of profit so that you can measure success 4. Check that you have the means to measure your campaign 5. Check that you are setting up your campaign correctly, targeting relevant traffic in a radius you can service, giving a consistent user experience and managing your budget correctly 6. Check that your website has a compelling, relevant offer to encourage that next step. 7. Check that you have the time and patience to learn Google AdWords, or look for a qualified Google Partner agency to help you on your journey.
EASILY OUTSOURCE YOUR GOOGLE ADWORDS PROGRAM WITH ADD PEOPLE Our team of qualified pay per click marketing experts have a wealth of experience working with small to medium sized businesses just like yours. Ask us for a free pay per click marketing appraisal and discover how we can help your business to generate more visitors, leads and sales. Proud to be a Share this e-book on