Businesses can use Google AdWords to increase online conversions and drive traffic to their sites, but a poorly-managed campaign can be ineffective at best and an expensive mistake at worst. Here are a few tips to help you improve your approach to AdWords.
Keywords
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Keywords are the lifeblood of the AdWords service and choosing the right terms to bid on can determine the success of your own PPC campaign. This is why a lot of the focus of AdWords account management can be placed on this area.
Many businesses cannot afford to bid on the most competitively sought-after keywords, particularly if they are generic enough to encourage major CTRs without the subsequent conversions which are needed to justify the initial investment.
You can help make your bidding less costly by improving your Quality Score (QS), although this really requires the professional aid of SEO experts in order to properly optimize your ads and win Google’s favor.
Targeting long-tail keywords can be better for campaigns with smaller budgets. This may mean that you get fewer clicks in total, but the ratio of clicks to conversions will be improved because you will be receiving a stream of searchers who will find your site and its services more relevant and useful based on the specificity of their original query.
Managing keywords and negative keywords within AdWords can be difficult unless you have the time or resources to dedicate to it, so seeking expert advice can often be useful.
Ad Copy
Because AdWords permits you to use only a small number of characters in the copy for your paid search ads, this is an area which requires just as much attention as keyword choice. While keywords can help get your ads listed, customers will decide whether or not to click your link based on the copy which is displayed alongside it.
There are a number of dos and don’ts associated with AdWords copy. For example, if you are trying to sell a particular product or promote an offer on your site, it is better to announce how much money can be saved by visitors rather than how much they will have to spend, since the former seems intrinsically more appealing than the latter even if they are just two different ways of expressing the same thing.
In fact, you should also consider the link text as an important part of your ad copy, since this needs to engage the searcher and inform him of what is on offer in even briefer terms. Again, it can be useful to consult a dedicated AdWords management expert to give you specific advice relating to your site and business in order to enhance the effectiveness of your copy.
Extensions and Positioning
AdWords users can include a number of optional extensions within their paid search results in order to optimize them as much as possible. For example, you may want to add extra site links as an extension, allowing searchers to navigate to other landing pages on your site without having to get there via your domain’s homepage.
CTRs can also be affected based on where your ad is positioned on Google’s SERPs. Getting into one of the top three positions directly above the organic results is ideal, with the sidebar ads proven to receive less attention because of their position.
There is no shame in outsourcing the management of your AdWords account, particularly if this small investment will help you to reap big rewards further down the line.
About Brandon Leibowitz
