Google Adwords is a great tool as it means that we can all get new business from Google search no matter how little time we have had to invest in SEO and online marketing. The fact that Google Ads now appear above every other type of Ad is a big deal and now that the colour indication and very small 'Ad' sign in the corner mean that often web users do not actually realise that they are clicking adverts rather than organic search results. This is important as appearing at the top of a Google search results page for anything is a great result and to pay a few pounds or dollars to do appear there allows a company or individual to receive orders for their products without the struggle of SEO is a great bonus.
Google lives and dies by relevance. This is because they are trying to find what people need. This is just as true in Google AdWords as it is in Google Search engine. The ads people are paying for and clicking on have to be as reliable as the normal Google search engines so that no one is feeling ripped off or Google will lose huge amounts of revenue because advertisers keep receiving irrelevant traffic. As a result your ad needs to be entitled and point to data that shares your keywords. In general it is best to do this using a landing page specially designed for that ad.
Keyword Strategy - Important point number one
The most important part of your PPC campaign is your keyword strategy. This is more important with PPC than your SEO keyword planning for your website. A PPC campaign not only costs money for every click but also shows your advert every time that keyword is searched for. This means that if someone is searching for cat insurance and you provide car insurance you do not want your advert to be shown. Not only does it cost you money, it is also bad PR. This means that you must search for exact phrases that are distinct to your exact service and that you must be sure you are not being listed against anything irrelevant. It also means that you must choose the type of keywords carefully depending on your vertical market.
What this means is that depending on the competition and the value of a single prospect you have to look into what the competition is doing. For this there is only really one tool - the Google Keywords Planner.
This tool is a source of two important pieces of information for your ads - possible/likely keywords for your ad titles and amounts to bid. Essentially you will get to see what the competition bids on and what prices are likely to get you within the top three ads on the SERP. The competition on a certain phrase or keyword is also displayed as well as the monthly number of searches so that you can gauge which keywords are overbid and which are good value. From here you can decide upon a list of phrases that you wish to bid on. Make a note of the suggested bids for each phrase.
It is also important that you avoid wasting money by getting into bidding wars for a small number of the most popular keywords. A better option is to seek more obscure, specific keywords that have a lower search volume. More specific keywords are more certain prospects and also avoid the competition false clicking your adverts to increase your costs as they are less likely to type in more obscure keywords and phrases. Combined, these more obscure phrases will give you an equivalent search volume to that of the more expensive keywords. The average CPC (cost per click) will be reduced considerably but your results will be similar. The Google Keyword tool is again a great source for discovering alternative phrases and noting their popularity.
The Landing Page - Point number two
Now that you have your list you need to decide how you are going to persuade people to contact you once they click on your ad. This is every bit as important as your ad and your bidding prices. What is required is a landing page - a page that has been optimised to the keyword of the ad (yes you need a landing page per phrase or keyword) and which has a contact form and phone number at the bottom representing its conclusion. The page needs to address any questions and then give the reader a call to action - a contact form so that you can recover their contact details. The reason you need a separate landing page for each ad is simply that Google prefer relevant pages and so a landing page with the keywords or phrase in the title and description is important as it will let Google know that your adverts are relevant and that you are ready to deal with any enquiries or questions. This will help increase your CTR (Click Through Rate) as the pages will contain relevant content to the keywords that have brought the prospect to your advert.
A landing page is in some ways a bit of a dead end. It must be a useful page in order to stop people navigating away instantly but it must also not offer too many choices of where to go next. The objective is to get the web user to either purchase an item, fill in a form or phone a number. Either way it is a page designed to get the prospect to complete the goal of the website. That said the page must not be restrictive, it should make the browsing audience want to leave their details. This is important because this is the essence of all copywriting and marketing - the content must persuade, not force. Your users should be feeling excited about the prospect of you getting back to them and this is the purpose of your copywriting efforts in the first place.
Single page bootstrap site templates can be useful for landing pages as they really only require titles and copy to be written and generally offer a great set of CSS files (the files which format the HTML to make it presentable that control, for instance, what font the H1 and H2 titles will be in and what colour the background it etc.) without requiring a lot of programming and formatting.
Careful Bidding - Point number three
Start by bidding high - Google AdWords determines placement by both your bid and the CTR (click through rate) your adverts' achieve. In order to earn a high click through rate, you must persuade users to click. If you start by bidding high your ad is seen early in the search results which will enable Google to examine what your engagement quality is and also what the quality of your advert is. A high quality advert is more likely to get you a higher CTR and so the copywriting of your ad is extremely important. Make sure you write the ad from the point of view of really trying to help - don't try and sound like you want to help - actually try and help. People are ultimately in search of the truth and so there is no point lying to them. The more you try and help people the more they will want to do business with you. When you have acquired a high enough CTR you can lower your bid figure and receive quality prospects without breaking the bank.
Set Your Budget Manually - Point number four:
How to set daily budget figures in Adwords is an important question. Googe has all sorts of built in recommendations but beware aligning yourself with any of these. Why? Well not because Google are not suggesting a sensible bid but because that is exactly what most of the competition have done and as a result those figures will represent a dead-zone when it comes to making an impression. The best option in most cases is to set your bidding budget higher than Google recommends. You are after all starting bidding high anyway and you want to be at the top of every query that you have optimised your campaigns for. Remember that you have removed all of the obvious expensive words and phrases and are now targeting the phrases you are most interested in. This will mean that every prospect is worth following up and will likely be interested in your services.
By setting your daily budget to too little your advertisements will only be displayed intermittently. Since you have invested a lot of time in creating your keyword list and advert copy you have already invested heavily in your campaign. As a result you want your advert to be shown every time your phrases are searched for. If you have chosen a suitably obtuse list your budget will not be out of your reach. Make sure that you are monitoring your campaign closely for the first few days and use the time to assemble a list of negative keywords. This can save you being dragged into false vertical markets in which you have no place. Stick to using using exact matches and make sure you are only targeting by regions you can service or post to and that you are monitoring adjusting keyword bids to be sure you are not stuck in a fierce bidding war with multiple competitors.
Exact Matches - Point number five:
Exact matches are the only type of keywords or phrases you should be interested in. Google will tempt you to use wider matches but if you look at any Google search SERP you will see what the Google search engine considers to be relevant similar searches - they are often random and unrelated - stick to exact matches every time and keep monitoring your campaigns and using the Google Keyword tool to cover all bases when it comes to choosing the best keyword phrases. Along with exact matches you need to team the other half of securing the right audience with negative keywords. You must always monitor your campaign in order to update your list of negative keywords.
Negative keywords make sure that any closely related word or phrase that you do not offer costs you money as they stop phrases or keywords triggering your ads exactly the same way normal (positive) keywords trigger them. Be diligent about adding extra negative keywords and make an effort to review your list regularly. The ad group will succeed based on your click through rate and if people see irrelevant ads then they will not click through. Negative keyword lists are the key to trimming away unwanted non-clickers, saving you money and improving your CTR and so your campaign credibility and therefore ad rankings. If you sell products or services purely in a B2B business-to-business market then include negative keywords such as:
-residential
-private
-home
Advertise on Search Results Only - Point number six:
Content ads are turned on by default - this means that 3rd parties are displaying your ads on websites that they have categorised as relevant to your market. This can work well for some types of ad but when you are starting out make sure that you disable this feature and stick to Google search results only. This is the best place to learn how to compete on the SERPs pages and hone your skills. Once you have addressed the points above sufficiently you will have a respectable set of ad groups and a good set of campaigns. This is where we recommend you begin your AdWords experience.
Remember this is Still Marketing! - Point number seven:
All of the usual copywriting and marketing rules apply Find a way to make your ads stand out - give something away or run a competition for instance - and make sure that you write your copy with as much enthusiasm and excitement as you can muster. Do not write copy if you are tired or bored or depressed. Save that for later and do something else in the meantime. Get yourself motivated and get that motivation into your ad text. Make sure you test different ads against each other to see which one performs best and then try that one against similar variations. Your ads will be gradually climbing as you improve your copy simply because better ads give a better click through rate and so you will get more for your money. Experiment with different ideas until you find out what the customers want to read. As much as anything else this is great research for all of the other ads that you post on webpages and in print as you learn what the market is hoping to find.
If you still find you are having difficulty then post your strategy on our blog and we will offer any help we can.
GOOD LUCK !!!
If you are still having difficulty then you can contact TopOnGoogle who can manage your Google AdWords campaign on your behalf.