Online Marketing — Google Adwords
Without question, Google AdWords is one of the best marketing tools to use for your business.
Since it really is one of the strategies you should be using, I’ll use the time we have this month to give you a general overview of how to get results, and in a later issue I’ll do an advanced session on it.
But remember, before launching an AdWords campaign (or any other, for that matter), your website must be ‘FIT FOR PURPOSE’. In other words, it must already churn out enquiries for you—otherwise AdWords won’t work. Yes, it will generate you a ton more traffic, but traffic that doesn’t convert is pointless and a complete waste of money.
Google AdWords is an advertising feature on Google that enables you to place ads for your firm on the first page of the search results for keywords of your choice. It is an excellent way to generate good-quality traffic to your website.
But, like everything, there are many mistakes that can be made when using AdWords. And yes, before you ask, I’ve probably made all of them in the past!
However, since Google created AdWords in October 2000, it has helped us and countless others generate millions in sales. We have seen a ROI of 4,100% on our current running campaigns—yes, that’s 41 times the return.
This is important for you to know because I know exactly what it takes to get results with AdWords, and we spend thousands every year.
There are other PPC (Pay Per Click) search engines to consider (such as Bing – Microsoft’s PPC model), but Google will give you the best return if you follow my advice. Google has a fantastic help centre to get you started, but I’ve outlined below all the most important things (based on 2 years of testing) you need to do to create a highly successful campaign.
STEP 1: Create Your AdWords Account
If you don’t currently have an AdWords account, you’ll need to set one up. Simply type ‘Google AdWords’ into the Google search box. The first ad at the top of the page will give you your local AdWords sign-up URL. Now just follow the instructions.
STEP 2: Set Up 4 Campaigns
You will want to create the following 4 campaigns:
LOCATION:
This campaign focuses on keyword searches that have your location as part of the term. So, for example, ‘jeweller in ’. There are a number of derivatives ; for example… ‘jeweller shop in ’, ‘jeweller shops in ’, ‘jeweller in ’, ‘jeweller ’, ‘jewellers ’, ‘jewellers shop ’. You will be able to think of many more. Use Google’s excellent ‘Keyword Suggestion Tool’ to help (again, just type in ‘Keyword Suggestion Tool’).
GENERAL TERMS
This campaign is based on general company keywords that people use to search. For example… It is important with this campaign to set a radius around your location of, say, 5 to 10 miles, so only people searching within this perimeter will see your ads. The ‘Locations’ field is in the ‘Settings’ tab of your campaign.
BRAND
These keywords are based on the name of your firm. For example, if your firm was called ‘Smith & Co Jewellers’, these would be the keywords to use: smith & co jewellers, smith co, smith & co, smith and co, smith jewellers.
COMPETITION
These keywords are a list of your competitors. Create the keyword variations as you have done above for each competitor. Do NOT use their name in your ad, but anything else is fair game.
STEP 3: Add Negative Keywords
Adding your keywords for each of the 4 campaigns is only half the job! Half the battle! You now need to add what Google call ‘Negative Keywords’. This is another great Google feature! Once again, they are a critical component of a successful AdWords campaign. Here’s how Google explains negative keywords…
“Choosing negative keywords for your campaign is like writing the guestlist for your birthday party. Some keywords might create unwanted impressions and clicks, or, in the case of party guests, unpleasant moments that you’d prefer to avoid. Good thing you can add negative keywords to your campaign — or cross certain people off your guest list.”
So your negative keyword list is AS IMPORTANT as your keyword list. Here’s why…
- They prevent your ad from being shown if the negative keyword is in the search.
- Therefore, they help you reach the most interested prospects, reduce your costs, and increase your return on investment.
So, for example, let’s say you have the keyword ‘Jeweller in Manchester’. If someone typed in ‘jeweller job in Manchester’, then your ad would show. Clearly, you don’t want your ad to show for such a search so if you have ‘job’ and ‘jobs’ as negative keywords, a search like this wouldn’t then show your ad. Dependant on the industry, here a number of negative keywords that we’ve found you should include…
blog, blogs, book, books, career, careers, cheap, cheapest, college, colleges, course, courses, cv, definition, degree, degrees, discount, discounted, education, employment, forum, forums, hire, hiring, job, jobs, lawyer, magazine, magazines, news.
STEP 4: Create Your Ads
I will dedicate an entire session to creating AdWords ads but here are the basics…
1. Before creating your ads, type several of your keywords for each campaign into Google and note what the competition is saying in their ads. Write down any wording that makes you think ‘I would click on that’. Don’t copy it but modify the words to suit you. This will give you a great head start.
2. Always create at least two ads for each campaign. This is because Google ‘split tests’ your ads, which basically means it will tell you very quickly which ad performs best.
3. Although you’re limited in space, make sure your ad entices people to click on it. Do NOT use your name (other than in your brand campaign).
4. Capitalise the first letter of each word—this increases click-throughs. But do NOT capitalise all letters in a word (Google will decline the ad if you do this).
5. Set your cost-per-click at a level high enough so you at least position your ad on the first page, but ideally top 5, otherwise your campaign will fail.
6. Set your monthly budget at an acceptable level for you. My advice is to go for it in the first couple of weeks. In other words, if you have, say, £/$300 to spend, it is better, in the beginning, to spend this in the first two weeks, so your campaign gets sufficient data for you to start improving it (you don’t want to wait a month before doing this).
STEP 5: Play To Google’s Rules And Benefit Google is very clever.
They reward ads that get high click-throughs and penalise those that don’t. Clearly, Google knows if you’ve got ads and campaigns that perform better than a competitor, and they reward you, then they ultimately will earn more money! Their reward is simple: if your ad gets a higher click-through than the other ads competing for that particular keyword, they will reduce your cost-per-click. So even if you are positioned number 1 for a keyword, you could be paying less than the ads in positions 2, 3 and 4, etc. Accordingly
Google is very clever. They reward ads that get high click-throughs and penalise those that don’t. Clearly, Google knows if you’ve got ads and campaigns that perform better than a competitor, and they reward you, then they ultimately will earn more money! Their reward is simple: if your ad gets a higher click-through than the other ads competing for that particular keyword, they will reduce your cost-per-click. So even if you are positioned number 1 for a keyword, you could be paying less than the ads in positions 2, 3 and 4, etc.
That’s why I advised you to spend your initial budget within a two-week period, rather than spreading it out over the duration of a full month. Learn and improve quickly, and Google will reward you. Believe me, it’s a worthwhile trade-off.
Even with these basics, you’re way ahead of most of your competitors. Go and set up your AdWords campaign now so you can start to reap the rewards. Make sure you stay close to the campaigns, especially in the first two weeks, and keep improving them.