AdWordsCampaign.net © All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
Google AdWords Guide:
Novice to Expert to Superhuman
AdWordsCampaign.net
Google Adwords can make money fast, if used properly. If used without due care and attention, however, it can lose money even faster. These tips, tricks and techiques show you how to set up your Google AdWords campaigns diligently, so that you can make perpetual profits and beat your competitors. Know what to do and what to avoid. Bookmark this page, so that you can refer to it at any time.
There are two ways to manage your Google AdWords campaigns. Both are free, and both offer bulk upload interfaces in which you can simply paste hundreds or even thousands of keyword phrases, maximum CPC bids, destination URLs, text ads and Placements. They both achieve the same results, but the bulk upload formats differ.
1. Google AdWords campaign interface (direct access to your campaigns on Google's web site).
2. Google AdWords Editor (software, installed on your computer, that connects with your campaigns on Google's web site).
There's software available to suit all purposes, ranging from free and of little use to sophisticated specialist programs which automate repetitive tasks of a scale otherwise impossible to achieve manually. For serious AdWords advertisers the AdWords Campaign Manager is recommended. This software is tailored for bulk processing of data and upload to both of the Google campaign interfaces mentioned above.
Control your spending with the Google AdWords daily budget function. Set a reasonable daily advertising budget, based on your average maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid and the number of times you want your ad to appear. This provides fail-safe protection. As soon as your specified daily budget figure is spent, your ads are no longer shown.
Start with a small budget and, when you're sure that the campaign is making a return on investment (ROI), increase it gradually, stopping at the point where your profits peak. Increasing the budget of a profitable campaign increases the profits according to the law of diminishing returns. There's always a limit to the amount of profit to be made. You just need to find it.
When starting a new Google AdWords campaign, don't be afraid to bid high for the first few days, so that your ad is in the top position. You'll get many clicks and your Quality Score will rise rapidly because of the high click-through rate (CTR). Then lower your bids, but still ensure that your ad is on top. Check and lower your maximum bids every day until they become steady. By now you should have a good Quality Score and you can adjust your bids at will for the actual position you want for your ad.
If you switch on the Content Network option in the Google campaign interface, you have two choices:
• "Relevant pages across the entire network"
• "Relevant pages only on the placements I target"
Both of these refer to Google AdSense. If you choose the "entire network" option, your ads will appear on any web site that contains AdSense ads and is relevant to your Ad Group's keywords. This is known as "contextual targeting". The quality of traffic from such sites is usually the lowest of all AdWords types because many AdSense sites are themselves of poor quality and exist only to generate income for their owners from the clicks on your ads. Your maximum bids for "entire network" ads should, therefore, be considerably lower than those for Google Search traffic.
The conversion rate is higher, however, of clicks on "placement" ads (q.v.), because you can specify precisely the web sites on which your ads should appear. Your maximum bids for "placement" ads should, therefore, be similar to those for Google Search traffic. This is known as "placement targeting".
When starting a new campaign, it's recommended to switch 'Content Network' off, and opt only for 'Google Search' traffic. Once your campaign has established a good return on investment (ROI) from the organic search traffic, switch 'Content Network' on and check the results. If it makes a profit, leave it on; If it doesn't make a profit, switch it off again.
Is there any point in advertising a pork product in the Middle East? Or a Rolls-Royce carburettor in China? Or a travel agency service in Central Africa? If you think not, you can easily understand the importance of geo-targeting. Don't waste money on useless clicks or damage your click-through rate (CTR) by letting your ads appear on everyone's screen everywhere in the world!
Choose and/or exclude any country, state or even town in the 'Target audience Locations' section of the 'Edit Campaign Settings' screen.
This is what Google says about how to build an effective keyword list for your campaigns. It's a simple five-step process:
1. Expand. 2. Group. 3. Match. 4. Scrub. 5. Test and refine.
1. Expand - Your first step is to come up with as many relevant keywords as possible. List any keywords that you think users might search for to find your product or service. Use the Keyword Tool for help. The Keyword Tool offers additional keyword ideas - including synonyms and spelling variations - to yours.
2. Group - Keywords lay the groundwork for the Ad Groups and ads that you create. Group your keyword list into similar items, such as by product line. Each group makes up an Ad Group. You can write multiple ads for each Ad Group; so, keyword groupings should match a single theme. For example, organize keywords pertaining to "organic coffee", "natural coffee", "fair trade coffee", etc. in one Ad Group and keywords relating to "gourmet coffee", "exquisite coffee", "intense coffee", etc. in another.
3. Match - Now it's time to target your keywords using Google's keyword matching options: broad match, phrase match, exact match and negative match. These match types help to pinpoint ad delivery, so that your ads reach people precisely when they're searching for what you have to offer.
Broad match is the default setting for all keywords. All searches made using your keyword (in any order or combination) might display your ad.
-
Phrase match narrows your reach by requiring the words to appear together in exactly that order. They can be preceded or followed by any other word or phrase.
Exact match narrows your reach further by showing your ad when the exact phrase is used in the search - without any other words before, between or after.
Negative match eliminates searched phrases on which you do not want your ad to appear, such as "cheap" or "free".
Embedded match is a sophisticated form of keyword matching that allows you to prevent your ad from appearing in relation to certain phrase or exact matches. This is popular when an advertiser sells merchandise related to a film or book, but not the actual film or book. Example: An advertiser selling 'Toy Story' merchandise might use the embedded match option of a negative and exact match on -[Toy Story]. Thus, the advertiser's ads appear for "Toy Story dolls" and "Toy Story products", but not for the exact match "Toy Story".
4. Scrub - After you've expanded, grouped and provided match types to your keyword list, start refining it. Strive to keep specific keywords that relate most to your product or service. Delete the keywords that are irrelevant or are likely to bring you the least traffic. Two- or three-word phrases generally work best. For example, instead of the keyword "coffee", use "fair trade coffee" or "gourmet coffee beans". Consider removing any single-word or general keywords. These are often too broad and can lead to clicks from people who don't know what you're offering.
5. Test and refine - To keep up with the dynamic nature of online advertising, you should continue to test and refine your keywords. Build on keywords that work and delete ('Pause' is recommended, not Delete, so that you've a record of what doesn't work. - Ed.) others that don't. Also, if you're running ads on the Content Network, consider using Placement targeting to refine your reach to your desired audience. Track your results, using your performance statistics in your account.
Keywords - The "Perfect" Ad Group
Keywords don't get their name for nothing. They are the key to the success of your Google AdWords campaign. If your campaign doesn't use the words and phrases that people type into the search box, your ads will never be seen and you'll get no business. The keyword is the trigger for the entire process, and the closer the match is between the search term and one of your Ad Group's keyword phrases, the more likely it is that your most relevant ad will be displayed.
It is known from tests that visitors who type three "key" words in the search term are the most likely to buy what they're looking for, if they find it. (The results for three words are slightly better than those for four words.) Tests also show that the conversion rate improves, although the click-through rate decreases, the lower down the search results page the ad is located.
It follows, therefore, that
-
The "perfect" Ad Group contains only the three or four "key" words most relevant to the product or service, arranged in phrases in all conceivable permutations in combination with all conceivable incidental words (e.g., "in", "of", "for", etc.).
-
All these resulting keyword combinations are 'exact match' only, avoiding the need for negative keywords.
-
Each of these keyword combinations has its own unique maximum CPC bid, according to the competitiveness of each "key" word it contains, of an amount that keeps the ad in position 4 to 6 on the first page.
-
Each of the three or four "key" words appears in the text of the ad, in the display URL and the destination URL, and in the important tags and body content of the landing page.
Simple, isn't it? If it were, everybody would be doing it. It's easier said than done. Creating and processing the thousands of keyword phrases, unique bids, ads, individual URLs and landing pages necessary is far beyond any human's capacity. Even if it were possible, the cost of the time needed would wipe out any profits. Even with "brute force" software, it would take an experienced AdWords user a whole day from start to finish. (At the time of writing no software exists that can do all this anyway. The AdWords Campaign Manager comes close, but doesn't create the landing pages.) Nevertheless, this "perfect" Ad Group is your aim, and the closer you can get to achieving it, the more money you'll make.
Broad match means just that. The match is broad, and what you're offering may not match what the searcher wants exactly. Google AdWords novices should avoid the use of the broad match type, because, although it can produce many clicks, the conversion rate is unlikely to be commensurately high. Moreover, the competition for broad match keyword phrases may be intense, inflating the cost per click (CPC). To succeed with broad match keywords, a very large number of negative keywords are usually necessary, to avoid wasted ad impressions.
Expanded Broad match combines a user's search term with the next search term that he types into the results page's search box to form a new search term. If the combined search term triggers your ad, the dilution could render it irrelevant. This could result in a useless display, hurting your click-through rate (CTR), or, worse still, a useless click, wasting your money. Google keeps very quiet about the expanded broad match because it increases their profits and reduces yours. (Search for "expanded broad", with the double-quotes, in Google Help, and see the result!) Expanded Broad match is NOT optional. If you use broad match keywords in your Ad Group, expanded broad match is always ON. This is yet another reason to avoid broad match.
Phrase match is far safer from the "buyer-seller" matching aspect, although negative keywords will still be needed, to reduce the number of wasted ad impressions, and competitive keywords may be costly at the very start of a new campaign. Experiment with phrase match after some experience with Google AdWords, if you wish.
Exact match is ideal for beginners, as well as being the "holy grail" for experts. It's less likely that competitors wil be bidding for precisely the same keyword phrases as you; so, they should be cheaper. You don't need to bother with negative keywords either. If your landing page, destination URL and ad text all contain the identical phrase, your ad should be displayed at a very low cost per click (CPC). All ("All?") you have to do is guess what keyword phrases your prospective visitor is likely to type as a search term (see 'Keyword Selection' above).
Negative match eliminates search terms on which you do not want your ad to appear, such as "cheap" or "free". They are extremely important in saving you money by preventing useless displays of your ads. If you specify a negative keyword list at Campaign level, they are applied to all the Ad Groups in the Campaign. You do not need negative keywords if your Campaign uses only exact match keywords.
Embedded match is a sophisticated form of keyword matching that allows you to prevent your ad from appearing in relation to certain phrase or exact matches. This is popular when an advertiser sells merchandise related to a film or book, but not the actual film or book. Example: An advertiser selling 'Toy Story' merchandise might use the embedded match option of a negative and exact match on -[Toy Story]. Thus, the advertiser's ads appear for "Toy Story dolls" and "Toy Story products", but not for the exact match "Toy Story".
Google allows you to choose specific web sites on which to display your ads. The quality of the traffic from Placement Ads can be very good if you choose the sites carefully. Obviously, you'll choose a page on a site that is relevant to your ad. You can add and edit relevant placements on the 'Placements' index tab of your Ad Group, but that tells you nothing about the available sites that are listed there. So, how do you know which sites are likely to perform best for your ad? Here's how to find out...
1. Enter your Ad Group's main keyword or keyword phrase into Google and start visiting the sites showing in the organic (free) search results, one by one in order. Copy and paste into a simple text file the URL of each site that displays Google AdSense ads until you have 20 URLs. Use the keyword itself and the date as the file name.
2. Copy and paste into a file all the AdWords "sponsored" ads displayed on the first two pages, or take a screenshot of them. Use the keyword itself and the date and "-ads" as the file name.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each keyword in your Ad Group. Do this every day or two for about a month.
At the end of this period compare the URLs in the files from step 1. Those that are consistently on the first page of Google are the ones on which to place your ads. Those pages are (a) relevant and (b) rank high in search results for your keywords. Moreover, they probably have a high page rank (PR), which can only help the page rank (PR) of your landing page.
Now compare the ads in the files from step 2. Again, you're looking for those that remain consistently in the approximate positions that you want your ads to occupy. Use their text as a basis for your ads, but don't just copy them word for word.
You now have all the information you need to set up your Placement Ads campaign.
Search Network (Search Partners)
Google's Search partners include search sites as well as shopping comparison engines. Ads are targeted to users' search queries, so that your ad appears only if a user searches for information related to your campaign's keywords. Because Google does not own or control those web sites, their search algorithms differ, and it's unlikely that they are as accurate as Google's own. Moreover, visitors to shopping comparison sites are less likely to be attracted to sideline ads if they're looking for something specific in the list of products. You should, therefore, create a separate Ad Group for the Search Network, identical to that for the Google Search traffic but with lower bids. Keep adjusting the bids upwards until you find the level at which your ads are displayed. Among such sites are America Online, HowStuffWorks, Ask.com (US and UK), T-Online (Europe), News Interactive (Australia), Tencent (China), and thousands of others worldwide.
After tracking your click-through rates (CTR) for a while, you'll notice that some keyword phrases do not perform as well as others, and their Quality Score will be poor. It's advisable to disable them, otherwise they'll gradually drag down the Quality Score of the Ad Group as a whole, and eventually the Quality Score of the entire campaign might be affected adversely. Set their status to 'Pause', rather than delete them, so that you have a record of what doesn't work as well as a record of what does.
Tips, tricks and techniques: