Google Adwords

Lets say you have a web store selling fashionable bags to young women. It’s not sufficient to just use “bags” as a keyword and wait for the traffic to arrive. What about laptop bags, bean bags and punch bags….? You get the idea – as the keyword is quite general, your ad is only relevant to a fraction of the people who see it.

Lets consider another keyword, this time more specific. How many people searching for “ted baker black tote bag” are going to find your advert relevant? There is another aspect to this too – different users are at different stages of the buying process, and will search for different terms. If we consider the case of a mobile phone web store, a user searching for “smart phones” is probably thinking about buying a new phone sometime soon, and is doing some research into the options. On the other hand, a user searching for “black iphone 4G 16gb” is probably ready to part with their cash straight away. These keywords are known as “long tail” keywords – and they are the keywords to focus on as they are most likely to bring in paying customers!

Advertising costs money – so you only want to advertise to customers you could actually sell to, right?

Geographical targeting can be narrowed down to areas as accurate as a few miles. Whether you offer a local service, or want to target different areas seperately, Google’s geotargeting options are an essential tool.

Is your customer viewing from a Mobile, Desktop or Tablet? Google can differentiate for you. The chances are mobile users will behave differently to desktop users, so having separate mobile campaign can be beneficial.

Great advert text doesn’t just convert well – it converts the right type of user. For instance, using the word “cheap” might increase your clicks, but what kind of users is it driving to your site? They will predominantly be interested in price – so if someone else is selling it cheaper elsewhere, you’re not likely to see many sales.

Adwords is much more complicated to write copy for than print. Why? Because of the huge volume required! Ideally, every keyword will have its own advert text targeting the users exact needs. At the very least, similar keywords should be grouped together to display adverts.

You can’t always tell what your audience is going to react best to, so testing is key. Ideally 3 or 4 different advert texts should be tested to find out which performs the best. Variations should be based on rotating benefits & features, changing the title and call to action, and changing phrasing – even small changes in the copy text can make big difference in click-through rate.

If your adwords campaigns are directing people to the front page of your website, you are losing at least 80% of your potential customers.

When a user clicks on an advert, its because they have a particular requirement they think you might be able to fulfil. You have to show them – straight away – not just that you can fulfil their needs, but why your value proposition is better than your competitors.

If the user is happy with your value proposition, you’ll want them to get in touch with you. Driving users to your desired outcome – be it a phone call, or a data capture form – needs to be consistent through the layout, design and copy.

There are various extensions available within Google Adwords which can help generate additional clicks for your campaigns:

• Location Extensions – If your business has a physical presence, adding the location will ensure its shown in local searches and location information can be given out with your advert.
• Call Extensions – Add your telephone number to your listing to generate phone calls directly from google search!
• Offer Extensions – Add a special offer to your advert (only effective for “in-store” offers)
• Sitelinks Extensions – Include links to separate webpages or landing pages – great for converting additional segments to your main advert
• Product Extensions – Include product information and photos on appropriate adverts
• Social Extensions – Highlights your google plus page within your advert
• Review Extensions – Highlight press endorsements to add credibility and trust to your advert.

One of the most powerful things about Adwords is the amount of performance data. View, clicks, conversions – they can all be viewed and segmented by pretty much any factor imaginable. Monitoring performance closely allows campaigns to be tweaked and improved constantly and small improvements add up to big benefits over time!

Once a landing page has been launched, it is really just the beginning. Over time, every element of the page can be tested to see what effect it has on the conversion rate. These elements include:

• Benefits
• Title
• Call to Action
• Images
• Layout/Format
• Main Copy
• Background Colours

Over time, the initial conversion rate of a well set-up landing page can still be improved by 30-40%. That means 30-40% more leads – without having to spend any extra money on advertising!