Getting Started in Google AdWords (Part 2)
As promised on my previous blog post, I will now bring you tips 6-10 for starting an AdWords campaign.
6. Campaign Geography
Very few of the campaigns we run at Netvantage are national in their entirety. Most of them are broken up into several key geographical areas. Using geo-targeting in your campaign can be very effective, especially with ad copy. To set your geography, go to the Settings tab, and Locations and Languages. Set your campaign by state, by metro area, or even set up a custom drawn shape. Additionally, you can exclude geographical areas in your campaign. For example, if you want your campaign in New York State, but want to avoid Buffalo, you can exclude it.
7. Organizing your ad groups
This is very critical piece, yet one that is often overlooked. As you create your campaigns, resist the temptation to pour a bunch of keywords into an ad group. This is a common mistake that many advertisers make, as they try to catch all of the possible keyword variations that potential customers make type in. Resist this urge. Try to write tightly crafted ad groups, with no more than 6-8 keyword variations per group. This will allow you to saturate ad copy with keywords, which greatly helps in click through rate and generating quality traffic. As important is that using exact keyword matches in ad copy helps in quality score. Which like everything else is its own white paper for another day.
8. Gauge the competition
Take a look around at your competitors. How are they positioning their ad copy? What do their landing pages look like? (Note: be nice, don’t just irresponsibly click on their ads) What features are they selling? Are they using geography as a hook in their ad copy? A great way to determine how the competition is using paid search is through the Google Ad Preview Tool.
9. Ad Writing
Ad writing is tough. You have 90 characters to fit in and explain why your listings are better than the 9 other pay per click ads and the 10 or more organic listings that visitors are looking at on the search engine result page after they query. You need to have a strong message, qualify your visitors, and showcase your product. Again, keeping your competition in mind, be sure to differentiate. Don’t just simply state what you are offering. This is also where having small ad groups is extremely helpful. Doing so allows you to insert your ad copy with specific keyword variations, which can enhance click through rate.
10. AdWords ad extensions
Google AdWords now has features that enhance your listing that you can easily enable. They include geography extension, product extension with an image, Sitelinks, and an phone number extension. If any of these areas apply to your business, be sure to use them as they can greatly enhance click through rate. To enable extensions, be sure to have your business and office locations registered with Google Local Places.
Wrap up
I hope these 10 tips and reminders help you as you launch your AdWords campaign. As I stressed, all of these topics skim the surface. There is much more reading and research you can do to explore each of the 10 tips. I recommend reading the Google AdWords Help pages, as well as visiting the Google AdWords blog on a daily basis as Google constantly releases new features in this platform. Good luck!
