Three Steps to Better Google AdWords Management

Google AdWords has always been notorious for “being easy to setup but hard to get right”. If you put yourself into Google’s shoes, then this makes a lot of sense. 

• The cost per click (CPC) is determined mostly by an auctioning system. The more bidders you have the higher the chance that you’ll drive the CPC up. Further motivation for Google to get as many people on board as possible.
• Google only gets paid when your ad gets clicked on. Therefore the worse your campaign in terms of irrelevant traffic being driven to your website the better it is for them, at least in the short run.

This is why the majority of the clients we sign on for Google AdWords management are businesses that previously ran their own campaigns that weren’t performing. Based on our experience of spotting the most common pitfalls, here the three steps we recommend you take in order to better manage your Google AdWords campaign:

1. Turn Conversion Tracking on

• If you don’t have conversion tracking on then you are running blind. Basically you have no idea what keywords are leading to what sales/leads. If you don’t have that information then you don’t know which keywords you should be paying more for and which keywords you should remove from your campaign all together. In general, the longer the keyword the better it converts as the more relevant it is, however this is not always the case.

2. Turn Quality Score on

• Quality score is Google’s way of measuring how relevant your keyword is to your ad and to what the searcher typed in. There is more to it than that including your landing page that you are pushing your ad and keywords to. Your quality score will determine your ad position when combined with your bid. All things being equal, if your competitor is bidding the exact same as you for a keyword, their ad will show in a higher position if they have a higher quality score.

3. Split testing your ads

• This is one the hardest things to get right. Basically you’ll want each one of your keyword to spread out over at least 2 ads.You can then track to see which ad is getting clicked on more and remove the non performing ad. You’ll then need to rinse and repeat, as in create another ad and begin the split testing all over again.

Of course I have a clear bias when saying this, but I firmly believe to get the best value for money, you’ll want a professional managing your Google AdWords campaign. Through experience they will be able to provide you with more than enough upside to make up for whatever fee they are charging you. Running an AdWords campaign can be a full time job and getting it right is essential to make sure you stretch each marketing dollar as far as possible.