By Preston Pilgrim
Google AdWords can be a valuable tool for your business. Google AdWords results appear to the top or side of natural search results, and often blend in so well that customers aren’t aware they are paid results. They just see the results they want – hopefully your results – and click through. When done right, Google AdWords can be a vital tool for your business. Well-targeted AdWords results can place your business and products in front of your ideal customers, matching their needs to your products and ultimately resulting in greater brand awareness and more sales.
It’s important to understand that running a successful AdWords campaign takes a bit of extra know-how. You’ll start off with the basics: Carrying out keyword research, setting up your ad groups, and deciding on the audience that you want to target. All of these things are a great start. However, there’s more to it if you want your AdWords campaign to work extra hard for your business. Here are the top 5 tips to follow if you want to gain more click-throughs and a much better return on investment from your AdWords campaign.
1. Fine Tune Your Copy
Keyword research is just the beginning. You also need to pay close attention to the way you word your AdWords advertisements. Think about the results that turn up when you use Google. You don’t have a lot of space in which to write your copy. The good news is that with careful planning, you can make every word in that tiny space count. Ask yourself two simple questions:
•What makes my company stand out from the competition?
•What benefits do customers stand to gain from doing business with me?
Use the answers to both of those questions and you’ll create compelling copy that grabs your potential customers’ attention. Remember to add a call to action that lets your customers know exactly what you want them to do next, for example: click here, buy now, get in touch.
2. Think About The Keywords You Want – And The Ones You Don’t
Choosing the right keywords is a vital part of any AdWords campaign. That’s what the Keyword Planner is for. You want to choose keywords that match what your customers are typing into Google. However, you also need to pay attention to negative keywords. Negative keywords are the search terms you don’t want your ads to show up for. For example, if you are placing an ad for runners’ vitamin supplements, you don’t want to show up when people search for table runners. Researching negative keywords means you won’t waste your AdWords budget on clicks from customers who were looking for something quite different to what you offer.
3. Check Your Landing Page
Getting the right ads in front of the right people is only half the battle. You also need to pay attention to where your new potential customers land when they arrive on your site. Your ad sets up expectations in your potential customer’s mind. It’s vital that your landing page fulfills the promise of your ad, or the person will click away and you’ll lose the potential sale. The quality and relevance of your landing page also affects the Quality Score Google assigns to your campaign. Make sure your landing page is directly related to your AdWords campaign, professionally written and targeted to keep your visitors engaged.
Example: We have ads that target people searching for Drupal POS systems.
Search terms we are targeting: Drupal POS, Drupal point of sale.
Ad Copy: Our ads speaks directly about our Drupal POS.
Landing page: The landing page is clearly about a Drupal POS.
As you can see everything lines up from the search terms we target, to the ads we have placed, to the landing page we are advertising.
This seems like common sense, but we have seen a lot of Adwords accounts that mess this up and it decreases your ad quality score if nothing lines up.
4. Make The Most Of Ad Extensions
Google AdWords extensions allow you to add extra information to your ads. Try out these extensions to make your ads work even harder for your business:
• Review extensions. Draw attention to positive reviews directly in your ads and let people see how others have benefited from your products or services.
• Sitelink extensions. Link directly to different pages on your site within your ad. Direct your customers to contact you, go to your home page, or even find an item in your store, all right from your ad.
• Location extensions. If you have a brick and mortar store, this extension is for you. Add navigation help or a map pin to your ad so mobile users can easily find and visit your store.
• Call extensions. Are phone sales a big part of your business? This extension incorporates a click to call button right in your ad, making it easy for customers to get in touch.
5. Think Mobile
Internet usage is getting more and more mobile these days. Depending on your business, you might want to target mobile users more frequently. Or perhaps desktop users such as those at work are the more likely audience for your ads. Whatever the case, with AdWords you can choose to target specific devices to increase the chances of your ads getting seen where you want them to be seen. If you want to get your ad seen by desktop users, you can make a negative mobile bid to decrease mobile appearances. On the other hand, if your audience is mostly mobile, you can make a high positive mobile bid to increase mobile views.
Thanks to these features, it’s now simpler than ever to build a successful AdWords campaign that will draw customers in and increase your click-throughs and ultimately your sales.