Adwords is an awesome tool but can be a bit overwhelming the first time you log in. Here are a few tips to get you started. Once built, a truly successful campaign should move into a cyclical optimization process that I just named the “Google Adwords Virtuous Cycle of Optimization! or GAVCO.” How to do the analysis and what adjustments they lead to is another discussion all-together but starting the GAVCO post account creation is a must.
On to basic set-up. In general here is the hierarchy of most successful campaigns in regards to conversion rates:
- Shopping – This is only applicable for ecommerce/product sites.
- Remarketing
- Search
- Display
Keep this in mind as you set bids and create your account structure as it should drive a few things:
- Bid strategy. Bids should general be lower for display ads than for search or remarketing as your conversion rates will be lower.
- Separate your display & search adgroups.
- Create remarketing & shopping campaigns! Too many people ignore them.
Here are a few more tips for when you first start out. You should be able to google how to do any of these things. I’ll continually add to this list.
- Don’t be afraid to have lots of adgroups with few keywords. This will allow you to make super relevant ads, which should improve conversion & even decrease cost. I tend to look at keyword/ad ratio and if that ratio gets too high it is a signal that you should create a new adgroup.
- Put together a campaign wide negative keyword list from the beginning. If you don’t work in the porn industry make sure you include words like naked, nude, porn, etc. Another good segment to include in a negative keyword list is words like “jobs, hiring, etc.” These two genres of words can waste a ton of your budget if you aren’t careful.
- Use the mobile bid adjustment – get some data see how mobile performs for you and adjust up or down accordingly.
- Take advantage of ad extensions, especially the call-out extension.
- Always start with at least 2 ads/adgroup.
- Make sure you add the tracking pixel to your site/connect your adwords account to your analytics account. No tracking no GAVCO!
- Take Google’s suggested bids with a grain of salt. I always prefer to set my own bids and then actively manage.
- If a google account rep calls or emails and offers to walk you through the system take advantage of it. I have learned a ton about new features and capabilities on these calls.
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