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Google AdWords – the great debate
It is the fastest way to appear on the first page of Google, you have the ability to target specific markets with your ads, and the real-time data that Google supplies can help you be extremely savvy and learn more about your market than you ever imagined.
But the thought of paying Google directly every time people click on your website can be daunting for a business owner. I have heard some amazing horror stories.
However, there is one common denominator when people don’t make money from their Google advertising – a lack of experience! Usually they set up an account and burn their budget before finding out how to run the campaign properly.
Here are four tips that I recommend you check at the start of a campaign to make sure that you don’t blow your budget and you do set yourself up for success.
There is one common denominator when people don’t make money from their Google advertising – a lack of experience! Usually they set up an account and burn their budget before finding out how to run the campaign properly.
1. Look out for the ‘broad match’
When choosing the keywords you want to target – for example ‘Indian Restaurant Bulleen’ – make sure you select the ‘exact match’ function. The reason – if you select ‘broad match’, you will come up for keywords that resemble your target keyword as well, such as ‘Indian Restaurant Geelong’ and as you can imagine, these usually irrelevant terms that will cost you money with no results.
2. Target ‘buying’ keywords
Far too many people think that there is only one keyword to target and this is the goldmine for the success in their digital marketing. In fact, the more specific you can get, the more likely you are to reduce costs and get more sales. People search and make decisions based on many different factors – price, location, reviews, model numbers etc – so once they have done the research and know what they want, if you can service that need, you want your ads to appear.
3. Display network
Google has a vast network of sites that you can advertise on, most notably Gumtree, News.com.au and YouTube, plus thousands of other sites. These ads appear as text ads or banner ads depending on how you choose to advertise and, if run effectively, can create fantastic brand awareness and/or generate traffic to your site by simply having an ad on a desirable website. However, these ads, with no strategy behind what sites you want to show up on, can harm your campaign by reducing your click-through rate (the ratio of people who saw your ad and clicked on it), which can affect how much you have to pay for your clicks in the future. The best way to negate this: when you set up a new campaign, choose ‘Google search network only’ to show your ads rather than ‘display only’ or ‘search and display’.
4. Traffic going to the wrong page
This is probably the most important thing to note. Most people send the traffic through their Google AdWords campaign straight to the home page of their website. Websites typically convert 2% of traffic into leads, which means that potentially 98% of the traffic you pay for through Google AdWords might be worthless. To even up the odds and convert a higher percentage of your traffic into inquiries, make sure you send the traffic to a relevant page.
Think about the keyword you bid on, what your advert says and the page the user lands on when they click on your ad. If they all match, then you have a better chance to get the enquiry.
Example
Target keyword – Luxury Accommodation Yarra Valley
Advert – We offer luxury accommodation in the beautiful Yarra Valley, complimentary bottle of wine in May.
Landing page – Offer page, receive a complimentary bottle of wine for May bookings.
Google AdWords can become a very important part of your advertising mix and if you use it properly with a decent strategy, I am sure you can turn paid clicks into a nice return for your business.
Dave Pocock, Manager, ROI Connect
