Rev Up Your Sales With
A Google AdWords Campaign
"When you can do the common things of life
in an uncommon way,
you will command the attention of the world."
– George Washington Carver
You’d been hearing all about how great Google AdWords is for driving traffic to a business’s website, and you were finally ready to get in on the action. So you set up your first online marketing campaign. But while you’re starting to see results, they just aren’t what you expected … and you’re not sure what to do next.
You did everything right. You created your campaign complete with your first Ad Group, the all-important element that holds your keywords and your text ads. You applied your budget. And you were ready to kick back and let the traffic roll in.
I mean, this is AdWords, right? The king of all pay-per-click (PPC) search programs! So … where’s all the traffic? Where’re all the sales? Is anyone out there? Is this thing on?
Don’t panic. The traffic is out there, and so are the sales. Google isn’t the king for nothing. Appease the king and he’ll share his gold. And I’m here to show you how to appease him. Apply the following techniques, and you’ll see a big boost in your AdWords results.
Let’s start by tweaking the most important element of your AdWords campaign.
Your Keywords
When you think of keywords, you probably think "More, more, more!" But have you ever considered less?
Many marketers just starting out in PPC advertising make the mistake of cramming all the keywords they can think of into one Ad Group. Many times, this results in an Ad Group that isn’t as targeted as it could be.
Let’s say you run a website that’s all about dogs. You may have a keyword list that includes terms like:
- Dog training
- Dog breeds
- Healthy dog food
- Best dog toys
By including all these keywords in one Ad Group, you dilute the focus of that Ad Group.
Sure, the words are all related to dogs. But a person searching for information on dog training is not necessarily the same person who is looking for places to buy healthy dog food.
But what if you created an Ad Group for each of these different keywords? Instead of one diluted Ad Group, you now have four extremely targeted Ad Groups. And now you can expand upon each of these topics and really drill down to the various terms people would use to search for "dog training" (how to train my dog, dog training tips, best dog training information) or "healthy dog food" (healthy dog food recipes, healthy dry dog food, healthy dog food brands).
The next step is to write targeted ad text for each of your new Ad Groups.
Your Ad Text
Now that you’re targeting potential customers interested in your valuable dog training tips, how do you encourage them to click through to your website? Why, with targeted and compelling ad text of course!
Easier said than done, I know. But there are several things you can do to stand out amongst your competitors and boost your click-through rate (CTR).
- Use your keywords in your ad text - especially your headline. Keywords in your ad text that match what was searched show up as bold in your ad and boost your relevancy.
- Offer something free or promote a sale. Everyone likes free stuff and bargains.
- Use symbols or vary your punctuation where applicable. Odd punctuation can catch a searcher’s eye and make them click your ad over your competitors’.
Play with these techniques to find what works best. Test like crazy. And since you can write several versions of your text ads for each Ad Group, let Google rotate them and optimize the best ads for the best results.
Remember, relevancy is the most important factor in search engine marketing. Whatever you do, make sure your ad text speaks to the keywords you’re bidding on.
Once your new ads are pulling the clicks of your dreams, now you’d better convert them with …
Your Landing Pages
So your "dog training" keywords trigger your targeted "dog training" text ads, which drive visitors to your … home page? But your home page talks about dog training and different dog breeds and dog food and dog toys and … your visitors are overwhelmed and they leave.
If you make your visitors work too hard to find what they’re looking for, you’ll lose them.
Create unique landing pages specific to each Ad Group. The more relevant your landing pages are to your ad text, the better your conversions will be - whether they be sign-ups, leads, or sales.
Once visitors click on your "dog training" ad, they should arrive at a page that tells them all about your amazing dog training products and/or services. Want them to sign up for a monthly newsletter about dog training advice? Tell them what they’ll learn by subscribing.
Do the same for dog food. Do you sell an e-book about healthy dog food … or about the products that were involved in the wheat gluten scare? Focus your landing page solely on selling that e-book, and make it as relevant as possible to the keywords you’re bidding on and the ad text you’ve written.
Using these techniques to tweak your AdWords campaign will not only rev up your results, it will also boost your AdWords Quality Score, resulting in a lower cost per click (CPC). Lower CPC means more clicks for your money … which ultimately means more sales.
You can’t lose. So start testing now to make 2008 a great year for your online business!
Contributed by Alexis Siemon
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
Alexis Siemon is the Search Engine Marketing Specialist for Early to Rise (www.earlytorise.com). Early to Rise is a free, daily, online newsletter full of useful ideas about marketing, business building, investing, natural health, and much more. Click here to sign up for this unmatched free resource, and learn new ways every day to make yourself healthier, wealthier, and wiser.
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6 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Caleb Osborne — April 3, 2008 @ 11:06 am
Good article, however things like this can be TEDIOUS:
Now, am I saying don’t do it? Heck no, you’re diminishing results. What do I suggest?
What will keep you from pulling your hair out… kicking a kitten… punching a puppy… turning alcoholic… karate chopping your screen… and going crazy from writing so many ads?
(I wish someone had told me about this tool earlier – before the poor dog, cat, jack daniels, and flat screen monitor got involved)
Go download this right now:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
Why Google doesn’t advertise their own FREE tool to everyone who sets up an adwords campaign I have no idea… but I’m not happy about it
But if I can save just one poor soul from the mind-numbing work of writing hundreds of google ads by hand, then I’ve done my job!
– Caleb
Comment by Markus Trauernicht — April 3, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
The simplest and fastest way to better keywords is when you look at your Google Analytics keywords. Traffic Sources > Keywords.
Go for the keywords with the highest "Average Time on Site" and highest "Pages/Visit". They seem to lock into the conversation the prospect has in his head.
Bid on them. Match the keyword with the advertising text and a relevant landing page. That should get your "quality factor" high and cuts your bidding prices.
Hope it helps.
Regards Markus Trauernicht
Comment by Melissa — April 3, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Alexis, you’re right on target. Especially with "test like crazy".
Markus, great advice, but if you want to get new people to your site, you need to not only go after the keywords that are already working to get people to your site, but also go after the keywords that you might not have tried but that people are actually using to search for your product / service. Seeing what your successful competition is doing is a good start. Thinking about the visitors you want to have but who aren’t coming yet is another good strategy. What are the terms they are using to search? What are they thinking when they type those words in and what do they want that you offer?
Google has a free AdWords optimization service. You create the campaign the best way you can, and then their strategists will talk to you about what your business is about and what your goals are, and they’ll research the keywords, write ads, etc. to make what you did even better. And there’s nothing more "sure fire" than having Google themselves do the heavy lifting for your Google AdWords.
Comment by Farhad Khurshed — April 3, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
The strategy of having different landing pages sounds great. However, what if you don’t sell different products. In the example say you sell an ebook on dog training. What’s the point in having landing pages for dog food, dog breeding etc, when you don’t really offer these products.
Another question is how does one generate a whole list of targeted key words in the first place. Is this limited to one’s thinking power? Or does one have to use some software?
Comment by Andy Iskandar — April 3, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
Farhad,
I may be able to help with regards to your queries…
Firstly, the dog example… The basic idea in having different landing pages is to laser target your prospects… to join the conversation already going on in their heads. So of course if your dog training ebook has no info at all on dog food or dog breeding for example, you have no business creating landing pages on those topics.
But if your ebook DO have info on those topics, you can create landing pages that focuses on those topics. You are still promoting your ebook on these pages but the difference between them is that you are focusing on different topics on different pages.
So, let’s say you have a dog training ebook titled "Effective Dog Training For Dog Lovers". The normal salesletter for this ebook is headlined "Here’s How To Train Your Dog Effectively In 7 Simple Steps". Now, your ebook has a section on dog food. So what you can do is to put up an adwords ad bidding on the keyword "dog food". The landing page for this ad will be headlined, "Get Healthy Dog Food Tips… And Other Dog Training Tips In My New Ebook!". And then maybe some bullets on the dog food tips you have in your ebook.
You see, this way, you are leading the prospect along into your sales funnel. Many advertisers fail to do this. This is segmenting your prospects and targeting them according to what they are looking for. You will see conversion rates going up. Plus, the extra benefit is that Google will see your ad as highly relevant and your quality score will increase (and your cost per click will decrease).
Secondly, about where to start getting targeted keywords… There are several good ways you can do this. One, is to start with Google’s own keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Another good way is to look at your competitors. See what keywords they are bidding on. You can do this by using a new service I started using recently, http://www.hexatrack.com.
Hope that helped.
Andy
Comment by Alexis — April 4, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
Great feedback, everyone! Andy, you’re dead on. Another helpful keyword research tool is WordTracker.com. They are a paid tool, but also have a free tool with limited functionality at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/