Welcome to part 5 of this 5 part series.
Google AdWords is one of the best advertising tools on the
Internet, but only if you know how to implement Adwords
properly to achieve maximum potential. So what exactly
should you be doing to ensure that you get the best
possible results from Adwords? We have put together the
following tips to help you get those all important click
throughs and conversion rates.
1. Keep the user experience in mind
As you design or redesign your landing page and website,
make the user experience a high priority.
Place important information and images on the top left,
where the eye naturally goes first.
Help people get what they want in three clicks or fewer.
Cut out pop-ups and pop-unders.
Create a simple process for users to complete transactions.
2. Check your account statistics
Your CTR, minimum bid and keyword status are good initial
indicators of how well your ads are performing. Your
account statistics are reported at the campaign, Ad Group
and keyword or site levels. They include clicks,
impressions, CTR, average CPC or CPM, cost, average
position, conversion rate and cost-per-conversion. Your
most important statistic is cost per conversion. Never get
carried away with clicks!
3. Avoid the ruthless pursuit of 'main' keywords
On Google especially, there is a lot of competition for
high volume keywords. Thus, the price to compete for those
keywords is very high. In many cases, you might drive
volume with those keywords, but you won't be driving
profits because you will be bidding more per click than you
are making per click.
4. Drive profit, not clicks (or revenue)
For me, PPC is all about driving profits. Revenues are
nice, but if I'm not pulling out significantly more money
than I'm putting in, then it's not worth my trouble. In the
quest to drive up sales volume it's easy to spend way too
much per sale until you are no longer profitable at all.
Remember, profits first, volume second.
5. Optimize
We have given a large number of tips for setting up
keywords, testing ads, landing pages etc. These tests are a
complete waste of time unless you monitor them and act on
the results. This is one of the most difficult areas of
PPC. To do this properly you need to use statistical
techniques, but you can make massive improvements using
common sense and just scanning the numbers by eye. The
following tips will help with this optimization.
6. Make an optimization diary
You need to document everything that you do and why. You
need to set review dates and stick to them. Give your
changes the chance to work.
7. Review bids
Following the first month (when you will be feeling your
way into the market) review your bids once a week, at the
same time. Monday morning is good because you will optimize
based on a full week and then not pollute the next week's
figures with mixed bids. Don't be tempted into doing this
more frequently unless you are a professional and have
access to advances statistics. You will get in a mess.
Raise the bids on good performers and lower on bad
performers. Remember that performance of a keyword is
random behaviour. Some good keywords will have freakishly
low weeks at times, and some bad keywords will get orders.
Do not over-react!
8. Review Ads
Review your ads once a month. The first day of the month is
good. Remove bad performing ads and replace them with
elements of the good performers with changes. Discover what
makes the good ads good. Note the changes in your
optimization diary and write down your ideas. There is a
lot to optimize and you will forget in 10 minutes, let
alone 1 month.
9. Clean keywords
Clean the keywords daily in the first week, weekly for the
next 3 weeks and monthly after that. Cleaning the keywords
involves using advanced analytics and analysing the actual
search traffic that comes in against the keyword. For
example, you may buy the keyword 'condom' on a broad or
phrase match. Analysis of the actual traffic may reveal
that your ad is showing when people type 'how to put on a
condom' or 'condom pictures'. You need to spot these
negatives and act on them. In all cases, note the changes
you make in your optimization diary, and at the next
optimization review, analyze the data from this date so you
know that you are analyzing the figures at the new,
optimized levels.
10. Is a PPC Agency for You?
Whilst some people can manage their own AdWords account and
be very successful at it, complex campaigns often need an
expert. There are many agencies to choose from but ensure
that if this is a road you follow that you are armed with
the right questions to make sure they are going to add
value to your campaigns. Read our 'Top 10 Tips For Dealing
With PPC Agencies'.
By implementing all of our Google Adwords Top Tips you can
achieve higher click through rates, more conversions and
most importantly, increase your profit.
----------------------------------------------------
Dave McEvoy is an Adwords expert with years of experience
in ppc management. For more information please come and
visit our site http://www.searchlaboratory.com
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