Making the most of Google Adwords

Setting up Google Adwords can be a minefield of information so here’s our tips on setting up, maintaining, targeting and getting the most from your Adwords account, when funds are limited.

Google Adwords is broken down into CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand).

When setting up we suggest that in an initial run-through to test the validity of this approach, you try a CPC campaign. Primarily as, if the advert is not performing well, you can switch to more successful keywords.

Choosing the appropriate keywords is a key aspect, and generally we apply the following approach:

• Try to predict what your customers will type in as a search query
• Generate keywords with multiple words (e.g. “Shoe repairs in Brighton” rather than Shoe repairs.)
• Periodically add new keywords and remove the non-performers to keep your account administration at a manageable level.
• Use Adwords to push keywords that you are not generally getting by normally search means. A quick check in google will show if the site currently ranks highly in certain searches.
• Select niche keywords: Strike a balance between popular (frequently searched) keywords and niche keywords.

Niche keywords with little or no competition generate a small amount of traffic, but the traffic can be targeted and may come at a very low price. (e.g. “pilates in Hampshire”) or “Clinical pilates near london”

• Use keywords and searching from the Google as a starting point.
• You can gain a lot of useful statistics from Google Analytics.
  This can be used to assess the popularity of pages and therefore services searched.
  It can also show areas that need pushing with targeted ads.
  This is also useful for showing where people are searching from (vague geographic location, not street ) which can show your target areas.
  Google analytics provides a dedicated area for monitoring Adwords metrics (performance).

Google Adwords Setup

• If you are unsure of setting up Adwords initially try using a starter setup as a test.
• Assess if it would be more relevant to target national locations, rather than international.
• Set an overall cost per click for simplicity at this stage
• Use the traffic estimator to see how much other bidders are paying per click.
• Run a campaign of a fixed duration and then analyse the result before taking this to the next stage, and higher targeted budget.
• Consider setting a small Budget per day but higher cost per click
• Bidding on Keywords depends on your market, so is down to how much you are prepared to pay to outbid the competition

Keyword bidding

Try the broad match approach initially, (i.e. your ads will appear when users search for you, in any order and possibly along with other terms). This would be advisable until you find out which keywords are performing well.

Targeted Services

The advert could be a good test of areas of your business that you would like to push, particularly those which are not performing well.

For example, take a service that has involved investment in equipment, but is showing a poor return and link directly to this page in one advert.

Summary

Set a modest budget to test the water. An approach that can work well with physical products, such as Televisions etc, may not prove to be successful with services. A short campaign would reveal this for little outlay.

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